Open Architecture Network

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The project proposes an infrastructure of simple architectural elements – platforms of compacted ground, a grove of composite columns, meandering self-buttressing earthen walls, a canopy of timber trusses and folded roof planes – employed to accommodate the football facility and to provide a flexible, multi-purpose home for community gathering. It is hoped that this initial phase will serve as a model for expansion exploiting the potential for the variation and elaboration of this basic architectural language, seeding the development – as requirements demand and finances allow – of a complex incorporating a potentially wide range of community resources and amenities: sheltered spectator seating; communal laundry and washing facilities; workshops and sheltered yards for small-scale manufacturing and craft industries; recycling facilities; a community marketplace.

The proposal provides a 54m by 90m youth-sized football pitch, a sheltered bench for players, a small changing room, a secure equipment store and a clubhouse/community meeting hall with adjoining office/consulting room. Between these enclosed programmatic containers flows a permeable, semi-external space – in some areas fully sheltered and in others only partially shaded from direct sun – that can be appropriated for larger gatherings by opening the large wattle screen of the clubhouse/community meeting hall and that frames a “tunnel” through which players take to the pitch, as in a professional stadium.

The project incorporates low-technology, passive systems [rainwater collection; passive ventilation; evaporative air-cooling in the clubhouse/community gathering hall; sun-shading and natural light maximization through the staggering of peak/valley in roof sections and turning up of roof at perimeter; thermal mass for internal temperature moderation], employs locally-available or site-sourced and/or -manufactured materials and can be constructed almost entirely by non-specialist labour.

COMPETITION:
Siyathemba offers a unique opportunity to bring together the positive aspects of sports with an innovative health outreach program in a setting designed with and for the youth of Somkhele. Football, already the nation’s most popular sport, will only gain in popularity and interest when the World Cup comes to South Africa in 2010. By emphasizing a team approach, it is hoped that Siyathemba will be a field of hope, a place where the area’s healthcare professionals and its future leaders can come together.

The finalists’ schemes were displayed in schools and health centers throughout the area. Somkhele community members, including students, youth football players, nurses and teachers, then selected the scheme. Matthew Beattie received an honorable mention for this competition.