Treatise in a nutshell

Second semester is in full swing and my B.Tech journey is past the halfway mark! 

Here is an abstract of my treatise...

The inside story

Here are a few photos of the Lilian Ngoyi Community Sport Centre, also known as the Kwazakhele Community Sport Centre, from the inside.

The area of the Sport Centre is greater than the advised area of 800m² - 1200m² and for this reason I'm only using the multi-purpose sport hall that is approximately between 1200m² - 1300m².

This double volume space has concrete floors 

and brick walls with exposed steel trusses. 

A tiled passage way next to the 

indoor sport field that is used 

as storage space.

Concrete steps with timber slats 

serve as seating for spectators.

The ramp and the stairs that lead up to the 

multi-purpose sport hall.

Artificial lighting is used during day-time as the 

natural light that enters the building is not sufficient.  

The open-plan nature and the double volume of this space provide endless design opportunities! :)

Meet the new building

The new building that I will be using for my reuse proposal is the Lilian Ngoyi Community Sport Centre. This Sport Centre is situated in the Kwazakhele township of Port Elizabeth and provides facilities - indoor and outdoor - for soccer, netball, hockey, rugby, gym, squash, karate, judo and gymnastics. These facilities are used by the Kwazakhele township community.

                       The front facade of the Lillian Ngoyi Community Sport Centre.

 Boys from the Kwazakhele community supporting their friends at an indoor soccer match.

The selected building

The selected building is one of the blocks that forms part of the P.E. College Struandale Campus. This block houses 2 Motor Workshops and 2 Electronic Workshops for the use of the Engineering students.


                                         This is the North-Western facade.

                                          This is the South-Eastern facade.

                                          And this is the South-Western facade.

The site analysis will follow...

SA children can't afford books

I was delighted to see that News24 recently published an article that relates to my proposed function for my B.Tech project!

South African children are eager to read, they just can't afford books according to a survey. It was found that most young South Africans enjoy reading and want to read more, but are held back by the cost and availability of books.

Read the full article here: SA children can't afford books

Creating a reading culture

Since the Eastern Cape’s public schools have the fewest functional libraries and computer centres, it is difficult to find a central location where learners from different schools, with no libraries or computer centres, can meet and share library material that include visual and digital media. As mentioned before, transport is another obstacle to overcome. The aim is to allow all learners in the Nelson Mandela Metro access to educational material. Thus, the concept is to make use of a central hub (chosen building) from which mobile ‘pods’ (recycled shipping containers) can be easily transported to several primary schools with no resources, in the Nelson Mandela Metro, and possibly to areas in the Eastern Cape, in order to distribute library material.

The central hub and the mobile ‘pods’ (recycled shipping containers) will be used to create spaces which serve functions such as a library area, computer centre, study/homework area, cafeteria and an integrated playground. The cafeteria will only sell healthy food and drinks to learners to promote healthy eating habits necessary to reach maximal educational potential. The playground will encourage learners to engage in several physical activities. It has been proven that physical activities improve learners’ academic scores.

The functions listed above will together create a secure environment where learners from Grade 1 to 7 will have access to reading material and computers as well as space to do homework or study. Through the sustainable design approach learners will also become aware of their environment and how to take care of it. This resource centre and its mobile ‘pods’ will incorporate valuable environmental lessons and create interactive learning opportunities for learners. 

I truly believe that this reuse proposal will most definitely add value to the education of countless learners in the Nelson Mandela Metro, as well as the Eastern Cape, without access to library material, such as books and computers, as it will provide them with these educational tools at the comfort of their own school. The proposed function will play a critical role in growing our nation. Books open a world of learning for children. The concept of the resource centre and its mobile ‘pods’ are not solely based on the distribution of information in the educational sense, which is important, but also to implant the love of reading, exercising and their environment as well as encourage children to open their imaginations. 

The images below served as inspiration for my B.Tech treatise proposal. The Vissershok container classroom by Tsai Design Studio (top) and the Jerusalem children's home by Four Design and Architecture (bottom). The children's home has been constructed from 28 shipping containers!

Setting the scene

Our B.Tech year entails us to identify an existing building that can be used for a fictional design proposal i.e. an adaptive reuse proposal that would add value to the area and the community it serves. I want to propose a function that would deal with social and environmental issues, enrich a society at large and also make a difference...fixing is my way of thinking.