South African sensibility.

More than 15 years have passed since work from South Africa was published in the AR. Now that a form of political consensus has been achieved, it seems appropriate to include some examples of current South African architecture in this issue devoted to building in hot dry climates. This is a very modest and understandably tentative first step -- we hope to explore the country more thoroughly next year. Here we present three schemes by Jo Noero, awarded the 1993 Erskine Scholarship(1) for two of the projects shown here. Compared with the fashionable excesses of much current American and European architecture, the strong, socially minded work of Noero brings us back to our senses. His approach combines placemaking and purpose in an enlightened response to climate, context and technology. Above all, buildings must engage the enthusiasm and creativity of their occupants -- in many cases those at the bottom of South Africa's monstrously skewed social system, the marginalised and dispossessed township populations. Noero's pragmatic, yet refined functionalism is a timely reminder of the power of architecture to heal division and improve the lot of humankind -- qualities that will be greatly in demand during the coming years, as South Africa struggles to transform itself into a genuine multi-racial democracy, with equality and prosperity for all its citizens.

SOWETO CAREERS CENTRE

The Centre was established in 1978 as a response to the crisis in education precipitated by the 1976 student uprisings in Soweto, the sprawling black township on the edge of Johannesburg. Since its inception, the Centre's basic aim has been to provide professional career guidance to school leavers, but its remit has gradually expanded to encompass other, related, community needs. By the early '90s it had become clear that the existing accommodation could no longer house the Centre's continuing diversification of activities, so an alternative strategy was sought. The existing complex consisted of a prefabricated asbestos cement component system, arranged in a plan symbolically resembling a spent lightning bolt. In view of the scarcity of resources it was decided to retain the original buildings, which formed a framework for a series of new additions. The client body was opposed to any form of gratuitous, paternalistic reference to black culture and required that the form of the new complex should be free of any obvious cultural association.(2) As a result, the form of new building is a direct consequence of addressing such basic determinants as space, climate, materials and structure.

The site adjoins the main road which passes through Soweto, nestling into the dry, dusty, plastic-strewn veld near a busy local hospital. While identifying the need to impart some kind of civic presence, it was also recognised that environmental problems of pollution and noise should be minimised. To this end, a valley section set at an oblique angle to the road was developed. The valley section was derived from the decision to scoop light and air through curving, funnel-like rooflights down into the hall and classrooms below, so helping to acoustically insulate the spaces and creating some sense of interior drama.

The new additions dock into the old zig-zag plan at strategic points. The hierarchy of volumes is dominated by a large rectangular hall that can be used for local functions such as wedding receptions. One wall slides away to connect with an internal courtyard, revealing glimpses of the veld beyond through the courtyard's open grille block wall. In a setting where resources are so limited, spaces must be capable of adapting to a range of uses. Hence the computer centre, which was principally intended to encourage computer literacy among students by enabling them to access career guidance, is also used during the evening by a business consultant to train local people in how to use computers and enhance their prospects. Similarly, the classrooms are lined with study carrels which are leased to mature and other students for use in the evening.

Noero's abstraction of form and materials into a culturally neutral yet architecturally engaging functionalism, is reminiscent of Glenn Murutt's tectonic experiments in similar climes. The technology is deliberately simple, owing much to the ad-hoc component construction of squatter camps, with infill panels of plywood and glass slotted into standard steel window frames. Undulating corrugated metal roofs and flashes of raw colour provide welcome visual texture and help to distinguish the new building amid the harsh surroundings. Internally, teaching spaces are intended to transcend the notion of conventional classrooms, since they are used as forums to discuss issues which impinge upon shifting the consciousness of disaffected Sowetan youths from apathy and anger to hope. Individual teaching spaces are designed to alter the students' perception of the iniquitous educational system by convincing them that they are not simply attending classes, but rather being inducted into a new understanding of how to take control of their lives. To this end, classrooms are brightly and optimistically coloured, with natural light scooped from above and reflected into the classroom, creating a backdrop for the course leader. The sense that Noero has responded aptly and imaginatively to the context of place, social life and resources is confirmed by the reaction of the building's users, who have responded enthusiastically to the new facilities in their midst.

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DUDUZA RESOURCE CENTRE

Like the Soweto Careers Centre, the new Resource Centre in the township of Duduza has a dual educational and community function. The initiative behind the new building came from a group of local community members who managed to enlist the support of industrialists in the adjoining district of Nigel. The original aim was to provide accommodation for a series of informal education projects initiated in response to the crisis in black education. When it was realised that any constructive political change would eventually make this kind of piecemeal system redundant, the Centre was designed to encompass a variety of uses and be capable of future adaptation as a community college.

The Centre is accessible to all members of the 45 000 strong community 24 hours a day. The facilities are arranged on a linear circulation spine, intended to replicate the scale and ambience of a street, but the adjoining glass-fronted 'shops' house various community projects and teaching spaces. Covered seating, out of the sun's glare, is provided for those waiting for assistance. Responses to climate are also expressed in other ways -- shadow casting integrated grilles and pergolas articulate the main access-way and covered walkways defining routes lend further shade. As at Soweto, the walls of the classrooms are lined with study carrels for evening use. For a nominal sum, individuals can rent a workspace, locker and a light (For the majority, there is no proper electricity supply, which makes evening home study impossible.)

Half-way along the main spine, the intimate rhythm of the street gives way to an open courtyard, defined on one side by a two storey administration building which acts as the civic heart and spatial focus of the scheme. It also provides an anchor for future expansion.

With the exception of this great focal hall, the buildings that make up the Centre are generally single storey, spreading across the site forming a succession of courtyards, the smaller of which are used for semi-public gatherings. Landscaping completes and the integrates the new civic microcosm with the wider world, as do the facilities located along the community edge of the complex, such as an informal market, and bus and taxi ranks. In some ways, although created in Third World circumstances, the Centre is a pertinent example of Richard MacCormac's First World notion of local, as opposed to foreign transactions (AR March 1994 p70). In MacCormac's hypothesis of urban development and renewal, buildings act as a framework for diverse activities, or transactions, appropriate to the community they serve. Like a coral reef, the building stock is continually re-colonised over time. Similarly, in Duduza, the basis of a framework has been established, but with the necessary potential to be adapted and altered as required. The luxury of demolishing a building deemed to have outlived its usefulness and starting from scratch, is currently not a viable option in South African townships. Resources must be conserved, although as the political and economic balance shifts, such attitudes may eventually change. For the present, the Centre continues impart a sense of dignity and delight to community affairs and it was for both this building and the Soweto Community Centre (p22) that Jo Noero was awarded the 1993 Erskine Scholarship.

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OFFICE BUILDING, WEST RAND

The final project, an office for a legal practice in Florida, West Rand, is perhaps the most technologically sophisticated of the three schemes, but it still embodies a humane, functional approach to architectural problem solving. The new offices occupy a narrow east-west oriented site in a lushly planted suburban residential area next to the central business district. The long, linear, two-storey volume is no higher than the surrounding houses and presents a narrow south elevation to the street, surmounted by a web-like lattice of cantilevered roof structure. Conceived as an edge building, the west elevation faces on to a entrance court, intended to function as an outdoor room and surrounded on all sides by green walls of either shade cloth or creeper. A generous canopy ceremonially demarcates entry, splitting the building into two wings. Ground floor offices open on to a narrow, landscaped court framed by a pergola on the east edge.

The building has been designed to respond positively to the climate. Extensive glazing of west and east elevations not only increases the entry of natural light, but also permits significant cross ventilation. Problems of sun shading have also been addressed. Having studied devices used in the past, Noero concluded that while the brise-soleil system protects window surfaces from direct sunlight, the horizontal or vertical fins generally cannot be moved because of their weight. Hence they absorb heat which is radiated into the building. Noero set himself the task of designing an adjustable, lightweight louvre system for the west elevation. Each louvre consists of a galvanised steel frame shaped like an aerofoil and clad with semi-translucent green shade cloth. A simple crank system enables each individual to modulate his or her microclimate. Radiation is virtually eliminated and the shade cloth does not significantly impede cross-ventilation or views out. To increase reflection of heat, all surfaces of the building exposed to the sun, including the metal roof, are painted white. In addition, an evaporative cooling system (inventively appropriated from its more common use in industry) has been devised as a cost-effective and healthy response to the hot, dry highveld climate. Fresh air is drawn in by fans to pass across wet wood pulp and is so humidified and cooled before being fed into the interior of the building, via sinuous ducts slung into a triangular wedge below the rooflights. The absence of a marked discrepancy between internal and external air temperatures (the cooled air is only between five and six degrees lower in temperature than the external air) and the fact that the air (and the microbes it may contain) is not recycled, help to avoid potential sick building syndrome.

The cost of evaporative cooling systems is about half that of conventional central air-conditioning plants, with comparative running costs (essentially the power to pump large fans) as low as 10 per cent of normal ones. The employment of appropriate and accessible technology is one of Noero's principal preoccupations, yet his approach embodies a lyricism that celebrates the enabling power of architecture. The Florida offices make a refreshing statement about the potential poetry of enlightened functionalism.

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Footnotes (from pp22-23)

(1)The Ruth and Ralph Erskine Scholarship is awarded annually for planning or architecture 'which is functional, economical, ecological and beautiful and which is to the advantage of underprivileged and deprived groups in any society'.

(2)Noero notes that 'One of the invidious consequences of Apartheid was the spurious assignment of cultural identity to various so-called ethnic groups. As a result, white architects designing for black people would embellish the design with various ethnic symbols. An example is the University of the North in Lebowa which is an internationalist modernist complex clothed in a mosaic patterning reflecting a paternalistic 'white' reading of 'African' decoration'.