Elands Bay Climate Shelter
2021
2nd Year Undergraduate Studio Project
Baboon Point, Elands Bay, South Africa
This project invited students to understand how architecture can mediate between the embodied subject and the objective environment by creating an intermediate lived environment, which modifies spaces, landforms, and climate to make a collective human centred form. The end building design becomes a place to bring together the particularities of the topography, and its bodily experience.
Concept | Four platforms were established on the chosen on the steep quartzite rock site, close to the Elands Bay Cave. This Cave has been intermittently occupied for millennia until about 500 years ago. It was mostly occupied by the San hunter gatherers and Kohekohe herders. Both of these peoples lived in communities who worked together and shared meals together. This way of life lasted hundreds of years and provided precedent for a concept of living which will stay relevant for centuries. Three of the platforms function as sleeping and work pods, while the fourth larger platform serves as a communal kitchen, relaxation and work space. The Covid-19 pandemic added a new dimension to the idea of shelter as many people took refuge in their homes while still carrying on with their jobs remotely. Thus it became important to provide a refuge at Elands Bay which can function as a space to relax or a space in which people can come together and collaborate on work projects in an isolated and safe environment. During the pandemic many families found comfort in eating and sharing many meals together, this sparked the idea for a communal kitchen space which would encourage occupants to share meals together as humans are inherently social creatures who need the company of others. The idea of a shelter that can be dismantled and leave little or no imprint on the landscape is an important concept when considering how to keep the ecology of the area intact. This means that the shelter is considerate towards the land on which it rests while protecting one from the climate. This informed the exploration of materials which were sustainable, durable and have the ability to be dismantled. Inspired by an interesting precedent ( The Cork House) cork blocks were chosen for the walls were due to their light weight and excellent thermal insulation as well as their ability to be dismantled and reassembled easily
