Final Viedgesville School Design Project

The 2nd year design studio at Nelson Mandela University school of architecture was approached by NPO R­IGNITE founder, Pindelwa Mda, to produce design documentation to facilitate the funding process for the construction of a new primary school in Viedgesville. A semi­urban village 20 km from Umthatha in the Transkei; at the intersection of the N2 highway and the road to the coastal tourist village of Coffee Bay.

The school is a vision by Pindelwa to replace an existing school in the village she was once raised and to a school that was established by late members of her family. The existing school facilities (4 classrooms, store room and a kitchen) are undersized and dilapidated and community parents and children are needing to look elsewhere for better school facilities ­ often requiring extensive travelling.

The new school proposes to improve student numbers and afford the local community better educational facilities by replacing existing buildings and the addition of a library and computer space for students, and a multifunctional hall to serve the school and the community.

The contribution by the studio, as part of the architectural students’ academic curriculum, is the development of initial design ideas and the production of design documentation that aims to enable:

1. Initial costings to establish required funding;
2. Content to obtaining funding – visions and images;
3. Further discussions with representative members of the school and the community

The design process began with early discussions with Pindelwa and school principal Tobela Ngubentombi and a visit to the site in the Transkei to develop the design brief which is articulated below. Once the brief had been set the students, while continuing to engage with Pindelwa and Principal Tobela, then set out to develop individual design ideas (1 week) from which 8 were selected for further development in teams (3 weeks), to five (2 weeks), and finally to 2.

R­Ignite representative and the School Principal were present at the submission of each stages of the project and were part of the decision process in refining and selecting designs for further development.

View the final plans here.