Concept
The idea of a small scale village around a “village square” where the community will
feel at home and welcome to make use of the facilities, in addition to the primary use as an opportunity
for African children to play football.
The buildings will be extremely simple in design and layout. Bold colours will be used to enable the
users to easily identify the different components. The classroom, health facilities and ablutions are all
placed around a green courtyard. Shaded verandas link the separate buildings, providing a visual link
between them but still allowing all of them to be used separately. The 2 shipping containers provided
are used at the entrance, forming part of the reception and office areas. They are juxtaposed at a 90-
degree angle, one on top of the other. Where the 2 overlap, the roof of the bottom one and the floor of
the top one will be removed to form a “double volume” area, ensuring comfortable working spaces.
(The standard height of a container is not high enough to comply with the minimum floor to ceiling
height of local building regulations.) The other end forms a “canopy” over the entrance.
The idea is to provide a footprint to dictate future additions should the need arise to enlarge the
facilities. Courtyards will be the guiding “squares” with the buildings placed around them – thus creating
a village consisting of various “green squares”.
The shaded walkways are also used to shade the buildings and to keep the sun away from the walls
and window openings.
Water treatment
Water tanks will be used to collect all rainwater from the roofs. This will then be pumped to a central
storage tank that will feed the showers, toilets and basins.
Effluent water from the basins and showers will be reused to water the trees.
Solar panels
We propose that sponsorships be secured to provide solar panels for lights and water heating
purposes. As it is a relatively expensive installation, particularly when used to run the lights, we reckon
that it should not form part of the initial budget, but rather be provided by the private sector.
List of materials
Locally produced face bricks and plaster bricks
Locally produced sand paint
Corrugated sheeting for roofs and cladding
Door frames: Aluminium
Door leaves: Timber
Windows: Aluminium
Seating around the pitch: gabion baskets filled with local stone that is self-supporting. They will be fitted
with a concrete slab to provide a no - maintenance seat.
Landscaping: Indigenous trees, irrigated with grey water from the ablutions.
Budget
US$ 85 000 amounts to approximately N$ 820 000.
Total built area: 199m2.
We reckon that with the help of the local community we would be able to construct the buildings for
around N$ 4000/m2.
