Collaborators:
Burgess Rice
Taylor Scott
Megan Suau
Jessica Vanecek
The Mukondeni pottery site incorporates an existing pottery cooperative with a new water filter factory, a community center for outreach and education, and renovation to an existing factory pavilion.
Our proposal is a minimal intervention dependent on the climate, land, and traditions of the vernacular culture of Mukondeni. This project takes into account existing site conditions, modes of operation, and cultural aesthetics to create an architecture that is both local and responsive to the community it serves. It aims to create a matrix of site strategies that allows the design to be prototypical in its application to future sites in South Africa.
The site and building strategies are based on implicit vectors that are informed by solar orientation, prevailing wind conditions, available materials, existing site conditions, local adjacencies, and traditional labor skills. These findings composed a series of impressions, or “marks,” on the ground.
These initial design intentions were then challenged by and negotiated with the complex culture of the Mukondeni site. Among these are water scarcity, deforestation, hazardous pottery procedures, expense of construction, and existing pottery guild traditions.
Our design resulted in a series of edges that re-grade the site into shallow terraces down the hillside. Each of these terraces relates to specific programs that are intentionally separated for sequencing of construction and privacy or security issues. From these retaining walls and landscape edges emerge the structural walls and foundations
of the buildings. The building walls themselves are strategically placed to shield or expose views, provide shade, and assist with the linear production of pottery. The walls are therefore minimal in scope - they rarely form fully-enclosed interior spaces. These walls contain locally crafted, built-in furnishings suitable for the respective programs.
The combined wood and metal roof lightly spans to create an ample plenum for natural ventilation and shade.
The downhill organization of the proposal facilitates the flow of water to the utility-intense factory. A large cistern collects water from the two existing buildings at the top of the site, which provides almost all of the water needed to maintain the factory and community center throughout the year. Downhill flow is supported by a secondary water collection system that collects roof runoff from the factory in a central, shaded trellis structure. Water is then collected underground and pumped by hand back up the hill to the main cistern.
Our project aims to be simple in concept and construction while detailed in its response to pressing and complex culture issues. We believe the proposal to be equally regional and prototypical, respectful and innovative.
