OH14 Adèle Naudé Santos and Antonio De Souza Santos - House Stekhoven 04

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OH2 Public Buildings

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What is the state of our public buildings? – is the question Ches Besada and I asked ourselves when we started planning this tour. Schools, cemeteries, defunct shopping malls, police stations and transport interchanges formed the basis of our enquiry. What we found was that the best public buildings need to accommodate a variety of needs. A police station needs to be a welcoming place as well as a place of holding; a school needs to double up as an income generator for the community; and a cemetery must be a sculptural plaza to remember the dead whilst overlooking the ocean. Photo credits: Cesar Besada  Simonstown Memorial - R.S Uytenbogaardt   Werdmuller Centre - RS Uytenbogaardt Usazazo Secondary School - Noero Wolff    IIDMM - Gabriel Fagan Architects Elsenburg Agricultural College - Design Studio 
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OH7 Climate Skin

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In response to the issue of ‘sustainability’ in architecture – an issue which is often exploited by the sale of gimmicks and tricks to ‘lower the carbon footprint of the building’ – I wanted to see what aspect of the building has the most influence in the saving of energy consumption. According to Paul Carew and Michelle Ludwig of   PJC Consulting , the temperature control of the building has a huge role to play and, in turn, the design of the façade becomes vital. How one designs the façade of the building in terms of heat gain, solar control and daylight penetration can save major costs not to mention renewable energy. So we spent the day walking through the city and looking at building facades while Paul and Michelle pointed out the various features which make the facades energy efficient or not. Photo credits: Ches Besada
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This time OH tours went national, well not exactly national – but let’s say ‘further a field’. The Architectural Forum of Knysna Plettenberg Bay invited me to show the work of that area. This is a significant step for OH tours because it seems that for the first time others have also begun to see the value of their architectural environment and decided to act on it. Of course I agreed and the result was a weekend trip to Knysna and Plett to look at some gorgeous holiday houses along the Garden Route– not bad for a long weekend. I was moved by three houses: House Elphick by Design Workshop , House Kemp by Peter Rich and Beach House Philips by Noero Wolff. First of all, I don’t believe in luxury homes, let alone luxury HOLIDAY homes. I think that it is an anti – Marxist idea and promotes conspicuous consumption. That is until I walked into House Elphick, situated on the most exclusive beachfront ridge in Plettenberg Bay. It is an unapologetic display of wealth, but rather than show...
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