BUILT PROJECTS | SEVEN FOUNTAINS PRIMARY SCHOOL

SEVEN FOUNTAINS PRIMARY SCHOOL:
Seven Fountains Primary School is located in the Shayamoya Township of Kokstad. The school, which has a learner population of 1000, was opened in 2007.

Our interest in the process of designing and building schools meant that we opted for an inclusive, transparent design process that allowed positive relationships to grow between ourselves as ‘designers’ and our client community, between donors and recipients, between government departments and various invested NGO’s, between contracting parties and consulting professionals. In doing so the school as an institution has strengthened its ties with the residents of Shayamoya and the facility itself is used and cared for by this under-resourced community.

In the process of creating a sustainable school we identified a number of key design interventions that, through little or no extra cost, could improve the quality of the teaching and learning spaces whilst at the same time reducing both the running costs for the school and the environmental impact of the buildings.
These strategies included:

Passive Low Energy Design

• Carefully considered solar orientation of the main learning areas means that they take full advantage of the seasonal & daily solar cycles to ensure that classrooms are cool in summer and warm throughout the icy Kokstad winter.
  
• All of the learning and administrative areas are well insulated to improve the thermal comfort levels.
  
  
• Good natural light improves the quality of the visual environment. Glare and heat gain are reduced through appropriately positioned solar shading and light shelves.

Water Strategies

• Rainwater is collected from all impermeable surfaces throughout the school and stored in an underground reservoir. A windmill pumps this grey water to header tanks from where it is gravity-fed to flush toilets.
  
• Low consumption fittings and appliances reduce the volume of water used.
  

Variety of teaching spaces

• Mezzanine or loft areas in the classrooms provide breakaway spaces for creative teaching and for project work.
  
• Outdoor teaching spaces provide alternative learning environments when the weather is good.
  
• Round multi-purpose classrooms for creative and cultural activities have been built using traditional methods.
  
• Specialized rooms for library and computers create an information hub that is located centrally and is easily accessed by the school and surrounding community.
  

Post-occupancy Monitoring & Evaluation

• The effectiveness of passive solar design strategies is monitored by sensors which measure room temperatures, light levels and energy consumption.
  
• Water consumption patterns are monitored.
  
• A digital weather station provides live weather data to enable us to monitor thermal performance of the buildings as conditions change.
  
  

The post-occupancy feedback from the school has enabled us to fine tune the performance of the Seven Fountains Primary School infrastructure and has informed a larger school building programme that includes schools in Limpopo and northern KwaZulu-Natal.


"A new architectural logic is born. One revealed not through compatibility with formal, iconic principles of studio design. Rather it emerged from an examination of the manner in which different levels of voice were incorporated at various stages in the design and construction process.

In this development of an Oprah Angel Network funded project, the agreed objective was to move away from the one-size-fits-all practice of parachuting blueprint-based structures into rural areas, to allow for the architecturally-guided emergence of a school organically connected to the community that built it and which it serves. The choice of materials for the site was informed by a skills and materials audit conducted at an early stage within the township.

Sustainability on a holistic, social, economic and ecological level was well exhibited in this delightful project.

This school represents an outstanding example of a new, inclusive and successful form of architectural expression and merits an Award for Excellence."

Citation by SAIA adjudication panel
SAIA Award for Excellence
September 2010

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