Location: Pretoria, South Africa.

Architect: Earthworld Architects cc.

Future Africa is a research centre designed to facilitate trans-disciplinary research within the African context. The facility provides an integrated live/work environment for post-doctorate students from all cultures and backgrounds, fostering fellowship, understanding and collaboration among the vast diversity of cultures and disciplines on the continent. The centre comprises 280 living units, a central hall, research commons, and a conference facility. The building is designed to be adaptable and open, allowing for adaptive re-use and recycling, and alternative, more inclusive contracting. The building industry is opened up to allow for small and micro-enterprises to participate in large projects, democratizing the building process. The project is designed to be regenerative and catalytic, mobilizing micro-enterprises to have a positive impact on the economy. The building is not only space, accommodation and shelter but central to a system where people are key. The environment resulting from the development must foster community, ownership, participation and thought integration through spatial transparency, democracy and choice. The landscape design also forms part of the system by re-introducing 56 orphan crops and allowing foraging to explore alternative cuisines and creative interaction around new tastes, textures and colours. The idea of sharing thoughts around “dinner tables” was core to the organization, with the vast cultural diversity on the continent.

Photo credit: Lourens Uitenweerde – Eyescape Corporate Photography, Dook Photography, RAW Studios, Mighty Fine Production.