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This unique building is a monument of ecologically sustainable development updating and reviving traditional African building methods and materials, the inherent value of which modern building science is only just discovering
The Kouga Cultural Centre on the Garden route at Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape was designed and built in the context of the African Renaissance and the principles of ecologically sustainable development.
The R8 million project resulted from an institutional arrangement between the Department of Provincial and Local Government and Kouga Municipality with the aim to create employment opportunities for local residents, alleviate poverty, and redistribute resources and opportunities to the benefit of the local community.
EMPOWERMENT
The cultural centre was designed, planned, structured and managed through the construction phase to give priority to and to promote the social and economic development of the local residents. It has succeeded in the empowerment of the community not only by creating new sustainable enterprises, but also by providing the community with employment and training in updated traditional African building methods, equipping them with the skills to build their own high-quality, low-cost houses from freely available materials.
Women and men of different socio-economic backgrounds worked together to build the centre. They were trained in manufacturing updated traditional African building materials and utilising updated building techniques and were equipped with the necessary skills certificates.
Now that the Kouga Cultural Centre has been completed, it will continue to empower the community by attracting investment from local and international tourism that will result in further sustainable employment opportunities.
SUSTAINABLE USE OF RESOURCES, MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION METHODS
One of the main objectives during the design and construction stage of the cultural centre was to minimise manufactured input and maximise environmentally friendly solutions.
A reinforced concrete structure was designed to act as framework for the building, supporting not only the huge thatched roofs manufactured from plantation timber poles and Cape thatch but also the 18 m diameter copper dome with its thatched ceiling. The reinforced concrete framework was then filled in with compressed earth blocks manufactured and cured on site.
The earth blocks were manufactured by hydraulically compressing a mixture of cement and soil from the site excavations in a block-making machine at the optimum moisture content of the mixture and...