Cape Town-based SALT Architects has designed a new multi-functional extension for a school in Stellenbosch, South Africa. In a project for Calling Education, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to transform education in South Africa, the extension improves facilities at the organization’s Calling Academy Stellenbosch campus. SALT Architects has created a superior educational environment using minimal resources: “This illustrates to learners from low-income communities that opportunity and achievement are not solely dependent on monetary value,” says the studio.
Operating on a tight budget, the school’s expansion utilized familiar and cost-effective materials in innovative ways. The 850-square-meter (9,149-square-feet) expansion includes a laboratory, classroom, administrative areas, staff room, counseling room, and covered terraces. “The addition was meticulously designed to optimize value, whilst maintaining cost-effectiveness through flexibility and use of locally manufactured and recycled materials,” says SALT.
Materials used in the project include concrete block walls, power float concrete floors (providing a durable, smooth, and polished surface), and a pine roof structure finished with concrete roof tiles. To achieve a comfortable learning environment that maximizes natural lighting and acoustics, SALT used polycarbonate tiles and OSB (oriented strand board) ceilings — the mechanical characteristics of OSB are especially helpful in a rational construction such as this one. The project repurposed materials from nearby building sites and sanitary wares were donated from an office renovation in Stellenbosch.
“Savings were maintained by keeping the building footprint small, with efficient room layouts lined with terraces acting as wide outdoor thresholds and usable space,” says SALT. These spaces offer additional areas in which to congregate. Situated between the original school and a football field, the new extension also functions as an assembly space and covered sports pavilion. Flexibility of use was key to the project’s success — a movable divider between the staffroom and classroom converts these rooms into a venue with seating capacity for 150 people (that can act as a source of income generation). “By seamlessly blending functional, flexible spaces with the natural beauty of the site, the project enhances the learning environment,” says the studio.
The extension’s eastern facade is defined by a perforated concrete block screen with two large openings, creating a welcoming threshold space that blurs the boundaries between the indoors and outdoors. The screen provides ventilation while dappling the interior with sunlight — at night, it gives the building a warm and pleasing glow. Large folding doors along the southern facade frame the surrounding bucolic landscape (the site originally served the local farming community) — here, the oversailing pine roof shades a long terrace that provides an additional outdoor space for students and teachers.
“Designing this campus was an ongoing organic process aimed at maximizing the quality of the learning environment, connected to the natural beauty of the site, at the lowest possible cost,” says SALT.
