The Ubuntu Centre
Architecture
The Architect
The lead architect is Port Elizabeth-born Stan Field who runs Field Architecture in Palo Alto, California. Stan developed the architectural plans of the building and overseeing our South African construction team to ensure the building is built according to the plans. In South Africa, we have hired a top Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) construction firm, Ngonyama Okpanum Hewitt-Coleman Architects to serve as project managers and oversee all elements of construction.
Green Design
Architect Stan Field designed The Ubuntu Centre to maximize usage of natural and local materials. The building is designed to minimize reliance on active mechanical systems by optimizing the potential of passive heating and cooling. The building uses the thermal mass of its thick concrete walls and roof to radiate heat back into the building.
Externally, the open spaces created between the loosely bound aggregation of the building allows for solar penetration to access large surfaces of enclosing walls therefore maximizing solar gain. Photovoltaic panels will be included for solar energy.
We have also included in the design a roof-top vegetable garden using grey water, which will provide insulation for the building. Convection cooling through the critical placement of low and high ventilating windows will create self-generating cross circulation of cooler air entering at lower levels and hotter air exhausting at higher levels through the stacking effect.
The Ubuntu Centre Architectural drawings
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