PROJECT INFORMATION
• Company entering: ADA Consulting Engineers • Client: The Kliptown Youth Programme • Architect & Principal Agent: Roger Davies Architects • Quantity Surveyors: JS & Associates Quantity Surveyors • Structural & Civil Engineers: ADA Consulting Engineers & Mironox Consulting Engineering Services • Contractor: ENZA Construction
THE KLIPTOWN YOUTH PROGRAMME
K liptown’s Youth Programme’s (KYP) mission since their humble beginnings in 2007 has been to provide opportunities that will enable young people to rise out of poverty. They seek to develop young and dynamic individuals who are willing to contribute effectively for the betterment of their community. KYP’s tutoring, athletic, and arts programs provide a life to the children of Kliptown not defined by survival, but by their ability to be active community members, to have dreams, and most of all, to have hope for their futures. ADA Consulting Engineers in a joint venture with Mironox Consulting Engineering Services were appointed to provide the civil and structural engineering services for this ground-breaking social infrastructure project. The site is situated in Kliptown, Soweto, is surrounded by informal dwelling structures built right up to and against the boundary walls. The property is narrow and long and has the lower boundary onto a wetland. These circumstances all provided some unique challenges. The architectural design demanded a first world facility which, considering its place, required construction solutions enabling employment opportunities from the local community. The unusual combination of high specification structural steel fabrication and labour intensive construction methods were employed. The architectural spacial design required the primary learning block to have a tuition class rooms on the perimeter around a central large double volume but weatherproof communal space. The solution to this main building was a central double volume structural steel structure which was fabricated, transported to site and erected first. This structure once erected immediately simplified the construction in providing the line and level for the
more labour intensive masonry construction of the surrounding classrooms. These surrounding classrooms were double storey built from load bearing masonry walls and in-situ reinforced concrete slabs all requiring substantial labour in their construction. These classroom structures were in turn relied upon to brace the central steel structure thereby reducing the steel member sizes and optimizing its cost. This symbiotic relationship between the different structure types embodies the relationship between the Kliptown Youth Programme and the surrounding community which it serves. Kliptown in Soweto, has 44 000 residents of which 3 out of 4 adults are unemployed, the community struggles with a high number of teenage pregnancies; HIV/AIDS; substance abuse and food insecurity. Their underperforming schools are overcrowded with one teacher for 40 to 50 students. The Kliptown Youth Programme was established in 2007 by a group of individuals in the Kliptown community, with the view to uplift the children and youth in the community by providing a facility that focusses on improving education. The site of the existing facility lies on the southern side of the Kliprivier in Soweto. The programme has been so successful, that KYP was now in a position to completely revamp the old facility by demolishing the entire campus and building new optimised spaces to carry out the required functions to the 500+ members of the community that they now serve. The new facility has a hall, 20 classrooms, a library, computer laboratory, administration block, an Astro turf playing field as well as a complete revamp and re- structuring of the existing buildings. As it is the role of the KYP to serve the community, the project provided work opportunities for the local community.
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21 st Best Project Awards 2022
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