New student housing project, details to be revealed.

Proposal: 2019

Langa was the first suburb designated exclusively for Black Africans in Cape Town, and a focal point of resistance and protests to Apartheid-era policies of racial segregation. Near a major crossroads the ruined shells of some of the earliest housing created for migrant workers from the Eastern Cape remain standing. This project is a proposal for those buildings, capping them with a new, lightweight roof, and leaving original wall divisions in place as markers of the original room sizes. With an open program, subject to change, the proposal also uses murals to draw attention to famous residents, resistance movements and artists.

Proposal: 2019

© Nico van Loggerenberg, © Craig McClenghan Architecture

Working across 2 non-contiguous sites for a phased 140-bed hospital & complementary staff housing, the project deals with conditions typical of under-resourced areas (poor existing infrastructure, limited economic investment, and a gradual loss of cultural identity & tradecraft), and harsh environmental conditions (cold winters, a short growing season) in the small town of Semonkong, Lesotho by approaching the project as a catalytic intervention with influence beyond the scope of the individual sites.

Strategies were developed through a participatory process; buildings were designed to allow local craftspeople to participate in construction; the interaction between building & landscape takes cognisance of the agrarian way of life and sets up a robust nature-based water management system.

Submission: 2017

© Bantu Studio

Forests, and the products we harvest from them, are vital to our economy and built environment, yet we have spiritual and emotional connections to trees which are at odds with these economic realities. This thesis explores how architecture can act as a filter between the real and ideal worlds by looking at the nature of indigenous forests in South Africa, the abundant plantations so necessary to construction and trade, and the problem of invasive trees which act as destroyers of our fragile ecosystems.

The building is a centre for sustainable forestry in the Outeniqua forest outside Knysna – progressively removing invasive trees, turning them into useful wood products, and re-planting with scarce indigenous trees. In a social context of high unemployment this didactic building aims to connect ancient woodworking craft to modern fabrication technology for the purposes of skills training, reforestation and economic upliftment.

The woodcutter kills the tree, but brings us wood – a material of infinite uses: pliable, strong, beautiful in its variety – a material for the craftsman to shape, sand, and join. The tensions between destruction and creation, natural and man-made, and industry and craft are brought to the fore in the search for the diverse, the specific, and the beautiful.

Submission: 2015

© Nico van Loggerenberg

This co-ed school was designed to provide a more nuanced set of spaces for the varying developmental levels of children – with provision for boisterous play outside, small groups, and sitting by oneself in intimate courtyards.

Designed with windows, doors, and level changes at the scale of children; the school nonetheless caters for adult supervision through passive surveillance at all points. It interacts with the neighbouring school through shared sportsfields and by providing ample safe parking for buses and taxis, which currently use the small sidewalks in this residential neighbourhood.

A dual-use section means that the north-western, public part of the school and library can be used by the public after hours, whether for research or adult classes. This adds to security and provides an additional income.

Submission: 2014

© Nico van Loggerenberg