Barnato Hall Phase 1
Project by 26'10 south Architects
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My responsibilities on the project in conjunction with the project architect:
Professional – 26'10 south Architects
Architecture - Student residence
Barnato Hall Phase 1
2016 - 2018 (worked on during 2018)
WITS campus in Braamfontein, Johannesburg
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The project won a 2019 Award of Merit from GIFA in 2019
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The project is on the shortlist for SAIA awards 2021
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The project is featured on ArchDaily and can be viewed here
Paul Devenish
Lemay Construction
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Construction documentation and detailing pertaining to brickwork, structure, balustrading, internal finishes, windows and signage
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Consultant and contractor coordination
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Weekly site supervision
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Quality inspections and reports (both during construction and post-construction)
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Close out documentation and drawing
Project Summary:
With a national shortfall of 250 000 beds (according to the Department of Higher Education), constructing additional student accommodation is a high priority for universities across the country. However these projects are also seen as ‘austerity projects’, and are posing a series of interconnected challenges to anyone who is working on them.
As such it was of the utmost importance for the project to be both economic and inventive with how resources were used.
Prominently located on the University of Witwatersrand’s West Campus, it was of the utmost importance that the new building be a fresh institutional face as well as an optimisation of the prime campus real estate.
The basic brief consisted of the following:
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Maximise bed count (150 beds were added)
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Self catered units
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Minimal maintenance
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Brickwork façade
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The heritage tree needed to be protected at all costs
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In additional to the standard SANS regulations, the building needed to be DHET compliant, thus introducing a slew of additional requirements in terms of minimum floor areas, type of spaces / additional uses required and how these spaces were to be implemented.
These extensive requirements can easily result in wasted space however, and as a response to the new building was considered in conjunction to the existing Barnato student residence, resulting in previously underutilised spaces being taken into account and adapted to complement and work with the new extension and residence as a whole.
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The most notable examples of this process of adaptation was how previously unused spaces were turned into new internal rooms within the existing main building. Another example pertains to how the new building makes use of existing circulation (stairs) and how existing supporting amenities and social areas were used to supplement the new building instead of building new ones.
In turn the new building provides a sorely needed second lift, a second point of access from the general campus and two social pockets. Furthermore, all of this was delivered for 30% less than a new-build residence of the same bed count would have cost.
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Reactions by students: can be seen here
Ultimately an apartment typology was selected in order to allow the residence to be self catering, while remaining optimal in terms of service spaces. Similarly, it resulted in apartment clusters where students had their own private rooms while also having the advantages of communal kitchens and living spaces.
This layout also enabled introduction of several thresholds leading one from the most public spaces to the most private in the building. These in-between spaces have given students more freedom to interact socially and academically in environments that they are comfortable in, rather than formalised study/ social halls that are generally underutilised in residences.
The strict budget meant using off-the-shelf, low maintenance materials and keeping the form of the new buildings as simple and straightforward as possible. What started as a request for a low maintenance brick façade however, took on a life of its own as the brick skin came to consists of various carefully interwoven brick types, forming a brickwork quilt.
At a time when difference is so often used to divide people, this quilt of odd-bin bricks provide a new institutional identity that celebrates the beauty and strength of diversity and the unique creativity that can be bred through adversity.
Known as ‘under the tree’ bricks, these special bricks were left-overs from previously commissioned ranges that could be acquired at a substantially lower cost (roughly the same cost of stock bricks) than regular facebrick. The facades present an unexpected blending of existing textures and colours, rooting the extension to its particular place on campus.
By sharing the design values, arranging training and maintaining close, hands-on quality control, we could establish a productive dialogue with the brick supplier, main contractor and bricklayers.
Due to the odd-bin status of the bricks, options were notably limited by what was available at the brickyards and this constraint was taken advantage of by allowing the bricks themselves to dictate how and where they would be used (regarding patters, locations and details) to ensure that the inherent characteristics of the unique bricks were being celebrated.
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Pattern the was used was intended to allow the building to blend into the surrounding trees while also lending an element of whimsicality to the building.
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It should lastly be noted that the building is arranged around a central courtyard around which all the circulation and functions are wrapped in order to facilitate connectedness and constant visual interaction.
