PROJECT DESCRIPTION: this project focuses on the ways pre-fabrication and material studies can and will impact the future of low income and poverty stricken communities around the world.

GOALs: The theory behind the process is to use an existing community as a model for which future communities could be developed in more socially and economically sustainable ways. Using pre-fabrication as a means to produce physical structures as well as fundamental training in building construction methods to the surrounding community. The resulting community design would largely depend on the decisions and direct support of the individuals living within the development who will ultimately be active members in the entire process.

SITE: The chosen site is just outside Mossel Bay, South Africa. Surrounding an abandoned power station building, an informal settlement of coulored laborers has sprung up in recent years. This thesis examines this complex culture and site constraints to develop a model township development for other communities to consider as a plausible means of socially and physically uplifting their living environments.

PROGRAM:

·         renovation and retrofit of existing power station for fabrication plant

·         community center

·         health clinic

·         100 +/- housing units

·         transportation hub

·         trading center