Thulumtwana Children's Facility
Gauteng, South Africa, 2000
The project, the first of its kind to be both child owned and managed, is a prototype for other initiatives that will acknowledge children's rights in informal settlements. Emerging from a considered research process, the project's setting in an informal settlement seeks to dignify the young and their work, and offer hope for social transformation in a bleak context.
Three modified shipping containers, shade structures and low enclosing walls were employed to articulate a series of outdoor rooms and courtyards for playing and learning. Mounded earth provided access to the roof of one of the containers in response to the children?s expressed need for places to climb in what was a barren treeless environment. The other containers, at the wish of the children, were designed as places for doing homework. As the existing settlement had no trees or other means of shelter from the sun in the public realm, a strong emphasis was placed on providing shade. These formed 'outdoor rooms' with places to sit and rest whilst also functioning as secure places for social gatherings, workshops and meetings to discuss community issues.
