Human Settlements Review - Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Human Settlements Review, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010
fig. iv | illustration of possible permutation utilising the system; double storey classroom with lower
floor shell structure awaiting local enclosure; VIP compositing school toilets; small office and
warehouse for project’s book unit.
Conclusion
Whilst the Lesotho example suggests that
severe conditions are a prerequisite for
tectonic invention, the project is in fact not
about technology, nor education for that matter.
It is about design, about design as a critical
response to a set of pre-existent conditions
that have power to impact upon a decision
making process and affect its outcome in the
interests of more than simply the production of
space. Design interpretation of any situation
in order to maximise the latent potential that is
inherent in the complex set of circumstances
enable the configuration of space. By bringing
intellectual insight to given conditions,
imagination and speculation find a resonance
with contingency, enfolding them productively
into an interpretative design process that is
predicated on unforeseen outcomes.
The Lesotho project will find direct correlation
in many [southern] African situations. It may not
be directly applicable, but local interpretation
of its principled approach to socio-economic
empowerment could contribute a force in
directing built environment development in
our own contexts. This becomes particularly
relevant in the phase of the rapid urbanisation
of our cities and the growing informality that
has come to characterise ‘African Urbanism’.
The approach of Design Build Research posits
a productive framework for engaging this work
and suggests new instruments of delivery that
engage critical human agency in focussing
design creativity to social conditions.
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