CR InTernational Project

University of Fort Hare Extensions

Eastern Cape’s historic education centre, University of Fort Hare’s, newest addition to the city’s CBD adds to the institution’s portfolio while providing much needed higher education facilities in the inner city.

Forming part of the university’s strategic rapid development plan, the project entails the extension of the institution’s campus in East London to eventually accommodate 10 000 students within the next few years.

With just over 18 months into construction ahead of scheduled completion in February 2011, the first building of the project is making quite a statement visually within the landscape and functionally, as it has innovative engineering and design attributes.

University representatives sought a design that would integrate the academic society (students & staff) of the campus with the surrounding community of East London, while at the same time having a design with a sustainability imperative. Being that the new facility would serve multiple functions, a generic design was desired, one that would maximise design flexibility for varied uses by the university’s different departments.

STRUCTURALLY SOUND

Interpreting the client’s brief, the architects were required to factor a number of imperatives into the design. This included: economical construction methods; ease of pedestrian navigation; long north-facing façades; naturally-ventilated spaces allowing plenty of daylight to enter; use of low-maintenance materials. All of these considerations had to culminate into a bold image for the university, while being linked into the area’s context.

Situated within an existing business district, the first building within this phase comprises a double-volume basement parking area, two double storey lecture theatres and a four-storey teaching block. Designed as a single structure with two cascading sections in a downward slant from south to north, this allows each block to receive maximum exposure to sunlight.

The architects and engineers of this unique structure ensured that this building was the result of both design and engineering ingenuity. The flooring of this building is an industry first—comprising a modular, precast concrete construction system—it creates the ventilated access flooring, with a completely flat soffit throughout.

Using displacement ventilation, the new concept floor / ceiling system permits the cool air to enter the classrooms through special floor mounted diffusers, then being drawn up to the slot outlets along the northern facades to replace the rising warmer air. Services run through the 500mm high void between the floor and ceiling tiles. The tiles provide a heat sink and are fitted with service access points for electrical power. Allowing ease of student and staff navigation, the building has a wide pedestrian concourse linking the north and south ends of the complex, with‘double-acting’ staircases throughout, as well as a single lift located in the south wing.

Each wing of the blocks, says the design architect, Al Stratford, “is penetrated by the pedestrian concourse that starts on the street at parking level, on the south side, and spills out onto the street at the second floor, which is at grade on the north street. In this way the concourse becomes a pedestrian arcade of the city.”

GREEN WITH ENVY

A significant portion of the design concept centred on green building design and sustainability. In conserving energy, the new building incorporates such environmentally efficient features as harvesting rainwater and using alternative energy sources. The building’s wind-driven turbines are a significant energy source as they could ultimately supplement the electrical grid, thus reducing reliance on traditional electrical supply.

Another sustainable element of the building is its rainwater collection/harvesting system. Rainwater collected in on-site tanks will be filtered, and then pumped to a header tank in the roof space of the building. Through gravity it will be fed through for use for flushing in the bathrooms, as well as for irrigation.

The building is being naturally ventilated, eliminating the need for any air-conditioning system. This is achieved by using both solar and wind energy. This ventilation system is solar powered through buoyancy induced in the ventilated stack façade and also by the wind induced pressure differences generated at the aerofoil section covering the continuous apex roof slot. The north façades will be ventilated utilising pre-cast, glazed, hollow ‘trombe wall’ sections forming a continuous vertical void. As the sun heats these sections, rising air within the void will pull cooler air behind it—causing displacement ventilation throughout the building.

The external façade (to the south walkway) is faced with a permeable mesh screen that serves to mitigate the impact of the rain and wind. Immediately inside this screen is a vertical planting screen with timber planter boxes at each floor which are irrigated with the harvested rainwater—providing the building with evaporative cooling and oxygenated air.

A PLEASANT ADDITION

This state-of-the-art extension of the campus will not only provide a pleasant learning environment, be highly flexible and will achieve the necessary levels of human comfort, but will also provide an authentic, fiscally viable alternative to the conventional design and construction approach.

A newly constructed building for the university not only expands the offering and footprint of the university, but it also contributes towards reviving a section of East London that is dilapidated. Such investments have catalysed new developments and urban renewal within a number of cities throughout the country. The University of Fort Hare trusts that their investment will have a similar impact on East London. “Fort Hare, in keeping with its tradition, has not been afraid to embrace the sustainability issue in order to demonstrate its commitment to progress,” says Stratford.