Tsoga Environmental Center - Community center in South Africa
This sustainable construction example explains how the Tsoga Environmental Center design team applied a formal methodology for sustainable construction to achieve far more than just a new building. They employed local people, taught them trade skills, showed them a way to build using environmentally responsible materials, giving the neighborhood hope and dignity.
Summary
Tsoga Environmental Center is a community-service and recycling facility situated in a poverty-stricken informal settlement of Cape Town where the need for a normal community center pales in comparison to widespread socioeconomic despair. The design team in Cape Town applied a formal methodology for sustainable construction to achieve far more than just the creation of a new building. They shaped the project to employ local people, teach them trade skills, show them a way to build using environmentally responsible materials, establish local sources of affordable building materials, stimulate the local economy, and give the neighborhood hope and dignity – improving quality of life in surprising ways. In 2005 the center won the Holcim Awards Bronze for Africa Middle East and quickly became a standard stop on Cape Town tour itineraries of many universities and international cultural organizations. In 2007 the building received a CIA Award for Architecture from the Cape Institute for Architecture, South Africa.
Product Information
1st edition
78 pages
100 Illustrations (colored)
14.8 cm x 21.0 cm
Paperback
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-3-7266-0082-2