Housing in Southern Africa July 2016

Housing

The Edge

It has been said that Africa is not a uniform place in which every country and every market conforms to the same rules and circumstances.

S o u t h A f r i c a n - b a s e d Mes sa r i s Wapenaa r Co l e Architects (MCWA) says that the willingness of seasoned professionals to work collaboratively, makes a sig- nificant difference to doing business in other African countries. This is evident in the firm’s lat-

served as a point of departure for the design process,” he explains. “We then spent a great deal of time with the client discussing how aspects of the Ugandan culture and way of liv- ing needed to be accommodated in the design.” He cites an example, Ugandans tend to be extremely private people and issues of privacy and visibility are of much greater concern than they are to the average South African. Aspects suchas com- monwalkways, lines of sight, the creation of multiple and discreet entry and exit points from units all had to be considered. Inaddition,most people inUganda still do a great deal of cooking outside. Matoke – a variety of starchy banana – is a commonly eatendish inEast Africa and is generally cooked by steaming over a charcoal or wood fire – an activity which most often takes place outside. Thismeans that every unit in

additional contributing factor. Some of the design ideas and systems could benefit the mammoth number of Catalytic Projects being rolled out around South Africa by government in the next decade. Architect Jeffrey Cole, who has been overseeing The Edge project,

est project in Kampala, Uganda, The Edge, a sizeable new residential development comprises 160 units in Naayla, and is being developed by Ascent Point Invest- ments, a Ugandan prop- erty development company.

‘The complex is fully equipped to provide backup power and water to all units. Since power supply can be unreliable, each unit has the ability to be fitted with an inverter.’

says that the success of every aspect of the design has been as a result of thewillingness to learn about the cul- tural, lifestyle requirements, business and operating environment, social, environmental and infrastructural conditions, which inform the process. “Our design initially followed a fair- ly typical South African model, which is the onewe knowbest and therefore

MWCA secured the project based on its extensive experience in high density residential architecture, with the firm having been referred to As- cent Point Investments by one of its long-standing South African clients, Limestone Properties. Its track record of successfully completing projects in a variety of African countries was an

July 2016