Lighting in Design Q4 2018

The centrepiece of university life in Kimberley In 2014, Sol Plaatje University (SPU]) opened its doors as the first new University in South Africa’s democratic era. Strategically close to the Square Kilometre Array Telescope [SKA], its initial intake of 135 students is expected to grow to 7 500 within its first 10 years.

L ocated in Kimberley’s Inner City, a progressive Urban Design Framework seamlessly incor- porates existing civic, public and education stock with new purpose-built university buildings, positioning tertiary education as an integrated part of Inner City life. Perhaps even its heart. Designworkshop was successful in a two-stage architectural competition towards conceptualising and delivering a Student Resource Centre as the functional and physical centrepiece of university life, including library, teaching, study, and social space. The key question the architects explored was what this emerging typology could optimally be and enable in the South African reality of a globally inte-

grated world. Ancient images of knowledge-sharing are of people gathered around elders, thought- leaders and gurus, in Public Space. Depending on where and when, this could be by the side of a river, under a tree, in a public square or on a street-side. This is learning and knowledge generation in a social setting.Within society and indistinguishable from it, learning is enabled by the practical and perceived reality of life as it’s experienced, often on a platform of traditional cultural practice. When information was recorded in writing, the emblematic image of learning is often the quiet study table surrounded by books. This is the dis- semination of accumulated knowledge, most com-

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LiD Q4 - 2018