News & Events

09.11.2011
iKhaya Trust Centre receives CIA Award of Merit

The ‘iKhaya Trust Centre’ in Kayamandi, Stellenbosch, has received a prestigious Merit Award from the Cape Institute for Architecture.

The merit awards are awarded bi-annually for architecture of exceptional merit.

The iKhaya Trust Centre belongs to the Greater Stellenbosch Development Trust (GSDT), which manages educational programmes for children and community upliftment programs from the Centre. The Centre also houses partner organisations, including AmaZink, SEED and Vision K and Vision Afrika. The Centre was developed in 2002 when the Trust, with assistance from donors Dr Wolf Siegmund and Rudi Neuland and Anna Will, bought a beer hall which was destroyed by a fire in Khayamandi. It was significantly extended and renovated in 2010 with funding from the Restis Family Trust, the NTLF and various other donors. The architect was Jan Klingler of Kr2 Architects.

Mhlobo Jadezweni, chairperson of the GSDT, welcomed the award as recognition not only for exiting architecture in Khayamandi, but also as recognition for the efforts to help children from Khayamandi to develop their potential: “The Trust Centre is an aspirational centre for the children and young adults, from 2 to 22 years, who strive for excellence in the development programme of the Trust.”     

The comments of the panel of assessors read as follows:

‘The iKhaya Trust Centre demonstrates how much an architect can transform the daily experience and social development of many people through one well designed building.

The centre, formally a beer hall, has been transformed into a hub of education which allows for transfer of knowledge between all age groups by careful and exciting cross programming. The alterations and additions to the existing building took into consideration a range of age groups and uses that may change naturally as needs be over time. The physical manifestation of the varying degrees of interpretation is an exciting collection of spaces of different scales, sizes and location around a site with animated topography and beautiful distant views.

The loose-fit geometries employed by Kr2 Architects achieve a range of internal and external spaces, each with a strong identity. This identity is achieved through built form rather than colour coding or naming, making it easy for both children and adults to find their way around the set of spaces.

Educational space is prioritised, but not in a sterile institutional manner. Peer learning and intergenerational learning is encouraged by classrooms that scale down to the height of tiny toddle, but these child spaces live comfortably and safely next to an eating space and amphitheatre where different age groups can come together. Proximity approximates and achieves a village-like atmosphere, and this feels like a very natural yet positively reinforcing extension of the surrounding township.

Materials and detailing are modest yet highly skilful. Careful selective elaboration teaches that considered detailing can make gutters and down pipes beautiful. The architecture is restrained yet sophisticated. The architects are commended for a job well done and are encouraged to continue to enrich the lives of South Africans in this way.’

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