THULUMTWANA CHILDREN’S FACILITY

The project, the first of its kind to be both child owned and managed, is a prototype for other initiatives that will acknowledge children’s rights in informal settlements. Emerging from a considered research process, the project’s setting in an informal settlement seeks to dignify the youth and their work, and offer hope for social transformation in a hash context.

 

Three modified shipping containers, shade structures and low enclosing walls were positioned to articulate a series of outdoor rooms and courtyards for playing and learning. Earth-mounds provide access to the roof of one of the containers in response to the children’s expression for places to climb in the barren treeless environment. The other containers were designed as places for doing homework. As the existing settlement had no trees or other means of shelter from the sun in the public realm, a strong emphasis was placed on providing shade. These formed ‘outdoor rooms’ with places to sit and rest whilst also functioning as secure places for social gatherings, workshops and meetings to discuss community issues.