Tree of life - education and care center in Durban, South Africa

Architectural Review, The, March, 1995 by Catherine Slessor

A simple yet expressive new childcare centre in one of Duban's informal settlements brings a much needed resource into the community.

Of the 6.3 million children under six years old in South Africa, over 80 per cent are black. Pre-school facilities for this huge group are pitifully inadequate - research carried out at the beginning of the decade indicated that a mere two per cent were benefiting from pre-school education and care. Established in 1985, the Association for Training and Resources in Early Education (TREE) works to support education and care centres throughout KwaZulu-Natal. Through non-formal training programmes for staff, parents and administrators, the association mobilises desperately needed resources to maintain and improve the quality of early education and care, particularly within poorer communities. for whom no provision has been made by the previous government.

On a site in central Durban, a model daycare facility was developed to serve the needs of the children living in the neighbouring informal settlements as well as to provide an example of good education and care practices for trainees and teachers attending TREE training courses. The labour employed to build the new centre was drawn from the immediate area, mainly the unemployed residents of informal settlements, who were given the opportunity of acquiring skills and training through the community approved construction project.

Liebenberg Masojada is a young, Durban based practice involved, like an increasing number of their peers, in community oriented schemes from the bottom up. The intensity of commitment required for this kind of work almost demands a redefinition of the traditional role of the architect. Buildings are not merely finished objects, but the outcome of complex, inclusive processes that have ramifications beyond the normal sphere of architectural activity. Now that there is official political impetus behind community improvement programmes, through the government's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), South African architects may feel more able to explore alternative practice strategies.

Unlike Jo Noero's community college at Soweto (p38), Liebenberg Masojada's new centre makes some concessions to the inevitable limitations of context. The site is surrounded by informal settlements populated by squatters who come from rural areas or the hated 'homelands' - or who are simply the urban poor. Through a surprisingly systematic procedure of land invasion, these informal settlers appropriate plots and erect makeshift dwellings. So a community is formed and it is essential that any intervening building becomes a functioning and responsive part of it.

The new care centre adopts a clearly legible plan on a single floor, orientated around a central circulation spine. Administration and classrooms are placed on either side of the spine, which is glazed to import mood-enhancing daylight into the building's nether regions. The spine opens on to a series of small alcoves, from where trainees can observe the activities of the classroom without distracting proceedings. Each classroom is sunk at a slightly lower level from the spine and the classroom sizes vary, to allow for different group activities. The roof extends beyond the irregular plan form to create a veranda space, connecting inside with outside, a variation on the traditional South African stoep, or covered porch. Although the building is unflinchingly simple, it has an innate vigour, derived from the honesty of its making, animated by the interplay of light, colour (the external walls are studded with fantastic, jewel-like mosaics) and the cheerful boisterousness of its small users.