Nina Maritz Architects sustainable architecture and design
OHANGWENA HOME AFFAIRS OFFICES PROPOSAL
LOCATION:
Eenhana, Ohangwena Region
PROJECT STATUS:
Unbuilt
CLIENT:
Department of Works
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration
This building is to serve the public by issuing identity documents, passports, and birth & death certificates. A wide and spacious veranda for crowds to wait and mingle opens the building to the street. Located on an extremely small site, the inviting public hall forms a podium for the public conferencing facility (on the south first floor) and the 4-storey highly secure offices and archives (the north wing); in the process creating a first floor courtyard and light-well in the centre. Vertical circulation is expressed as towers on the exterior, with a pedestrian ramp on the west screening the
building from the setting sun as well as creating visual interaction between public and private spaces. Decorative but functional sunscreens express the nature of the building through bar-code and QR code motifs. Extensive solar provision and back-up water systems ensure continuous service in case of emergencies, while massing, fenestration and material selection followed passive design principles.