Nina Maritz Architects sustainable architecture and design
RUKONGA SECONDARY VISION SCHOOL
LOCATION:
Divundu, Kavango Region
PROJECT STATUS:
Completed 2013
CLIENT:
Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture
Department of Works
Inspired by age-old cloister tradition, the teaching areas, administration & library form a double-storey courtyard building with dramatic arches lining the inner walkways. Together with residential double-storeys, the entire school footprint becomes much more compact, reducing travel distances & facilitating management and supervision. Spaces between buildings are functional landscaped entities, populated by existing trees pruned out of original scrub.
A complete departure from the norm of spread-out single-storey Namibian standard school, the project illustrated the need for innovative thinking in education design and steered the Ministry of Education into a more adventurous design path.