Groundwork: Exploring architecture-environment reciprocity in the Karoo

Abstract

Groundwork locates architecture in the midst of the environmental crisis and calls on architects to intervene in ways that improve or enhance the condition of the natural world. This project is an architectural collaboration with nature in the Wolwekraal Nature Reserve in Prince Albert, South Africa. The design of a biodiversity research facility refers to existing but siloed theories and research to develop a cohesive approach for the insertion of buildings in sensitive environments. The research framework served as the launchpad for a qualitative analysis that incorporated social, historical, economic and ecological data, ground truthing and multispectral imagery. The building engaged a particular combination of materials, systems and construction methods that allow it to touch the ground lightly while still providing a state of the art, multi-functional research facility that responds to the needs of the multiple communities it is serving. The work challenges the buildings relationship to humans, plants and animals; and aspires to work in harmony with nature by eliciting cues from the environment that point to an architectural intervention the land can tolerate.