Ukuqala Project in Grabouw
University of Stuttgart 
Ukuqala Project in Grabouw

Ukuqala Project in Grabouw

University of Stuttgart 


This house for children in need and volunteers helping them is part of a larger project: the masterplan that, under the name Village of Hope and on the initiative of the NGO Thembalistha, a group of students from the University of Stuttgart has been implementing since 2010 in Grabouw, a locality adjacent to Cape Town.

The building capitalizes on available local resources and reinterprets traditional construction on a contemporary note. The house is raised with a mixed structure, combining heavy loadbearing walls of rammed earth – which have high thermal inertia – with a light wooden frame that flies over the line of the facade to form an eave. For its part, the roof – a double cover with a ventilated chamber that, as in vernacular architecture, reduces the impact of solar radiation – stretches up to the west facade, creating the space for the staircase, covered and protected from rain and sun by means of an irregular lattice of posts.

Obra Work

Ukuqala 2, casa para voluntarios y niños necesitados en Grabouw (Sudáfrica) House for volunteers and children in need, Village of Hope, Grabouw (South Africa).

Fecha Date

2011-2012.

Presupuesto Budget

36.000 euros.

Cliente Client

Thembalitsha / Village of Hope.

Responsables In charge

Institute of Public Building and Design / Arno Lederer, Leslie Koch.

Colaborador Collaborator

Véronique Pavelec.

Participantes Participants

Selina Ahmann, Hans-Christian Bäcker, Christoph Dörrig, Marc Ellis, Jonas Gisti, Alexandros Grammatikopulos, Hannah Klug, Johanna Köhler, Florian Kaiser, Kira Laage, Andreas Lerchl, Josephine Lüders, Alicia Ruiz Caballero, Nina Schaal, Tilman Schmidt-Föhre, Maximilian Seibert, Benjamin Straub, Tine Teiml, Oliver Teiml, Suryu Um, Maximilian Umbach, Leonie Weber, Susanne Wolff, David LaVigne, Jonas Ruf, Marianne Trauten.

Estructuras Structures

Institute of Structure and Structural Design University of Stuttgart ; Overberg Consulting Engineers.

Fotos Photos

Andreas Lerchl.