Building for Tomorrow’s World
What the earthworm doesn’t want, the moth will use. We should build our cities that way. [ Article by Don Pinnock, published in the Sunday Times, 20 March 2011] ‘That window,’ says Vernon Collis, ‘do you know where it comes from? No? It’s meranti from Borneo. Half those forests are already gone. This house? It comes from […]
Integrating Sustainability into Design (Part One)
We are offering this exciting course focusing on the integration of sustainability into design. The course is split into two 3-hour parts, each carrying 0.5 CPD points. The format will be a small group participation workshop, presented by Vernon Collis (Engineer-Architect). Various theories, products and opinions around sustainability can be overwhelming for the architect/designer. This short course aims to synthesize, distil and […]
A City House Grounded in Sustainable Process Design
This case study of a new city house built on the mountain slopes of Devils Peak demonstrates how life cycle design and an intermediate & manual technology construction process has minimized environmental impact and maximized social responsiveness as well as quality of building craft. The supplementing and reduction of bulk services like solar geysers, flow […]
Mbekweni Low Cost Housing
The public/private consultant project has provided an inclusive and sustainable development platform to demonstrate alternate ways of delivering low cost housing where both the unskilled and unemployed have a place to learn and earn. Construction of Stonehouse allowed the beneficiary and youth to transform industry waste into building materials, recovering bricks and other materials for […]
