Nathan on his way to the project site in Cameroon!
The holidays haven't been that quiet for the Football for Hope Program!
During the last month, four of our Design Fellows have relocated from Cape Town to their project sites to work closely with the community to refine the design and tender documents.
From designing for the humidity of a Cameroon jungle (which can cause a camera to explode) to the green farmland of Mozambique to the rough and tumble of Alexandra township, each project is a graceful response to the site.
And last but not least, we started our 17th center, Bulawayo Football for Hope Center in Zimbabwe with our new design fellow Kuda Mutsonziwa. 3 more centers to go!
Learn more about the Football for Hope Program.
Besongabang, Cameroon
Nathan Jones, design fellow for the Besongabang Football for Hope Center in Cameroon, is now in Buea working with the local architect to develop the project. He is planning on moving on site (10 hours drive from Ebua) in a month.
Not only does the centre offer meeting and office spaces for the community partner programs, the outdoor covered space between the building and the pitch will be used for a weekly 'forum' where locals will sell their produce and other locally crafted goods. It will be a bussling centre for the community. To address the heat and humidity, Nathan has incorporated decorative screens that allow maximum cross ventilation.
Buea with Mount Cameroon in the back
Elevations make the building part of its beautiful site
View of the interior space
Alexandra, South Africa
Unathi Mkonto working on the Alexandra Football for Hope Center, relocated to Johannesburg. His building associated simplicity and clarity of forms and materials with an asymmetrical, folded roof which responds to the existing structures and the sun path. A porch runs along the side of the building providing external covered space and shading.
Alexandra is a township of Johannesburg and is one of the poorest urban areas in South Africa
Main view of the building
View of the building from the entrance
Manica, Mozambique
Paulo Carneiro and Alina Jeronimo, design fellows on the Manica Football for Hope Center in Mozambique, also moved to site. They want to combine and optimize local techniques and materials to participate in the evolution of local construction without a rupture in the "know how" of the populations. The project will be made of Compressed Earth Blocks which will be produced on site using local labor that will be trained on the new technique. They will start making the CEB bricks for the building in collaboration with the center host in the following weeks.
View of the site from entrance
Shelter for the brick yard on the site
The soil on site
The project creates a gate from the entrance to the pitch.
