Sustaining San Heritage at !Khwa ttu
As the only site with a Heritage Centre dedicated to the San people, !Khwa ttu is a cultural precinct that speaks of a Southern African story. The site is an unofficial embassy of sorts which has taken to tourism as a means of heritage preservation. Along for this journey, KLG Architects took what could have easily become a traditional museum and pursued a type of architecture conceived as an organic landscape with an emphasis on sustainable and ethical design. The resulting award-winning project, with a landscape expertly designed by Vula Environmental Services, has successfully made its mark in history while simultaneously preserving history — an incredible feat for culture and anthropology in Southern Africa.
Solid as a rock
Just a short drive from Cape Town, along the R27 West Coast Road in Yzerfontein, is where you’ll find this site which is both a haven for and celebration of the San culture. The initiative began in 1999 on what was once a wheat farm and would later become a Nature Reserve. The Heritage Centre — the first building in a project of several — is the literal and metaphorical rock of the precinct. The structure is seated along a granite ridge. An indigenous planted concrete roof sinuously integrates the building into the setting. Internally, the exposed granite rocks become an integral part of an exhibition wall. To add to this stability and strength, concrete was chosen for its versatility, structural plasticity, and austere aesthetic qualities.
Hilltop Huisies
Much like this history of the San, those who visit this heritage hub are inclined to want to stay on the land, even if only for a night. And so, accommodation facilities were quickly placed on the drawing board. Perched on a hilltop or ‘koppie’, the Hilltop Huisies overlook broad vistas of the Atlantic Ocean and distant views of Table Mountain. They are carefully positioned to provide maximum privacy while also embracing the views over the veld by virtue of their elevated positions. On arrival, the buildings’ true scale and identity are obscured behind two large opposing stone walls or ‘werf mure’, carefully constructed from local granite stones from the vicinity which define the laterite court.
The materials are expressed naturally and of a high textural quality to merge with the surrounding landscape — an appropriate way to recognise the San’s connection to the earth as part of the history of humankind. The palette consists of bagged white-washed clay bricks (an inert and environmentally-friendly material), locally sourced stone on site, rough-sawn pine, and external grano screeds with exposed stone aggregates from a nearby quarry. The Hilltop Huisies demonstrate a balance between contextual response, materiality, and design clarity of a contemporary regionalist quality.
Fynbos Cabins
This landscape presented a unique opportunity to introduce a sensitively scaled development, by carefully defining the architectural character of a natural environment previously disturbed by old farming practices. The landscape is being rehabilitated through the clearing of invasive alien plant species (such as Rooikrans), and by introducing game within the near future as part of a considered conservation strategy.
A strong focus is placed on passive design strategies to provide a thermally comfortable interior while minimising energy usage. This is achieved by means of large roof overhangs over glazed areas, and thermal insulation within floor, wall, and roof assemblies. Narrow vent panels are integrated within the fixed glazing assembly and stud walls for cross ventilation during hot summer days, while space heating is provided by a closed combustion wood-burning fireplace during cold winter evenings. Low-carbon sustainable building material was sourced locally and allowed for a range of applications, such as structural timbers, external cladding, floors, and decking. The overall load demand on the national utility grid is offset by a central solar PV array installation with a battery backup on the reserve. Any landscaping or recreational water requirements are supplied by means of borehole water.
!Khwa ttu is more than a project or a group of buildings. It is a living legacy of the way of the San, a blueprint to sustaining cultural conservation. The incorporation of first-class sustainable building practices is then a natural complement to this undertaking and brings !Khwa ttu full circle.
Photography by Adam Letch & Paris Brummer.
This article is an extract from our August issue. Read the full issue here.
