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UTG
Staff Housing Units
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Location
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Victoria Falls | |
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Designers
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The Stone Beattie Studio | ||
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Date
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1994 | ||
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Original
Client
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UTG, Travel & Tourism Group | ||
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Style
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- | ||
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Discussion
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United
Touring Group approached SBS with a brief to design low cost staff housing
for their regional operations in the resort town of Victoria Falls. Their
primary criteria were minimizing cost and maximizing use of the site and
at the same time dealing with the varied marital statuses of their staff.
They wanted to have the option of selling the units should that option
ever become necessary. Partner, Richard Beattie says, the clients brief
"suggested a need for three bed roomed units composed of a mixture
of single and double bedrooms, thus providing the flexibility they required…"
The design addresses this hard urban landscape in a solid and an uncompromising manner, with the entrance face forming a series of curved kitchen courtyard walls guiding visitors to the front door of each unit. At ground floor level the main living, dining and kitchen areas are a series of open plan spaces linked through an open atrium bringing natural light into the center of each unit. This utilises natural ventilation techniques, essential in a hot and generally dry climate where daytime temperatures exceed 35 degrees Centigrade for long periods of the year. An extended and raised roofline forming clerestory window openings above the internal stairway and first floor bathroom also utilises natural air movement, thus avoiding costly mechanical ventilation systems. Bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the first floor, with some overlooking atrium space. The construction features load bearing clay brickwork facings externally, cement slurry rubbed render on common brickwork for internal walls, and concrete floor slabs finished with hand moulded terracotta tiles. The staircase is fabricated from locally rolled steel sections supporting mahogany hardwood treads cut from the local Matabeleland forests. The completed project received an Institute of Architects of Zimbabwe National Awards Honourable Mention in 1994 and has been featured in 'RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE' published by Links International. Ref. . |
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Web
Resources
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Credits
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Richard Beattie for images . |
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