Richard Kroeker

Gaborone Housing

Botswana

This is a proposal for a self-build community for the suburbs of Gaborone, capital city of Botswana. The cylindrical plan form as used traditionally in this region, encloses space more efficiently, is more structurally stable, and picks up less solar gain than rectangular forms enclosing the same floor area. The shared outdoor stair serves six households located in each pair of units and serves as a semi-public socializing space. The fabric roof shades an accessible roof in the dry season, and quickly inverts to a water-collecting funnel in rainy season by removing the central support pole. Water is precious in this part of the world. Cattle raising is a major provider of food. Using ground microbes to treat waste water allows the use of the nutrient and moisture to grow edible legumes on trellises. The peas and beans are trimmed from the outside of the trellis by cattle, while the fruits can be picked inside the trellis, an intensive form of food production developed in Cuba. Cattle raising is a major provider of food, and herds of cattle are also foraging in urban areas. This site strategy allows urban cattle grazing to happen in a controlled way.