… projects done
Building Khoi-San shelters in Cape Town
In January of 2010 Touching the Earth Lightly was approached to submit conceptual sketch designs for the construction of Khoi-San shelters - as part of the Urban Green Park in the much awaited Urban Green Park in Cape Town.
Of importance to note in the brief received, was the fact that the structures needed to be incur minimal maintenance costs to the client. This presented a challenge in that these structures are by definition non-permanent and lightweight both in their fixing details and in their materials choice- this to enable nomadic use and livelihoods.
TEL thus had to combine the use of more contemporary building materials with traditional materials to re-create three notional Khoi-San structures that would serve both the function of visual representation of original Khoi-San structures and low-maintenance of the structure itself.
TEL considered the background of the Khoi-San people as relevant to the project and project area and noted it accordingly in the conceptual sketch proposal to the City of Cape Town.
In this regard, the project needed to first recognize the reason for human habitation of the Cape Town "City Bowl" area by recognizing the importance of the Camissa River (meaning in Khoi-San “the Place of Sweet Waters” - later re-named the Platteklip River by colonial settlers after the flat rock "de platte kilp" on which washer-woman slaves would wash the linen of their masters. This rcok can be visited today by following the track from the original Wash Houses).
This river was the life-blood to human and animal life.
The Khoi-San, being the original hikers on Hoerikwaggo ("Hoerikwaggo" is the the original Khoi-San word for the colonial and more literal reference to Table Mountain) were reliant on the sweet waters of the Camissa as it was the only source of perennial water on the Cape Peninsula (beside that of the Silvermine River).
This river has its source along the top-most edges of the front face of Table Mountain. Condensing water droplets inside Hoerikwaggo’s “Table Cloth” converge along the natural “Platteklip Gorge” water catchment (the crack runing down the middle of the front face of Hoerikwaggo, to form (small as the stream nay be) a perennial water source.
Sadly this fact lead to the demise of the Khoi-San on the Peninsula, in that they were outcompeted for use, reliance and access to its waters by Dutch colonial settlers.
The Dutch had planned to build the main harbor at Saldanha Bay. But although Cape Town was a second choice as a safe harbor, it did offer a perennial water source.
The existence of the Camissa River thus provides the backdrop for the human settlement history of Cape Town as we know it. It also provides a powerful, true and convincing example of the demise of our local traditional peoples through the domination of the planets most important natural resources - water.
Stephen Lamb thus submitted the following sketch design proposal on behalf of TEL, with the above formaing a basic project informant and background:
The demise of the Khoi-San through the cutting off of this “umbilical-cord” (the Camissa River) and the onset of the 2010 Soccer World Cup is combined in the second conceptual design proposal submitted by Stephen Lamb to the City of Cape Town.
It attempts to show the distance, the sense of longing for return, the physical and metaphorical distance and separation between the original inhabitants of the “City Bowl” and current users.
Further to this and the construction of Khoi-San structrures in the Urban Green Park, TEL formulated the following project methodology principles:
- The project should seek to create employment of some sort, albeit temporary, for local unemployed, unskilled persons
- The project should combine contemporary building materials with traditional building materials, but favor traditional materials wherever possible
- The project should use the longest lasting locally sourced alien invasive timber available
- The project should attempt to use the opportunity to showcase the powerful and true example of the importance of man’s reliance on natural resources – the most important of these being water.
Project Methodology
The project sourced Australian Myrtle (see picture below) from the newly established Rooisand Nature Reserve. TEL de-barked it, and bent it in-situ, wet-off-stem.
This alien invasive timber is considerably harder and longer-lasting than its popular counter-part Black Wattle, though more scarce in the Western Cape.
This timber latte was placed into bases secured in the ground along a grid pattern and bent and joined at the apex.
The latte is bent while wet-off-stem, and secured at its'apex (above).The latte was fixed using a combination of treated sisal and raw cow-hide strips softened in water prior to use. Traditional self fastening knot’s where used on each tie as (seen below).
The timber is treated with a Pro-nature treatment (a range of natural wood oils that serve as a preservative). The use of conventional varnish treatments is frowned upon.
The third dome is partially covered to allow views of the garden and feminine curves of the nearby World Cup Stadium. Heavy-duty canvas is used for the covering of the third dome. Heavy duty treated thread and leather-work needles are used to hand-stitch the covering to the dome structure.
See more project pics here of the finished product and work in progress
It is our hope that this project will provide a platform for the interpretation of the story of the Cape Town - as weaved with the thread of water. From the clouds on the front face of Table Mountain, over the "Plateklip" Rock were slave-woman washed, and over time itself, to the settlement and urban expanse of Cape Town, to the building of the World Cup Stadium and ultimatley to a place were people can appreciate the co-dependancy all people have on the most basic element on our planet - water.
