Saulsville was a hostel and the structures were not fit for families, who now occupy many of the structures. The general urban planning was not considered when building the facilities, the precincts are fragmented and disconnected. The forms are wasteful in their placement, with no green spaces and commercial activity spontaneously developed with numerous bylaws being infringed upon.
Together with the town planners, we proposed the Urban Design Framework – redesigning the precinct and proposed an improved layout that encourages sustainable community developments. This was supported by transport nodes, leisure activity areas, densified mixed-use development and commercial nodes – all interconnected by intermediary activities – using the existing core nodes.
This resulted in the upgrade of existing hostel facilities into residential family units, and the development of various residential prototypes including the following: four storey walk-ups (shared, bachelor, and two-bedroom units), Mixed use (residential and commercial, two storey row housing and stand-alone residences.
NAC role: Design, rendering, and project management.
Square meters: +/- 750 M2 (no stand/Erf OR budget is too big or small) Applied tech: Revit and Luminio 3D rendering.