The Hlumani project emerged from the Summer School of the Universities of Aachen, Cape Town and Stuttgart in October 2018. Next to the community garden Moya we Khaya, which has existed in Khayelitsha since 2014, a community centre is to be established. Here, it will be possible to pack boxes for the sale of the vegetables produced in the garden and also enable on-site sales.
As part of her master’s degree at RWTH Aachen University, architecture student Jennifer Krichel worked on a two-semester project to create a design for Hlumani. Two participation workshops, which she organized during her stay of several weeks in Khayelitsha, were the basis for the draft of this vision. With more than 50 participants, the space program was developed, and important fundamentals of the design were discussed.
The project should be able to be implemented in self-construction with the local community and be made of sustainable, environmentally friendly and recycled materials. In three phases the Community Centre can be built in stages. The first step is to build a packing shed with kitchen, storage and cold storage. A feasibility study financed by funding from donations determined that this step is necessary to be able to sell the vegetables and thereby keep the garden running.
The project also won the Brigitte Gilles Prize 2020, which recognizes projects that contribute to the empowerment of women. The prize money will be used to help local young women take part in marketing training courses. In addition, the project has appeared in the Mayors’ Portfolio for Urban Sustainability of the cities of Aachen and Cape Town. We have a working group with members in both Aachen and Cape Town and are currently expanding the network.
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