Page 14 ATDF JOURNAL Volume 7, Issue 1/2 2010 Design and Construction of the Mapungubwe National Park Interpretive Centre, South Africa Michael H. Ramage, John Ochsendorf, Peter Rich, James K. Bellamy, Philippe Block Michael H. Ramage, Department of Architecture, Cambridge Uni- James K. Bellamy, Re-vault, New Zealand, 63 Great North Road, versity, England, Department of Architecture, 1 Scroope Terrace, Whangarei, New Zealand, 0112. email: Cambridge CB2 1PX England. Email:
[email protected] Philippe Block, Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH- John A. Ochsendorf, Associate Professor, Department of Architec- Zurich, Switzerland, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 15, HIL E 46.1. 8093 Zurich, ture, MIT, Cambridge MA 02139 USA. Email:
[email protected] Switzerland. email:
[email protected] Peter Rich, Peter Rich Associates, Johannesburg, South Africa, 9 Escombe Avenue Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa.email:
[email protected] the last decade, and held a competition in 2005 to de- Abstract: sign the Interpretive Centre. The design by Peter Rich Architects, with structural vaults designed by J. Ochsen- The Mapungubwe Interpretive Centre in South Africa dorf and M. Ramage, has recently been completed. The uses novel design and construction techniques to allow design and construction of the Mapungubwe Interpretive local materials and labour to be used in production. The Centre is collaboration of architecture and development, project is developed for labour-intensive construction to and of architecture, engineering and construction. Archi- enable poverty relief and skills transfer into the sur- tecture and development meet in a labour-intensive pro- rounding area. Form-finding based on equilibrium thrust gramme to employ local workers with minimal skill to line analysis allows the design of thin unreinforced ma- make both the materials for the building and the building sonry shells that act in pure compression.