IN PICTURES: Campus renewal project

MatieMedia took a tour of the new campus renewal projects at Stellenbosch University (SU) on 5 October. The sites included as part of the tour: The Jan Mouton Learning Centre, Huis Ten Bosch Residence, the new Mechanical and Mechatronics facility, and the new SU staff decanting building.

Photos by Fern Bamber.

Jan Mouton Learning Centre

The Jan Mouton Learning Centre, which had been in construction since November 2017, will be ready for use by mid-January 2021, said Martin Viljoen, SU’s spokesperson. According to Japie Engelbrecht, director of planning development at Facilities Management at SU, the centre’s funding totalled R256 million.

_{The facility is also making an effort to go more green. The facility will be using groundwater, especially in the winter, said Kalla Smit, the architect for the learning centre. “Under the access ramp into the building, we’ve got a 160 000 litre tank,” he said.}

_{Larger lecture theatres, as pictured above, seat two hundred and sixty students, and are equipped with motion sensor lighting and dual projection facilities. The building includes four electronic classrooms individually accommodating up to one hundred and fifty students, two large lecture theatres, open plan areas and a versatile venue for events, said Smit.}

_{Adjustable desks, as pictured above, accommodate for lecturers and speakers of different heights.}

_{The electronic classrooms in the learning centre, exterior pictured above, will be utilised by the faculty of economic and business management and the engineering faculty for the first five years, said Smit.}

_{A large “ted talk” style conference room, as pictured above, can serve multiple purposes, according to Smit.}

_{The building utilises a lot of natural light, as seen above, thanks to large windows featured throughout the centre, Smit said. According to Smit, the centre also does not have its own air conditioning system. Instead the building will share a chilled water plant with the Neelsie Student Centre, which has recently been upgraded.}

_{A bridge structure connects the centre to the first floor of the Neelsie.}

_{The building also features gender neutral bathrooms. What makes it different is that in essence, they’re open towards the public area, and each of them has a self-contained unit, he said.}

_{“With the open entrances, you move away from that stigma of a long passage where you have to get to the end to exit,” said Smit.}

Mechanical and Mechatronics building

Upgrades to the Mechanical and Mechatronics facility have also reached practical completion, according to Riaan du Preez, project manager of the construction.

_{“There is a new three-hundred-seater Firga that will operate 24-hours a day,” said Du Preez. Firga is the Engineering Faculty’s computer user area at SU.}

_{One of the new electronic classrooms, pictured above.}

_{On the western side of the building there is a new mechatronic classroom, comprising fifty-one work stations – which will accommodate over one hundred students.}

_{“Levels four, five and six [of the building] are a combination of student open plan areas, offices, and admin staff facilities,” he said.}

Huis Ten Bosch

Huis Ten Bosch women’s residence, which caught alight on 12 August 2019, is still in the process of construction.

This was according to the construction and restoration project manager, Charin Skeen. She said that a new roof, electrics and layout have also been included in the renovations.

_{Old telephone corners were broken down and replaced with social spaces and kitchen areas, she said.}

_{Doors with auto-closing mechanisms have been designed to limit the possibility of potential fires – like last year’s fire that began in the room pictured above – spreading from room-to-room.}

_{The construction team has also taken this opportunity to implement a greywater system, seeing as the residence was built on top of a river bed, said Arno Church, the project’s architect.}

_{A ‘GREEN MARKET’ chalk drawing found in the corner of the dining room space, as if frozen in time.}

_{“We haven’t changed the basic exterior colours because of heritage,” Skeen said.}

SU decanting building

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