Through the mapping in Delft South, it was revealed that there is neglect when it comes to providing facilities and social spaces for the senior citizens of Delf. The older generation forms the backbone of Delft as they were the first to occupy the area. They are the carriers of knowledge and wisdom. As well as active community members.
I found an initiative called Masimanyane, which translated, means “let us support each other”. The founder of the NPO is Sibongile Mgingi and through an interview with her I found that she is trained as a life in caretaker and that it was her dream to start a so called seniors club in Delft. Masimanyane is open daily from 8 to 10 in the mornings to serve breakfast and then again at lunch time to serve food that is gifted to them by the government. The elderly have to walk very far to get to the site as there is no allocated transportation and many stay there until 1 pm, when the doors close. Between breakfast and lunch activities such as sewing groups and choir take place. An element of care is present, but the idea of socially connecting the older generation is the underlying driving force of the initiative. I used Masimanyane as a precedent and made an attempt, through the designed conglomerate of buildings to achieve a space that offers the needed facilities and places an emphasis on the reintegration of the elderly as a prominent part of the community.
My choice of site was linked to this idea, and by choosing a site on delft main road it was possible to create an easily accessible landmark of sorts – not only as a socially driven space for senior citizens but also as a catalyst for a denser building typology within delft. The elderly were the first to inhabit the free standing house typology and now a rethought architecture that encourages mixed programming and incremental development.
A sensitivity to orientation is shown through the different heights of the built blocks: the northern sun is prioritized as the independent units are relatively low to allow for light into the courtyard during winter. The mixed living block is raised above the independent units and all the units are exposed to the northern light. The unit benefits from the early morning and late afternoon sun as it is orientated east-west.
The built surroundings of the site influenced the placement of the different entities. The site sits in a triangle with the three points being the residential edge on the left, the clinic across the road on the right and the Masimambisane High School across the Main road. The buildings on the site are arranged to relate back to this triangle of institution and residential, with independent housing units at the top of the site – each with direct access to the street as well as the courtyard - the unit is placed opposite the clinic as this would be the space most dedicated to clinical care and the third mass structure is located on the street front of the Main Road and is designed to be a mixed residential building with transformable rooms to accommodate different living arrangements – for example, a grandparent and their grandchild living in a unit.
The design of the cross-programmed spaces was largely influenced by the mapping of housing in Delft as well as the social transactions. The housing in Delft has many flaws as it simply does not cater for the density of Delft whereas the social transactions mapping gives an insight into the innovative appropriation of space by the residents in order to better their housing as well as economic situation. I see this conglomeration of buildings as an experimental intervention as it looks at reinventing the current free standing typology and places an emphasis on the social, provision of facilities and public communal space.
The first and second floor is made up of living units for both the care and mixed blocks. And the building is held at a human scale with a higher volume ground to first floor ceiling height and no more that two storeys above that.
I chose the courtyard typology as a catalyst for social interaction between residents as it offers a space of relief from the built units. The public is invited into the courtyard space through a series of thresholds that begins from the main road and moves through an open cafeteria that caters for the residents of the units on site, but also for the public. The cafeteria or restaurant on ground floor is among other facilities, such as a laundry, pharmacy and a takeaway window open to the general public. A section of the courtyard is dedicated to the growth of vegetables and it takes on the nature of a garden courtyard. The vegetables grown on site could be used in the restaurant and also sold to the public as an income to the senior citizens. On the ground floor, the care unit only starts on the first floor and workshops spaces for Masimanyane is provided on ground floor level.
The envisioned future of this project would be one of expansion and the implementation of other facilities that are not only for the residents on the site but for the larger public and elderly community of delft.
