A team comprising a Landscape Architecture and an Architecture student from the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology recently won first prize in an international design competition organised by the Epidemic Urbanism Initiative. Their entry entailed the development of a community clinic, the Tlhaho Clinic, at the ODI Stadium in Mabopane, Tshwane, by repurposing and reimagining underutilised infrastructure to the benefit of the community.

The theme of the competition was designing for health and equity: supporting vulnerable communities in the post-pandemic age. The participants, Lue-Shane Cloete (an Architecture honours student) and Charlotte Swart (a Landscape Architecture honours student), were among 54 competitors across the world in four competition categories. Entrants had to select a site in their city, town or village that was vacant or underutilised, and propose a design reimagining it for the purpose of a public park, senior housing, community clinic or neighbourhood school. Their project entries were selected as among the top three projects in both the community clinics and neighbourhood schools’ categories. They were later announced as winners in the community clinics category.

The students’ design for a proposed community clinic at the ODI Stadium, Mabopane, was premised on the fact that this stadium acts as a visual anchor point for community members due to its centrality. It was furthermore evident that the community had a strong traditional base, comprising community gardens, cattle grazing and traditional healers. Compared to the income distribution of the City of Tshwane, this community was more vulnerable to social, economic and health-related pressures. One of the many challenges was a lack of well-established, government-funded healthcare services.

The University’s submission for this competition formed part of the Integrative Green Infrastructure Research Project (GRIP), a partnership between the University of Pretoria, the City of Tshwane, the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and the City of Aarhus. It is funded by the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) from 2021 to 2023. As the competition was established as a collaborative endeavour, the team was allowed to include professional consultants. They were therefore assisted by engineering and urban design consultants involved in the GRIP.

The students’ project celebrated the inherent value that natural spaces bring to healing. As part of the overarching concept, they designed a single flexible building module that could be appropriated in different ways. The existing stadium infrastructure offered the structural framework into which the modular units could be slotted. The functions of the modular healthcare units were allowed to inhabit the landscape as the severity of the medical emergency demanded. The proposed medicinal garden would be utilised by traditional healers and the broader community. The existing ramps and infrastructure of the stadium were used for physical rehabilitation of the land, while the modular units would act as the central node from which activities would be coordinated.

According to Lue-Shane, the project, together with the investigations undertaken, presents the possibility of changing the way we perceive medicine and healing by integrating Western and traditional healing methods. The perception of a healing space as an isolated, sterile system was challenged, resulting in a healing landscape that blurs the lines between physical and mental healing. “This investigation, in my opinion, is key in understanding how healthcare services can be more equally and effectively implemented in vulnerable communities.”

Charlotte describes the project as challenging the meaning of clinical care through alternative thinking on place and how it manifests in space. “The project challenged the current opinions of mental health and mental wellbeing,” she says. “It is evident that emotional healing is just as important as physical healing, and architecture could be the glue that binds these historically disjointed components together.”

The judges commended the project for the multifunctional use of a remnant space that has been reappropriated to be useful in an underserved community; a space that was once lively and is reminiscent of life before COVID-19. The proposed architectural structure showed an understanding of context, taking the stadium and adapting it for another purpose at a low cost and with low maintenance. Qualities that distinguished the students’ entry from that of their competitors included the fact that the design proposed making use of the former and the existing, and did not fixate on futuristic, high-tech visions.

According to Dr Ida Breed, the coordinator of the Landscape Architecture programme at the University of Pretoria, the Department of Architecture sets itself apart from other schools by encouraging designers to consider the interconnectedness of people with their environment and their roots. “The connection of the built environment with the native landscape and to our unique cultural heritage is key to our local journey towards more healthy and sustainable living.”