Winning proposal for a new sustainable town and African Arts Centre, the Southbank design begins with site and ecological issues. The first design gesture is a response to the slope of the site: the organic urban form follows the contours to direct and capture surface water, referencing traditional terraced farming techniques. In counter point , the Africa Centre elements are introduced as an orthogonal overlay; museum buildings are arranged on a north-south grid to capitalize on the even southern light and on the thermal mass properties of rammed earth.
[new construction]
