An international competition dedicated to architecture and engineering students is encouraging South Africans to design comfortable and sustainable living spaces.
The Saint-Gobain MultiComfort House Students Contest, which has been hosted by Saint-Gobain for the past 14 years, is an international competition dedicated to architecture and engineering students encouraging the design of comfortable and sustainable living spaces.
The national leg of the Saint-Gobain MultiComfort House Students Contest will be held at Saint-Gobain in Johannesburg on 20 April 2018 at 9:30, where a panel of local industry experts will select the winning team to represent South Africa in the international stage of the contest, which takes place in Dubai from 12-15 May 2018.
The seven shortlisted architectural projects which were selected are from the University of Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban and will compete for the chance to attend the finals in UAE next month, where these teams, including the selected South African team together with online entry winners, will battle it out in the finals.
Sibusiso Mthembu, Saint-Gobain’s coordinator for the South Africa stage of the contest explains that this year participants have been tasked to design a vision for a transcultural vibrant community development located in the perimeter of the cultural village of Dubai.
“The mandate is to propose designs for a combination of residential and public spaces that maximize energy-efficiency and wellbeing while incorporating the Saint-Gobain Multi-Comfort principles which are based on thermal, acoustic and visual comfort, as well as indoor air quality and modularity, says Mthembu.
The national stage was preceded by eight weeks of intense activity where students set out to create their sustainable architectural designs that not only integrate into urban spaces but also adhere to Multi-Comfort criteria while accounting for both the climatic conditions and regional context of the local site as well as the conditions in Dubai.
“Despite the outcome of the competition, each student did substantial research and received invaluable training from Saint-Gobain on comfort principles such as acoustics, thermal and indoor air quality. This is immensely valuable to our young industry professionals who can take these learnings into their futures,” Mthembu concludes.
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