THE CURATOR HOUSE: BIODIVERSITY CENTER

The Lapalala Wilderness School provides an educational space for students to learn about the beauty of our natural environment and the importance of conservation. This project involved the extension of the school’s facilities with a new biodiversity centre. A few challenges faced during this project included the existing aesthetics and interior design, the need for interactive elements, the overall budget, and creating a space that would be suitable primarily for young students.

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To elaborate further, the brief focused on incorporating the existing design decisions and aesthetics into the biodiversity centre to ensure the budget was met and to create a sense of unity across all the spaces in the school. With this challenge addressed, the new biodiversity centre reflects the essence of the Lapalala Wilderness School. The design features natural materials such as rammed earth and aggregate slabs extracted from the site, as well as a seamless connection between the natural and built environments. The existing interior spaces brought nature inside to highlight its beauty and connect students with the subject matter they are being taught. This approach heavily influenced the design of the new biodiversity centre, with the goal of fostering an even stronger connection with nature. Additionally, the final design was taken a step further by incorporating elements that interact with nature as well as function as educational tools.