Super sensory safari

Abstract

[RESEARCH QUESTION] How can architecture become a mechanism for experiencing adventure, enchanting past, and custom and tradition in a safari in Matobo?

ABSTRACT Culture is a fascinating notion encompassing various aspects of the community: customs, events, beliefs, values, and art ‒ that converge to shape the built environment. This research project is about unifying history, culture, and architecture in the context of a safari in the distinctive landscape of Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe.

Due to colonial influence, the livelihood of modern Zimbabweans contrasts with the traditional. Although some customs have carried on to the present day, the built environment generally no longer reflects this, aside from a few examples in rural areas. The incentive for this project is to create an architectural design that reinvents and represents traditional Zimbabwean architecture. It is the product of exploring how to derive from traditional architecture and translate its fundamental elements into a kind of blueprint for contemporary Zimbabwean Architecture. To start, an analysis of precedent Zimbabwean Architecture such as Great Zimbabwe was done to investigate theories and themes surrounding them to serve as design drivers. The assumption is that the necessity and availability of materials influenced the traditional built environment making it an architecture of fundamental needs more than aesthetics. However, idealism and nostalgia seem to be significantly involved in traditional and vernacular architecture leading to contemporary architecture that manifests its inspiration primarily through aesthetics, such as in tourism.

Proposed is a contemporary indigenous safari lodge, a visitor and a community centre interspersed throughout the park to create a sensory experience. This architectural intervention endeavours to create a more meaningful experience for the local community of Matobo Hills and its visitors.