The Hillside day clinic was designed for the provincial Department of Health in Beaufort West according to a brief that required a minimal environmental footprint. The building’s wings form courtyards which are accessed along glazed stoep-like walkways.

 

Transparency throughout the building is used to orientate the visitor; while light, colour and outward views over landscaping of medicinal plants attempts to imbue a feeling of wellness. Obvious environmental strategies include orientation, calculated overhangs, and the use of local softwood.

 

Less obvious are rammed earth walls of local soil, and rock stores used to temper air necessary for the clinic’s high air change requirements. The air intake stacks, topped with cowls, punctuate the clinic’s roofscape, scaled to fit appropriately into the neighbourhood.