Desert Oasis
Divining Refuge — an underground retreat in the Karoo
Academic project
Greenside Design Center
Design visualisations
Concept
As above, so below.
An existing structure in the Karoo is kept intact and cut into the earth, so that something new can be realised beneath it. The building becomes a means of reflection.
The underground oasis acknowledges four elements. Air: the vastness of the landscape answered with sunken wells and high ceilings. Water: a narrow channel that wends through the interior and branches in response to the plan. Earth: the buried structure itself. Fire: ashcrete used in place of concrete, so that fire is a structural component, not a feature.
Karoo
Academic drawings
The design began as hand sketches: sections that step down into the ground, and a plan that unfolds below grade around the water channel.