CAA 2024 Awards Showcase: The Social Impact Award – Calling Academy Stellenbosch

10 March 2025. In this session, we explore the design philosophy behind the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) designed by MASS Design Group and overall winner of the 2024 CAA Environmental Impact Award.

Session Objective & Outline

Season 4 of the CAA’s CPD Programme will be centred as a celebration of the award-winning projects and individuals from the 2024 CAA General Assembly held in August this year in Kigali, Rwanda. The objective of this awards showcase season is to serve both as a celebration of the individuals and projects from the awards programme as well as to provide a forum for thought-provoking conversations through real-life ‘concrete’ case-studies of projects and individual designers and students who push boundaries to deliver thought-provoking propositions addressing the climate and urban challenges of our age.

 

Outline 

  • Setting the Scene:
    Hugo Chan, Youth Representative CAA introduces the event, contextualising the CPD programme within the Sustainable Development Goals, stressing the importance of architecture in ensuring cities and communities are safe, resilient and inclusive. On behalf of President Steven Oundo, Jacob Mwangi delivers a statement celebrating the 2025 Commonwealth Day theme of ‘Together We Thrive,’ highlighting the importance of community-based approaches to design.
  • Education Philosophy:
    Werner Cloete, CEO of Calling Education provides an overview to the organisation’s approach to student education, identifying key ideas which ultimately underpins the functional needs for the Calling Academy Stellenbosch and how the school’s spatial arrangement complements the philosophy behind the school’s teaching ethos.
  • Context:
    Gustav Roberts of SALT Architects contextualises the site of the Calling Academy, highlighting existing constraints and opportunities for expanding the school to meet the organisation’s spatial needs without adversely affecting the local ecology.
  • Architecture as Support for Social Change:
    Having discussed the context, Gustav highlights how architecture can be a catalyst for social change, identifying how their collaborative approach with Calling Education supported an understanding of the values, identity and culture-making for the academy and to integrate these into the final design solution.
  • Design & Construction:
    Focusing on the key spaces of the academy, a number of design and spatial elements are examined and discussed in terms of how they support the core values of Calling Education, as well as the technical resolution of the project to ensure a minimal carbon footprint and a low operational energy outcome for the school.
  • Questions & Answers:
    Following the presentation, Werner and Gustav responds to a series of audience questions ranging from design implementation to the potential for future applications of the education model for other schools across the Commonwealth.

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

The sessions learning outcomes were:

  • Understand how to work within a design framework and mindset of achieving the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a real-world exemplar case study.
  • Understand through a real life casestudy exemplar, how design can also be an act of culture-making which supports meaning, value and identity of a place.
  • Be introduced to the client-end insights through the case study to demonstrate how a meaningful client-architect collaboration can deliver a project which goes beyond meeting a functional outcome but also achieves a positive social impact.
  • Understand how a critically informed understanding of context, involving climate, material availability, existing construction techniques and socio-cultural practices can be an important factor in shaping the design process and outcome of a project.
  • Be introduced to a range of different construction methods, technologies and techniques which integrate the contextual architectural language of a place with low-carbon design in mind.
  • Explore how low-cost, low-carbon materials, construction methods and effective management strategies helped to deliver contextually meaningful and high-value outcomes to both the client and the wider community.
  • Be introduced to examples of how local customs, technologies and embedded knowledges can help support and inform design to achieve better outcomes for communities to meet their needs and aspirations.

 

Core Curriculum Topics

  • Design, Construction & Technology
  • Inclusive Environments
  • Places, Planning & Community
  • Sustainable Architecture

 

SDG Learning Outcomes

  • SDG4 – Quality Education
  • SDG10 – Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG11 – Sustainable Cities & Communities
  • SDG16 – Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

 

CPD Learning Questions

To test your learning and understanding from this session, we encourage participants to respond to the following CPD reflection questions:

  1. What was the key takeaway message you learnt from this session?
  2. Following this CPD Session, what does the term ‘Social Impact’ mean for you in the context of architecture and design? Has this CPD session changed your idea of what this term means?
  3. In this session, we were able to gain insight from both the architect and the client’s perspectives on a project. In your opinion, what do you see as the value of a client-architect collaboration? Do you think this helped to make Calling Academy Stellenbosch a success? Why/Why Not?
  4. What is a key idea, construction technique or design method that you learned from this CPD session that you feel you could apply to a project you are working on or developing?
  5. In your opinion, which of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do you think applied to the project case study we heard from today? Provide a short explanation for your selection on how the project discussed relates to the SDGs identified.
  6. What do you see as a key challenge in your home country or practice environment which is preventing further progress towards ecologically sustainable development and achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

Presenters

Gustav Roberts

Gustav is a professional architect and the Founding Director of SALT Architects. He earned his Master’s in Architecture from the University of the Free State in 2008 and has since gained sixteen years of professional experience in public, residential and commercial architecture. His career began in Windhoek, where he worked for notable architects Jaco Wasserfall and Paul Munting on award-winning projects. In 2015, he founded SALT Architects, where he continues to co-lead the practice in crafting meaningful architecture.

Gustav holds a M.Arch (Prof) degree from the University of the Free State, and is registered as Professional Architect at both the South African (PrArch 21288) and Namibian (496) national councils for architects.

Gustav Roberts

Werner Cloete

Werner Cloete is CDO of Calling Education, a not-for-profit organisation he co-founded in 2016 with the mission of providing top-quality education to low-income communities. Calling Education currently serves 620 learners across three separate campuses in South Africa. Werner holds degrees in both education and theology and has taught chemistry and mathematics in the United Kingdom before spending a decade as Head of Character Development in one of South Africa’s leading boys schools. His diverse experience has made him a highly sought after speaker at education conferences and for staff development, where he discusses parental engagement, teacher motivation, positive discipline and value-driven approaches to education.

Werner Cloete
Hugo Chan

Hugo Chan (Session Moderator)

Hugo Chan is the Director and Chartered Architect of StudioHC, combining expertise in architecture (B.ArchSt. 2013, M.Arch 2015 UNSW) and environmental law (DipGradEnvLaws 2020 USyd) to drive research focused on ecological and cultural sustainability in urban environments. Since 2016, he has served as a sessional academic at UNSW Built Environment and the University of Sydney, teaching history, theory, and urban renewal while supervising Honours theses. His research practice has earned significant recognition through prestigious grants including the 2017 Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship and the Alastair Swayn Foundation’s Strategic Research Grant, resulting in published works such as “Hope in High-Rise” and “Architecture & Belonging.” Beyond academia, Hugo is actively engaged with the Australian Institute of Architects as the EmAGN representative on the National Heritage Committee and serves as Youth Representative on the Council of the Commonwealth Association of Architects (2024-2026). His multifaceted contributions across practice, research, teaching, and community activism led to his recognition by Australian Design Review as one of the 30Under30 Architects and Innovators of the Built Environment for 2023-24.

Hugo Chan

Additional Resources

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