GASS Architecture Studios is delighted to share the news that they are finalists at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2024.

Their project, Green School South Africa (GSSA), has been shortlisted in the “Completed Buildings – School” category.

“Being shortlisted for the WAF Awards and having our team’s vision, innovation and hard work recognised on such a prestigious global platform is a huge honour,” says Georg van Gass, founder and principal GASS Architecture Studios. “We are excited to have the opportunity to share this remarkable project in the company of the world’s best practitioners and projects.”

The WAF Awards is the world’s biggest live-judged awards programme for architects and is central to the annual World Architecture Festival programme, where thousands of architects, designers and suppliers gather each year. All finalists are given the opportunity present their projects in person to an international panel of judges made up of leading architects, designers, journalists and industry experts. 

This year, the 17th edition of WAF will take place at place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore between Wednesday 6th November and Friday 8th November. Lead architects on the GSSA Theuna Stoltz and Chris Bakker will represent GASS Architecture Studios and make a 10-minute pitch to the jury.  The GSSA will also be listed among some of the world’s most innovative and ground-breaking designs in the World Buildings Directory.

GSSA’s eight-hectare campus is nestled in the Drakenstein Valley just outside Paarl in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is compliant with the Living Building Challenge (LBC) framework, widely considered the world’s most exacting and advanced sustainable building certification programme. The GSSA embodies regenerative and biophilic principles, producing surplus energy, conserving water, promoting biodiversity and fostering well-being through a strong connection to nature.

GSSA’s vision of “educating for sustainability” means that school environment itself – the whole campus, including its gardens, buildings and wider context – not only harnesses humanity’s affinity with nature to create an environment that enhances wellbeing and the ability to learn and teach, but also becomes a pedagogical tool itself, the “third teacher” in educational parlance. The GSSA believes that education that does not immerse a new generation in sustainable living practices, teaching them the value of circular economies and instilling a deep appreciation and understanding of the importance of nurturing the natural environment, is inadequate and irrelevant.  

The design of the campus and its architecture is inspired by the surrounding natural landscape, from the tectonic shapes of the nearby Paarl Rock Boulders to the delicate veins of a leaf skeleton found on site. Pod-like clusters of buildings are nestled among orchards, vegetable gardens, walkways, landscaped terraces and spill-out spaces, creating an environment ripe for exploration and discovery.

Locally sourced materials, from rammed earth, locally harvested rock, clay, lime plaster, timber and locally manufactured bricks to reclaimed doors, are combined with high-tech features such as thermally activated building systems (TABS) to optimise efficiency. Further, traditional building techniques, references to local vernacular building types and crafted details embed the architecture in its social and cultural context and harmonise with its surroundings.

Bakker and Stoltz note that, to meet LBC requirements, a number of new products had to be developed by the professional team in close collaboration with local manufacturers when existing options were not available in South Africa.

“The GSSA campus is not only a landmark project for GASS Architecture Studios, but for architecture in South Africa and Africa more broadly,” says Van Gass. “We look forward to presenting this project at WAF and are delighted see this project in the company of some of the very best recent projects from around the world.”

Earlier this year, phase two of the GSSA campus – the middle school – was awarded “Sustainable Project of the Year” at the recent Big Five Impact Awards. GASS Architecture Studios also won “Architecture Firm of the Year” and “Residential Project of the Year” at the same awards for Barlow Park, a new high-density mixed-use precinct in Sandton, Johannesburg. In May, GASS was awarded a prestigious PMR Africa Golden Arrow Award for customer service and satisfaction. In 2022, phase one of the GSSA campus won three awards at the SAPOA Property Development Awards, including best sustainable project, best “other” project and best overall project.