Cardboard Recycling Proposal Wins Award for UKZN Student

Corobrik Director of Sales KZN and Border, Mr Mike
Ingram (left), Architecture student Mr Dennis–Lee
Stols and UKZN’s Academic Leader in Architecture,
Mr Mthembeni Mkhize at the Corobrik awards
ceremony.

A proposal for a recycling facility in Durban for informal cardboard recyclers has won a University of KwaZulu-Natal student a major architectural award.

The proposal from architecture student at the School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS), Mr Dennis-Lee-Stols, was the winning entry in the 2013 KwaZulu-Natal Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year competition.

The awards ceremony took place at the KZN Institute for Architects in Durban.

Regional competitions are currently being held at eight universities across the country in the run-up to the national finals.

Stols, who won R7 000 for his efforts, was ecstatic at being the KZN winner ‘It feels great to be recognised for all my hard work so far,’ he said. 

Stols’s entry, titled: Insurgency as an influence of socially responsive Urban Development, proposes a recycling facility for the informal cardboard recyclers in the Durban CBD.

In this thesis, Stols investigated how the urban poor survive in an environment that excludes them and labels them as undesirables. 

‘As more and more people are moving from rural life to try and earn a living, architects and town planners need to focus their attention on these people who comprise a larger proportion of the urban population.

‘This design will offer cardboard recyclers a place from which they can work. It’s simply designed to suit the occupation, and I’ve included a roof garden to promote sustainable living as well as high density transient housing for the recyclers,’ said Stols. 

He added that the site was a micro version of a true green city, acting as a learning tool for the general public and an income generating tool for the informal recyclers.

Corobrik Director of Sales KZN and Border, Mr Mike Ingram, said: ‘The students who have received these awards have demonstrated a remarkable maturity in their work and a welcome acceptance of the multifaceted approach which bodes well for the future of the profession and the sustainability of our planet.’

The national winner, who gets a R50 000 cash prize, will be announced at the 26^th National Student Architect awards function at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 18 April.