From Design Inception Through Project Completion: Constructing a Secure Homestead in Swaziland, Africa

This paper documents the year-long scholastic and experiential journey of a multi-disciplinary, student design team from schematic design through construction administration. The student team worked in tandem with an Architectural Technology professor designing and building a sustainable and secure homestead, or one-room home, in Swaziland, Africa. This experience gave students exposure to the design process from project programming through construction completion, and this paper will focus on describing and documenting both the student and professor experiences for the project’s entirety. The student’s perspective will focus on personal involvement and perceived academic outcomes from the project exposure, while the professor’s perspective will focus on the learning outcomes from the student team involved in the process, as well as extrapolating how this experience could be applied elsewhere.