UCT architecture students put cheer into chairs for homeless kids

Sitting pretty: Architecture students donated their original chairs to the Homestead Project for Street Children. Saadile Sinyondo tests the new chair.

Third-year architecture students donated 15 unique chairs to The Bridge at Elukhuselweni, a children's home in Khayelitsha run by the Homestead Project for Street Children, on 10 May.

As part of their Studiowork design course, students in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics were briefed to design and manufacture a chair for a TV lounge.

"Last year the class decided to bring an element of reality to the project as well as create an opportunity to give back to the community," said project co-ordinator Adjunct Professor Anya van der Merwe Miszewski of the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics.

Jenny Sorrel, a part-time studiomaster, contacted the Homestead Project and offered to donate the chairs to their hostel.

Sandra Morreira, head of The Homestead Project, and Sorrel decided on chairs with a fun, built-in game element.

The Bridge at Elukhuselweni Children's Home houses about 55 boys aged six to 18 years who have been rescued from a life on the streets of Cape Town. The children have few belongings of their own, and part of the brief followed by the UCT students was to create chairs that would enable the boys to assert their individuality.

The students made the furniture themselves in the School of Architecture workshop. The budget for each chair was no more than R250.