Summary of Geography and Climate of Cape Town, South Africa

At the southern tip of South Africa, you can find the beautiful city known as Cape Town. In the next two paragraphs, I will discuss and summarize, from my research, the geography and climate of Cape Town, South Africa.

GEOGRAPHY
The most distinctive landmark in Cape is known as Table Mountain. This national monument and National Park of South Africa forms a beautiful backdrop and dominates the skyline of the city. It has a plateau of over 3,300 ft. high and surrounded by near-vertical cliffs. Sometimes a thin-strip of clouds hang over the mountain, which is locally called the "tablecloth". Besides Table Mountain, the rest of Cape is also very mountainous. There are over seventy peaks over 1,000 ft. within Cape's city limits. However, the suburbs, and living area of the residents there are located on flat land or as known by the people of Cape, as simply, "The Flats". These flats lie on a rising marine plain consisting mostly of a sandy geology.

CLIMATE
Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate with Winter and Summer seasons. Neither season gets too hot or too cold, but both are still well-defined. Winter, which lasts from May to September, endure large cold fronts that come across the Atlantic Ocean with strong north-westerly winds. The average minimum teperature in the winter is 45 degrees F. Most of the cities annual rainfall occurs during the winter, but due to mountainous geography, rainfall amounts for specific areas vary. Valleys and coastal plains average around 20 in. of rain per year, while mountain areas average around 60 in. per year. Summertime, which lasts from November to March, is warm and dry. In the summer, the winds are not as strong and come from the southeast. They are known as the Cape Doctor because they blow away any pollution and clean the air. Summer temperatures are mild with an average of around 79 degrees F. The only times when Cape Town can be uncomfortably hot is when the mountain wind blows from the "Karoo interior" (a semi-desert area of South Africa) for a couple weeks in February or early March. Otherwise, temperatures are very reasonable and comfortable throughout the year.

Designing the Home

The way that I went about in designing the home for a family in a township areas in Cape Town, was that I knew that most families live with relatives therefore it needed to have at least two separate bathrooms and various bedrooms. Considering it’s going to have large accommodations the home is somewhat spacious but small enough so that most people can afford the home In mild climates where winter are very cold and summer temperature are not extremely high, a non-compact shape cross ventilation. It’s also small enough so that the sunroom is providing most of the warmth circulate around the home.

There are trombe walls, and sunroom for effective passive heating. Most of the windows are facing northing, where it’ll be exposed my sunlight. I also implemented a half wall separating the sunroom area that consists with thermal mass for the winter, because then the thermal mass on the interior absorbs and stores solar radiation. The green roof is used to cool and warm the home, while in summer the green roof shades the home, and while in winder the soil is served as added insulation. The building will be faced south for better solar heating that is required in winter. The point of having many of these passive solar strategies is to minimize the use of electric heating or cooling.

Legato Redyard

Our "Living Laboratory" Design Site

We have gotten our own Second Life Land. We are in the process of constructing a "living laboratory" design classroom. For the period of April 7 - 21 we will have an open collaborative process set up. Come visit our site - (if you have access to Second Life) and leave us comments, either by dropping us notecards in locations around the site designed for taking comments or by commenting upon the posts here in our blog.

From April 22-May 5 we will then enter our final re-design phase when our initial commentary will be incorporated into the design proposal. From May 5 - May 25 (0r s0), we will then have a formal presentation of the design solution.

The site will be open to the public then, and we will continue taking commentary on our project.

Have Possible Final Project Site

thanks to Keystone Brouchard of Architecture Island, our group may have a plot of land in Second Life for 2 months to build and display our final design project.

Community and Family Life Summary

My summary of general culture in Cape town area.

Cape Town is known to be the oldest city of South Africa. It’s also to be said that Cape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the City of Cape. Metropolitan municipality is a city which executes all the functions of local government for a conurbation. This is by compared to areas which are primarily countryside, where the local government is divided into district and local cities.

Republic of South Africa is consisting of 11 official languages. Afrikaans (Afrikaans), English, Ndebele (isiNdebele), Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa), Sotho (Sesotho), Swati (siSwati), Tsonga (Xitsonga), Tswana (Setswana), Venda (Tshivenḓa), Xhosa (isiXhosa), Zulu (isiZulu).

English is also frequently used, especially in the urbanized areas of Cape Town.

In the Sothern region of South Africa the majority speak Afrikaans.
(http://mobile.answers.com/topic/south-africa?curtab=2750_1)


The word braai Afrikaans for "barbecue" or "roast" and is a social custom in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The traditions around a braai can be considerably different from a barbecue, however, even if the method of food preparation is very similar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braai)

Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1990s. It is based on house music beats, but typically at a slower tempo and containing melodic and percussive African samples which are looped, deep basslines and often vocals, generally male, shouted or chanted rather than sung or rapped.

House music arrived in Cape Town in the early 1990s at raves like the World Peace Party and in the original venue Club Eden, and later Uforia and DV8. This spread northward where, in the mid 1990s, Chicago house was becoming a popular genre in Johannesburg clubs such as 4th World, and local artists fused its sound with that of South African music.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwaito)

Isicathamiya is a singing style that originated from the South African Zulus. In European understanding, a cappella is also used to describe this form of singing.

Isicathamiya choirs are traditionally all-male. Its roots reach back before the turn of the 20th century, when numerous men left the homelands in order to search for work in the cities. As many of the tribesmen became urbanized, the style was forgotten through much of the 20th century.
(http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Isicathamiya)

Joseph Shabalala (28 August 1941 - ), born Bhekizizwe Joseph Siphatimandla Mxoveni Mshengu Bigboy Shabalala, is the founder and musical director of the South African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Shabala)

Miriam Makeba(4 March 1932 - 10 November 2008), was a South African singer and civil rights activist. The Grammy Award winning artist is often referred to as Mama Afrika.

Architecture
Cape Town's rich colonial history has endowed the city with some distinctive old buildings in the distinctive Cape Dutch style with its whitewashed walls, ornate gables and thatched roofs. Some of the best examples of these are to be found on the many wineries the most easily accessible of which is Groot Constantia in Cape Town's southern suburbs. An easy stroll along the 'Historical Mile' between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay will take you past Posthuys, the oldest building in South Africa. Their attractive, brightly coloured, flat-roofed houses, decorative mosques and the sound of the muezzin calling over the city streets have remained relatively undisturbed for all this time.

Dating back to roughly the same period is the oldest European structure in South Africa, the Castle of Good Hope.