The Knowledge Economy : An Outward Looking School for Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Within this dissertation, the Knowledge Economy is explored as an educational pathway for youth in Mamelodi, investigating how the surrounding entrepreneurial activity and economy can impact the design of a school in the creation of an Entrepreneurial Education Ecosystem (EEE). It is therefore important to investigate and improve the outdated and seemingly unsuccessful spatial relationships that currently exist between educational buildings, the surrounding environment and the community it serves. It explores an alternative spatial response to education as being both didactic and economically enabling. This dissertation investigates the potential of alternative education as a social catalyst that allows for increased diversity of educational service and socio-economic collaboration that informs the way we teach and learn. Current public service systems, such as education in South Africa, are under constant pressure to meet the demand for quality service. Research generated in Mamelodi will set out principles to follow and determine the development of architectural design proposals in remaking these typologies to adopt a new approach that recognises the power of society, local knowledge, culture as well as the high amount of entrepreneurial activity embedded in the surrounding context.