With bed shortages at South African universities estimated to amount to 216 000, Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande has called for “big and bold” solutions to tackle the backlog. Several protests last year, including the Shackville protest at UCT, placed the spotlight on the problem. A survey conducted by the department last year of the 50 public Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges revealed that for the 710 000 college students, there were only 10 120 beds.“Colleges can provide accommodation for only 1.4 percent of students – that is 1 in 70 students.” “Despite the increased allocations towards upgrading and new residences at some universities, rising maintenance costs, ageing residences and other problems have limited the growth options for student housing. “The lack of adequate and affordable student housing results in students renting inadequate accommodation off-campus, in locations that are often in appalling condition and overcrowded Of great concern, is the fact that the poor living conditions of students have been linked to our country’s high drop-out and failure rate, due to these conditions not being conducive to studying and good health.” Something has to be done. This project was conceived, to find a viable solution to the mass student housing crises. As a speculative project our ambition was to attract a Government or Private entity to get involved in a project that had solutions to both the social and economic problem, while at the same time making financial sense to any investor. The buildings had to be quick to build, robust and most importantly built at low cost to remain affordable for students. We are aware that there are many Architectural solutions to the identified problem. We wanted to create a environment that, to the student, this appeared innovative, funky and in someway inspiring. “Out of the Box” Rather than the Hostel type Generic so often seen. “Every time a student walks past a really urgent, expressive piece of architecture that belongs to his college, it can help reassure him that he does have that mind, does have that soul.” Louis Kahn