Since it was established in 2012, South African firm Local Studio—a 2018 RECORD Vanguard—has built a reputation around resourceful, low-cost design solutions for social infrastructure projects in Johannesburg, where it is based. Until recently, the majority of the studio’s work—which includes projects such as a refugee-support center, a community-outreach facility, and multiple schools—has been in disadvantaged neighborhoods with little access to basic civic spaces. But over the past couple of years, the firm has expanded its reach to rural areas; among its latest projects are two modest, timber-clad dormitories for the nonprofit organization Pan Africa Today, located in Bela Bela, about 250 miles north of Johannesburg in the shrublands of Limpopo Province.

Photo © Tristan McLaren, click to enlarge.