Founded in 1981 by conservation educator Clive Walker and philanthropist Dale Parker, the Lapalala Wilderness Reserve comprises roughly 185 square miles of land in the Limpopo province in northern South Africa. Pierced by the winding Palala River in Limpopo’s Waterberg region, the mountainous grounds (which were designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2001) are home to black and white rhinoceros, elephant, buffalo, cheetah, and sable antelope among hundreds of other species. Just outside the reserve’s southern border is the new Lapalala Wilderness School, which re-opened last November after a five-year build by Johannesburg-based Local Studio, a 2018 RECORD Design Vanguard winner.  

Since 1985, over 100,000 children between the ages of 10 and 18 have traveled from across the country to Lapalala for week-long educational programs focused on biodiversity and wildlife conservation. The original school was housed in a converted farmhouse that grew by accretion and slowly fell into disrepair. For the new campus, a long-overdue infrastructural update and the organization’s decision to introduce predator species to the reserve necessitated a move to a neighboring property, which was previously used as farmland.