The story
A village where social enterprise is practiced, not only taught.
Heartland’s proposal in the Stellenbosch region combines vocational learning, sustainable agriculture, and a residential base for interns working with township enterprises. Twenty compact houses, shared ablutions, a communal kitchen and living area, workspace, and greenhouses form a small village where participants can learn how projects operate before supporting them in surrounding communities. Housing rent was intended to contribute to financial sustainability, while construction itself created training opportunities in lower-cost alternative building methods for a locally recruited team. Journeyman International alumnus Trevor Chayce helped shape the development as part of a broader vision for social-innovation hubs.
Construction began in 2016, but the archive does not verify that every planned component was completed. The project is therefore a built-in-progress story rather than a finished-campus claim. Its design logic is practical and reciprocal: bring learning, living, making, and enterprise into one place so people can test systems together before carrying that experience into other locally led work.