Hapo Museum, Tshwane

About Hapo Museum, Tshwane

//Hapo Museum, Tshwane

//Hapo Museum is unusual. Its exterior is a copper overlay, whilst its buildings are distinctly reminiscent of granite rocks, or ancient boulders.

The environmentally-sensitive museum forms the entrance to the huge Freedom Park, perched on a quartzite ridge overlooking the Fountains Circle.

It's a good place to start any visit with its interactive exhibits displayed in a 11 000 sqm space designed by GAPP, Mashabane Rose Architects and MMA.

The copper on the exterior hails back to the material most traded and worked throughout southern Africa, whilst the shapes of the building refer directly to the ancient shelters of Khoisan healers in the rocky surrounding landscape.

The interactive //Hapo Museum was the last phase of the Freedom Park up on Salvokop Hill just south of Pretoria, and opened officially in 2013.

It's considered one of the country's top buildings and won an award of excellence at the South Africa Institute of Architecture's awards for its extraordinary architecture.

The original idea with the building was to create boulder shapes to blend in with the environment of the park, and to tie in with the Isivivane space, a symbolic final resting place.

Inside the cave-like interior of the museum are a series of installations that cover the evolution of Africa and the tribes that have lived on the continent since Gondwana land, as well as the history of apartheid in South Africa.

The interactive nature of the installations narrate the country's history that focuses on the freedom South Africa enjoys today.

Visit: there are daily guided tours of the park seven days a week (except for a few prominent public holidays).