Place in the tropics:- Place in the desert. Part 1 Project 2004 Bouwer Serfontein Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria | South Africa Two places with the same brief;- a mixed-use regional office for an international firm with a green approach to business environment and life. Office space and living space, tropics and desert. From contradiction to synergy and harmony.This elicits responses that lives lightly on the land, suspended in the landscape, and responses that grow out of the earth in fusion with nature."Like ocean waves. Or blades of grass, its parts are governed by the endless play of repetition and variety created in the presence of the fact that all things pass" Christopher Alexander. In a design project that had the objective to develop students' responses to environmental effects on design, the focus of the majority of students were (as could be expected) the physical environment. The problem as stated was complex enough to absorb all their energy in attempting to solve the relevant physical issues.In his response this student had the maturity and insight to rise beyond the obvious to the sphere of the meta-physical.Working consciously from airy fragmentation and capsules within a bigger space in the tropics, to the solidness of structure and playful shadows in the desert. Superb effort