Contemporary South African Architecture

Boundaries are spaces of contestation and encounter. When considering contemporary architecture in the global South, particularly in Africa, these spaces of encounter are especially pronounced. There is a body of architectural work in Africa produced by architects who are crossing physical boundaries between the global North and the global South, and the boundaries between global and local ways of making; some of them have also begun to blur the boundaries between the digital and the analogue. Drawing on previous empirical research in Africa, and building on literature about deborderisation, hybridisation, and tectonics, the space of encounter is positioned as a necessary and productive one. Analysis of representative building case studies in three African countries shows how architects are combining global and local tectonics in an effort to engage with social, economic, and environmental limitations. This can be read as a conscientious objection to reckless technological production that is, at times, ignorant of both local conditions and the planetary resource limitations that the world is facing. This paper will argue that the shift towards the tectonic hybridisation of computational design and digital fabrication with the use of local materials, traditions, and skills can further contribute towards this engagement. It emphasises the importance of tectonic ethics as a prerequisite for more equitable forms of exchange and encounter when working across boundaries, and it demonstrates how hybrid tectonics is a potentially useful and transferable strategy to begin to address some of these limitations.

In this essay, I'm going to argue that the debate on identity in South African architecture (particularly for anyone who is tired of it and would like the debate to be settled), will never be settled. This is because, rather than containing or embodying identity, architecture identifies as one of its most basic operations.

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Background The issue: modernism in colonial Cape Town The aim of the thesis and the hypothesis Scope and focus Research framework and methodology Outline of thesis CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: 13 Homotopia: a homogeneous ordering sensibility that discards difference in favour of continuity and familiarity. This utopian way, applied to the examination of historical data relating to architectural work in the inter-war period has led to an iconic view of the way modernism developed. Heterotopia: a sensibility that distributes a multiplicity of things into seemingly incoherent categories. (Porphyrios p2) "things are "laid", "placed", arranged in sites so very different from one another that it is impossible to find a place of residence for them, to define a common locus beneath them all".

The advent of mega cites is a phenomenon confronting all nations competing in the current wave of globalization. They have emerged as a result of rapid urbanization accompanying current economic shifts and serve to compound the problems associated with urban concentrations. Despite that South Africa has not yet an ‘official’ mega city, we are confronted by similar challenges to other States. However, in South Africa this is compounded by local exigencies, most specifically the legacy of apartheid with its spatial and demographic segregation. Consequently a concomitant extreme poverty, inequity and underemployment complicates the problems that accompany mega city inmigration, posing a significant challenge to the future development of SA cities. Yet, the relative smallness and our distinct spatial character afford opportunity to simultaneously manage and leverage urban growth toward socio–economic and developmental advantage. It is time for South Africa to become serious regarding th...

As the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest legacy of the apartheid state. The Afrikaner nationalist government's policy of 'setting apart' contributed in constructing a built environment that was characterised by both segregation and a concomitant absence of diversity. State agencies, such as the [NBRI] National Building Research Institute, produced impoverished dwelling environments which conflicted with the culture and practices of local/black people. Originating in a desire for justice and democracy, the 9th statement of the Freedom Charter, 'there shall be housing, security and comfort'; aspires toward a more equitable society in which difference comfortably co-exists. Despite the claims embedded in various policy driven initiatives of the post apartheid African National Congress government, the current delivery of housing in South Africa remains a quantitative and reductive endeavour. The approach privileges a policy driven, economicquantitative housing model and realises impoverished living environments for poor communities. Currently, contemporary society is faced with multiple contradictions. Whereas globalisation elevates a singular purpose of economic utility, [re]claiming local practice may afford a basis for both a redress of past injustice and the reconstructing of civil society. As the imperative to deliver vast numbers of houses grows by the day, the interpretation of traditional values becomes increasingly threatened. Contemporary projects that mediate these pervasive extremes have enabled the design of hybrid housing solutions which simultaneously attend to the contingencies of local dwelling practice and the strictures of economic necessity. This paper will examine the enabling capacity of [architectural] design in attending to the conflicting rationalities of economic utilitarianism and the social practice[s] of dwelling. The research will critically examine selected 'non-mainstream' housing interventions where design has significantly contributed toward the production of socioeconomic opportunity. Through an analysis of spatial configuration, it is intended to contribute knowledge to current debate on the role of design and experimentation, and broaden government's agenda of constructing HOMES; 'human settlement' as opposed to HOUSES through delivery.

WHILE MOST ARCHITECTS are not only catholic in taste, they are also often artistic in temperament and multitalented. Most are schooled in the representation of buildings, a few turn this into high art – the art of the perspectivist. This is almost a lost art in the digital era. Some, however, become illustrators, and as one would expect, those of buildings not to be unusual. We, for instance, have had our South African shores graced by John Wilford Hilbert Farrow (1878–1952), partner of Cordeaux in one of the pioneer architectural firms in East London, Cordeaux & Farrow. When resident in England, he was in Banister Fletcher’s office from 1900 to 1901 where he was responsible for about 30 line drawings in what Gerneke calls ‘the architects’ Bible’, ‘illustrating Mr Fletcher’s History of Architecture (fourth ed., 1901) under Mr Fletcher’s supervision’. There was a major revision with the sixth edition in 1921, when much of the text was rewritten by Fletcher’s son and heir to the proje...

This article presents Gerard Moerdijk's response to the challenges posed by the legacy of Herbert Baker in South Africa, through, firstly, those aspects of an architecture derived from regional response, namely local style traditions of the Cape Dutch legacy, climatic constraints as well as the use of local resources-material, labour and skills; secondly their distinctive styles used in their church designs in the protestant tradition; thirdly their designs of memorials and monuments that use African precedent for inspiration.

Moerdijk, in his formative years as architect, held Baker and his patron, Rhodes, in high regard. But in his maturity he made little, if any reference to Baker's influence or even legacy in the making of South African architecture. It would seem a deliberate amnesia which suited his political purposes as proponent of an Afrikaner Nationalist architecture, which brought him into direct conflict with the practitioners of the Baker School, an episode of South African architectural history overshadowed by later developments. Moerdijk en die shaduwee van Baker Moerdijk, tydens sy wordingsjare as argitek, het Baker en sy beskermheer Rhodes baie hoog gestel. Maar in sy volwassenheid het hy min of selfs geen verwysing na Baker se nalatenskap in die skep van 'n Suid-Afrikaanse argitektuur gemaak nie. Dit skyn 'n opsetlike geheueverlies te wees wat by sy politieke doelwitte as voorstander van 'n Afrikaner Nasionalistiese argitektuur ingepas het, en hom in direkte konflik met die beoefenaars van die Baker Skool gebring het-'n episode in die Suid-Afrikaanse argitektuurgeskiedenis wat deur latere verwikkelinge oorskadu is. he formative years of Moerdijk 1 have previously been expanded upon. 2 It will be necessary to investigate a number of pertinent aspects prior to pursuing the discussion. Can we be sure that Moerdijk had anything more than a cursory knowledge of Baker 3 and his work? There are some clues.

The oeuvre of Gerard Moerdijk, as practitioner and self-proclaimed architect to the Afrikaner Nation-alist project, used the opportunity of the memorializing of deceased personages taken up in the epic narrative of Afrikaner Nationalism so as to extend his architectural scope and source of patronage. These edifices of the time between the achievement of political independence and attainment of the Republican ideal of Afrikaner Nationalism serve as a source of memory and cause for reflection. Moerdijk – dood en herdenking in sy argitektuur vir die projek van Afrikaner-nasionalisme Die oeuvre van Gerard Moerdijk as praktisyn en self-erkende argitek vir die Afrikaner Nasionalistiese projek het van die geleentheid gebruik gemaak wat geskep is deur die gedenking van gestorwe persone wat in die Afrikaner Nasionalisme se epiese bevrydingsverhaal opgeneem is om sy eie argitektoniese omvang en bron van komissies te bevorder. Hierdie strukture uit die trydvak tussen die behaling van politiese...

View online: https://www.ajlajournal.org/articles/engaging-with-place-at-coromandel-house

This article explores place-making at Coromandel House and its relationship with the landscape. It begins by introducing sense of place at Coromandel as originating in its ancient geological landscape with more recent archaeological remnants of the Bokoni people, and vestiges left by farm Settlers in the region in the late 19th C. Coromandel House is then contextualised, focusing on its origins and noteworthy collaborators’ response to the place they encountered, and their choices to enhance a particular experience of place. A synopsis follows of the main landscape and architecture design decisions which have over time allowed for its spirit of place to mature. In its prime, the balance between architecture, interior, and landscape heightened one’s senses first of the greater environment and the farm through to the immediate sense of place from the surrounding landscape, and lastly, a new hybrid sense of place that has emerged from the architect’s interpretation of place. Now with the passage of time and changes to its ownership, the continued presence of genius loci suggests there is something to learn.

Since the first democratic elections in 1994, South Africa has faced the challenge of creating new cultural capital to replace old racist paradigms, and monuments and museums have been deployed as part of this agenda of transformation. Monuments have been inscribed with new meanings, and acquisition and collecting policies have changed at existing museums to embrace a wider definition of culture. In addition, a series of new museums, often with a memorial purpose, has provided opportunities to acknowledge previously marginalized histories, and honor those who opposed apartheid, many of whom died in the Struggle. Lacking extensive collections, these museums have relied on innovative concepts, not only the use of audiovisual materials, but also the metaphoric deployment of sites and the architecture itself, to create affective audience experiences and recount South Africa's tragic history under apartheid.

On 9 August 1902, to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII, the Bloemfontein Town Council measured out an area of approximately 130 hectares in the open veld west of Bloemfontein intended as a park. In time, the park would also house the Prince’s Rose Garden, Loch Logan, Bloemfontein Zoo, the Free State Cricket, Rugby, Tennis and Hockey Stadiums and a diverse ensemble of monuments and landscaping features. As such, it is associated with various traditions and rituals. However, since the 1950s the park has faced steadily increasing pressures of spatial fragmentation, economic commodification and societal transformation. Today, King’s Park is in a disjointed state of limbo. Specifically, the ongoing process of moving the zoo to a more hospitable place for the animals will expose large portions of the park to commercial interests. Current proposals will obliterate the park. This paper, part of a call for responsible development, will trace the historical transformation of King’s Park as a dialectic between the resolute drive towards a unity of intent and the reticence of parsimonious restraint. Informed by archival research and mapping efforts, it will gather the rich textures of experience and ritual that emerged amid the park’s spatial transformation and speculate on the promise of noticing the park as a ‘region of concern’.

This open textbook is a collection of modern buildings, dating from 1936 to 1987, in Cape Town, South Africa. The buildings were analysed by students of Architecture at the University of Cape Town in 2019 and presented in this book as samples from a work-in-progress inventory of Modern Architectures in the Global South. Brief descriptions of each building make them accessible to scholars of architecture for further study

The design of boundaries in architecture has a rich history that provides intellectual nourishment for a reconsideration of the relationships between city and nature, city street and building and the transitions within buildings. This article will describe the condition of boundary in place-making and architecture by sketching a brief theoretical and philosophical background of approaches to its formation. Following this, the formal expression and articulation of boundaries in urban and architectural settings will be outlined. Then, through the description of selected examples of the urban and architecture outputs of the award-winning South African architect and urban designer, Henri Comrie, real-world examples of boundaries will be contextualised and described.

This open textbook is a collection of modern buildings, dating from 1936 to 1987, in Cape Town, South Africa. The buildings were analysed by students of Architecture at the University of Cape Town in 2019 and presented in this book as samples from a work-in-progress inventory of Modern Architectures in the Global South. Brief descriptions of each building make them accessible to scholars of architecture for further study

Architecture in South Africa is at a crossroads. After years of repression and isolation during which contemporary architecture lost its way, there is now a desperate need for architects to respond to the social and cultural challenges of a society riven by massive material contrasts. Within architecture schools, a student body more representative of society than hitherto is engaged in projects which reflect the very diverse needs of the community. Central to the effectiveness of such teaching programmes is the presence of teachers fully engaged in practice, creating a responsible architecture for a renewed nation.

This paper argues that precedent should play a fundamental role in the development of sustainable homes. It will describe how the design of two energy efficient family homes in Winchester, England, adopt a distinctive approach to environmental precedent. The modern house is substantially a product of numerical calculation, such as the modelling of performance data and cost-benefit analysis. Construction (materials, u-values) and processes (energy use, assembly, airtightness) are quantified and assessed to ensure they achieve design objectives based on recognised standards of performance (Energy Performance Certificate: A; Code for Sustainable Homes: level 4). However this technical analysis alone cannot inform the initial creative idea. The design of these houses was informed by intuitive reference to a range of diverse precedents, including the work of Alvar Aalto, Sverre Fehn, Robert Venturi and Roelof Uytenbogaardt. The asymmetric roofs of Aalto's Housing for ex-service men in Tampere (1941) define thresholds to front and side doors, and a sheltered private space to the back overlooking the garden. Fehn's Villa Norrköping (1964) was designed around circadian rhythms, with day and night-time spaces defined by glazed corners ('eyes') and alcoves, animated by daylight and shadow. Venturi's Mother's House (1964) symbolises in its idiosyncratic form and modest material treatment the pragmatic and egalitarian promise of a home and identity of one's own. House Uytenbogaardt (1993) exploits solar orientation and the topography of its location to the utmost, framing views of the horizon and sunsets over the ocean. The house is part fortified tower house, part bespoke wooden cabinet, responding to the unique atmosphere and light of the Western Cape coastline. This paper will describe how these two subtly different Winchester houses borrow from each of these examples to reconcile technical requirements with the poetic possibilities inherent in imagining other environments, informed by the specific climate and conditions of the site.

The human dimension 3 1.1 The human dimension 9 1.2 First we shape the cities-then they shape us 19 1.3 The city as meeting place 31 2. Senses and scale 33 2.1 Senses and scale 47 2.2 Senses and communication 55 2.3 The shattered scale 61 3. The lively, safe, sustainable, and healthy city 63 3.1 The lively city 91 3.2 The safe city 105 3.3 The sustainable city 111 3.4 The healthy city Contents VI

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY 1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.6 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.7 METHODOLOGY 1.8 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 EXPLANATION OF ETHICS? 2.3 HOW CAN ETHICS BE DEFINED? 2.4 PRESS COUNCIL 2.5 THE PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA 2.6 THE SOUTH AFRICAN PRESS CODE 2.7 THE USE OF SAPC FOR NEWS ANALYSIS OF THE 2008 XENOPHOBIC OUTBURSTS 2.7.1 Reporting news truthfully and accurately during violence 2.7.2 Presentation of news in context, balanced and objective manner During times of social unrest 2.7.3 Discriminatory or denigratory references to people's race, colour, ethnicity, or other status during violence 2.7.4 Ethical decisions faced by journalists in the field during violence and atrocities 2.8 S0CIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY OF THE PRESS 2.9 TENETS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY 2.10 SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 INTRODUCTION 3.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 3.3 FORMULATION OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3.4 RESEARCH DESIGN 3.5 THE RESEARCH APPROACH 3.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.6.1 Defining the population 3.6.2 Sampling procedure 3.6.2.1 Sampling stage 1: The selection of a sample of newspapers 3.6.2.2 Sampling stage 2: The selection of the time frames 3.6.3 The unit of analysis 3.6.4 Coding 3.6.4.1 Codebook 3.6.4.2 Coding forms 3.7 PILOT STUDY 3.7.1 Coder training 3.7.2 Data Analysis 3.8 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 3.8.1 Reliability 3.8.1.1 Population and units of analysis were clearly identified 3.8.1.2 The categories were mutually exclusive 3.8.1.3 Procedures for resolving coding problems were established and applied consistently 3.8.1.4 Standardised coding sheets were used 3.8.1.5 A pilot study was conducted to ensure that the categories were exhaustive 3.8.1.6 Intra-coder reliability was determined 3.8.2 Validity 3.8.2.1 Face validity 3.8.2.2 Expert validity 3.9 BIAS OFTHE RESEARCH 3.10 CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS OF THE METHODOLOGY 3.11 SUMMARY CHAPTER 4 THE RESULTS FOR THE STUDY CONDUCTED ON JOURNALISM ETHICS IN REPORTAGE OF THE 2008 XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS: THE CASE OF SOWETAN AND DAILY SUN NEWSPAPERS 4.1 INTRODUCTION 4.2 OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY 4.3 CONTENT ANALYSIS 4.3.1 General findings 4.4 ETHICAL CATEGORIES ANALYSED IN THIS STUDY 4.4.1 Did the journalists at the Sowetan and Daily Sun newspapers adhere to the ethical requirements of reporting news truthfully during the 2008 xenophobic attacks? 4.4.2 Did the journalists at the Sowetan and Daily Sun newspapers adhere to the ethical requirements of reporting news accurately during the 2008 xenophobic attacks? 4.4.3 Did the journalists at the Sowetan and Daily Sun newspapers present news within context and in a balanced manner, without exaggeration or misrepresentation, during the 2008 xenophobic attacks? 4.4.4 Did the journalists at the Sowetan and Daily Sun newspapers present news objectively during the 2008 xenophobic attacks? 4.4.4.1 Editorial 4.4.5 Did the journalists at the Sowetan and Daily Sun newspapers avoid discriminatory or denigratory references to people's race, colour, ethnicity or other status during the 2008 xenophobic attacks? 4.5 OTHER CATEGORY 4.5.1 Headlines 4.6 RESULTS OF ANALYSIS 4.7 HEADLINES AND HOW THEY WERE WORDED 4.8 SUMMARY CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5.1 INTRODUCTION 5.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 5.3 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.3.1 General findings 5.3.2 Headlines and how they were worded 5.3.3 Editorial 5.4 LIMITATIONS 5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

As the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest legacy of the apartheid state. The Afrikaner nationalist government's policy of 'setting apart' contributed in constructing a built environment that was characterised by both segregation and a concomitant absence of diversity. State agencies, such as the [NBRI] National Building Research Institute, produced impoverished dwelling environments which conflicted with the culture and practices of local/black people.

In contemporary architectural practice, it seems impossible to establish common consensus regarding the merits or definition of architectural beauty. Moreover, the ancient links between “the just” and “the beautiful” have been severed. This article argues that the dissociation between beauty and justice may well be rooted in the unquestioning way in which we habitually fall back on established aesthetic tropes when considering the notion of architectural beauty. In response, it challenges the value and appropriateness of such aesthetic assertions by recalling Martin Heidegger’s formulation of human life as an event of emplaced care, and human contemplation as a form of “inceptual thinking”. This article then briefly discusses the relationship between this kind of inceptual beauty and the notion of justice, as put forward by John Rawls. Interwoven with these philosophical positions, the text refers to the historical development of church architecture as interpretive device.

Un incontro di riflessione sui progetti del famoso ingegnere nel continente africano.
Nelle molte storie finora scritte su Pier Luigi Nervi, uno degli ingegneri e architetti più celebri del XX secolo, l’Africa è rimasta un contesto totalmente inesplorato. Eppure, tra il 1964 e il 1980 lo Studio Nervi – diretto insieme ai figli Antonio, Mario e Vittorio – sviluppa una fitta rete di contatti in questo continente, che portano al coinvolgimento del gruppo in quasi quaranta progetti. Le vicende delle opere africane gettano inoltre luce sul sofferto passaggio dalla fase epica – ormai in fisiologico esaurimento – dello Studio Nervi a quella contrassegnata dall’autonomia manageriale ed espressiva dei figli, sullo sfondo di una profonda trasformazione della pratica professionale.

Grazie a un’approfondita ricerca archivistica e a indagini sul campo, il volume "Pier Luigi Nervi in Africa. Evoluzione e dissoluzione dello Studio Nervi 1964-1980"  illustra, per la prima volta in maniera organica, l’attività dello Studio Nervi in Africa, analizzandola attraverso diverse lenti storiografiche. Emerge così in controluce l’intreccio di rapporti professionali, politici, economici e culturali tra Italia e Africa, nel momento in cui si ridefinisce l’identità postcoloniale del grande continente.

introduce
Margherita Guccione Direttore MAXXI Architettura

intervengono
Micaela Antonucci autrice del libro, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna
Paolo Desideri ABDR Architetti Associati, Università Roma Tre
Tullia Iori Università di Roma Tor Vergata
Gabriele Neri autore del libro, Politecnico di Milano, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio

None of currently available studies on the life and works of Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979), one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated architects and engineers, mention his involvement with the African continent. This omission is surprising because Studio Nervi, which he ran with his sons, had intensive and complicated connections with Africa where, between 1964 and 1980 the Studio was involved in around forty projects.
How can this deafening silence be explained? Based on extensive research in Italy and in various African countries, this book aims to deepen our understanding not only of the work of Pier Luigi Nervi, but also of the complex technical, media, diplomatic, and management issues that Studio Nervi encountered in the latter part of its existence; and to examine, more generally, the Italian contribution to the modernisation of postcolonial Africa.

Nelle molte storie finora scritte su Pier Luigi Nervi, uno degli ingegneri e architetti più celebri del xx secolo, l’Africa è rimasta un contesto totalmente inesplorato. Eppure, tra il 1964 e il 1980 lo Studio Nervi – diretto insieme ai figli Antonio, Mario e Vittorio – sviluppa una fitta rete di contatti in questo continente, che portano al coinvolgimento del gruppo in quasi quaranta progetti. Vi sono edifici costruiti (tra i più significativi, il Good Hope Centre a Cape Town, la sede della Banque Africaine de Développement ad Abidjan e la cappella presidenziale di Yamoussoukro), ma anche tante iniziative che, seppur rimaste sulla carta, svelano un sorprendente mosaico di relazioni con i committenti più disparati, in Sudafrica, Costa d’Avorio, Libia, Congo, Nigeria, Repubblica Centrafricana, Tanzania e Algeria.
Le vicende delle opere africane gettano inoltre luce sul sofferto passaggio dalla fase epica – ormai in fisiologico esaurimento – dello Studio Nervi a quella contrassegnata dall’autonomia manageriale ed espressiva dei figli, sullo sfondo di una profonda trasformazione della pratica professionale. Un passaggio che avrebbe potuto, forse, traghettare lo Studio verso nuovi orizzonti, ma che rimase un sentiero interrotto, per la prematura morte del primogenito Antonio nel 1979, sei mesi dopo il padre.
Grazie a un’approfondita ricerca archivistica e a indagini sul campo, il presente volume può illustrare, per la prima volta in maniera organica, l’attività dello Studio Nervi in Africa, analizzandola attraverso diverse lenti storiografiche. Emerge così in controluce l’intreccio di rapporti professionali, politici, economici e culturali tra Italia e Africa, nel momento in cui si ridefinisce l’identità postcoloniale del grande continente.

Part 3 of a three-part critical curation of the work of the first 30 Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture and Exhibition laureates. Part 1 focused on the way human life may be architecturally appreciated and safeguarded as an “art of care”. Part 2 aimed to notice the diverse ways in which architecture practised as an art of care in the hands of the Sophia Gray laureates, opens new ways to approach architecture as an “art of life”. This part further develops this line of inquiry by using the art of life to re-envision the nature of masterful architecture as a “focal practice”

This essay is the second in a three-part critical curation of the work of the first 30 Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture and Exhibition laureates. The first essay focused on the way human life may be architecturally appreciated and safeguarded as an “art of care”. The second essay aims to notice the diverse ways in which architecture practised as an art of care, in the hands of the Sophia Gray laureates, open new ways to approach architecture as an “art of life”. The third essay will further develop this line of enquiry by using the art of life to re-envision the nature of masterful architecture as a “focal practice”.

The Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture and Exhibition turned 30 in 2018. Its laureates include diverse architectural personas — practitioners, activists, educators, entrepreneurs and theoreticians. Its founder, Professor Paul Kotze (1998a; 1998b), has documented the inception of this annual event.That the lecture series remains vital is a tribute to the depth of architectural talent in southern Africa. This essay is the first in a three-part critical curation of the work of the Sophia Gray laureates. The first essay will clarify the methodological approach and philosophical background against which human life may be appreciated in terms of Martin Heidegger’s concept of care and be safeguarded in architecture practised as an “art of care”. The second essay will aim to notice the diverse ways in which architecture practised as an art of care, in the hands of the Sophia Gray laureates, opens new ways to approach architecture as an “art of life”. The third essay will further develop this line of inquiry by using the art of life to re-envision the nature of masterful architecture as a “focal practice”. Why do people feel the need to commemorate the work of certain individuals? According to the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), the essential motivational force behind all human endeavour is the care, or sorge, saturating mortal existence. Before venturing into the work of the laureates, the following theoretical introduction will aim to contextualise and clarify the nature of Heidegger’s ontological concept of care and discuss some of the most important themes connected to it.

Features various contemporary projects of recent graduates of the Pretoria School of architecture on the occasion of its 50th anniversary: Huise Laubscher - 'Ora Joubert; Swabou Headquarters - Henri Comrie; House for an artist - Marnus Barnard; Huis Smit - Johan Uys; Karos Sussusvlei Lodge - Neil; Crafford; Parkdene Primary School - Deborah Preller; Elukwatini Business Development Centre - Marlien Heystek; Health care in Mozambique - Matt Steenkamp

Africa is rapidly urbanizing. 40% of the continent’s population is now urban, but despite Africa’s extensive natural resources and strong economic growth, neither international nor local investments find their way to the cities. In post-colonial Africa the City is still consider an exception. Basic infrastructure is still lacking and urbanization is occurring primarily in the form of slums, as silent encroachments. However, African urban researchers note that the African city should not be considered simply incomplete versions of their western counterparts. Indeed, the African city is following its own route with a very different map. These cities are growing as nodes in mutually dependent networks that span over national boundaries. Their populations are in perpetual movement – constantly in search of work and possibilities. They are also very young. Half of the inhabitants that today constitute Urban Africa are under 25 years old.

Forgetting Architecture suggests both leaving architecture behind and an architecture of forgetting or forgetfulness. It asks us to question the relationship between forgetting and remembering, the presence and absence in and beyond built form, and the temporality of memorials and monuments cast in stone. It provokes us to question who is remembered
and who is forgotten. Anne Whitehead suggests that forgetting always forms the “shadowy underside of memory”. She reminds us of that which is often left aside, yet central to shaping and defining what is remembered, recalled and preserved. In the context of South Africa, these questions are particularly pertinent, framed by the political context of repressed and marginalised histories in the post-apartheid period.

This publication takes on these questions through a process of archiving the 3 day symposium Forgetting Architecture, organised by Prof. Lesley Lokko. Rather than understanding the archive as a direct record, it is understood as a process of memory-making in itself. This supplemental publication therefore acts as an archive of the event and simultaneously questions what and how we understand the term.

I invited a group of my History and Theory students to respond to the event with a creative record and interpretation. These are published here as collages, maps, and timelines which open up a set of questions around memory-making, history and record-keeping in a postcolonial and post-apartheid context.

As noted in the introduction, archiving is recognised as a form of crafting the past for the future, where this publication is understood as a provocation in its own right to interrogate “how we imagine ways of knowing the past, in excess of the fictions of the archive.”

At a recent Designer, Architect and Specifier (DAS)
mini-conference in Pretoria one of earthworld’s
founding members, André Eksteen, presented
an overview of their architectural practice and
its philosophies. One image from the presentation
that outlined architectural influences, King’s College
Cathedral, stood out in stark contrast to other more
contemporary examples. Although Eksteen commented
on the relationship between form and material, the
architecture also, perhaps subconsciously, represents
other aspects of earthworld’s practice philosophy such as
a structurally rationalist and phenomenological attitude
to the making of architecture, the architect as master
maker and an alignment with craftsmanship.
Following on from articles on the architecture of
Thomashoff+Partners and Marguerite Pienaar in
the 2015 and 2016 July/August issues of Architecture
South Africa respectively, this article will also sketch
the biographical influences and design philosophy of
earthworld architects and interiors to not only increase
the limited record of the practice of South African
architects, but also to elucidate design approaches.

Rock art and the new Origins Centre Rock Art Gallery at the University of the Witwatersrand share a fundamental characteristic: intention. They are examples of artefacts that record what was meaningful to their makers at the time and guided the purposeful process of making. While there is no precise record of the intention guiding the ancient rock artists, this essay reveals the intention behind the new and unique gallery that is home to the largest rock art collection in the world by exploring the hidden meaning, thinking and events that led to its
creation. It traces Mashabane Rose and Associates’ design rationale within a much longer story of artistic expression and cultural documentation, thereby contextualising their new contribution to Johannesburg’s urban identity on the university’s public edge along Enoch Sontonga Avenue.

This essay shows the connection between past events and ideas, and present-day responses and uses the notion of connection as a tool to describe the historical narrative and the design. An aspect of the design that the gallery space incubates so well (and which this essay endeavours to transmit) is that it invites deeper thinking and further questioning: to try to creatively engage with diffcult questions about origins, identity and how we want to be in the world now, and in future.

The following is an interview conducted by Camilo Soldado with Milia Lorraine Khoury in Coimbra, Portugal in June 2016. The interview was published in Publico, a Portuguese national newspaper, on 27 June 2016. It dealt with a seminar paper presented by Milia Lorraine Khoury at the University of Coimbra on community-led and participatory architecture from Africa. The interview was conducted in English and translated into Portuguese.

In this article Moerdijk's early architectual career is paralleled with the chronological sequence of texts that express his concerns with developing an authentic South African style. In these we discover those significant aspects which are pragmatically functional - namely planning arrangements, acoustics, economy and societal well-being, geographical - namely topography, climate, available labour and materials; and cultural - namely historical events, cultural inheritance, as sense of self worth and dignity, all as reflected in the practice of religion and the conduct of civil society.

From the earliest days of South African colonisation -through the offices of the VOC -there was the hegemony of Calvinist belief as it manifests in Dutch Reformed Protestantism in which death was preordained, inevitable and not treated lightly. At that time the Christian practice was to bury the dead, cremations being seen as doing the Devil's own work. The practice of cremation came late to the shores of South Africa particularly for Christian burial. One of the first to design for the practice was Gerard Moerdijk. This article presents a concise history of the traditions and practices of South African Dutch Reformed Protestant Calvinists in dealing with mortal remains along with some anomalies and the changes over time.

EXPLORING NEW TERRAINS:The Next Design School. Keynote lecture presented at the 2016 Architectural Education Forum, School of Architecture and Planning (SoAP) of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa. Four fundamental perspectives on architectural education, postulating a design school of the future in its essential characteristic and questions. By the “Next Design School” I mean both the next level of development for particular schools and, just maybe, the next major viable paradigm for design education—not just iin Africa, but as a model. A radical innovation is proposed in each of the four domains. The Next School will be defined by distinctive innovations from the perspective of each of these fundamental terrains. The Next Design School is created not in theory or discussions alone, but in actions. I offer four representative collective actions,, one from each terrain:
• Solving the climate crisis by design requires that we educate every student to be able to design carbon-neutral buildings.
• Constructing a shared knowledge ecology integrates our collective research and design efforts to become interconnected and available, and one way to do that is via an open-source digital design strategies app.
• Cultivating a collaborative work culture means including what works from the traditional, modern and post-modern by enacting the four foundational ways of being together: 
    + Acting with authenticity
    + Being cause in the matter of your concerns
    + Being committed to something bigger than yourself
    +  Practicing integrity
• Developing the Inner Architect requires a developmental curriculum founded in practices that accelerate students’ development in consciousness along several lines of design intelligence.