Construction World July 2015

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ARCHITECTS leave a legacy at awards University of Johannesburg student, Harold Johnson, is Corobrik’s 28 th Architectural Student of the Year. Apart from the accolade of being recognised as one of South Africa’s best up and coming professionals in his field, Johnson took home a prize of R50 000.

cling’ old buildings and disused sites, some of the students were looking at the issue of legacy in a whole new way. He said that this came at a particularly important time when South Africans were questioning the legacy left behind in the form of inner city buildings, historical sites and artefacts. The various theses reviewed suggested that the legacy embedded in the built envi- ronment was not static. Instead, they actively explored the possibility that this could be re-invented or updated in order to not only address mounting social needs and differing world views but also adding a whole new sustainability dynamic. Meyer pointed out that, while it is accepted that architecture is very much about legacy, the students’ work was strongly influenced by the sustaina- bility imperative with different amounts of emphasis placed on key social, economic and environmental aspects. Imaginatively and thoughtfully recreating the existing built environment and dilapidated structures and spaces not only means that precious resources can be conserved but that space constraints within cities that are increasingly under pressure due to relentless urbanisation can be addressed economically without contributing to urban sprawl. Key to creating, leaving and reviving a legacy in the built environment was the use choice and use of different building materials, he said. He added that, from a specification perspective, it was apparent that students grasped the fundamental value that different materials brought to architecture. He said that the students clearly gave considerable thought to how to use common materials in innovative and modern ways. “Imaginative intellectual approaches were evident in the architectural resolutions of all the projects. All of the top students from the eight participating universities are clearly on top of their design game’s and ready to make a positive contribution to tomorrow’s architecture and our built envi- ronment,” he said. This year’s judges were Karuni Naidoo of CNN Architects in Durban, Chris Wilkinson of Chris Wilkinson Architects in Tshwane and Malcolm Campbell of ACG Architects in Cape Town.

> Corobrik managing director Dirk Meyer said that the Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Award was created to promote design excellence, to acknowledge and reward talent among graduating architec- tural students. Winning thesis This year’s awarding winning thesis was entitled The 'Dark' City: Critical Interventions in Urban Despair . When asked what inspired his thesis, Johnson replied that he was bored with polite, predictable student projects. “I wanted to set my own brief where I could explore the limits of architects' skills and their training. From this, I was driven to challenge the normative student project convention of: ‘Problem-then-a-Solution’ (the building usually being the solution) and the tendency to design finite, jewel- like end-products. I asked myself: what if a project could potentially have multiple manifestations/outcomes? And presented a detailed process of thinking, making, seeing and inventing that accrues over time?” He said that he wanted to do a project in the inner-city as typical architectural projects were usually within/on an open or clear site and are therefore safer and less challenging. “I was aware that inner-city development, in Johannesburg, was largely outsourced (by the city) to the private sector – so I wanted to know what happens when the city abandons its buildings and people.” Johnson said he believed that his project demonstrated the ability of archi- tects to re-frame and redefine any scenario/ structure/environment. Professor Lesley Lokko, who supervised Johnson’s thesis, said that this project showed a determination to get as far under the skin of any given situation to be able to understand it properly, deeply and without compromise. “Although his thesis is very firmly rooted in South Africa – and in Johannesburg in particular – his critique can be said to be global. The architectural profession is moving in so many different ways, encom- passing so many different fields from engineering to disaster relief, from project management to project co-ordination, from urban to intimate, from socially-responsible

design to high finance and sustainable mate- rials, that it is almost impossible to train an architect to do everything,” she added. Commendation for excellence A commendation for excellence in architec- ture was awarded to Walter Raubenheimer from the University of Pretoria for his thesis Redefining industry: Architecture as a constructive extraction . Commendations for Excellence in Archi- tecture are given for exceptional projects that the juror panel considers able to compete on a world stage. “The juror panel deemed Raubenheimer’s thesis project exemplary given the comprehensiveness and complete- ness of the investigation, as well as the maturity, confidence and skill evident in the architectural resolution of the buildings and the urban design framework for the precinct,” said Meyer. Raubenheimer extended the sustain- ability of the project making use of waste material on the site for the manufacture of bricks that were incorporated into the architecture. He said that the birth of this dissertation was rooted in a personal fascina- tion with the industrial archetype which has developed over time from crude mechanistic structures into refined, sophisticated edifices of technological and structural ingenuity. In general Looking back over the work submitted by all of the finalists, Meyer said that what came through with ‘the school of 2014’ was the contribution that architecture could make to uplifting marginalised societies, regenerating disused sites, the adaptive reuse or extension of use of the existing to advance the value of the built environment in eco-conscious ways. He said that through effectively ‘recy-

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LEFT: University of Johannesburg student, Harold Johnson, is Corobrik’s 28 th Architectural Student of the Year. RIGHT: A commendation for excellence in architecture was awarded to Walter Raubenheimer from the University of Pretoria.

CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2015