6 / 64
4
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
JULY
2015
>
MARKETPLACE
>
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-
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.
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.
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.