Innovation, while incorporating ever-improving technology, is a standout quality that differentiates design resolutions and helps define architecture as special among one’s peers. Innovation, in sync with context, provides the delight factor permitting architectural design to compete comfortably on the world stage.
Meyer says the competition involves the country’s eight major universities where the best architectural students are identified based on their final theses and presented with awards at regional events. The winners of each of the regional competitions then go on to compete for the national title at the 29th Corobrik Student Architect of the Year Awards in Johannesburg on 11 May 2016.This is according to Dirk Meyer, managing director of Corobrik, ahead of the 29th Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards, which are held annually to acknowledge and reward outstanding talent in South Africa.
Meyer says technical skill, technological understanding and the ability to create memorable form that draws one in, while treading softly on our planet, is what puts the finishing touches to sustainable architecture.
The incorporation of advancements in technology, which has greatly assisted architects, increases the efficiency of building designs and revisions, allowing them to meet the growing structural demands.
South African architecture continues to take positive strides in this area, while demonstrating an extra creative dimension unique in a country where the shaping of the urban landscape requires an appreciation of the complexities of creating an inclusive built environment.
Through innovative designs and ever-developing architectural technology, Meyer says the country is receiving remarkable designs that benefit the increasing urban population, as per government requirements.
The theme of this year’s entries includes environmental and revitalisation projects, showing the concern of architectural professionals.
Meyer says the competition involves the country’s eight major universities where the best architectural students are identified based on their final theses and presented with awards at regional events.
The winners of each of the regional competitions then go on to compete for the national title at the 29th Corobrik Student Architect of the Year Awards in Johannesburg on 11 May 2016.
Competing for the accolade are:
Leon van der Westhuizen from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
Van der Westhuizen’s thesis, titled ‘RE-generating the Boet Erasmus Stadium in Port Elizabeth’, is concerned with issues pertaining to the impact of derelict sites on ecological systems and the opportunities presented by these for the restoration and regeneration of damaged ecosystems - socio-economically, culturally and physically.
Ulrich Pieterse from the Tshwane University of Technology:
Pieterse’s thesis, ‘The design of an institute for the documentation of fossil heritage in Nieu Bethesda, Karoo’, deals with the making of a palaeontological research and display centre to document fossils from the Nieu Bethesda area and the Karoo at large. The project acts as catalyst for the creation of a satellite campus for the use by South African universities and scientists.
Matthew Mills from the University of Cape Town:
Mills says the cities in which we live are designed to be technically enhanced but consist of functionally isolated systems that bear no relevance to the living environment. His thesis, ‘Transurbance: a walk about the river’, tries to find a solution for this, focusing on a portion of Salt River, which runs through Paarden Eiland and reaches its mouth surrounded by industrial factories.
Jaco Jonker from the University of Johannesburg:
Titled ‘The Plug-In Plantation - Reforestation and industrialisation of the Nasrec precinct through the implementation of a new timber mill industry’, Jonker’s thesis explores how an important part of Johannesburg’s southern reef band, the Nasrec Precinct, can reduce direct and secondary impacts of soil erosion, heavy-metal toxins, and rampart water evaporation from increasingly frequent dust storms along the engineered mine dumps in the area.
Najeeba Hassim from the University of KwaZulu-Natal:
In ‘Defining an architectural typology: Inner City Green Centres within South Africa’ Hassim proposes an environmental research facility in KwaZulu-Natal to address threatened natural resources. She says this does not seem to be high in priority in most city projects within South Africa.
Gillian van der Klashorst from the University of Pretoria:
Van der Klashort’s thesis, ‘Urban Observatory - Re-introducing Observation and Measurement to reveal the invisible city’ proposes a new function for the Johannesburg Observatory site to utilise the typology of the ‘observatory’, manifested as an independent Urban Observatory that ‘reads’ the city to create a better understanding of the environment, with the aim to facilitate informed strategy and policy making.
Nilene van Niekerk from the University of the Free State:
Van Niekerk’s ‘Freedom of Expression Forum’ is a principle of protest against curtailment of freedom of speech reinterpreted as place. The project developed by examining the Secrecy Bill. This led to an investigation into the intimidation of journalists by the controversial Secrecy Bill.
Vedhant Maharaj from the University of Witwatersrand:
In ‘YANTRA: Infrastructures of the Sacred and Profane’, Maharaj proposes a water purification infrastructure located on the edge of the River Ganga in Varanasi, India for an ecological life force which has become hazardously polluted.
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