SEMESTER 1

“I remember the room where my grandmother would sit and tell stories with a little light, while we would huddle close to each other and her voice inside the room enclosed us, summoning us to come closer and form a safe place. This was my first sense of architecture,” Francis Kèrè

Semester 1 briefs centre around explorations of narratives and making spatial connections between the self, the collective and the other. The four briefs build from personal to communal narratives culminating in a collaborative brief that aims at bringing all the lessons and skills gained thus far together (from all modules). Their first architectural design proposition for the semester.

Work from three other support modules is also presented and follows after the four archtectural design briefs of the semester. Architectural Technology and Detailing was structured around principles of framed contruction and contract documentation. Interdisciplnary Design used the metaphor of identity to explore architectural representation, critique and its intersection with other design desciplines within the faculty. While, Design Studies introduced students to critical discourses around housing in South Africa.