GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle
SUMMER 2016
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Our GSA staff - see back for details.
SUMMER 2016
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We see the school not only as a place of professional training, but a place of intense enquiry.
G R A D U AT E S C H O O L O F A R C H I T E C T U R E 2 0 1 6
It’s been a tumultuous year for tertiary education across the country. What began as a protest against a statue has turned into something deeper and more urgent, perhaps more unpredictable. At the GSA, we would like to think that the changes we’ve sought to make mirror some of the wider calls for change that are happening outside the academy. We’re passionate about change. Transformation, which we see as a broad, all-encompassing ethos, addresses all manner of change – from how we teach, to where we teach, to what we teach. Change for us began in 2015 with the establishment of the Unit System, a bold experiment in changing the structure of the curriculum by adopting a global model which has successfully been tested almost everywhere except Africa. We’re immensely proud to be the first school of architecture on the African continent to adopt the Unit System, first pioneered by London’s world-famous Architectural Association and now the leading global teaching and research method. In 2015, we offered three Units to our 52 students enrolled on the Master’s programme and in 2016, this year, we’ve run five Units with interests as diverse as regenerative landscapes, politics and poetics, emergent spatialities, speculative narratives and critical praxis. Next year, with over a hundred students, we will offer eight Units, some of which are described on the last page and in the GSA Summer Show. We face a profession that is changing rapidly, forcing us to rethink our field of action and to question our relevance, our competence and our agency. From the environment to social injustice, global migration, questions of identity, new technologies and new spatialities, architects must confront conditions and contexts that a decade ago were unknown. We see the school not only as a place of professional training, but a place of intense enquiry. We encourage our students to seek new approaches to architecture and to find their individual path through this challenging network of interconnected disciplines that make up our professional world. Key to the students’ success is an approach to teaching that sees our staff take risk and responsibility equally seriously. We encourage both to see themselves as ‘agents of change’, co-creators and conspirators in this journey of discovery. ‘Live out of your imaginations, not just
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your history’, as the Steven Covey declares. It’s a tall order in a place where the weight of history is so great. Yet, as is evident in the work you see on the walls and in this publication, it’s a statement that our students have taken to heart. Their work is inspired by history and precedent, yet it moves beyond what is already and commonly known. They critically seek innovation; question tradition; put forward new realities and possibilities and yet remain grounded in this uniquely maddening, complex and exhilarating continent. At the start of the Unit System experiment last year, the question put to the staff and students was not what the Unit System will do for Africa, but rather – and far more interestingly – what Africa will do for, and to, the Unit System. It’s early days, of course, but one thing is blindingly clear: there’s no going back. Unit System Africa, as we’ve rather cheekily branded it, is here to stay . . . to improve, to innovate, to transform. It gives me enormous pleasure – and pride – to introduce the class of 2016. It has been a privilege to work with you all, staff and students alike.
Prof Lesley Lokko (Head of School)
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G R A D U AT E S C H O O L O F A R C H I T E C T U R E 2 0 1 6
Transformation, which we see as a broad, all-encompassing ethos, addresses all manner of change – from how we teach to where we teach, to what we teach.
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From the environment to social injustice, global migration, questions of identity, new technologies and new spatialities, architects must confront conditions and contexts that a decade ago were unknown.
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
M TECH (PROFESSIONAL) PROGRAMME
HISTORY & THEORY DISSERTATION 8
UNIT 10 | Politics & Poetics
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DESIGN REALISATION PORTFOLIO
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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
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GLOBAL PRACTICE PROGRAMME
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INTERNATIONAL LECTURE SERIES 2016
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3 RD ISTANBUL DESIGN BIENNALE
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SPONSORS
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Unit Leader: Stephen Steyn Unit Tutor: Patricia Theron UNIT 12 | The Eclectic Atlases 18 Unit Leader: Prof Lesley Lokko Unit Tutors: Sumayya Vally & Craig McClenaghan UNIT 13 | Frontiers
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Unit Leaders: Eric Wright & Claudia Morgado Unit Tutor: Alexandra Parker UNIT 14 | Emergent Economies and the Architecture of Big Change 52 Unit Leader: Thiresh Govender Unit Tutor: Jhono Bennett Unit Assistant: Tuliza Sindi UNIT 15(X) | Regenerative Urban Landscapes
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Unit Leaders: Dr Edna Peres & Dr Finzi Saidi Unit Assistant: Nthati Makgalemela Unit Critic: Doreen Adengo AND IN 2017 . . .
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1. Leago Madumo 2. Mxolisi Makhubo 3. Melissa Brand 4. Barry Felix 5. Andrew Muwonge 6. Andrea Relling 7. Caveesh Sonatun 8. Africa Mbatha 9. Humairah Manjra 10. Cindy Chan
Unit Leader: Stephen Steyn Unit Tutor: Patricia Theron
UNIT 10 POLITICS & POETICS Jean Luc Godard’s famous distinction between “mak[ing] political films” and “mak[ing] films politically” is even more applicable to architecture than it is in cinema.
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UNIT 10 | Politics & Poetics Unit Leader: Stephen Steyn Unit Tutor: Patricia Theron There is no outside politics. The political (derived from the polis, or city) and the poetic (derived from the Latin root for making, poeitos) combine to set the stage for an architecture that transforms — and is transformed by — how we live together, how we make together and, perhaps most importantly, how we make one another. Jean Luc Godard’s famous distinction between “mak[ing] political films” and “mak[ing] films politically” is even more applicable to architecture than it is in cinema. Under the general theme of The Political Theatre, the projects, set in Hillbrow, explore the creation of works of architecture that not only represent political points of view, but also explore the ways in which architecture and political points of view interact. The system of patronage and the alienating forms of representative democracy encourage the wealthy and the powerful to dictate the form of our cities — to make politics architecturally, as it were. The power of architecture to imagine alternatives to the world as it is, is essential in this post-theoretical, post-political, and, for that matter, post-on-social-media era. In order to engage critically with the architectural profession, and to explore and challenge some of its conventions, Unit 10 balances speculative approaches to society with recognisable architectural forms. Within the space of imaginative freedom that the academy can create, we focus on the discursive aspects of architecture. Our 2016 projects are certainly discursive since they are remarkably diverse. Wherever they are viewed, they stimulate debate.
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UNIT 10 | List of Projects 01 | M2 Leago Madumo The Moving Image
02 | M2 Mxolisi Makhubo Illicit Surfaces: From Myopia to Centrism
03 | M1 Melissa Brand Transgression Between Boundaries
04 | M2 Barry Felix Imaginary Landscapes of Hillbrow: The Velo City
05 | M1 Andrew Muwonge The African Embassy
06 | M2 Andrea Relling Architecture for Advertisements
07 | M1 Caveesh Sonatun Parasite: An Urban Education
08 | M2 Africa Mbatha Urban Catalysts: Giving New Meaning to Spatial Justice
09 | M2 Humairah Manjra The Extended Street
10 | M2 Cindy Chan In-Land and Exodus: Sino-Africanism
Leago Madumo | The Moving Image
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Mxolisi Makhubo | Illicit Surfaces: From Myopia to Centrism
Melissa Brand | Transgression Between Boundaries
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Andrew Muwonge | The African Embassy Andrea Relling | Architecture for Advertisements
Barry Felix | Imaginary Landscapes of Hillbrow: The Velo City
Africa Mbatha | Urban Catalysts: Giving New Meaning to Spatial Justice
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Humairah Manjra | The Extended Street
Caveesh Sonatun | Parasite: An Urban Education
Cindy Chan | In-Land and Exodus: Sino-Africanism
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M TECH (PROFE SSIONAL) PROGR A MME 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Unit Leader: Prof Lesley Lokko Unit Tutors: Craig McClenaghan & Sumayya Vally
Richard Meade Duane Webb Darren Sampson Ashlea Weaver Sharné Vermeulen Ayanda Mkize Katy Harris Antonella Giuricich Aisha Balde
UNIT 12 THE ECLECTIC ATLASES The Eclectic Atlases offer various entry points into African territorial conditions, whether urban or rural, populated or deserted, chaotic or calm.
UNIT 12 | The Eclectic Atlases Unit Leader: Prof Lesley Lokko Unit Tutors: Craig McClenaghan & Sumayya Vally This year, Unit 12 looked in close detail at the work of the Italian architect, urban planner and politician, Stefano Boeri. Although Boeri’s concerns are largely European, Unit 12 was interested in adapting, analysing and appropriating Boeri’s notions of ‘territorial transformations’ by looking critically at the notion of ‘territory’ in a place of extreme slippage and flux. We travelled to Cape Verde, a collection of Portuguese-speaking islands off the west coast of Africa, which we saw as central to the Unit’s interest in multiplicity, diffusion and diaspora. Over the course of the year, students produced a series of documents and projects called The Eclectic Atlases, ‘which seek new correlations between spatial elements, the words we use to describe them, and the mental images we project upon them. These documents and projects are described as ‘eclectic’ since the basic criteria used to construct them are multi-dimensional, multi-cultural, new and experimental.’ The Eclectic Atlases offer various entry points into African territorial conditions, whether urban or rural, populated or deserted, chaotic or calm. They produce maps, sites, forms and combinations that do not attempt to represent the world as a stable state but rather as an interwoven composition of fluid configurations (race, identity, culture, language, topography, diaspora), which more accurately describe contemporary African space/contexts.
10. Zac De Freitas 11. Sarah Treherne 12. Megan-Louise Wilson 13. Stephanie Ryder 14. David Spratt 15. Katrin Tenim 16. Iketleng Montjane 17. Ffyona McCaffery 18. Ricardo Rodrigues
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UNIT 12 | List of Projects 01 | M2 Richard Meade Platform X 04 | M2 Ashlea Weaver The Embassy of the ‘Hora Di Bye-Bye’ 07 | M2 Katy Harris Areia: The Cape Verde Institute of Geomorphology 10 | M1 Zac De Freitas The Embassy of the Atmosphere 13 | M2 Stephanie Ryder Lingua Franca 16 | M1 Iketleng Montjane The Embassy of 1:1
02 | M2 Duane Webb www.databasecv. wordpress.com
03 | M2 Darren Sampson The Light House
05 | M2 Sharné Vermeulen The Embassy of Embassies
06 | M2 Ayanda Mkize The Anti-Embassy
08 | M2 Antonella Giuricich Lobo Ku Xinhibu 11 | M1 Sarah Treherne The Embassy of the Sub-Verse 14 | M2 David Spratt The Shadow Cabinet 17 | M2 Ffyona McCaffery The Diasporic Archive
09 | M1 Aisha Balde The Embassy of the Inbetween 12 | M1 Megan-Louise Wilson The Embassy of Ex-Change 15 | M2 Katrin Tenim Das Unheimliche: The Institute of Global Genetics 18 | M2 Ricardo Rodrigues Embaixada Di Per-Forma
(Opposite page) Richard Meade | Platform X
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Duane Webb | www.databasecv.wordpress.com
Ayanda Mkize | The Anti-Embassy Sharné Vermeulen | The Embassy of Embassies
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Ashlea Weaver | The Embassy of the ‘Hora Di Bye-Bye’
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Antonella Giuricich | Lobo Ku Xinhibu
Katy Harris | Areia: The Cape Verde Institute of Geomorphology
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Zac De Freitas | The Embassy of the Atmosphere
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Sarah Treherne | The Embassy of the Sub-Verse
Aisha Balde | The Embassy of the Inbetween
Megan-Louise Wilson | The Embassy of Ex-Change
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Stephanie Ryder | Lingua Franca
David Spratt | The Shadow Cabinet
Katrin Tenim | Das Unheimliche: The Institute of Global Genetics
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Iketleng Montjane | The Embassy of 1:1
Ffyona McCaffery | The Diasporic Archive
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Ricardo Rodrigues | Embaixada Di Per-Forma
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Darren Sampson | The Light House
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Unit Leaders: Eric Wright & Claudia Morgado Unit Tutor: Dr Alexandra Parker
Daniel Grout Moeketsi Phori A. J. Van As Binaica Morar Christian Cook Sabine Waskow Kgao Mashego Roberto Pinheiro
UNIT 13 FRONTIERS The work of Unit 13 challenges architecture as a thing (finite, built, delivered) by approaching architecture as a process (active and living). 9. Simon Ngubeni 10. Luke Venter 11. Yoana Hristova 12. Matthew Robson 13. Tiffany Muller 14. Ruan Van Staden 15. Kobus Marais 16. Justin James
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UNIT 13 | Frontiers Unit Leaders: Eric Wright & Claudia Morgado Unit Tutor: Alexandra Parker At the beginning of this year we set out on an expedition with only a vague understanding of the landscape ahead. Nine frontiers, each designed to prompt a personal critical position on architectural practice, asking students to expand their definitions of architect and architecture. Along the way, students were challenged to reinterpret the Self, the ‘Other’ and the City through lenses including ‘origin, bullshit, fiction and theatrics’. The realisations of each frontier form part of a year-long project, an investigation into alternative forms of praxis. As we said in our opening hand out, Unit 13 is interested in identifying new spaces for the ‘Architect’ through an investigation into PRAXIS, in pursuit of plural modes of practice. PRAXIS, simply put, is how theory is implemented, which, in architecture, means either building buildings or ‘doing’ architecture, however you choose to define it. What emerged is a collection of projects that broaden the generally accepted notions of practice. The work of Unit 13 challenges architecture as a thing (finite, built, delivered) by approaching architecture as a process (active and living). Tasked with designing a station as the major design project for the year, students responded with multiple and various proposals, including data-obsessed strategies for urban development; future speculations of the relationship between technology and humans; theoretical experimentation; narratives of self and place; and collective memory and sensory experience (to name a few). The work transcends what architecture is, and seeks out what it does – or could do. Our hope is that the curiosity and openness with which our students have explored architecture will stay with them as they venture into an unknown – and perhaps uncertain – future.
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UNIT 13 | List of Projects 01 | M1 Daniel Grout Meta|Morphosis 04 | M1 Binaica Morar Catalyst Cartographer 07 | M1 Kgao Mashego En-Route City: Architecture of Event 10 | M2 Luke Venter Emergent Infrastructure and Connectedness 15 | M2 Kobus Marais Unseen Infrastructures
02 | M1 Moeketsi Phori Networked Landscapes
03 | M1 A. J. Van As Hypostasis: Threads of Recovery in Society
05 | M1 Christian Cook Interurban Fissures
06 | M1 Sabine Waskow Urban Mutation
08 | M1 Roberto Pinheiro Station in The Yellow Belt
09 | M2 Simon Ngubeni Chronicle Station
11 | M2 Yoana Hristova A Space for Healing 13 | M2 Tiffany Muller Urban Heterotopias
12 | M2 Matthew Robson Theatrical Tactics Yoana Hristova | A Space for Healing
14 | M2 Ruan Van Staden The In-Between Space
Matthew Robson | Theatrical Tactics
16 | M2 Justin James Station of Being
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Daniel Grout | Meta|Morphosis
A. J. Van As | Hypostasis: Threads of Recovery in Society
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Binaica Morar | Catalyst Cartographer Sabine Waskow | Urban Mutation
Moeketsi Phori | Networked Landscapes
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Christian Cook | Interurban Fissures
Simon Ngubeni | Chronicle Station
Kgao Mashego | En-Route City: Architecture of Event
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Roberto Pinheiro | Station in The Yellow Belt
Luke Venter | Emergent Infrastructure and Connectedness
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Tiffany Muller | Urban Heterotopias
Ruan Van Staden | The In-Between Space
Kobus Marais | Unseen Infrastructures
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Justin James | Station of Being
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M TECH (PROFE SSIONAL) PROGR A MME 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Unit Leader: Thiresh Govender Unit Tutor: Jhono Bennett Unit Assistant: Tuliza Sindi
Tova Lubinsky Gita Makan Lebohang Letsoisa Salome Monyai Roeloff De Jager Johann Le Roux Natache Iilonga Ilsa Ann Archillies
UNIT 14
EMERGENT ECONOMIES AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIG CHANGE We demonstrate the capacity of architecture to contribute to a growing discourse for radical economic change in our cities - some provocative and hyperspeculative, some tactical and persuasive. 9. Mfundo Magongo 10. Manqoba Dlungwane 11. Manuel Simon 12. Victor Martins 13. Nick Abrahams 14. Carla Gaum 15. Israel Olawayo Ogundare
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UNIT 14 | Emergent Economies and the Architecture of Big Change Unit Leader: Thiresh Govender Unit Tutor: Jhono Bennett Unit Assistant: Tuliza Sindi We were convinced by the robber barons of our apartheid past to accept (in the interests of stability) their sop of black economic empowerment (BEE), creating a class of super-rich who would share the spoils. According to them, the economic benefits would trickle down one day. We deferred our economic transition. We chose not to rock the boat. The benefits did not reach the majority and today, that underclass, marginalised under apartheid, has grown. And they are angry and restless. And they have a right to demand that our democracy means more than just the right to vote every five years. Twenty-two years on, extreme economic forces have done little to recalibrate the injustices of the past. Instead, these complex, powerful and prolific manifestations – across all orders of life – perpetuate structural inequality and frustrate the efforts for a more inclusive society. These restless and uncertain times refocus our attention to the economic schisms that linger in our society, forcing us to demand a more productive and inclusive arrangement. But we appear to lack imagination and courage to put forward alternative economic and spatial arrangements. In its inaugural year, Unit 14 looks at the economy through a series of radical re-imaginings of the Mall of Johannesburg. The Unit draws on Adrian Lahoud’s Post-Traumatic Urban Condition where the prolific, messy, contorted and chaotic residue of the post-apartheid city yields insight into alternative futures. We demonstrate the capacity of architecture to contribute to a growing discourse for radical economic change in our cities - some provocative and hyper-speculative, some tactical and persuasive.
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UNIT 14 | List of Projects 01 | M1 Tova Lubinsky Mall of Curiosities
02 | M1 Gita Makan Eatopia
04 | M1 Salome Monyai Blurred Lines
05 | M1 Roelof De Jager Glitch_strategic Manoeuvres within Shadows of Surveillance
07 | M1 Natache Iilonga The Weighting Aisle 10 | M1 Manqoba Dlungwane Concentrated City Dialect 13 | M1 Nick Abrahams Trade Anchorage
08 | M1 Ilsa Ann Archillies Duality 11 | M2 Manuel Simon Our House to Our Street 14 | M1 Carla Gaum Suburban Narratives
03 | M2 Lebohang Letsoisa Radical Negotiations_ an Exploration into Enterprise Enclaves in Johannesburg 06 | M1 Johann Le Roux Lifechoiceenquiry 09 | M2 Mfundo Magongo Spirituality and Power 12 | M1 Victor Martins Ideal Utopian Johannesburg
Manqoba Dlungwane | Concentrated City Dialect
15 | M1 Israel Olawayo Ogundare Support System for Immigrants
Johann Le Roux | Lifechoiceenquiry
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Tova Lubinsky | Mall of Curiosities Lebohang Letsoisa | Radical Negotiations_an Exploration into Enterprise Enclaves in Johannesburg
Gita Makan | Eatopia
Salome Monyai | Blurred Lines
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Ilsa Ann Archillies | Duality
Roelof De Jager | Glitch_strategic Manoeuvres within Shadows of Surveillance
Natache Iilonga | The Weighting Aisle
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Mfundo Magongo | Spirituality and Power
Manuel Simon | Our House to Our Street
Victor Martins | Ideal Utopian Johannesburg
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Carla Gaum | Suburban Narratives
Nick Abrahams | Trade Anchorage
Israel Olawayo Ogundare | Support System for Immigrants
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Unit Assistant: Nthati Makgalemela Unit Critic: Doreen Adengo
Amanda Shindler Armand Barnard Wandile Mahlangu Gareth How David Flax Amit Propheta Saddam Biwa Tebogo Ramatlo
UNIT 15 (X)
REGENERATIVE URBAN LANDSCAPES We’re not interested in technology, no. We’re interested in human-nature ecology.
UNIT 15 (X) | Regenerative Urban Landscapes Unit Leaders: Dr Edna Peres & Dr Finzi Saidi Unit Assistant: Nthati Makgalemela Unit Critic: Doreen Adengo Unit 15 (X) is not your typical ‘sustainable green architecture’ Unit. We’re not interested in technology, no. We’re interested in human-nature ecology. We equip our students with three skills in the practice of architecture: an ability to see potential where few others do; to integrate complex issues, viewpoints and scales that underpin contemporary architectural practice; and lastly a sense of personal development that can make them feel passionate about their work. Our aim is to enable students of architecture (in its broadest definition) to see potential beyond their assumptions of the status quo, to find new ways of being in the world and new ways of making creative, grounded and speculative architecture for a more resilient and regenerative urban landscape. While the aim and approach is quite clear, the outcomes and solutions are not. For this reason, Unit 15 has been suffixed by an (X), marking the ongoing quest to evolve our thinking, our outcomes and our responsibility as creatives. Our theoretical departure point is that of resilience thinking and regenerative design, two complimentary concepts in the sustainability paradigm. However, we encourage our students to explore and interpret these theories using their own frames of reference and interest, so that together we can create a story of resilience and regeneration that is particular and specific to this context.
9. Yusuf Dadabhay 10. Darren Van Gool 11. Diana Wolny 12. Ruairidh Macleod 13. Clara Senatore 14. Omphile Msindo 15. Jarryd Bates 16. Ngwato Kekana
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UNIT 15 (X) | List of Projects 01 | M1 Amanda Shindler The Spaces In-Between 04 | M1 Gareth How Cross Pollination Education Landscape for Soweto Wetlands 07 | M1 Saddam Biwa A Search for Site 10 | M2 Darren Van Gool Transplanting Potential 13 | M2 Clara Senatore Cultivating Place in Soweto 14 | M2 Omphile Msindo The Collective Repository: Exploring Architecture as a Resource for Skill Development in the Soweto Wetland
02 | M1 Armand Barnard Point of Origin: Healing the Disconnect Between Man and Nature 05 | M1 David Flax The Living Archive 08 | M1 Tebogo Ramatlo Vortex: A Regenerative Centre for Energy, Ecology & Education in The Redundant Orlando Power Station 11 | M2 Diana Wolny Hydrophilic Architecture: an Exploration of Water Filtration Systems with a Water Research and Harvesting Facility in Orlando 15 | M2 Jarryd Bates The Regenerative Learning Centre
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03 | M1 Wandile Mahlangu Plug (In)-(Ex)Change 06 | M1 Amit Propheta [De]Composition: The “Upside-Down” Remediation of the Soweto Wetlands through a Speculative Narrative 09 | M1 Yusuf Dadabhay Shift: A Placemaker’s Guide 12 | M2 Ruairidh Macleod Architecture of Influence: Building on the Resilience of Place; A Youth Support Centre in Diepkloof 16 | M2 Ngwato Kekana The Lobby
Jarryd Bates | The Regenerative Learning Centre
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M TECH (PROFE SSIONAL) PROGR A MME Armand Barnard | Point of Origin: Healing the Disconnect Between Man and Nature
Amanda Shindler | The Spaces In-Between
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Gareth How | Cross Pollination Education Landscape for Soweto Wetlands
Wandile Mahlangu | Plug (In)-(Ex)Change
Amit Propheta | [De]Composition: The “Upside-Down” Remediation of the Soweto Wetlands Through a Speculative Narrative
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David Flax | The Living Archive
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Saddam Biwa | A Search for Site
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Ngwato Kekana | The Lobby
Yusuf Dadabhay | Shift: A Placemaker’s Guide
Tebogo Ramatlo | Vortex: A Regenerative Centre for Energy, Ecology & Education in The Redundant Orlando Power Station
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Darren Van Gool | Transplanting Potential
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Diana Wolny | Hydrophilic Architecture: An Exploration of Water Filtration Systems with a Water Research and Harvesting Facility in Orlando
Clara Senatore | Cultivating Place in Soweto
Ruairidh Macleod | Architecture of Influence: Building on the Resilience of Place; A Youth Support Centre in Diepkloof
Omphile Msindo | The Collective Repository: Exploring Architecture as a Resource for Skill Development in the Soweto Wetland
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AND IN 2017 . . . We’re delighted to announce three brand new Units in 2017. We’re still finessing the details, but in the meantime, here’s a taste of things to come. Unit 11 | Altered States Unit Leaders: Stephen Hobbs & Sumayya Vally We are interested in a conversation with varied and diverse audiences. For us, the art of looking, making, creating experiences, is ‘next-level’ serious business. We concern ourselves with architecture that emerges out of true crossdisciplinary intent: artistic, scientific, biological, tactical, surgical, anthropological, atmospheric, digital, analogue and more. Unit 11 looks at materiality as a response to narrative, informed by space and experimentation. To realise or bring about a sculpture, a building, a performance or an installation requires a passion for multiple language systems, a talent for translation and the stamina for sustained enquiry. Unit 11’s 2017 programme, Altered States, is inspired by the power of new images, unusual combinations, exaggerated objects and spatial collisions. The productive tension between the real world and the studio generates a dialogue of risk-taking and re-making. In these processes we have to imagine for the sheer pleasure of it, which can be very hard work. This work happens at the deep end of creativity, forcing muscle and intelligence to produce new horizons. The Laboratory. The Aleph. Superprocess. Take a dive with us.
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UNIT 17 | Methods and Materials (or the Fourth Little Pig) Unit Leader: Gregory Katz The first little pig built his house out of straw. The second little pig built his house out of sticks and third little pig built his house out of bricks. We all know how the story goes. Its message? Masonry construction is solid and permanent, whereas with the lightweight approach, you may end up in the wolf’s belly (unless you can run very fast). It’s a cautionary tale, fed to us from a young age, with deep-rooted cultural biases. But what about the pig who built her house out of pneumatic HDPE pillows? We will be looking at structural morphology, particularly at how shape can strengthen relatively lightweight materials, making them superefficient at a micro scale. We’ll look at stressed skin, honeycomb, laminated and thin-shell materials. The focus will be on finding new and innovative ways of making our buildings, using materiality and construction methodology as a starting point for design.
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Architectural history and theory are spaces of reflection, which look to the past in order to make sense of the present, and sometimes to speculate upon the future. At the GSA, we attempt to ground students’ design projects and thinking in contemporary criticism by offering as wide a range of subject matter as possible. In the same way that students are encouraged to think creatively about the media that they use in design, so too do we encourage them to think creatively about history and theory – from film to multimedia installations to traditional text-based approaches – the aim is to foster intelligent, analytical and rigorous individuals who are able to articulate their positions in relation to the wider context of architectural history and theory.
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HTD 01 | African Urbanisms: Repertoire, Rhythm and Aspiration Elective Leader: Dr Caroline Wanjiku Kihato Africa is urbanizing fast. Some say that this transition from a rural to an urban society is the fastest experienced in modern history. This shift is as exciting as it is daunting. African cities are redefining economies, identities and statehood in ways that call us to rethink western theoretical frameworks and our global futures. Yet the dominant images that Africa’s cities conjure are ones where the landscapes are rolling shantytowns, toilets ‘fly’ and rivulets of sewerage snake through cobbled-together homes. Africa’s cities, it seems, tell a story of failure – the failure of modernization, capitalism and the African state. But we believe otherwise. This course takes you on a journey through the sights, sounds and stories of Africa’s cities. Using photography, film, creative writing, policy and academic literature, it grapples with the complexities of the continent’s urban spaces — the aspiration and desperation, chaos and order, poverty and wealth, opportunity and opportunism that are the city. It asks you to reclaim the continent’s urban narrative by capturing its histories, temporalities and multiple trajectories. HTD 02 | The Empowering Force of the Arts: Strange Tools, History, and Performances Elective Leader: Prof Randall Bird We will approach the arts and architecture as ‘strange tools’ that challenge, provoke or serve as vehicles for transformation. Even a minute detail of a painting or a building can elicit some of the deepest questions imaginable. Among the chief goals of this seminar is to counteract the common approach to the arts as phenomena to be passively admired, seen or explained. Drawing on the work of the philosopher and cognitive scientist, Alva Noe, literary theorists Miguel Tamen and Homi Bhabha, art historians, Zainab Bahrani and Suzanne Blier and architectural historian,
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Adrian Forty, we weave what we have learned into an investigation of spaces of transition. Drawing from the work of the late historical anthropologist, Greg Dening, who devoted a long career to writing about islands and ‘beach crossings’, we explore the dialectical and inclusive perspectives of people who, for example, arrive and depart from ocean to land and vice versa. These kinds of transitions will be rethought in a variety of ways which, like art, make the world a ‘performance’ of seeing and reflection. Finding your own voice through different ways of writing is a powerful, transformative and moving experience.
HISTORY AND THEORY DISSERTATION COLLOQUIUM
Hosted by the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg. Students, practitioners and the public are welcome! Panellists: Professor Jonathan Noble School of Architecture and Planning, WITS
Kunlé Adeyemi Founder: NLÉ
GSA–BOOGERTMAN+PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL LECTURE SERIES
Paul Devenish 26’10 South Architects
DAVID ADJAYE 8 DECEMBER 2016
HTD 03 | Uncommon Knowledge: Forgetting Immanuel Kant Elective Leader: Stephen Steyn There are two worlds. There is the world that exists and there is the world that is made. Enlightenment thinking has produced a common knowledge about the nature of Nature that encourages us to think of reality as an existing condition, which can be known ever more accurately through incremental refinement of the scientific method. This way of thinking splits the world into an objective reality and a subjective reality; a world of facts and a world of opinions. This divide is idealised in the popular imagination since both worlds are easier to study if they are assumed to be immune to one another. At every turn, however, architecture defies this illusion by straddling the divide between objects and subjects (or, for that matter, by being caught in the chasm, depending on your point of view). It is both a thing which is exists, like nature, but also a way of knowing, like culture. This course is aimed at developing your ability to challenge common definitions of architecture. Through selected readings of contemporary spatial and political theorists such as Bruno Latour, Chantal Mouffe, Peter Sloterdijk and Slavoj Žižek, (among others), we will attempt to locate, challenge and transform contemporary architectural thinking.
GSA SUMMER SHOW OPENS: 6:00pm - 6:30pm DAVID ADJAYE: PROJECTS: 6:30 - 7:00pm WINE BAR & PARTY OPENING: 7:30 to late Unless otherwise indicated, all events will be held at The GAP at 281 Commissioner Street, Maboneng.
THURSDAY, 11 AUGUST | THE GAP AT MOAD 281 COMMISSIONER ST, JOHANNESBURG WELCOME NOTE: 1:00pm HTD01 African Urbanisms: 1:10pm HTD02 The Empowering Force of the Arts: 2:10pm HTD03 Uncommon Knowledge: 3:10pm DISCUSSION & WINE BAR: 4:10pm
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GSA–BOOGERTMAN+PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL LECTURE SERIES
GSA–BOOGERTMAN+PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL LECTURE SERIES
KUNLÉ ADEYEMI STEPHEN HOBBS DYLAN WATKINS DAVID ADJAYE
KUNLÉ ADEYEMI
11 AUGUST 2016
11 AUGUST 2016
6 SEPTEMBER 2016
6 OCTOBER 2016
8 DECEMBER 2016
WELCOME NOTE & COCKTAILS: 6:00pm FILM STARTS: 6:45pm | LOUNGE CHAT: 7:00 – 7:45pm
UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, ALL EVENTS WILL BE HELD AT THE GAP AT 281 COMMISSIONER ST, MABONENG.
Unless otherwise indicated, all events will be held at The GAP at 281 Commissioner Street, Maboneng.
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D E S I G N R E A L I S AT I O N P O R T F O L I O | PROFESSIONAL PR ACTICE
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Course Convener: Prof Christo Vosloo Course Tutor: Jhono Bennett
DESIGN REALISATION PORTFOLIO Course Convener: Hugh Fraser Visiting Professors: Paragon Architects The Design Realisation Portfolio (DRP) provides the opportunity for final M Tech students to consider the more technical aspects of how buildings are constructed and delivered. Students are asked to reflect upon their relationship with technology, the environment and the profession. This is explored through a critical examination of their Major Design Project (MDP) taught within the context of their individual Units. The DRP is supported by a lecture series, seminars, individual tutorials and cross-Unit crits. The course aims to introduce students to core knowledge that is required in the realisation of buildings in a professional design practice. Students are asked to consider the influence of, and develop an attitude towards, construction, technology and the profession, which are all seen as playing an integral role within the creative design process. Whilst each Unit is free to interpret ‘technology’, ‘the environment’ and ‘the profession’ within the context of the Unit’s core interests, each Unit Leader will assist the DRP Tutor(s) in setting out the terms and criteria to be explored.
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In a conventional architectural practice designing great architecture is one thing. Once your design has been finalised you need to get it built. This requires firstly the support of a structured, focused and wellmanaged architectural firm and the knowledge that will allow you to appoint a competent contractor and then the ability to supervise the construction process. With this in mind, Architectural Professional Practice aims at giving you the know-how that will allow you to start a practice that has the potential to survive and support you during your professional career. The subject will provide you with the basic knowledge required to administer building contracts proficiently in order to avoid claims and to ensure that your design ends up as intended. We also look at measures which the architect can employ to protect her-or himself in the event that such claims do materialise. In short, how to survive and prosper while producing great work. Architects are increasingly moving into the informal sector where they deal with communities and assist them to create a positive and enabling urban environment. With this in mind this subject will furthermore provide you with the basic knowledge needed to facilitate projects in this realm.
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GLOBAL PRACTICE PROGRAMME Image credit: Leon Krige
GLOBAL PRACTICE PROGRAMME Programme Director: Prof Lesley Lokko Do you want to make your final years of education the first years of your future practice? The Global Practice Programme challenges contemporary architectural practice and academic paradigms by offering students a chance to situate their own histories, experience and ethical positions within a wide range of contemporary contexts. Centred on a critical understanding of the term ‘freedom’, it puts forward a new agenda for architectural education in the 21st century. Students may either initiate and define their own projects or be embedded in existing live ‘classrooms’, ranging from refugee camps to prisons, migration centres and abandoned inner-city sites where their practical and imaginative skills are tested and made useful. The programme is led by Professor Robert Mull; Professor Lesley Lokko; Professor Ana Betancour and Professor Merritt Bucholz, with institutional partners in the UK, South Africa, Sweden, Ireland, Russia, Latin America and Korea. Students remain part of their home institution but have access to shared staff expertise and research. As well as support from a wide range of project partners (clients, NGOs, government and municipal agencies), students are also able to draw on the programme’s global network of leading academics, politicians, architects and cultural practitioners. Partners share a common projects office infrastructure, research
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programme and website. In 2017–19, projects will focus on issues of migration, social justice and cohesion, scarcity and identity. Each year, the work of the programme’s staff and students will be exhibited at a global event (Seoul Biennale 2017) or at a major cultural institution (Southbank London). INTERNATIONAL LECTURE SERIES 2016 August | Kunlé Adeyemi September | Stephen Hobbs October | Dylan Watkins December | David Adjaye Thanks to our generous sponsors, this year we were able to host four speakers in our brand-new Boogertman + Partners International Lecture Series, including a conversation between David Adjaye and U.S. Ambassador Patrick Gaspard, which opened the GSA Summer Show. The show itself was a huge success, drawing over 400 people to the opening night. Drawings, models, films and installations of the work of our 76 students were on display, alongside book launches and speeches. We plan to turn the GSA Summer Show into an annual event, showcasing the some of the best students in the country and bringing speakers, practitioners and public intellectuals to our new Maboneng home, the GAP: a Saint-Gobain Urban Lounge.
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SPONSORS
The GSA would like to thank Paragon Architects, SACAP and Saint-Gobain for their generous support of this year’s publication.
3rd ISTANBUL DESIGN BIENNALE A team of three tutors (Prof Lesley Lokko, Eric Wright and Craig McClenaghan) and thirteen students were invited to submit an installation and text to the 3rd Istanbul Biennale held in November 2016. Maropeng Acts I & II travelled to Istanbul from Johannesburg and was installed in the ALT Bomonti arts complex in the heart of the city. A ‘shadow’ exhibition was opened in Write of Passage, the GSA’s dedicated gallery in the GSA Studios at FADA. Students gave up their holiday to work on the project, resulting in a publication, Are We Human, as well as international exposure at the two-month long Biennale.
MAROPENG
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The GSA would like to thank Boogertman + Partners, Saint-Gobain, Propertuity & TONIC for their generous support of the Boogertman + Partners International Lecture Series.
The GSA would like to thank Saint-Gobain, The U. S. Mission to South Africa, SACAP, Boogertman + Partners, PPC and Paragon Architects for their generous support of The GSA Summer Show 2016.
Claudia Morgado, 2. Craig McClenaghan, 3. Doreen Adengo, 4. Dr Alexandra Parker, 5. Dr Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, 6. Dr Edna Peres, 7. Dr Finzi Saidi, 8. Eric Wright, 9. Gregory Katz, 10. Hugh Fraser 11. Jhono Bennett, 12. Nthati Makgalemela, 13. Patricia Theron, 14. Prof Christo Vosloo, 15. Prof Lesley Lokko, 16. Prof Randall Bird, 17. Stephen Hobbs, 18. Stephen Steyn, 19. Sumayya Vally, 20. Thiresh Govender, 21. Tuliza Sindi 1.