Welcome to The Footprint

Welcome to the issue of SCAPE Magazine where we aim to make real movement. Our sustainability-themed issue is one where we slow down, silence the noise, and consult the experts on how to truly pursue a practice that listens to the environment.

The goal is to be better contributors to the natural world. It is as simple and as complicated as that. As designers, architects, builders, landscapers, developers, as any role player in this industry, this issue of SCAPE is a space where we encourage you to join the conversation to enact real change. Starting at the Johannesburg Art Mile, Christoph Malan imparts a wealth of knowledge on the ethical responsibility of the designer, followed by a celebration of the inspired, winning design by Counterspace’s Sumayya Vally for the new Asiat-Darse Bridge. We then make our way to the GBCSA’s tool that aims to restart embodied carbon calculations, before Adrian Maserow offers an answer to the question: What if instead of building, we pressed pause?

Next, we take you to the kraal, where Oasis Design and KLG Architects revive an old homestead on Kerala Farm by listening to the needs of the land, and to a place of serenity with NEO Architects’ Lagom Cabin. Then we’re back in the classroom with the vision and execution of Green School South Africa by GASS Architecture Studio, as well as Local Studio’s extraordinary Lapalala Wilderness School. We also reach beyond residential, commercial, and retail, as Frankie Pappas makes a statement for gender-based violence with their House of the Pink Spot.

The Footprint has come to be a collection of thoughtful pieces, from projects to insights, that we hope will act as a guide to your sustainable journeys going forward. With ample to reflect on in every article, from cover to cover, the protectors of tomorrow await you behind this page. Speaking of setting a movement in motion, we’ll see you all on Thursday, 7th September for our SCAPE Trade Show 2023. Until then, embrace the ideas you can apply to your footprint and keep the eco-love movement in motion!