IN MEMORIAM: Clive Chipkin

[BArch 1955, DArch honoris causa 2013]

1929-2021

Dr Clive Chipkin died peacefully on 10 January 2021 in Johannesburg, aged 91. Dr Chipkin was born on 21 March 1929 in Johannesburg, the city he made his own. He was an extraordinary person who lived a rich and full life.

His books Johannesburg Style: Architecture and Society 1880s to 1960s (David Philip, Cape Town, 1993) and Johannesburg Transition: Architecture and Society from 1950 (STE Publishers, 2009) are seminal monographs which represent a lifetime of research, extraordinary knowledge and critical analysis. The two Johannesburg volumes give an understanding of the making and shaping of the city of Johannesburg and its cultural, social and historical underpinnings. They show a remarkable breadth of knowledge and the capacity to pose difficult questions about the roots of design and the shaping of architectural styles and fashions. His lens is architectural history, but his breadth of scholarship is such that he enables the reader to see the city and its buildings with a fresh understanding about why certain styles were adopted in particular periods and why the city has been rebuilt through successive waves of capitalist expansion. He was particularly enthusiastic about Modernist architecture in Johannesburg because he was a product of the flowering and nurturing of those ideas at Wits in the 1940s.

Dr Chipkin grew up in Yeoville and was educated at King Edward VII boys’ school – which he saw as Edwardian in architecture, ethos and education. He was proud of his old school and it was a strand in his embarking on understanding how the imperial culture played out in Johannesburg as the town shifted from a temporary camp that drew adventurers from all over the world to being a permanent town with its first steel-framed buildings and first lifts, like the third Corner House and Victory House or the Carlton Hotel, or indeed his very Edwardian school.

He became excited by the modern movement and a completely new approach to office blocks, skyscrapers and homes. His son Ivor (BA Hons 1992, MA 1998) described him as “a Fifties man” full of the optimistic ideal of a better society, fair to all. He wanted architects to deliver on the dream of a better society.

He gained experience working for the old London County Council. It was a fairly short stay in London followed by a not-so-grand tour of Europe and India. Back in South Africa, these influences led to his interest in the Baker-Lutyens visible imprint on the Union buildings, Parktown grandeur, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Rand Regiments Memorial. He was also interested in Le Corbusier’s ideas for a modernist metropolis at Chandigarh. This was all background to how he began to study and observe Johannesburg.

He established his own practice in 1958; it was a small office he described as “an overworked and underpaid practice”. Over time he worked in association with firms such as Trident Steel and then Cape Gate and with Jeff Stacey designed a series of industrial buildings at the Vanderbijl plant of Cape Gate. These buildings were considered to be progressive, delivering on quality and optimism.

Dr Chipkin was a man who lived his values and in 1986 was a founding member of the group “Architects Against Apartheid”, an informal pressure group that included architects such as Chipkin, Hans Schirmacher, Henry Paine, Ivan Schlapobersky, and Lindsay Bremner. They tried to make colleagues aware of how the gross application of apartheid ideology to architecture was distorting the moral and ethical basis of the profession in South Africa. They argued that it was unethical to participate professionally in the design and planning of apartheid buildings.

Dr Chipkin’s most enduring contribution to South African architecture was in theinterpretation of his city in his writing. He worked closely with his wife of more than 50 years, Valerie Francis Chipkin, who was his editor and who shaped his archives. He was awarded an Honorary D Arch degree by the Wits in 2013 and in 2015 gave his archive to the School of Architecture and Planning. The archive was named for his wife.

Dr Chipkin was a fun person to be with, embracing his city on tours and trips of exploration. He drew maps of the route to give the best view of the Witwatersrand Ridges. He gave readily of his knowledge in lectures, interviews and tours, but he was always so self-effacing, modest. He was a caring person who gave to everyone he encountered. At the time of his death, he had completed the third volume, Johannesburg Diversity. It is heading towards publication.

He is survived by his three children, Peter (BSc 1984), Lesley and Ivor, four grandchildren and his close friend Marcia Leveson (MA 1968, PhD 1993).

Sources: Kathy Munro (BA 1967, Honorary Associate Professor), Daily Maverick, The Heritage Portal