Archinect - News

Cities depend on water. Here's the best solutions for urban designers to ensure their security

2024-06-17T19:51:00-04:00

More cities will likely face these kinds of shortages as climate change, deforestation and ecosystems degradation increasingly threaten the natural systems that maintain water supplies. But nature offers solutions, too. By protecting, restoring and sustainably managing forests within their watersheds, cities can improve water quality and quantity in a cost-effective way. And they can make water sources more resilient to a changing climate.

The most recent ASLA survey of U.S.-based landscape architects confirmed the industry’s positive response to this critical demand, including that a total of 42% of respondents have said they are pursuing climate projects worth more than $1 million and another 29% saying the value of this work was over $10 million.

Mexico's recent presidential election is another barometer, as the environmental engineer and former CDMX mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s ability to tackle the looming water crisis there proved a decisive factor in her historic victory. (A catastrophic 'Day Zero', however, still looms right around the corner.)

Former home of Nelson Mandela opens as boutique hotel

2022-02-22T15:07:00-05:00

This historic home is now a museum with an overnight rate. The former house and surrounding gardens of former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela is now accepting reservations after being transformed into an inn.

Located in the suburb of Houghton, Johannesburg, Sanctuary Mandela, not only offers lodging but also features curated exhibits that pay tribute to the human rights activist and a restaurant with menu items inspired by Mandela’s favorite meals.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sanctuary Mandela (@sanctuarymandela)

The boutique hotel includes nine rooms and retreat spaces and can host up to 18 guests at a time. The former residence is the first home Mandela lived in following his 27 years of imprisonment. Between 1992 and 1998, he resided in the building where a range of famous guests was hosted and later used as the headquarters for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

This year's Serpentine Pavilion, inspired by London's immigrant gathering spaces, opens a year later than planned

2021-06-10T18:41:00-04:00

The latest iteration of the Serpentine Pavilion is now open in London after more than a year of COVID-related delays.

South African studio Counterspace had to wait 10 months to present its final design after being named to the commission in February of 2020.

Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace, Exterior View © Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan

The women-led team completed the commission's 20th Pavilion using repurposed materials including wine corks, steel, and cement leftover from marble production. This culminated in a carbon-negative building six meters in height that brought together elements from the city’s disparate migrant enclaves in an amalgam of typologies meant to articulate different scales of intimacy, according to Counterspace’s founder Sumayya Vally.

Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace, Interior View © Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan

To gain perspective for the structure, Vally spent four months in the city looking for gathering spaces that typifi...

Non-profit plans to build facility to house 100 South African entrepreneurs

2020-07-28T18:35:00-04:00

RISE International, a U.S. self-funded non-profit organization, is raising $100,000 to design and build an "Enterprise Hub" for unemployed youth in Lesotho, South Africa. The new facility will house up to 100 young entrepreneurs at a time and will be designed and built by local talent as part of the RISE Fellowship Program.

Within the Hub there will be a focus on creative, artisanal, design, and construction education. There will be workshop space with a tool library, sample library, marketplace, co-working space, business coaching, and support services.

Architecture entrepreneurs.

Daniela Gusman, RISE co-founder and executive director, said in a statement: "To make this happen, we need to find 50 forward-thinking architects who are willing to mentor (virtually) a lucky young entrepreneur for just 6 months! To help us raise funds, they will also agree to host an in-person or virtual networking ‘lunch and learn’ with a supplier who will secure the opportunity by donating $2,000 toward...

Learning from the female architects behind Africa's tallest building

2019-08-12T16:00:00-04:00

Co-Arc International Architects director Catharine Atkins and architect Malika Walele are the leading women behind the 55-story building on Maude Street, which was designed by Co-Arc’s emeritus partner, Francois Pienaar.

In Sandton, Johannesburg stands the Leonardo, Africa's tallest building. Designed by the team of Co-Arc International Architects, the building stands at 55-stories tall and is set to be completed this year.

Besides the record-breaking height of the building, there's another aspect to this project that has made headlines: The design team behind the project is predominantly female-led. However, according to the Co-Arc team, this detail went unnoticed until a recent progress photo of the project emerged.

Co-Arc International Architects’ Director Catharine Atkins and professional architect Malika Walele are supported by Salome Daley, Janel Venter, Megan Holman, Angela Barnard, Keitsitse Losaba, Antonella Giuricich, Rachel Zwane and Mitchell Gibbon. Image courtesy of Co-Arc International Architects' Director Catharine Atkins.

According to TimesLIVE writer Alex Patrick, "The thought of an all-woman architect team doesn't sound groundbreaking until you consider only 21-percent of South Af...

David Adjaye designs memorial pavilion honoring iconic South African trumpeter Hugh Ramapolo Masekela

2019-06-14T20:29:00-04:00

The family of the revered South African trumpeter and cultural activist Hugh Ramapolo Masekela recently unveiled a memorial pavilion honoring the musician that architect David Adjaye designed. Masekela passed away last January at the age of 78.

The late Hugh Ramapolo Masekela. Photo: Brett Rubin.

Spearheaded by Masekela's family, the pavilion honors the Pan-African heritage and values that the iconic musician championed throughout his life. It also commemorates his contributions to South Africa's liberation and commitment to realizing a post-colonial Africa that impacted the shared history and memory of people in the African diaspora. The pavilion was revealed at the beginning of South Africa's Youth Month and as part of Masekela's 80th Birthday Commemoration.

Photo: Alexi Portokallis.

Adjaye's elegant design for the pavilion draws from African burial ritual practices, in which dignified structures are built to serve as a gathering place for family and visitors to remember and connec...

rise International sets to launch first architecture and design library in Lesotho, Africa

2019-05-28T14:32:00-04:00

Blending social impact practices, architecture, and economic development initiatives the non-profit organization rise International aims to build and create Lesotho's first Architecture and Design library. From now until August 1st the African Library Project will be collecting books for rise International which will be shipped on a container to Lesotho in the Fallto.

rise International (Relationships Inspiring Social Enterprise) co-founded by BOND Events uses social impact efforts to help the people in Southern Africa gain resources to create sustainable social businesses and transform communities through design and architecture practices. Since their start in 2016, the organization provides aid through their professional network in the design and architecture industry.

Container conversion project into a computer lab and tuck shop. Image courtesy of rise International

rise links asp...

One designer reimagines affordable housing in Maseru, Lesotho and wins the "rise in the city" design competition

2019-03-14T15:47:00-04:00

This week the non-profit rise International (Relationships Inspiring Social Enterprise) announced its winner of the international architecture competition which focuses on affordable housing projects. During the 2018-2019 competition, designers were challenged to design high-quality, sustainable, and energy-efficient homes for Maseru, a capitol of Lesotho in South Africa. The competition's concept site is known for their cold winters and hot summers. According to the design brief the city of Maseru was split into 100 virtual blocks that were assigned to the competition applicants. Each applicant was provided a sponsor and a mentor from well known architecture firms to provide support. One last requirement was that each design would allow for the home to be scalable, meaning one family living within the home could incrementally add extensions or the home could be replicated as a larger building.

Winning Design: "Creating Spaces" by Tanmoy Dey

Project Images & Plans; Creating Spaces ...

Students at University of Cape Town grow bio-brick made from human urine

2018-10-29T18:40:00-04:00

Students at the University of Cape Town have developed a bio-brick that mixes sand, bacteria and human urine. Unsurprisingly, it is the world's first building material to be made from the liquid waste high in nitrogen and phosphorous.

The brick is created through a process called microbial carbonate precipitation, a complex reaction that has many applications. It has been used to improve concrete's durability, as a historical preservation technique on stone, and as a way of improving soil.

Here, when urine is mixed with sand and bacteria, the resulting chemical reaction produces calcium carbonate, which hardens the mixture and forms the brick. According to the scientists, it is similar to the way seashells are formed.

In picture are (from left) the Department of Civil Engineering’s Dr Dyllon Randall and his students, Vukheta Mukhari and Suzanne Lambert.

Each brick requires about 25 to 30 liters of urine, or roughly 100 bathroom trips, and is collected from a fertilizer-producing ur...

Snøhetta and collaborators unveil a monument for Archbishop Desmond Tutu

2018-03-08T20:25:00-05:00

Designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with Local Studio and Design Indaba, the Arch for Arch stands as a monument to the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, affectionally known as “Arch” by fellow South Africans.

Desmond Tutu Memorial Arch by Snøhetta and collaborators, located in Cape Town, ZA. Image: David Southwood.

Marking the site where Tutu began many of his Anti-Apartheid protests in Cape Town, the Arch frames the public entrance to a landscaped promenade known as the Company’s Garden, home to many of the city's cultural institutions.

Desmond Tutu Memorial Arch by Snøhetta and collaborators, located in Cape Town, ZA. Image: Design Indaba.

The structure is formed from 14 strands of Siberian Larch wood, a highly durable and resistant material. The warmth of wood was intentionally selected to lend the Arch an intimate, tactile quality, that invites people to interact with the structure in a way that differs from the conventional materia...

Spirit of apartheid still alive in the architecture of South Africa's gated communities

2018-01-15T15:35:00-05:00

The prevalence of gated communities may also reveal what South Africans think constitutes middle class life. As it did under apartheid, it often means avoiding the poor unless they are servants, nannies or gardeners. Instead of creating racial segregation, gated communities often broaden the economic gap in South Africa and restricts development to privatized progress.

"As state institutions flounder, estate living has gone on to offer attached private schools and clinics," Lynsey Chutel writes for Quartz Africa. "Privatized amenities in gated communities mean citizens don’t have to hold the city accountable, which is a shame because these are the citizens who often have the power to pressure the city to do better."

First English-isiZulu architectural dictionary explains indigenous South African architecture

2017-12-11T14:03:00-05:00

Can you tell the difference between a Brakdak and an Afdak, a Sekwere or a Caka? Do you know your Domba hut from your Zulu one? An Inqolobane from an Indlu yezikhali? Give yourself a pat on the back if you do. Truly, you deserve it. However, don't worry too much if you can't, as there's a new English-isiZulu architectural dictionary, just published by UKZN Press, which contains more than 1200 entries of local architectural terms.

"I set out to study independent vernacular architecture in the 1970s, not realizing that a multitude of readings and meanings would emerge out of it," the book's co-author Franco Frescura, a former Professor and Chair of Architecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, tells HuffPost South Africa. "As I explored, many of the people I met taught me how to read various aspects of rural architecture — like where do you locate the kitchen, where do you place the wives in polygamous housing? And then I realized the value of the research."

South Africa’s new contemporary art museum opens in Cape Town’s former grain silo

2017-09-16T14:46:00-04:00

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), the world's largest museum of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, will open to the public on September 22. Zeitz MOCAA is located in a former grain silo at the V&A waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa.

Zeitz MOCAA Picture Iwan Baan

Atrium at Zeitz MOCAA. Picture Iwan Baan

Architects Mat Cash and Stepan Martinovsky are the project leaders from Heatherwick Studio. The new design transformed the existing building, creating a honeycomb shaped interior. The concrete tubes of the silo are topped with laminated glass, allowing natural sunlight to enter the building.

Atrium at Zeitz MOCAA. Picture Iwan Baan

Zeitz MOCAA is a new non-profit cultural institution with a mandate to collect, preserve, research and exhibit contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2013, it is the first major institution dedicated to contemporary art in Africa.

Built in 1921, 57 meters tall, the silos processed hundreds of thou...

Check out this eye-candy architecture from Africa

2017-08-31T12:45:00-04:00

In this round-up of notable architecture in Africa, Wired takes a closer look at projects from Morocco to South Africa, including the Lideta Mercato in Ethiopia by Xavier Vilalta and the Bosjes Chapel by Steyn Studio. As the piece notes, "Contemporary African architecture is extremely varied: it ranges from sustainable rural developments to luxury apartments and offices; from schools and hospitals to swanky safari lodges; and from huge infrastructure projects to makeshift improvisations. In all of these styles is a sensitivity to local traditions combined with on-the-ground ingenuity." It's also quite visually arresting.

Lideta Mercato by Xavier Vilalta. Image: Gonzalo Guajardo

Unequal Scenes: drone images reveal Cape Town's "architecture of apartheid"

2016-06-03T18:54:00-04:00

In any city, space is a commodity. In South African cities space is historical and emotional. A new photo series by an American living in Cape Town captures the dramatic inequality of South Africa’s most beloved city. From an aerial view, Cape Town’s scenic beauty gives way to a stark reminder of the country’s past and the continued racial segregation. [...] “Looking straight down from a height of several hundred meters, incredible scenes of inequality emerge,” he writes on his website.

On his website, Unequal Scenes, the creator of the aerial imagery, Johnny Miller, writes:

"Discrepancies in how people live are sometimes hard to see from the ground. The beauty of being able to fly is to see things from a new perspective - to see things as they really are. Looking straight down from a height of several hundred meters, incredible scenes of inequality emerge. Some communities have been expressly designed with separation in mind, and some have grown more or less organically."

"During apartheid, segregation of urban spaces was instituted as policy. Roads, rivers, “buffer zones” of empty land, and other barriers were constructed and modified to keep people separate. 22 years after the end of apartheid, many of these barriers, and the inequalities they have engendered, still exist. Oftentimes, communities of extreme wealth and privilege will exist just meters from squalid conditions and shack dwellings."

"My desire with this project is to portray the most Unequal Scenes in ...

Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: 'Cool' kids and guerrilla interventions

2016-05-27T18:05:00-04:00

The general atmosphere at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Reporting from the Front, is one of excitement, of subversion. The Fifteenth edition of the Biennale explicitly calls for instances where architecture is an “instrument of self-government, of humanist civilization, and a demonstration of the ability of humans to become masters of their own destinies.” In that spirit, the usual suspects of a Biennale move to the sidelines, giving way to those working on the ground to prove that architecture can make a difference.

Cool Capital, the South Africa Pavilion at the Arsenale, brings Pretoria to the limelight by challenging the historical interaction between citizens and public space. “Pretoria has a huge political baggage and negative connotation”, curator Pieter Mathews explains, adding that “guerrilla interventions want to look at the city with new eyes; take whatever is good from the past and use it.” The Pavilion features selected works from the Cool Capital platform—the fi...

What are the world's most violent cities?

2016-03-30T13:11:00-04:00

The thorny task of comparing crime rates across the world is tricky because legal interpretations vary. Sweden's definition of rape is not the same as America’s, for example. Murder however should be easier to record because there is an identifiable victim, something that can be counted. But the way in which this is done in poorer, often more corrupt countries makes truly comparable statistics hard to pin down. Where there are inefficient public health systems or police, it is even harder.

"Latin American and Caribbean countries suffer disproportionately compared with elsewhere, mainly because of inequality, poor rule of law, impunity and corrupt institutions that are infiltrated by drug cartels. Only two countries outside the region feature on either chart, South Africa and the United States (the list’s only rich-world country)."

The article notes the difficulty of accurately ranking cities based on crime statistics; this chart is a revision of an earlier one. But the overall picture remains the same: the world's most violent cities are in the Americas, with the one notable exception being Cape Town, South Africa. The statistics exclude war zones.

For more on crime and the city, take a look at some Archinect articles from the archive:

The many lives of Johannesburg’s notorious Ponte tower

2015-06-19T17:48:00-04:00

The Ponte saga is a classic South African story. Once a Jacuzzi-filled playground for the segregated white elite in the apartheid era, then falling into chaos in the 1990s as the wealthy fled to the suburbs, then the object of failed luxury-condo schemes, the tower is now undergoing a renaissance as an icon of Johannesburg’s urban revitalization. [...] The hollow core began to fill with garbage and rubble – several stories high.

Curbing violence through better architecture

2015-04-01T13:50:00-04:00

Alastair Graham hopes Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading, an initiative of the government of Cape Town, South Africa, will end better. He calls the effort, which has been revamping areas around train stations since 2006, part of “a package of potential solutions … either improving safety, or improving socioeconomic situation, or improving quality of life.” The project is aimed at curbing violence by augmenting the public spaces in which violent crime frequently occurs [...].

Cape Town to House New Contemporary Art Museum

2014-07-25T13:14:00-04:00

On Cape Town's waterfront at the southern tip of Africa, the world's biggest museum of contemporary art from across the continent is being carved from a conglomeration of concrete tubes nine storeys high. The $50 million (36.7 million euro) project to transform the grim functionality of 42 disused colonial grain silos into an ultramodern tribute to African creativity is driven by an international team of art experts and architects.

The project – the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa – will be designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick. "How do you turn 42 vertical concrete tubes into a place to experience contemporary culture?" the architect said. "We could either fight a building made of concrete tubes or enjoy it's tube-iness."

The museum will focus on works since 2000 and will be directed by Mark Coetzee.

David Adjaye announced as architect for urban pavilion in Johannesburg

2014-07-14T13:54:00-04:00

DESIGNING_SOUTHAFRICA (D_ZA) in collaboration with the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) and the Mayor of Johannesburg are proud to announce the construction of an urban pavilion designed by world-renowned architect David Adjaye OBE. To be constructed in a public space within the Park Station Precinct in Johannesburg’s inner city, the project will highlight this historical junction in the city, while activating underutilised public space using innovative design.

Adjaye's design will be unveiled at a public event on September 23, 2014.

Townships in South Africa: can design help solve the housing crisis?

2014-05-14T13:45:00-04:00

On the World Design Capital (WDC) website, Cape Town presents some remarkable shack design projects aimed to solve a nationwide slum problem. Yet even with more than 200 informal settlements and 600,000 residents waiting for formal housing, the Western Cape has been slow to implement the 'transformative design' it celebrates. [...] The backlog hit 2.1m units in 2013 and at least 1.9 million people (more than 10% of all households) live in shacks or other makeshift dwellings.

Apartheid ended 20 years ago, so why is Cape Town still 'a paradise for the few'?

2014-04-30T14:16:00-04:00

The South African city is World Design Capital 2014, yet residents of Khayelitsha township live in cramped, unhygienic conditions. The need for long-promised urban reform is urgent. [...] “Cape Town is a paradise for the minority, but I could hope for a city where everyone has access to the same opportunities that I have,” says Wolff. “Mandela may have postponed revolution – but for how much longer is the question.”

Vacation at a Fake Shanty Town With Luxury Amenities

2013-12-02T16:30:00-05:00

Are you interested in visiting South Africa? Interested in seeing the real South Africa? Interested in experiencing how the real people live? Interested in tasting the poverty and hardship of life in a shanty town? And—most importantly—are you fearful and white? Congratulations! You're a perfect guest for the Shanty Town at Emoya Luxury Hotel and Spa, where, for less than $100 a night, you can get the authentic experience of living in a shanty town—without the bothersome shanty dwellers.