Meet Dr Emmanuel Nkambule Dr Nkambule grew up in a rural informal settlement in eMabeleni, Swaziland. He completed high school at a missionary school in Mbabane, Swaziland, before pursuing a BSc degree in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Swaziland in 2002, but architecture remained his true passion. For an entire year, he travelled from Swaziland to apply to study architecture at various tertiary institutions with no success. He considered studying at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, but it was not financially viable. He applied at the University of Pretoria and finally enrolled to study Architecture in 2003. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Pretoria in 2008. His dissertation, entitled “The rise of the black people” focused on housing, giving a holistic view of socio-economic issues in the township of Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, and providing ways designers and architects can address these issues. Even though it sparked some controversy from his lecturers, it earned him Corobrik awards in the categories of Best Use of Brick in Design, Best Average for Design and Technical Documentation and Architectural Student of the Year in 2008. “I’ve always been interested in the microscale socio-economic dynamics of informal settlements. People will use whatever they can to create a sense of survival,” he says. During the apartheid years, black people could not trade, so people would hide their stock in their homes, which gave rise to “spaza” shops. These shops and the way shacks are constructed with a mixture of different materials, which makes them colourful and gives them character, inspired Dr Nkambule’s research. “I realise that people without any training will always find a means of survival.”
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