Photographer: Phillip Santos
WITS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING (SoAP)
NEWSLETTER Welcome to 2022
Contents Message from the Head of School: Professor Nnamdi Elleh
2
Welcome Note from the Director of the Architecture Programme - 2022
3
Welcome Note from the Director of the Planning Programme - 2022
4
Announcements: • SACAP and CAA Accreditation Renewed for the Next Five Years • Venue Upgrades
4
The Built Environment Precinct Extension and Redevelopment
5
Exhibitions and Events • SoAP’s End of Year Exhibition and Corobrik Awards • Architecture of Interwar Kaunas: Lecture and Exhibition Opening • BAS Honours Lecture Series • SoAP’s Online Prizegiving Ceremony and Exhibition Research Centres • TU Berlin and UNILAG • CUBES • South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning • Campus Innovation Laboratory Archives Staff and Student News and Publications • Felicia May Johnston Scholarship • Staff Promotions in 2021 • Loeb Fellowship: Dr Mpho Matsipa • Welcoming SoAP’s New School Admin Manager • “IT Administrator at the Forefront, providing innovative online learning solutions” • Troubled Surfaces: Brigitta Stone Johnson • Falling Monuments Reluctant Ruins: Prof. Hilton Judin (ed.) • In Whose Place?
Message from the Head of School: Professor Nnamdi Elleh
6 12 14 16
A Six-Million Rand Centenary Anniversary Scholarship Endowment for SoAP’s Students
16 17 18
Welcome back to the 2022 Academic School Year, and Happy Centenary Anniversary to SoAP, FEBE, and Wits.
21
The SoAP congratulates Dean Thokozani Majozi for his new leadership post in FEBE.
22
The Centenary Anniversary is happening in a period of a consequential global pandemic that is compelling us to rethink, innovate, and consolidate our teaching and research methods, whilst maintaining accreditation standards in the architectural and the planning disciplines. In 2021, we were sad to lose our School Admin Manager, Vasentha Naidu, and also Senior Lecturer Dr Gerald Chungu. The resilience of the staff and the students, the support of the Wits’ administration, encouragement from the alumni, professionals, and the community, have helped us through the challenges of the times.
24 24 25 25 25 26 27 27
Students’ Forum
28
Alumni News
29
Welcome Note from the Director of the Architecture Programme - 2022
new modes of teaching and learning. We would like to thank Garret Gantner, all the architecture staff, and all the members of SoAP, staff and students, for their contributions to the SACAP Architectural Programme Accreditation, and to the School’s Quinquennial Review process.
The staff (Academic, Admin, and IT Administrator) went beyond the call of duty to support all students in their studies. SoAP is grateful for everyone’s contributions. Also, we commend the students for their patience and for the adjustments made to the 2
This is a momentous time for students to be joining us at Wits. This year, both Wits and the architecture programme celebrate 100 years of educating the professionals that shape the built environment around us.
We acknowledge the exceptional contributions of the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and Planning (SA&CP), (headed by Professor Phil Harrison); the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES), (Professor Marie Huchzermeyer); the Wits-TUB Urban Lab Project collaboration, funded by the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD), (Professor Marie Huchzermeyer and Professor Mfaniseni Sihlongonyane); the s’Fanakalo Makerspace, (Dirk Bahmann); Library Archives and Collections, (Professor Hannah le Roux and Bongi Mphuti); and the Campus Innovation Laboratory (CIL), (Professor Nnamdi Elleh and Ludwig Hansen). SoAP is grateful to Garret Gantner, the Director of the Architecture Programme, and Professor Mfaniseni Sihlongonyane, the Director of the Planning Programme, for their leadership.
As a profession, and an institution, we have learned many things over this century-long journey. Today, in what we can only hope is the tail end of the COVID pandemic, we are both figuratively and literally breaking new ground. For the first time, we will begin hybrid digital/ in-person forms of teaching, capitalising on the benefits of remote learning, but without the same isolation and impediments to teaching without ever meeting students face-toface. In this way, we are beginning to reshape the future of tertiary education. The new ground being broken this year is not limited to the digital or teaching realms, however. We have quite literally broken ground on a renovation and new building, to be constructed this year, which will provide new spaces and new opportunities both for our School and the School of Construction Economics & Management, and which demonstrates the commitment of the University to the built environment professions.
We are continuing to expand collaboration with alumni and members of the professional community in the Theory & Practice programmes, whilst exploring areas of mutual interest with African universities and beyond. SoAP is celebrating the Centenary Anniversary with a Six Million Rand (ZAR) scholarship/endowment seed-fund for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The specifics and the time for the initial awards will be announced in the near future. The groundwork for this endowment was begun in 2018, and it is our hope that these funds will grow to benefit the students at SoAP for years to come, while contributing to making it a centre of excellence in teaching, learning, research and innovation among the top universities of the world in the fields of architecture and planning.
We are slowly, but methodically, breaking new ground in other ways as well. Each year, our curriculum pushes further and further away from the limiting, and probably antiquated, vision of an architect as someone who only designs buildings. To be impactful in meeting today’s needs, students – and practicing professionals – need to have a broad understanding not just of architectural design, but also of social and ecological systems which make each intervention a unique and emboldening undertaking.
We also thank the members of SoAP’s Industry Advisory Board for their contributions to the infrastructure development and the endowment initiatives which are now coming to fruition. The board is instrumental in developing the vision and the strategy for the achievement of these goals.
The architecture programmes at Wits are being increasingly designed to provide a gateway to a potentially diverse field of professional career paths, both within the architectural discipline or peripheral to it. From the onset, students are immersed in comprehensive lectures and design laboratories that are grounded in critical thinking and investigation of building component assembly processes: design, culture, construction, structures, technology, sustainable environment concepts, history, and theory. Students are taught collaboratively by staff and practitioners who bring the latest trends in
Best wishes for health, productivity, and satisfaction in the new school year, and Happy Centenary. Nnamdi Elleh, Head of School 3
The Programme provides students with access to a wealth of library and seminar resources. We hope our online resources will enrich your studies at this challenging time, and that you and your communities are coping. Details of the programs can be found in our online at https://www.wits.ac.za/ archplan/planning/; please check this site regularly for updates and changes.
building design, construction, and technology to the studio in a pedagogical process that combines theory and practice. We welcome you to Wits, and hope you enjoy the educational journey we’ll be going on together. Garret Gantner Senior Lecturer & Architecture Programme Director
The COVID 19 pandemic is not over but I hope we can work together to manage and make 2022 as successful year.
Welcome Note from the Director of the Planning Programme - 2022
Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane Professor of Development Studies and Urban Studies Director of the Planning Programme
Welcome to the new academic year 2022 in the Planning Programme! On behalf of the entire team of planning staff, I am delighted to invite you to join us in a long-standing academic tradition of dedication, innovation and excellence.
Mask | distance | wash
Announcements: SACAP and CAA Accreditation Renewed for the Next Five Years
Each year, the Planning Programme welcomes the most promising students to immerse them into our dynamic and engaging curriculum, shaping them into socially conscientious, innovative, and creative individuals while encouraging them to crossdisciplinary boundaries.
In October 2021 Wits SoAP received an unconditional stamp of accreditation for all three degrees in the Architecture Programme in a combined South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP) and Commonwealth Association for Architects (CAA) validation. The Validation Board praised the School for its innovative architecture programme, commenting on its responsiveness to context; integration of indigenous knowledge into curriculum content in the learning experience of students; and addressing of the broader global climate and social challenges.
The Programme offers two degrees, a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning and a Masters in Development Planning, which are fully accredited by the South African Council for Planners, a statutory body responsible regulating the Planning Profession. In the Programme, we strongly believe in the principle of experiential learning by saturating our students with hands-on experimental opportunities, both in formal classes and through directed studio and field research opportunities as well as independent study. Rather than “teaching as banking,” in which the educator deposits information into students’ heads; like Paulo Freire, the Brazilian philosopher, the Programme views teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which the student must invent and reinvent the world. Thus, the cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in the Programme.
The Built Environment Precinct Extension and Redevelopment The Built Environment Precinct Planning is a priority DHET project to provide additional accommodation for the John Moffat Annex and Construction and Economic Management (CEM) building with a new link building to connect CEM, John Moffat and the John Moffat Annex. The new scheme prioritises social spaces, shared breakaway spaces for CEM and SoAP, and provides accommodation for new CAD labs and studios, as well as a postgraduate hub. The project is being implemented in a phased approach and the School looks forward to accessing the new facilities in late 2022 and in 2023.
Venue Upgrades The School has invested in hybrid technology to meet the demands of online / incontact teaching. Hybrid technology is the implementation of an effective solution to combine incontact with remote learning simultaneously. The School has upgraded its John Moffat venues to meet the demands of Hybrid teaching moving forward. TUBS funded hybrid upgrade to the PG room. The following venues will be upgraded by the School for hybrid use • New Seminar Room • Far west seminar room • 1st floor seminar room • Masters studio
The staff in the Programme always explore new directions for development in response to the changing intellectual and political climate inside and outside the country. Our individual research topics engage a range of contemporary issues. This research informs the courses we teach. 4
Images courtesy of Lemon Pebble Architects and Urban Designers
5
From the Third Year Architecture and Planning Studios Student work featured in the All-Third-Year Portfolio Document: [in] Process 2021
Architecture Design and Theory
Studio Masters: Melinda Silverman and Sandra Felix
Verena Morkos 21ST CENTURY LIBRARY
Exhibitions and Events SoAP’s end of year exhibition and Corobrik Awards SoAP’s end of year exhibition and Corobrik Awards was opened on the 10th of December 2021 with a lecture presented by Sithabile Mathe, founder of Moralo Designs, Gaborone, Botswana.
Stefan Van Heerden BEYERS NAUDE LIBRARY
The Third Year Portfolio Document showcases the work of the third year architecture and planning students. This is the second edition of this All-Third Year Portfolio Document titled [in] Process 2021. The Masters In Architecture Year-end Exhibition showcases the work of this year’s masters students, as well as presenting an archive of the 2020 masters students. The First Year Design Selected Films Showreel 2021, from the Architectural Design and Theory course, involves film, storytelling animation, models and sketches as part of the design process. The student work explores theoretical themes of myth, ecology, architecture and ritual, and narrative in architecture.
First Year Selected Films Showreel 2021
6
Boitumelo Morobe A LIBRARY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 7
Local Planning and Urban Design
Applications in Graphic and Spatial Applications in Planning Studio Master: Nkosilenhle Mavuso
Studio Master: Mawabo Msingaphantsi
Raevaldo van Rooyen LOEMBE FREEDOMLANE
Inez Adams SIYIMBUMBA, WE ARE TOGETHER
8
Nzuzo Dlamini, Nonjabulo Magubane & Takalani Malivhadza DIEPSLOOT BIOLOGY 9
Congratulations to SoAP’s M.Arch students and to the Corobrik Award Winners.
You can visit the online exhibition: https://www.wits.ac.za/archplan/theory-and-practice/exhibitions-theory-and-practice-series/2021exhibitions/
Corobrik Bonus Prize: Philisani Nkqeto CODING CAMP YASELALINI
Corobrik Second Prize: Mahdiyah Thokan THINK BOX
Corobrik Second Prize: Ural Chetty A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Corobrik First Prize: Enrico Pescivolo OBSOLES[S]ENCE
10
11
Architecture of Interwar Kaunas: Lecture and Exhibition Opening On the 26th of October 2021, SoAP held a hybrid event with participants joining virtually from across the country and from Lithuania, as well a small number of guests at John Moffat, for the first inperson public event that SoAP has held since the start of the lockdown in 2020. Marija Drėmaitė, Secretary General of the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO and a Professor at Vilnius University, Faculty of History, presented the lecture: Architecture of Optimism: Building a Modern Capital in Kaunas, Lithuania, 1919–1939. The exhibition which was installed in the John Moffat Foyer, introduced the objects of modern architecture built in Kaunas in the 1920s and the 1930s as a doubtless achievement of the country’s cultural, intellectual and state maturity. During two decades Kaunas was the capital of Lithuania, thus developing from a marginal provincial town into an important architectural centre of the region, which was following the modern architecture of interwar Europe and interpreting it in local context.
Installation in John Moffat done by Dirk Bahmann and Wayne Matthews Photographs of installation (above) taken by Sally Gaule Photographs of event (right) taken by Hashim Tarmahomed
12
As Lithuania seeks to inscribe Kaunas Modernist architecture on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, together with the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, present the exhibition “ARCHITECTURE OF INTERWAR KAUNAS”. 13
BAS Honours Lecture Series
the course of the third quarter of 2020. The lectures were recorded and are available to view on SoAP’s YouTube Channel:
In 2020, the “BAS Honours Lecture Series: Project Objectives and Design Methodology” gave a platform to SoAP alumni, including both established practitioners and recent SoAP graduates, as well as other speakers, to present their work to an online audience of students and professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BAS Honours Lecture Series was attended by over 2000 professionals, as well as by students as part of their curriculum, over
BAS Honours Design Semester Two: Mash-Up Studio Projects
https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCEcGU9KkVKUa8ErYP45cruw
The 2021 BAS Honours Lecture Series (Mash-Up Studio) complemented a design studio dealing with mixed use buildings, with a “mash-up” of programme, people and their mutual performance – ultimately asking – how will we live together? The series of talks looked at the contemporary production of shared spaces across continents, from different professional perspectives, realised projects and imaginary propositions. It was organized by Nabeel Essa and Kirsten Dormann, with support of Gustavo Triana Martinez.
In 2021, the series continued, hosting four speakers: Tanzeem Razak; Lwando Xaso; Duzan Doepel; and Marc Frohn
Caitlin Ho FARM + KITCHEN + TABLE
Reuben Visser THE GREEN RAMP 14
15
SoAP’s Online Prizegiving Ceremony and Exhibition The 2020 Prizewinning Projects Exhibition was launched online in May 2021, with a virtual awards ceremony held. https://accounts88636.wixsite.com/planning/2020prizewinner-s-exhibition
CUBES Congratulations to Professor Marie Huchzermeyer, who will be taking up the Directorship of CUBES from January 2022 through to December 2024. We wish you every success. Marie will be communicating with staff and students in due course to discuss plans for CUBES for this period.
South African Institute for Steel 1st Year Construction Prize: Benjamin Borchers FANAKALO AND INYOKA
Research Centres TU Berlin and UNILAG
and TUB, fellow PhD students and colleagues in the network that the project has built across the continent. The project made a selection of four new PhD candidates to start their studies in SOAP in 2022, with a parallel cohort starting at UNILAG.
Collaboration with TU Berlin and University of Lagos secured up to 2025 The year 2021 was the first year of the second phase (2021-2025) of the Wits-TUB (TU Berlin)UNILAG (University of Lagos) Urban Lab collaboration. The project in funded under the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD’s SDG Schools’ initiative. Its core team within SoAP consists of Professor Fana Sihlongonyane, Professor Marie Huchzermeyer, Dr Tsepang Leuta, Taki Sithagu, postdoc Dr Carmel Rawhani and part time administrator Zakiyyah Ayob. With the counterparts at the Habitat Unit of TU Berlin’s Architecture School and UNILAG’s Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development of University of Lagos (CHSUNILAG), the project in 2021 hosted several highly successful online seminars aimed at helping young scholars bridge from PhD studies into academic careers.
The project’s research focus entails a critical reflection on urban resilience; urban justice as a key response to inequality and informality and the global endeavour to leave no one behind; Solidarity, self-reliance, and the embrace of plural knowledge systems, incorporating decolonial thought as well as transdisciplinary and coproduction. In 2021, the project team across the three universities conceptualised an edited book, which is planned for completion early in 2024 to coincide with a large project conference at Wits. Whereas project travel could not take place in 2021, the project is optimistic that staff and student mobilities between the three universities will materialise in the course of 2022, possibly supplemented by competitively awarded Erasmus Plus mobilities for staff and PhD students. This year also promises to be eventful as the university marks its 100th anniversary this year.
At SoAP, the project funded several masters bursaries for the MUS (Urban Management) and conducted its selection for the 2022 cohort (a similar process took place at UNILAG). It also assisted the PhD cohort from the first phase towards concluding their theses. The year 2021 saw the first of six PhD candidates supported by the project (and co-supervised by TUB) passing examination. The project would like to commemorate Mamonyane Mokoena, one of the PhD students who, at an advanced stage in her PhD studies, tragically passed away. Mamnonyane, with her gentle and mature nature, touched the lives of the project team at Wits
I hope we can all, with acts of imagination and inquiry set agency into motion, making it possible to re-imagine the world, re-frame problems, and effectively re-define “normal” this year. Thank you for all you have done, and in advance, for all we will do together in the days, weeks, and months to come as we move our future forward.
16
In 2020, the fifth Southern Africa City Studies Conference (SACSC) was held virtually between 31 August and 4 September. SACSC 2020 was a large, highly successful logistical undertaking held online over 5 days, with over 900 participants from diverse parts of the world. It was co-hosted by the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES), the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), and the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP), in association with a network of South African urban research units. Since 2009, the SACSC series has provided an interdisciplinary forum for researchers examining urban issues in Southern Africa.
17
In 2021 CUBES and SA&CP made excellent progress with two important grant-funded and multi-institution research initiatives, despite having had to adapt methods in response to the COVID-19 situation: •
•
explores the interrelationship between work (formal and informal) and housing, and how youth experience and shape this. It uses a case study in Gauteng and in Hawassa, building on aspects of the 3-year Living the Urban Peripheries Project which CUBES members were previously involved in.
Funded by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF), the project Micro-dynamics and Macro-processes: a Maputo-Johannesburg comparative study of intra-household decision-making and state-investment in transit was undertaken in collaboration with colleagues at SA&CP, GCRO and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maptuo, with support from University of Sheffield and ETH Zurich. Student from Wits (Hons and Masters), and Universisdade Eduardo Mondlane were involved. The research investigated household experiences of public transport in Gauteng and in Maputo, with results to be released in 2022.
Throughout 2021, CUBES members continued their technical and strategic support to the Slovo Park community in their longstanding battle for appropriate informal settlement upgrading. CUBES also ran a series of seminars on the theme of Public Space in the weekly Faces of the City (FoTC) sessions hosted online in Semester 1 of 2021. The draft manuscript of the edited collection Practices of the state in urban governance, reflections from South African cities has been sent out for review. The book is under the editorship of CUBES associate and former director Prof Claire Benit-Gbaffou, and has a number of chapter contributions from staff in the School. Also in 2020 and 2021, CUBES hosted two highly productive post-doctoral fellows, Dr Njabulo Chipangura and Dr Temba Middleman.
Youth and the work/housing nexus is a very substantial British Academy-funded project led by the University of Sheffield with partners from CUBES and SA&CP, as well as the University of Hawassa, Ethiopia. This
South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP)
The Agonistic City? State Society Strife in Johannesburg by SA&CP’s former post-doctoral fellow, Li Pernegger.
THE AGONISTIC CITY? State-society strife in Johannesburg
Li Pernegger
The Agnostic City? Is an exploration of post-apartheid Johannesburg’s city administration’s governance of conflict from 1996 to the present day, as it relates to the service delivery protests and shifts in city policy. The author, Li Pernegger, focuses in-depth on the water wars in Orange Far, insurgent informal traders in the inner city, and the billing battle fought by the middle class. This book provides a profound understanding of the facets of these protests: from local state’s qualification of the conflicts, its portrayals of protestors, its agnostic and antagonistic response to protestors’ claims, to the power dynamics involved, and the form of agreement reached. Li Pernegger considers what practical prospects of agonsim might be for local government, and possible ways of regarding city strife in its practices of governance as a constructive – rather than destructive – force for change, as well as the realisation of democratic ideas for its ordinary citizens.
Nov 2020 | 9781786999092 | Hardback | £65.00 | 240pp
OUT NOW
Densifying the City? Global Cases and Johannesburg edited by Margot Rubin, Alison Todes, Philip Harrison and Alexandra Appelbaum. Providing an in-depth-exploration of the complexities of densification policy and processes, this book brings the important experiences of densification in Johannesburg into conversation with a range of cities in Africa, the BRICS countries and the Global North. It moves beyond the divisive debate over whether densification is good or bad, adding nuance and complexity to the calls from multilateral organisations for densification as a key urban strategy. Using empirical work in a comparative frame, Densifying the City? examines how densification policies and processes have manifested often in unanticipated or contrary ways. It offers important insights into resident –led densification and the processes and motivations that drives these activities. This will be an invigorating read for urban studies and urban planning scholars looking to move beyond a basic understanding densifying cities to understanding the strategy behind it and its successes. Urban policy makers will also appreciate the use of key case studies throughout the book.
cities. The Chair continues with a range of research activities with national and international partners and, locally also, in close collaboration with CUBES and the GCRO. Among our recent publications were the books Densifying the City and The Agonistic City. Among ongoing initiatives are book projects on ‘Planning in South Africa since 2008’, ‘The Governance of the COVID pandemic in Gauteng’, ‘Governance of CityRegions in the BRICS’ and ‘The Governance of the Housing Sector in Africa’. During 2021, the Chair has worked on strengthening the research infrastructure for handing spatial data and will shortly be opening a small specialist laboratory on Spatial Analytics. Initial work in the area of spatial analytics included the development of One City, an App for urban management, with partners in Moscow and London.
The SA&CP was sad to take leave of Professor Margot Rubin who has taken up a position at the University of Wales in Cardiff, and Dr. Miriam Maina who was granted a fellowship at the University of Manchester. We have however welcomed Dr. Sylvia Croese into our team as Senior Researcher and Project Manager, for the European Union funded project, Making Africa Urban (MAU). This multi-year project is a comparative exploration of mega urban projects in Dar es Salaam, Accra, and Lilongwe, and is a partnership with University College London (UCL) and academic institutions within these
18
19
Campus Innovation Laboratory The Wits-VITS and Reflections on COVID-19 Monographs Wits-VITS Special Welcome Edition This collection is the product of student work and lecturer contributions to the ‘Settlements and Architectural Histories and Theories’ course (ARPL 1027 and ARPL 1014), first presented as a combined architecture and planning course in 2019. Wits-VITS Director and Founder: Professor Nnamdi Elleh Wits-VITS Programme Coordinator: Patricia Theron An initiative of the Campus Innovation Laboratory (CIL) and Property and Infrastructure Management Development
Reflections on COVID-19 Special Farewell Edition This Monograph contains student and staff reflections on the 2020 academic year at the Wits School of Architecture and Planning, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This collection of essays includes a selection of the contributions received as part of a School-wide Call For Papers.
Lockdown Diaries The second issue of the City Lockdown Diaries research project in Gauteng presents insights on street life, access to shops, and the experience of social distancing across different neighborhoods, during the 35-day Level-5 lockdown in March 2020, featuring new artwork from Kagiso Diale.
Project Directors: Professor Nnamdi Elleh and Ludwig Hansen Project Coordinator: Patricia Theron
The City Lockdown Diaries is a 3-part series of publications that share the findings from the City Lockdown Diaries project. This research project was formulated by researchers at the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
An initiative of the Campus Innovation Laboratory (CIL) and Property and Infrastructure Management Development
Researched and written by Sarita Pillay Gonzalez and Dr. Miriam Maina Artwork by Kagiso Diale (Bachelor’s in Architectural Studies graduate from SoAP). Download a copy at the link:
If you would like to order copies of the monographs, please email media.soap@wits.ac.za to place an order
https://www.wits.ac.za/sacp/news-and-opinion/news-items/city-lockdown-diaries.html?fbclid=IwAR2OZoHPWDZqa BU1jsegy-g0742R3i29AddgGfgugrthJVg3RMXDeykJwyw 20
21
Archives to the School of Architecture and Planning. In 2020, he sent the design drawings from his personal archives to the architecture archives, where they will be conserved and digitised. They join three drawings done by Michael as a student that have been kept in the architecture archives since the 1950s. Brendan Hart has already drawn on the Sutton fonds for teaching Honours students the use of archives for exhibitions, and for a conference paper for Docomomo, the international organisation for the documentation and conservation of modern movement architecture.
Michael Sutton gifts Michael William Kitt Sutton is one of South Africa and Wits’ most admired architecture graduates. Born Deaf in 1928, his parents had the determination and means to give his sister Ann Sutton and him the best possible education at the time by moving to England. On return to South Africa after WWII, he worked for the architect Steffen Ahrends (designer of the Umthombo Building at Wits), while he pursued the subjects to get admitted to Wits in 1951. Michael has expressed appreciation for the lecturers and fellow students who helped him in his studies, and he graduated as an architect in 1956. His autobiographical notes, 2015, explain that his best friend and companion, Tom Russell, persuaded him to start a practice, which he did with John Griffiths and then David Walker, allowing him time to travel and eventually emigrate to Greece. In both that country and in South Africa, Michael designed houses and public buildings that received the highest praise. Sutton homes are sought after by architects and designers.
In 2021, Michael Sutton donated funds to sponsor two deaf students to study architecture or an allied design course. The intention of Wits is to give the best support possible for the grant recipients to succeed in their studies. Towards this, the ideal is for two students to be admitted to the same year of study, for peer support, and to share interpreters. Student peers and lecturers will also be encouraged to do the online course in South African Sign Language developed by the Wits Centre for Deaf Studies in order to better communicate with the students. The School welcomes referrals for these bursaries.
Michael, who still does some architectural commissions in his 90s, has reconnected with his alma mater. He has since made two generous gifts
Student work undertaken in the ARPL 4004 - Advanced History of Architecture and Urbanism offered as part of the BAS Honours. Group work by Nzoli Kubanza; Tabane Matabane; Nhlaloko Rikhotso; Skhumbuzo Ndlovu. House Goodman, Michael Sutton
22
23
Staff and Student News and Publications The 1st semester Advanced Design Studio asked students to explore a ‘World After Ruination’, through the manipulation of infrastructures as a form of architecture. Hope looked at the reintroduction of wetlands into our urban and suburban areas by re-appropriating private gardens in Houghton to serve common interests in Yeoville, in existing multi story buildings. The proposition considered the frog as a measuring device for successful biophilic conditions of life in Johannesburg. The studio was conceptualized by Dr Mpho Matsipa and Kirsten Dormann, with Prof Diaan van der Westhuizen.
Felicia May Johnston Scholarship We congratulate the 2021-2022 scholarship recipient Hope Linden on the completion of her BAS Honours degree and the 2020-2021 recipient Ruvimbo Nyamupanedengu on the completion of the Masters in Architecture Professional degree. The Felicia May Johnston Scholarship is a two-year scholarship awarded to an academically strong female student for her BAS Honours and M.Arch Prof studies. The scholarship is in memory of Felicia May Johnston, a distinguished alumnus of the School.
frog andthe infrastructural system Wetlands The taking over plots use ofisaplaced frog asinathe measurement tool and trackerand thatshows movesthe with the body of The horizontalThe wetland private property backyard throughout system. The infrastructural is used to circulate the water decolonizationwater of the backyard the garden on upmarket propertiessystem and expropriates a continuous vertical and horizontal wetland with filtered their use. Thewithin horizontal wetland cycle takingfeeding over thethe plots changes the existing water for theIntroducing species and animals survival andsuburban a sustained environment of the area. more species into the areasupply and of water for the green facade and backyard wetland. replacing the implemented traditional boundary wall with sickle-leaved yellowwood trees.
Hope Linden WORLD AFTER RUINATION Staff Promotions in 2021
Congratulations to Dr Leuta and Dr Mpho Matsipa, who were both promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021, and to Prof Fana Sihlongonyane for his promotion to Full Professor.
Dr Mpho Matsipa has been awarded the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s (Harvard GSD) Loeb Fellowship along with a cohort of ten innovators who work across activism, urbanism, public art, film and media, technology, real estate development, and other fields that engage with the built environment and social outcomes. Each year, Harvard GSD’s Loeb Fellowship welcomes a cohort of exceptional mid-career practitioners through a highly competitive, global application process. The fellowship includes a one-year residency on Harvard GSD’s campus, engaging in research, auditing courses, and attending and participating on panels and at conferences as a way of furthering knowledge and expanding their work through social engagement. The ten 2022 Loeb Fellows were selected from among 134 candidates, and join a powerful worldwide network of over 450 lifelong Loeb Fellows.
SoAP takes this opportunity to welcome Ms. Motsei Choabi, the new School Admin Manager who has joined our staff. In her previous role she was the Programme Coordinator at the Wits School of Business.
https://loebfellowship.gsd.harvard.edu/fellowsalumni/current-fellows/ Publication e-flux: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/ solicited-proposals/423149/the-queue/
“IT Administrator at the forefront, providing innovative online learning solutions”
Talks: Keynote Address, Harvard GSD, Black in Design Conference: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=u6Sm7SLcQkU MIT Lecture Series : Conversations on Care: https://vimeo.com/632357344 Cooper Union Lecture Series: https://cooper. edu/events-and-exhibitions/events/pluriversalbewildered-and-otherwise-lecture-series-mphomatsipa Prof. Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane
Dr Tsepang Leuta
24
Congratulations to Steven Blumberg who has been profiled as a ‘Wits Hero’. We are glad to see his service and dedication recognised. https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/ourpeople/2021/it-administrator-at-the-forefrontproviding-innovative-online-learning-solutions.html ?fbclid=IwAR2W87SfPT05281gRW1hGPyW7QG4COtqGIPgHu5mrKVQgu_AxKBVgNG7Pc
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77wi6vY3G_4 25
Brigitta Stone-Johnson’s ‘Troubled Surfaces’ exhibition opened on 11th of August at the Wits Art Museum (WAM). ‘Troubled Surfaces’ elevates the stony terrains of Johannesburg, exploring the inherent social life of the city’s stones at our feet. Drawing on her architectural background, StoneJohnson examines Johannesburg through the lens of a mining city in a state of post-extractive fragmentation, and reflects on how the slow erosion of the city’s surfaces gives way to a feral urban terrain of stony materials and their social vitality. Troubled Surfaces contemplates stony materials’ liveliness as they decay, fragment, gather and
grow through repetitive and embodied practices. As a result, the artworks in the exhibition have been made in the processes that the artist has observed within the urban landscapes: fragmenting, weathering, gathering and growing. The exhibition is envisioned as an interactive landscape, and presents opportunities to consider the context of Johannesburg’s urban terrain, its dislocations and entanglements with human networks and the possible journeys that have brought the city to where it is now. The exhibition forms part of the artist’s submission towards a Creative PhD in the Wits School of Arts.
Adjunct Professor Hilton Judin was Editor of the book Falling Monuments, Reluctant Ruins: Persistence of the Past in the Architecture and Infrastructure of Apartheid, published in 2021. The Wits History Workshop, Wits School of Architecture and Planning, and Wits University Press held an online book launch on the 7th of September 2021.
The international online conference: In Whose Place? Confronting the vestiges of colonial landscape in Africa was held on the 20-21 May 2021, and hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand: History Workshop and the School of Architecture and Planning, with the support of the EU National Institutes for Culture.
Artwork by Brigitta Stone-Johnson
Read about her project, ‘Resistance To Ruin Lithic Encounters’ at the link: https://airtable.com/ shreEePrAUMa0EpOM/tblNfqOtiKr0NfiyT
26
27
Students’ Forum
Alumni News
Hi There Friends! We are the newly elected School Student Council in the School of Architecture and Planning. The council currently comprises of six members. Please see the members’ names below and the portfolios they are serving:
WITS SoAP graduates Sumayya Vally, Sarah de Villiers and Amina Kaskar, designed the 2021 Serpentine Pavilion. Congratulations to them on this achievement.
“The pavilion is itself conceived as an event – the coming together of a variety of forms from across London over the course of the pavilion’s sojourn.”Sumaya Vally.
Congratulations to Rebel Base Collective on receiving a GIFA Award of Merit 2021 for the new pavilion over the open terrace of the Country Club Johannesburg in Auckland Park. Rebel Base Collective is headed by SoAP alumnus Vedhant Maharaj, who was Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year in 2016 in the national competition.
to perennial climatic comfort; while tantalizing the senses with its undulations. Only master craftsmanship could produce this form, which the architect refers to as ‘hand-made’. The resulting atmosphere is surprisingly ‘easy’, directing views towards the lush green landscaped gardens. This piece has sparked much controversy and must be acknowledged for its daring engagement with heritage; electing to hold its own rather than fade into the background.
The Ode to Oak is an esoteric yet relatable collaboration with the existing heritage structure. The sculpture is meticulously crafted to respond
Chairperson: Sihle Pasurayi
Deputy Chairperson: Tshegofatso Sekgejane
Secretary: Itumeleng Molele
Vedhant Maharaj of Rebel Base Collective presented a lecture for the BAS Honours Lecture Series 2021 which is available for viewing on SoAP’s YouTube Channel at the link: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=dImEXcV7MPQ
Deputy Secretary: Leticia du Plessis
Treasurer: Thandeka Bosman
Grievance Officer: Sankara Gibbs
It gives us great pleasure to explain to you how we plan on serving our term in office while lending a helping hand to fellow students. Feel free to email us at: soapstudentcouncil@gmail.com. We encourage students to come to us with any concerns regarding: academic exclusions, unfair grading, SEXUAL HARASSMENT or MISCONDUCT, lack of funding, information regarding events, lack of resources, or any issues you feel the council might be able to assist you with. Our door is and always will be open and we are available to hear any grievances that students might have. We look forward to helping you in progressive ways. We hope to have a successful, productive and impactful term in office. Please follow our accounts on the following social media platforms: Instagram: @witssoapssc Twitter: @WITSSoAPSSC Until next time peeps! 28
Image courtesy of Rebel Base Collective
29