2016 Corobrik
Architectural Student of the Year Awards
The Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards, which has spanned three decades, has seen considerable changes in how young professionals in the architectural profession approach the built environment. Today, technological advances and sustainability imperatives are driving creativity.
Innovation with a view to lightening the built environment’ s environmental footprint, together with an innate understanding of social and cultural imperatives within South Africa, are just some of the reasons why this year’ s judges singled out the winner for 2016.
Corobrik Managing Director, Dirk Meyer, thanked this year’ s judges for their invaluable input.
The Judges
• Andre Eksteen, multi-award winning co-director at Earthworld Architects & Interiors;
• Tunde Oluwa, sustainable development guru and founder of Odyssey Architects SA; and
• Tanzeem Razak, who is passionate about spatial transformation in South African cities and director and founding partner of Lemon Pebble Architects in Johannesburg. Awarded a prize of R50,000, the winner, Jean-
Pierre Desvaux De Marigny, was one of eight regional winners from the country’ s major universities who were chosen during 2016. Each winner became a finalist who competed for the national title.
JEAN-PIERRE DESVAUX DE MARIGNY- NATIONAL WINNER UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL
Design for [ bio ] – Diversity
JP’ s thesis explored the potential of architecture for ecological conservation; proposing an environmental awareness and water research facility in the context of Springfield industrial park / uMgeni River catchment area in Durban.
Research revealed that human existence relies heavily on bio diverse ecosystems to survive. However, as population increases, urbanisation and industrialisation occurs, resulting in natural areas often being exploited and degraded, most critically affecting the earth’ s fresh water systems.
De Marigny’ s proposed architectural solution aimed to draw an analogy between the machine-dominated environment of the Springfield industrial park and the
70 Student Awards