Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa May/June 2014

2013 Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards T he Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards were created to promote quality design and to acknowledge talent among architectural students. In its 27th year, the prestigious annual event, which was held at The Maslow, Sandton, on 9 April 2014, continues to showcase excellence and forward thinking. Corobrik Managing Director, Dirk Meyer, said that in recent years, there had been an exciting evolution in the architectural debate surrounding issues related to sustainability which was clearly manifesting in the work and thinking of the architects of tomorrow. This new urban architecture not only concentrated on top-of-mind environmental issues but on more deep-rooted social issues associated with the creation of a built environment that addressed the needs of its users and created a sense of place. Through rejuvenating tired or dilapidated structures and spaces, rather than completely rebuilding them, precious resources were conserved. At the same time, the history of the site was integrated with modern lifestyles, becoming an exciting part of South Africa’s reality. “We are truly proud that our brand and the products that we produce can play a meaningful role in this.” Judges This year’s judges were President of the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA), Sindile Ngonyama and professional architects, Ruben Reddy and Amanda Katz. Ngonyama, in particular, has spoken out about the need for architecture to reach beyond the obvious environmental issues surrounding sustainability to promoting responsible use of financial, human and biophysical resources, to attain a sustainable future. Calling on architects to “participate meaningfully in the shaping of our built environment,” he has pointed out that South Africa’s present and future architects need to recognise that the country’s wealth resides in its people and that architecture’s foremost responsibility is serving. NATIONAL WINNER - HEIDI VAN EEDEN UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA MACHINARIUM: Architecture as a living machine – a 21st century textile mill We live in a rapidly changing world - an era of predicted environmental cataclysms and unprecedented population growth, resource depletion and pollution. The 21st century has been termed the “Post-Industrial Era”, and is a time where the devastating consequences of decades of unsustainable industrial production are finally materialising. Machinarium investigates the architectural potential of industrial bio-mechanical hybridity. Instead of the current systems of production, which propagate increasing socio-ecological disconnect and pollution, the project explores the potential of industry in a 21st century context. Industrial architecture is refocused towards localization and personalisation of production – becoming an urban catalyst which reconnects human environments to nature, and has the potential to effect large-scale socio-cultural regeneration. If humankind is to survive the predicted crises of the 21st century, our architecture may no longer depend on fossil fuels or the concept of waste. The “machines for living in” which were popularised by the industrial revolution and modern movement, need to be restructured as ‘living machines’ – spaces form part of larger, 74 complex living systems and which accommodate multitudinous forms of life and activity. Machinarium proposes a 21st Century environment which blurs present-day distinctions between ‘social’, ‘productive’ and ‘natural’ space and dissolves the perceived separation between humankind and the natural world. Van Eeden’s dissertation alludes to new ways of architectural place-making in a rapidly changing, 21st-century world. The project is an investigation of the potential of industry as urban catalyst – a mechanism with which to regenerate urban environments and re-integrate fragmented socio-ecological systems. In an attempt to redefine modern concepts of waste and mitigate the flood of pollution emanating from 20th century industrialisation, the investigation is focused on the re-structuring of the textile industry and is contextually based in an ‘urban wasteland’ – the Daspoort Wastewater and Sewage Treatment Works. “The site is re-programmed as part of a new industrial ecology, an architectural system which re-uses waste water and other untapped resources on site to produce textiles and algae-based dye. By integrating local urban communities and natural eco-systems with this industrial space, this 21st-century textile mil

Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa May/June 2014 | Page 74