Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa May/June 2015 | Page 69

of the Year Awards

explore the limits of architects' skills and their training. From
this, I was driven to challenge the normative student project
convention of: ‘Problem-then-a-Solution’ (the building usually
being the solution) and the tendency to design finite, jewel-like
end-products. I asked myself: What if a project could potentially
have multiple manifestations/outcomes? And presented a
detailed process of thinking, making, seeing and inventing that
accrues over time?”
He said that he wanted to do a project in the inner-city as
typical architectural projects were usually within/on an open or
clear site and are therefore safer and less challenging. “I was
aware that inner-city development, in Johannesburg, was largely
outsourced (by the City) to the private sector - so I wanted to know
what happens when the city abandons its buildings and people.”
Johnson said he believed that his project demonstrated
the ability of architects to re-frame and redefine any scenario/
structure/environment.
“Winning this award, in terms of the cash prize, means I can now
contribute to continuing our research in 'Dark City' and the other
buildings we are working in. When I won the (regional) first place
for R8,000 (from Corobrik) at the University of Johannesburg last
year, I put 40 percent of that amount towards our work into this
research. In continuing this pattern, 40 percent of this Corobrik
(national) award will also be put towards the continuation and
amplification of this research and design,” he added.
Professor Lesley Lokko who supervised Johnson’s thesis and
congratulated him on winning this award, said that this project
showed a determination to get as far under the skin of any given
Student Awards

situation to be able to understand it properly, deeply and without
compromise. The project was also unusual in that it was both a
design thesis and a design thesis critique.
She said the win was a validation of Harry’s determination
and considerable skill in pulling it off as well as a validation of
the school’s position – that it was the school’s job to provide the
critical framework for as wide a range of interests and ideas as
possible and to resist a design orthodoxy that forces students to
conform.
“Although his thesis is very firmly rooted in South Africa – and
in Johannesburg, in particular – his critique can be said to be
global. The architectural profession is moving in so many different
ways, encompassing so many different fields from engineering to
disaster relief, from project management to project coordination,
from urban to intimate, from sociall