NEWSWORTHY
SAINT-GOBAIN AFRICA LAUNCHES GYPSUM RECYCLING SERVICE
Saint-Gobain Africa has launched a new Gypsum Recycling Service at its Gyproc factory in Brakpan, Gauteng, providing contractors and developers with a practical means of diverting gypsum construction waste from landfill. Described as a first-of-its-kind offering in South Africa, the service allows gypsum offcuts and site waste to be collected at no recycling service fee. Recovered material can then be reintroduced into the production cycle, helping to conserve resources and reduce the environmental impact associated with conventional disposal. The initiative forms part of Saint- Gobain Africa’ s broader focus on reconsidering how building materials are produced, used and recovered. Importantly for project teams, the service has been structured around the commercial and practical realities of construction sites.“ Gyproc’ s Gypsum Recycling Service makes circular construction practical,” says Christo Smith, Managing Director for Walls and Ceilings at Saint-Gobain Africa.“ With no recycling fee, we remove a major barrier to responsible waste management. We’ re making it easier for contractors and developers to do the right thing without compromising commercial realities.” The company emphasises that reducing construction waste will require collaboration throughout the built-environment value chain, involving architects, developers, contractors and industry bodies.
By creating a viable route for gypsum offcuts to return to the manufacturing process, the initiative supports greater resource efficiency and more responsible material management across South Africa’ s construction sector.
SAOTA AWARDED THE 2026 SAIA GOLD MEDAL FOR ARCHITECTURE
First practice to receive the South African Institute of Architects’ highest honour
SAOTA has received the 2026 Gold Medal for Architecture from the South African Institute of Architects, the highest honour the South African profession confers. It is the first time the medal has been awarded to a practice rather than to an individual architect.
The recognition arrives in the practice’ s fortieth year. SAOTA was founded in Cape Town in 1986, and the award reflects the work of everyone who has built it since: its principals and architects, its consultants and collaborators, and its clients.
“ Recognition from one’ s own profession is the recognition that matters most,” SAOTA said.“ This medal belongs to everyone who has built the practice over four decades.”
SAOTA’ s architecture has been developed through close attention to landscape, climate, light and the way people occupy a building, principles learned in South Africa and carried into very different geographies without being treated as a fixed style to export. The work now extends well beyond the residential architecture for which the practice is best known, from Kings Tower in Lagos and the New Engineering Building at the University of Cape Town to the proposed 9Miles Learning Centre in Strandfontein, Cape Town, and hospitality projects including Amanruya in Bodrum and Six Senses The Palm in Dubai.
SAOTA is led today by nine principals, having grown from a founder-led studio into a practice whose work is carried by a far broader group of people than when it started. It has taken on 280 interns and first-year graduates over the past decade and, since 2015, awarded 99 bursaries supporting 58 individuals through architectural study.
From its sole design studio in Cape Town, SAOTA has been commissioned in 86 countries and 193 cities across six continents, with 85 % of its clients outside South Africa, work that has allowed South African architects to build international careers without leaving the country. Alongside ARRCC and OKHA, the practice works across residential, hospitality, commercial, workplace, education and socialimpact architecture.
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