Q & A BPAS ARCHITECTS
Architecture that shapes learning
BPAS Architects founder Landseer Collen reflects on his journey from project finance to architecture, the thinking behind his focus on educational and mixed-use spaces, and how business insight, sustainability and technology shape the firm’ s approach to building for the future.
LANDSEER COLLEN
What led you to make the move from project finance and management to architecture and BPAS Architects?
Back in the early’ 90s, South Africa was going through a transition. I was a young technologist – fresh out of CPUT – when Nedcor Bank approached me for a project management role. That really opened a side door into the world of funding structures and investment management. It gave me a“ behind the curtain” look at how projects are actually built from a financier’ s perspective. That foundation in the“ business of building” eventually became the launchpad for BPAS.
Your firm focuses on educational spaces, sports facilities, and mixed-use developments. What attracts you to these sectors?
To be honest, I didn’ t choose education; it felt more like it chose me. I was a product of a‘ bad education’ system in the 1980s – the kind where any kid who challenged the norm was labelled a troublemaker. But life has a funny way of working out; I married a teacher, and suddenly I was looking at schools through a different lens. My own rebellious experience actually gave me the vision to rethink how we design schools. I wanted to challenge the status quo and create spaces that are part of the solution, not the problem.
108 SA PROFILE www. saprofilemagazine. co. za