Construction World July 2018

New Residence at 151 Main Road, Constantia, Cape Town • Malan Foster, Architects, Cape Town. There is a longstanding tradition in the architectural profession that when, architects and their clients, work in the context of the purity and beauty of nature, they strive to attain an equal level of perfection. This ‘treehouse’ by Malan Foster Architects, is not indulgent but highly restrained. The architects have taken their cues from some of the master architects who have, throughout time and space, created some of the most iconic and respected structures of this genre. This project was painstakingly created over a relatively long time on the site itself. Its structure and materials are experi- enced as fragile and ‘temporary’, while its relationship to place and its immediate context could be perceived as its only sense of permanence. Thus, Treehouse Paarman makes a critically important contribution to the local and international architectur- al traditions and precedent.

The Delville Wood Memorial • Creative Axis, Architects, Johannesburg • Mayat Hart Architects, Johannesburg

To evoke the memory of an event by means of architecture is difficult. Architects and their clients have been confronted with this problem through the ages, and recently, the epic Delville Wood battle of the First World War (WW1) was memorialised. This building commemorates the South Africans who lost their lives in the First World War, particularly the members of the South African Native Labour Corps, who had received no offi- cial recognition. Although this project’s architects are young, they were able to deliver a commentary on how history, power and memory were previously expressed.

Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Foundation and the City of Johannesburg • Lewis Levin, Architect, Johannesburg The world is sadly constantly confronted with the most barbaric acts of human violence and oppression. The reaction always seems to be the same when the collective voice goes up with the words; Never Again! Never Again! Yet mankind never seems to learn. The architect was encouraged to design a building to heighten awareness of this reality; a daunting task. Visitors’ experience of the building is direct and uncomplicated. Unlike so many of the other Holocaust Memorials, the architect here does not ‘force’ the message or an emotional response onto the viewer. The building, its exhibits and the placing in its physical context does not impose itself on anybody. It is simply there, and it tells its story to those who are inquisitive enough to want to hear it.

23

CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2018