Construction World July 2020

ARCHITECTS

SOUTHAFRICA’S EXTRAORDINARY ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY Recently, the President of South Africa announced an unprecedented massive infrastructure spend as the country tries to shake off the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. If we have learnt anything from our recent past, it is that we have the skills expertise and capacity to use this programme to make a massive difference. By Patrick McInerney and Christoph Malan, Directors of Co-Arc International Architects.

I n the Eurocentric world of modern architecture, African and South African architecture stands very much on the periphery, seldom published and never taken seriously. But, as is true of many creative ͤHOGV WKH DUFKLWHFWXUH RI WKH SHULSKHU\ LV RIWHQ ZKHUH WKH PRVW VLJQLͤFDQW H[SHULPHQWDWLRQ DQG EUHDNWKURXJKV RFFXU This holds true for South African architecture, where a review of the Institute’s annual Digest of South African Architecture highlights the construction of a plethora of exemplary buildings created since 1994, many of which are not particularly Eurocentric but rather are place bound and unique to a particular environment. Sadly, while South African architects still largely look to Europe and the Americas for inspiration, the works of Mphethi Morojele and Peter Rich are celebrated more widely in Europe than in their home country. Without really noticing it, the past three decades of South African DUFKLWHFWXUH KDYH EHJXQ WR GHͤQH ZKDW D FRQWHPSRUDU\ $IULFDQ and South African architecture might look like. It is an exemplary body of work undertaken in the midst of democratic social and economic upheavals. Indeed, this is the secret behind South Africa’s consistently high- quality design output since the mid-1980s. The constant pressure of being fully aware of the context in which you are operating forces architects in South Africa to go much deeper and consider the history and the social demographics relating to every project. A remarkable democratic legacy A post-apartheid South Africa required visual examples of integration and inclusion, demanding of architects to visualise a shared future. This certainly heralded discomfort and inspired philosophical debate within the architectural fraternity at a time when South Africans were debating our future and framing our Constitution. In the new South Africa, architects were stretched through government competitions and projects to elicit the best possible design response for a young democracy. These examples stand tall and proud today, including the iconic Mpumalanga and Northern

Constitutional Court : Setting a new standard in civic KXPLOLW\ WKH &RQVWLWXWLRQDO &RXUW H[HPSOLͧHV WKH VXFFHVVIXO collaboration of architects and artists in public building. Architects: OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions; Photo: Angela Buckland

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2020