Architect Africa Online - South Africa : Architecture News and Views

NATAL SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

1974-1978

THE EVENTS THAT SHAPED OUR PRESENT

We will be publishing weekly online facsimiles of some seventy "Events" issues published by the Students' Architectural Association at the University of Natal in Durban between the years of 1974 and 1978.

It was during this period that the Natal University Architecture Students rebelled against the School's leadership and changed the course of architectural education in South Africa.

Events Issue-3 is available here. (Added weekly)

ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS CONGRESS 2005

The architecture students congress is the biggest annual event in architectural education in Southern Africa. ASC05 welcomes architecture students, professional architects and the interested public to a week-long series of lectures, discussions, tours, documentaries, exhibitions - and parties.

ASC05 Moving Space: Liberating Urban Architectures will explore the transformation of South Africa and especially Johannesburg's urban spaces - once dead and barred - into fluid, interconnected and charged ones.

ASC05 promises to be a rich gathering of people and ideas, an unmissable event on the city skyline, and an exploration of the shifting spaces of our emerging world.

The congress runs from 18 to 22 April, 2005. Click here to visit the ASC05 Website

International Ideas Competition : Redesign of Bonn Square in the heart of Oxford City centre

Oxford City Council with its partners, the West End Steering Group, invites submissions from artists, urban designers, landscape architects, architects and town planners for the redesign of Bonn Square in the heart of Oxford City centre. Students of the same disciplines are also encouraged to take part.

The objective of the competition is to transform Bonn Square, an historic city square, which has a fractured spatial character and low overall quality, into a high quality contemporary city square. The winning design should respond to the City Council’s vision for Bonn Square as a dynamic, inspirational city square which people will love and use at the hub of the revitalised West End of the city centre. The Council asks Designers to be courageous in their thinking, be aware of the opportunities afforded by the enhanced role of Bonn Square in the city’s west end, and respect its setting within the central (city and university) conservation area.

To meet the Council’s vision for Bonn Square, the design will be required not only to improve the physical appearance of the square, but also to assist in resolving social problems and the many competing demands on the square that have been evident over many years. In addition, a range of new features will need to be incorporated to bring the square up to contemporary standards and to enhance its role in the City’s public realm.

Art should be integral to the design of Bonn Square. Competitors are encouraged to be innovative in how they incorporate the work of artists within the proposed scheme, and no prescription is given in the brief on media or the method of working. Consideration should be given to how the users of the square will be engaged in the development stages of the work.

In evaluating submissions the judges will consider whether the Council’s vision for Bonn Square will be met. Specifically:
.. whether a dynamic and inspirational open space will be created;
.. whether accessibility and circulation within and around the square will be improved;
.. whether the relationship of the square to its immediate surroundings will be enhanced;
.. whether the scheme can be justified in terms laid down in the Conservation Statement and in conservation legislation;
.. whether the potential for conflict and antisocial behaviour will be reduced;
.. whether sustainability and maintenance has been taken into account; and
.. whether the scheme is financially realistic.

A shortlist of up to 6 schemes will be selected from the open first stage and the authors of these schemes invited to present their work to a Jury Panel. An honoraria of £2000 (approx. 2800 Euros) will be paid to each team reaching this stage of the process with £5000 (approx. 7000 Euros) paid to the winning team. In advance of teams presenting their work to the Jury Panel an anonymous public exhibition of the shortlisted schemes will be held.
The deadline for the submission of design ideas is Tuesday 26th April.

Eligibility
The competition is open internationally to architects, artists, urban designers, landscape architects, and town planners and students of these disciplines. Collaboration between these disciplines is actively encouraged.

How to Register
To register and receive the competition brief send a cheque for £35.00 (professionals), £7.50 (students) payable to RIBA Competitions. The registration fee is inclusive of VAT.

Enquiries
All enquiries should be addressed to the competition organisers:
RIBA Competitions Office
6 Melbourne Street
Leeds LS2 7PS
T : 0113 2341335
F : 0113 2460744
E : riba.competitions@inst.riba.org
W : http://www.ribacompetitions.com

"Agriculture of any kind acts as a (vital) counterpoint to the built environment. The reconciliation of the two is a challenge for societies worldwide" Will Alsop, FUTURE CITY, URBIS Manchester 2005.

GLEAN - Architecture after the end of Agriculture: Sustainability and the New Rural Design Economy; researching the new rural design vernacular and built forms; rethinking Europe's post-agricultural landscapes, settlements and economies.

Dates; Wednesday 22nd - Thursday 23rd June.
Venue; DEFRA/CSL conference centre, York, England

Participants include academics, architects, design practitioners, artists, local authority, statutory rural agencies, and farming and rural community leaders from throughout the UK and Europe: Will Alsop (Alsop Architectural partnership london), Andrew Freear (Director, Rural Studio, Newbern, West Alabama), Professor Kathryn Findlay, (School of Architecture, Dundee), Vicky
Richardson (Editor, Blueprint Magazine), Professor Duane Thorbeck (Centre for Rural Design, University of Minnesota), Professor Tom Woolley, (Dean, Architecture Faculty, Queens University Belfast), Dr Fiona Meadows, (Ifa - Institute of French Architecture), Beatrice de Durfort Institute of French Architecture and President of Psf 'Heritage without frontiers' (patrimoine
sans frontières) (tbc), Peter Murray (Director, London Biennale of Architecture), Tony J Cooke, farmer and interim Chair Rural Design Forum, Yorkshire, Barbara Jones (Amazon Nails and Strawbale Futures), Jonathan Hines, Architype/ Countryside Agency - New Rural Vernacular, Gloucestershire, and others to be announced.

Programme synopsis:

Day 1 - AFTER PPS7 - proposals for a new rural architecturte and design vernacular; introduction to the Rural Design Forum and its proposed future programmes and aims; anticipating the future (post) agricultural landscapes and economies, and documenting the emergent new environmental, economic, architectural and settlement forms in rural Europe after CAP; generating new symbolic, aesthetic, pedagogical, critical design practices required to interpret and accommodate radical rural change.

Day 2 - Sustainable Architecture and Agriculture: designing the future rural economies and farms, and new rural land use forms (farming for energy, new fibres and pharmaceuticals); soft architecture - using rural vernacular craft skills/research methodologies, and farm produced earths, straw bales, fibres and recycled materials in new architectural and design contexts; new uses and designs for redundant farm buildings, cattle auction marts and abattoirs; textiles, fashion and agriculture - new forms new contexts for farm grown fibres; and tackling issues about rural social and economic exclusion, and affordable rural housing; and exploring new interfaces for future architecture practice and landscape research in unstable rural and agricultural contexts.

The Rural Design Forum proposes to engage the UK and European architecture and design community (RIBA, Architectural Association, Architecture Foundation, etc.), planning and Landscape Design research agencies in England (RTPI, Landscape Institute, RELU, etc.), in a new dialogue and intellectual exchange about the future role of rural design and architecture in the context of EU strategies for agricultural reform, rural regeneration and climatic change.

European Rural Design and Architecture Biennale - July Sept. 2007. First international new rural architecture symposium and exhibition, Yorkshire England. Promoting new creative strategies and imaginative design practices capable of addressing the dynamic complexities and challenges of Europe's post-agricultural landscapes and economies; understanding the new hybrid rural landscape aesthetic and built forms now emerging due to CAP reform,and the effects of climatic and demographic change in rural regions.

The Rural Design Forum is a grassroots rural community initiative aimed at addressing some of the radical changes now taking place in England's rural landscapes, economies and communities. Its supporters include; the National Farmers Union, the Hill Farming Initiative, National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, the Women Food and Farmers Union, Rural Cultural Forum, Livestock Community Forum, Rural Health Forum, Royal Agricultural Society of England, Rural Media Company, and ACRE.

Full programme details, and registration information available shortly.

Ian Hunter
LITTORAL Trust
42, Lodge Mill Lane, Turn Village, Ramsbottom Lancs BL0 0RW
Tel/Fax: ++44 (0) 1706 827 961
E-mail: littoral@btopenworld.com

Website: www.littoral.org.uk

Conference promoted in partnership with the Rural Cultural Forum, Arts Council England, Countryside Agency, NEW FIELDS Yorkshire, and BLUEPRINT Magazine and Architecture Week (Yorkshire).