Mpho Matsipa is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP and Curator at Studio-X Johannesburg. She is also a researcher at the Wits City Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. After completing her professional degree in Architecture at the University of Cape Town, with a distinction in design, Mpho was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and later, a Carnegie Grant as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. Her PhD in Architecture, from the University of California, Berkeley, is titled The Order of Appearances, which explored the entangled geographies of urban informality, urban redevelopment and the politics of race, gender and aesthetics in Johannesburg’s inner city. Mpho has written critical essays and reviews on public art, culture and space for Art South Africa, the Architectural Review and Thesis 11 (forthcoming). Mpho has worked as an architect and has been shortlisted in two prestigious national design competitions. She has curated several exhibitions, including of the South Africa Pavilion at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale (2008), and she curates Studio-X Johannesburg, an experimental public platform on architecture and the city. Her research interests include globalisation and urbanism in African cities, spatial justice, and culture, race and representation.

Join 28 international and local critics for two days of open-to-the-public reviews of some of the most interesting work of the GSA in 2018!Three concurrent panels will review 48 M1 & M2 students from all six Units on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th October 2018. The simultaneous panels will be held in MOAD, Maboneng. Keep watching our Facebook and Instagram pages for updates!

Rahel Shawl was born and educated at the Addis Ababa University School of Architecture. She co-founded Abba Architects in 1992 and founded Raas Architects in 2004. Her list of projects on local as well as international collaborative work is extensive; designed and executed with traditional and contemporary architectural approaches. Rahel received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007 for her work as architect of record on the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa; received the AEA best Architecture Piece Award in 2017 for her collaborative works on the South African Embassy in Addis Ababa; Abyssina Award for Social Engagement in the fields of Architecture and Engineering in 2017; was awarded the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2017 and recently nominated for the first RA Dorfman Award at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, which 'champions global talent that represents the future of architecture.' Her passion to inspire and share knowledge in higher education; in the schools of architecture and around young professionals, led to her being cited as a role model in 'Temsalet', a book compiled of 64 outstanding Ethiopian Women as Role Models for Young Girls in Ethiopia. Rahel was appointed as Honorary Good Will Ambassador for 'Zer Ethiopia' in 2014, an NGO promoting young Ethiopian Girls in Education.