Latest News

Two of the staff-student collaborations in the global Women in Architecture film competition have been selected as finalists! The two short films, The Master's House and An Inventory of Feminist Upheaval, directed by Prof Lesley Lokko, Dr Huda Tayob, Sumayya Vally and Sarah de Villiers, in collaboration with architects Kate Otten, Tanzeem Razak, Amina Kaskar, Althea Peacock, Dr Philippa Tumubweinee and students Gugulethu Mthembu, Olasumbo Olaniyi, Cornel Hugo, Yolisa Nqonqosa, Heidi Lu, Meladi Montjane, Terrence Mkhwanazi, Tonia Murray and Tarika Pather. The film competition, organised by New York-based ArchiteXX, will hold a screening in New York on October 20, 2019 at 6pm at the Cinépolis Chelsea, 260 W 23rd Street, NY 1011. STUDENT FILM FINALISTS Anne Lacaton by Jacob Walter Chiu-Hwa Wang by Hsuliyu Muto, Simin Lee, Dioxi Research The ABC’s of Pamela Cluff by Samantha Leger, Rebecca Rogers An Inventory of Feminist Upheaval by Lesley Lokko, Sarah de Villiers, Sumayya Vally & Huda Tayob The Master’s Tools by Lesley Lokko, Sarah de Villiers, Sumayya Vally & Huda Tayob Nikole Bouchard by Brodie Kerst Pasifica Women in Architecture by Arielle Roache & Vula To’ofohe Women In Construction by Torerra Cardoso, Karyna Enahoro, Micaiah Newell-Grant, Serena Harris & Gugulethu Moyo E1027 by Emily Cass, Max Ouellette-Howitz & Seth Thompson

Homegrown is a social media and print campaign that celebrates the African talent in our GSA-Boogertman + Partners International Lecture Series. Each week, we plan to release a short description, video link (if available) and information about the amazing line-up of African and architects who've spoken in the series since it began in 2016. The series is listed alphabetically and draws conceptually on the idea of the periodic table. Each description will have a link to the introductions that we've made over the years, an interesting and perhaps unknown fact about the speaker and the date of their lecture. All Africans, including South Africans and Africans-in-the-Diaspora, are included. At our last count, we've had 31 African speakers out of a total of 47, which we believe is something worth celebrating, particularly in this very difficult week for South Africa.

Centring Africa: Postcolonial Perspectives on Architecture The GSA is delighted to announce that Dr Huda Tayob, Senior Lecturer and History and Theory Programme Convenor has been selected as a Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) Mellon fellow for the project, Centring Africa: Postcolonial Perspectives on Architecture. The CCA’s collaborative and multi-disciplinary project on post-independence architecture in sub-Saharan Africa questions architecture’s role in decolonisation, neocolonialism and globalisation across the continent, along with the methods and conventions of studying architectural and urban histories. Huda Tayob’s 18-month project looks into the event-architecture of the Kumasi, Accra, Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam pan-African conferences and congresses which were held between 1953 and 1974.

Join the GSA and Women Architecture Community in an evening of films, talks and discussions on the subject of women, gender and architecture. To celebrate Women’s Month and the GSA’s recent entry to the global Women-in-Architecture Film Competition, we will be showing our two short films, A Manifesto of Feminist Upheaval and The Master’s House, by Prof Lesley Lokko, Sumayya Vally, Dr Huda Tayob and Sarah de Villiers. Sumayya Vally, Dr Huda Tayob and Prof Lesley Lokko will chair the discussion. What importance does gender have in the design and shaping of the built environment? What does it mean to be a ‘female’ architect? What are the difficult questions around race, gender and class in South Africa’s architectural culture and community? Do women design differently? What are some of the more pressing questions around gender and identity at this time?

This term, History and Theory senior lecturer, Dr Huda Tayob, convenes three sessions that will each be led by a different GSA Unit Tutor. The reading group is understood as a tool that fits into the wider framework of the Transformative Pedagogies agenda of the GSA. In taking the time for close reading and slow conversation, the group will talk through ways of thinking, theorizing and practicing architecture. We will question what we consider as architectural truths, along with the modes, methods and forms of writing which give ideas shape. These conversations are informal and open to all (staff and students included) and will take place at GSA Metro, 62 Juta St, Braamfontein. 06 August: Speaking in Tongues, led by Sumayya Vally | 20 August: Cyborg Feminisms, led by Khensani de Klerk | 3 September: Decolonising Museums, led by Sarah de Villiers | Click her for more information on readings!

Unit 15X, in the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture, explores emerging public open spaces of cities in Africa. Over the last four years Unit15X has investigated public open space projects in three African cities –Johannesburg, Kampala and Dar es Salaam. Unit15X’s observations suggest that design studies of public open space are essential in contemporary Africa, because public open spaces offer life-changing opportunities as people migrate from rural to urban settlements. Unit15X views public open spaces as places: places of transaction, recreation, expression and invention. Our theme for 2019 centres around the critical investigation of emergent ‘larval’ public open spaces in Africa. Our interest is to reimagine and re-define public space beyond the traditional modernist/ Eurocentric ideals of places designed for relaxation, visual enjoyment or of “offering respite from the indoor environment for the working class”. Click here for more information on the Lecture!