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Architects consider their role in creating a ‘better life for all’

4th August 2014

By: Shirley le Guern

Creamer Media Correspondent

  

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The twenty-fifth International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress was officially opened with a colourful ceremony attended by national, provincial and local government representatives, as well as high-profile international and South African heads of professional bodies, at the Durban International Convention Centre, on Sunday.

The fact that this was the first time that this global congress was being held in Southern Africa and that it was taking place at the important 20-year anniversary of democracy in South Africa were recurring themes for all speakers.

However, the issue of taking a different approach to the many social and economic ills of the past in Africa, together with the opportunities presented through collaboration between the developing and developed worlds, were also identified as a highlight. 

Much was made of the congress putting Durban on the map. It is hosted by the UIA every three years. The UIA is a nongovernmental organisation accredited by the United Nations and represents professional associations of architects in 124 countries and about 1.3-million architects worldwide.

The Congress theme is ‘Architecture Otherwhere’, and the intention is to acknowledge the built environment as a major force that can be harnessed towards a better life for all.

In attempting to unpack this theme, UIA 2014 Durban scientific committee member Hilton Judin noted that architecture was, by its natur,e both political and cultural. He urged delegates to look to gaining a completely different perspective.

In addition, he said that Durban would, during the course of the congress, become a living laboratory and testing ground for reflections on the theme not only through activities at the congress itself but also through city activation projects.

These include a student competition for interventions at Warwick Junction, a large informal trading zone adjacent to the central business district (CBD) and the creation of the first phase of the Dr Pixley Ka Seme Linear Park. In its entirety, this would entail the transformation of a 400 m stretch along the street of the same name into a green pedestrian priority zone.

Another project that has been created specifically for the event is a beer hall in Rivertown alongside a recently uncovered portion of the canal that collects water from the former wetlands in the City Bowl and deposits it into the harbour at Cato Creek. Formerly Durban’s light industrial area, this derelict precinct lies to the east of the city’s CBD.

eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo said Durban was already exploring different ways of doing things through these legacy projects. He added that these would continue way beyond the event, creating new places that were expected to result in the economic, social and cultural regeneration of the inner city.

“Our architects are playing a central role in this,” he stated.  

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu commented that the congress was far more than a simple meeting of architects and industry stakeholders and should instead be viewed as a platform for creating partnerships and promoting trade with the province. This was important as all of the province’s stakeholders knew that the region could not prosper alone.

Both economic growth and wider social development depended on the collaboration of the private sector and other stakeholders, he said.

“KwaZulu-Natal has made an important undertaking to eradicate all slums (and give people a dignified place in which to live). We hope that the architectural community will work with us on this mission,” he noted.

South African Institute of Architects president Sindile Ngonyama concluded: “This congress will help our built environment professionals, practitioners and academics to bounce off their spatial and metaphorical ideas against those of the world’s tried and tested [ideas] in an effort to reimagine the cities Africa has inherited.

“Sadly, imperialist and apartheid cities were imagined and created by architects, hence, inversely, these cities and settlements can only be successfully undone through architectural intervention.”

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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