Southern Africa’s Top Architecture Student Crowned for New Vision for District Six!

At a dedicated event held at the Architecture ZA (AZA) Conference at 012 Central, Pretoria, on Friday 4 May 2018, 22-year-old student Roark Robinson was crowned the winner of this year’s PPC Imaginarium Award for Architecture and received a R50 000 cash prize! The PPC Imaginarium Award for Architecture has replaced the Des Baker Award for outstanding student design, making Robinson – who hails from the University of Cape Town – the top architecture student in Southern Africa. Robinson’s winning project envisages a “public, connective architecture” for a District Six of the future.

In addition to sponsoring the PPC Imaginarium Awards, PPC is also a long-standing key sponsor of AZA, Africa’s premier urban festival of architecture. The focus of this year’s AZA included issues related to culture, human settlement and environmental potential. It was thus a fitting backdrop on which to bestow the PPC Imaginarium Award for Architecture.

Architecture schools across Southern Africa were invited to submit works by final-year students for consideration. All 21 finalists’ projects were on exhibition at the 012 Central Gallery as part of the AZA programme. In keeping with the AZA’s theme of resilience and memory, entrants were asked to locate a ‘hole’ in urban infrastructure caused by rapid growth and change, and to contribute to spatial transformation by addressing connections between the community’s memory and resilience.

The entries were judged at the AZA by an international panel of architects, some of whom formed part of the AZA speaker line-up. The judges included:

Hermann Kamte, Cameroonian architect and founder of the award-winning firm HKA | Herman Kamte & Associates;
Prolific Chilean architect Enrique Browne, who co-founded Browne & Swett Arquitectos and is a respected writer and designer;
Maria Fernanda Derntl, author and professor at the University of Brasilia;
Award-winning architect Nadia Tromp of Ntsika Architecture; and,
Award-winning studioMAS architect Heidi Boulanger (van Eeden)

Events

8 – 10 August 2018
International Sourcing Fair
Gallagher Convention Centre
Exhibition for sourcing and purchasing retail and commercial products exclusively focusing on the Home, Office, Gift and Hospitality sectors.
www.internationalsourcingfair.co.za

8 – 12 August 2018
100% Design SA
Gallagher Convention Centre
SA’s leading high-end curated showcase of contemporary design
www.100percentdesign.co.za

8 – 12 August 2018
Decorex Joburg
Gallagher Convention Centre
Africa’s Premier Décor, Design & Lifestyle Exhibition
www.decorex.co.za

4 – 23 September 2018
London Design Biennale
Somerset House, London, United Kingdom.
www.londondesignfestival.com

Information correct at time of going to press.