November 17, 2005
By Lucille Davie
SEVERAL Johannesburg buildings have scooped awards in a recent provincial architectural competition.
The Gauteng Institute for Architecture (Gifa) awards recognition to architects and their buildings every two years. This year 27 entries were received, and eight awards were given out.
Best commendation awards were given to the Drill Hall (Michael Hart Architects); the Women's Jail (Kate Otten Architects); Tree House (Slee & Company); and the De Beers Cornerstone Building (Gapp Architects). The first two buildings are Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) projects.
Merit awards were given to the Constitutional Court (OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions); the Chapel of Light (Comrie & Wilkinson); Ekhurhuleni Council Chamber (Meyer Pienaar Tayob Architects); and the Red House (Slee & Company). The Constitutional Court is also a JDA project.
According to the Gifa website, the institute was previously the Transvaal Institute of Architects, which was established in 1900. Its aims were to promote "opportunities for the interchange and recording of knowledge and experience of architecture", and to maintain the "art, science, research and practice of architecture".
Drill Hall
"I was quite excited about the award," says Hart of the Drill Hall project. "The projects the JDA is doing are catalytic."
Hart says he is concerned about projects having long-term economic sustainability merit as well as architectural merit, which he feels the Drill Hall now has.
Looking westwards across the new parade ground, to the refurbished exhibition wing
The hall encompasses a range of elements: the rich heritage of the city, its diverse politics and a microcosm of the history of Joburg, he says.
Built in 1904, it was used as an army barracks until 1992, after which it was occupied by squatters. It was the site of the initial stages of the historic Treason Trial in the 1950s.
In 2001 a fire devastated the eastern section of the barracks, killing five people. Another fire a year later destroyed the hall and portions of the west wing. Again five people died.
Hart hopes that projects like the Drill Hall will encourage other development in the area.
Exhibition
The Drill Hall is one of 47 projects exhibiting at present at Sao Paulo in Brazil in the
6th Sao Paulo International Biennale of Architecture and Design, in an exhibition entitled
Utopia Nowhere Close.
Other Johannesburg buildings at the exhibition include the Apartheid Museum, the Hector Pietersen Museum, the Constitutional Court, the Metro Mall, the Nelson Mandela Interpretation Centre and the Women's Jail. Most of these buildings are JDA projects.
The Gifa judges were architects Hugh Fraser, Marcus Homes, Phill Mashabane, Cathy O'Clery, Mark Pencharz, Professor Pattabi Raman and Kwasi Agyare-Dwomoh, president of the institute.
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