Architecturesa May/June 2025
Architecturesa May/June 2025_Issue 102 Journal
Architecturesa Journal
May/June 2025_Issue 102
READING DETAILS
Journal Name |
Architecturesa Journal, Issue 102 |
Reading and comprehension time |
5 Articles with Multiple choice quiz to obtain certificate |
Reading Pricing |
R235 |
Accreditation |
1CPD credit (CAT 3) |
How the readings work:
Step 1: Enroll for the reading
Step 2: Read the articles
Step 3: Complete the quiz
Step 4: Download your certificate
Below is a summary of articled covered in the Journal
Khuthadzo Nemutanzhela Interview
Khuthadzo Nemutanzhela, founder of Rare BLAQ and BLAQ Structures, is a multidisciplinary designer whose work merges architecture, fashion, and storytelling. Growing up in Venda, his creativity was nurtured through community trust and self-driven exploration. His brand Rare BLAQ reimagines African fashion through minimalist, architectural design, while BLAQ Structures promotes collaborative and entrepreneurial approaches in architecture. Inspired by figures like Virgil Abloh, Nemutanzhela blurs the boundaries between disciplines, using design to challenge conventions and elevate African narratives. His practice empowers others through mentorship, innovation, and a strong commitment to community impact.
Credit: Interview by Dr Sechaba Maape with Khuthadzo Nemutanzhela
Description: From ArchitectureSA – exploring design, identity, and creative disruption in South Africa.
Demas Nwoko and Bofu Nwoko Interview
Demas Nwoko, legendary Nigerian artist-architect and Golden Lion honouree, shares a powerful vision of architecture rooted in regional identity, sustainability, and artistic integrity. In conversation with Paulo Moreira, he and his daughter Bofu explore the need to rethink architectural education through their New Culture School, an interdisciplinary platform integrating art, culture, and local knowledge. Their philosophy challenges imported models, calling instead for climate-responsive, people-centred design grounded in African traditions. Bofu continues this legacy, driving innovation and transformation through culturally embedded architecture and education.
Credit: Interview with Demas Nwoko and Bofu Nwoko by Paulo Moreira
Description: From ArchitectureSA – exploring legacy, learning, and African architectural futures.
“A Tree on a Sidewalk: Twilight Stories” by Dr. Solam Mkhabela
Dr. Solam Mkhabela’s Urban Scripting in Johannesburg explores the transformative power of storytelling in urban site analysis. Centred around a surviving tree on a sidewalk in Alexandra, the film The Twilight Zone merges documentary and animation to reflect lived experiences in Johannesburg’s marginalised spaces. Through the lens of “twilight intelligence,” it examines DIY urbanism, micro-enterprise, and spatial justice. Mkhabela advocates for transdisciplinary methods and Afrocentric knowledge to reshape planning practices, reframe city-making, and amplify Othered voices.
Credit: “A Tree on a Sidewalk: Twilight Stories” by Dr. Solam Mkhabela
Description: From ArchitectureSA – urban storytelling, resistance, and reimagining African cities.
Conversation between Gugulethu Mthembu, Kgaugelo Lekalakala, Gloria Pavita, Kate Otten, and Ngillan Faal
At the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, four South African women—Gugulethu Mthembu, Kgaugelo Lekalakala, Gloria Pavita, and Kate Otten—explore architecture through migration, memory, gender, and reclamation. In dialogue with Ngillan Faal, they reflect on how lived experience shapes spatial practice, with soil, colour, and storytelling acting as mediums of resistance and healing. Their installations speak to the dislocation of black women, the violence embedded in landscapes, and the reclamation of space through embodied narratives. Architecture, here, becomes an intuitive, multidisciplinary act of survival, speculation, and homecoming.
Credit: Notations on Migration and Reclamation by Gugulethu Mthembu, Kgaugelo Lekalakala, Gloria Pavita, Kate Otten, and Ngillan Faal
Description: From ArchitectureSA – excavating soil, spirit, and story in architectural futures rooted in African womanhood.
Conversation between Sally Gaule and Sechaba Maape
In a compelling dialogue, Wits academics Sally Gaule and Sechaba Maape explore the role of AI-generated imagery in architectural education and expression. They reflect on AI’s capacity to reveal new design insights, challenge habitual thinking, and shift aesthetic norms—while cautioning against its tendency to smooth, sanitise, and flatten cultural nuance. Comparing AI imagery to analogue photography and personal expression, they underscore the importance of subjectivity, imperfection, and surprise in creative practice. Rather than dismissing AI, they propose engaging it critically—as a tool for analysis, provocation, and pedagogical innovation.
Credit: Conversation between Sally Gaule and Sechaba Maape
Description: From ArchitectureSA – on artifice, authorship, and the evolving role of AI in architectural thought.
Farieda Nazier Interview
Farieda Nazier, visual artist and academic, urges architecture to break free from its colonial roots and disciplinary silos. In conversation with Jabu Makhubu, she challenges Eurocentric languages and hierarchical practices in architectural education, advocating for emotional intelligence, collaboration, and embodied knowledge. Drawing from her multidisciplinary background, Nazier calls for architecture that embraces relationality, centres lived experience, and reimagines the future through inclusive, speculative practices. Her work disrupts reductive frameworks by integrating art, performance, and pedagogy, insisting that architectural practice must be human, dynamic, and socially engaged.
Credit: Interview with Farieda Nazier by Jabu Makhubu
Description: From ArchitectureSA – rethinking space, identity, and the transformative power of multidisciplinary practice.
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