A South African Student has scooped an Architectural award in the recently held Corobrik’s 29th Architectural Student of the Year Awards. The University of Johannesburg’s Jaco Jonker, was named the regional winner.
Jonker received a cheque of $479 for the first prize, with Lance Ho Hip receiving, the $389 second prize and three people namely Julian Almond, Kirsty Fick and Lucille Jacobs sharing the third place. The best use of clay awards went to Onthatile Magalemela who received the prize of $269.
The contest is an annual event and has been held for the past 28 years to honor best practices in the profession nationwide. It all starts with regional rounds at eight major universities throughout South Africa then the overall winner from among the regional finalists is named and presented with a cheque for $2990 during the event which is slated for May 2016 in Johannesburg.
The Plug-In Plantation – Reforestation and industrialisation of the Nasrec precinct through the implementation of a new timber mill industry is the thesis done by Jonker.
He adds that his thesis project revolves around reshaping the Nasrec precinct, a vital part of Johannesburg’s southern reef band in a bid to minimize direct and secondary impacts of soil erosion, heavy-metal toxins, and rampart water evaporation from increasingly frequent dust storms along the engineered mine dumps in the area.
To aid the project, the thesis envisioned how sustainable varieties of Conifer tree plantations can be used to replace the existing Eucalyptus tree groves in the area.
A weather station for Zanzibar is Ho Hip’s thesis. It is entitled Square Kilometre Array and is a data collection laboratory on Changuu Island.
Architecture has in the past viewed weather as the enemy, always fighting to keep it at bay. In the SKA: Weather Station, the opposite occurs – the building acts as its own data collector, sensing changes over differing scales and periods of time; through voids, cracks and scientific instruments – letting weather in.
Makgalemela’s Urban Catwalk integrated clay bricks into the thesis. Urban Catwalk is a route along the beach promenade of Stone Town in Zanzibar. There are three pavilions along this route.
He used materials secondary to the core material, clay bricks. They comprised lace, beads and more feminine adornments. The bricks are used to construct the pavilions as it is very evident in the Zanzibari landscape. The existing brick patterns in Zanzibar inspired the direction of the project.
