The projects provide a host of new insights into how great architecture or social design can be produced without compromising sustainability.
“We live in a very rapidly transforming world, and this has become evident through the evolution of entries received in the AfriSam-SAIA Award for Sustainable Architecture + Innovation over the past decade. In 2009, when the award programme was conceived, sustainability still seemed like an architectural style. Today, no development can happen without it,” said Maryke Cronje, 2018 president of the South African Institute of Architecture (SAIA) and convenor of the 2017/18 Award.
Cronje is joined on the adjudicator panel by Dr Sechaba Maape (sustainability architecture academic and architect), Philippa Tumubweinee (academic and cofounder of IZUBA INafrica Architects), Niraksha Singh (AfriSam raw materials and sustainability manager), Dr Emmanuel Nkambule (academic with particular interest in the social environment) and Richard Stretton (founder of architecture and furniture design studio Koop Design).
The 14 shortlisted projects across four categories - Sustainable Architecture, Research in Sustainability, Sustainable Products and Technology, and Sustainable Social Programmes - were selected following a rigorous screening process which included assessments and on-site inspections by a six-member adjudication panel.
Entries were required to demonstrate sound sustainable practices that respond to innovative architectural and design thinking in the field of sustainability, that complied to the criteria of harmonisation, people upliftment, evolutionary paradigm and placemaking performance.
“Sustainability is not only about technology, but also about a whole new way of life – of relating to one’s self, other people and the environment. The shortlisted projects show how a more thoughtful and integrated approach to design can make the world a better place,” said one of the adjudicators, Dr Maape, in summing up the high quality of the entries.
