UCT's Katya Krat selected regional winner in 34th Corobrik architectural awards
Katya Krat from the UCT School of Architecture has been selected as a regional winner in the 34th Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards for her thesis Montage, Collage in making Tarkovsky's Zone: Sculpting a cinematic narrative space in a liminal landscape. Krat was awarded a R10,000 prize during an awards ceremony held earlier this month.
Katya Krat, regional winner, 34th Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards
Krat explains that her work took on a very theoretical approach that drew parallels between her heritage as a Russian-South African and the collective ecological and cultural history of marginal sites in Cape Town. She explored how alternative and experiential design methods inspired by the study of cinema can inform the creation of poetic and phenomenologically enhanced architecture, which connects multiple realities and time-based encounters.
Her research drew parallels between Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinematic zone, the perceptual zone of the current Covid-19 reality and a physical Cape Town site containing the marginal Salt River zone. The latter’s industrial history is showcased in derelict constructions made from Corobrik products. These remnants comprise steel, iron and brickwork found in existing industrial artefacts, which were then reworked with the ephemeral addition of wood as a material to create a renewed interpretation both physically and metaphorically.
Montage collage in making Tarkovsky's zone by Katya Krat
The Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards selects regional winners from eight major universities, based on the students’ final theses. These regional winners then go through to the national round, where the top title is awarded, in addition to a R70,000 grand prize.
Traditional healing in an urban setting
Khanya Tshabalala, first runner-up and Best Use of Clay Masonry winner, 34th Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards
Khanya Tshabalala was awarded first runner-up, for which he received an R8,000 prize, and clinched the R6,000 prize for Best Use of Clay Masonry. Khanya’s project, entitled Healing Historical Narratives: Brokering therapeutic resources for alternative healing practice, is about rediscovering new ways to negotiate and integrate the indigenous practice of traditional healing into its relatively new modern urban setting. Here the use of clay bricks was developed as a placemaking strategy to channel the qualitative experiences of the sacred sites located outside the city and used by healers for ceremony and ritual practices.
The National Corobrik Student of the Year Awards ceremony that will take place virtually in May.
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