PANEL OF JUDGES
JURI ABBOTT URBAN EDGE ARCHITECTS
JONATHAN ANSTEY STAUCH VORSTER ARCHITECTS
DARREN BESTER IT IS DESIGN
JANINA MASOJADA designworkshop : sa
SONJA PETRUS SPAMER DESIGN SPACE AFRICA
Juri Abbott Urban Edge Architects
It was a stint as a supervisor for a construction company in his final school year that fuelled Juri’s interest and propelled him to study Architectural Design at Technikon Pretoria. During this time, he joined Danie Strydom Architects for his in office training and thereafter A.C.G. Architects under direction of Mr. Wicus Celliers who is renowned for sport stadium design in South Africa.
Urban Edge Architects furthered his experience as a designer where his responsibilities covered Conceptual Design, Graphic Design and visualization. During this time Juri reinforced his design skills in the field of visual communication by completing various courses & software training. He is today an Associate and presently heads the Design and Presentation team at Urban Edge Architects.
Question: What is the best piece of advice you were ever given while still a student?
Best advice as a young aspiring designer came from a colleague whilst doing my in-office training: I was asked to “design” a small building and I immediately started setting it out on a drawing board. It didn’t take long to get stuck in what seemed to be “designers block” and I clearly didn’t know what the correct workflow was. He noticed that I had wasted about 10 sheets of paper in no less than 20 minutes and he just walked over to me and said: “don’t let your mind follow your pencil - let your pencil follow your mind...” I didn’t know what he was talking about and it took me another 20 minutes to realise that he was actually telling me to first sketch the building, then draft it and never the other way around.
It’s such a basic principal for good architectural design but it had to be reinforced in me to become a reality.
Jonathan Anstey StauchVorsterArchitects
Commercial, retail, transport facilities, hotels and leisure, convention centres are just a few of the disciplines embraced by Jonathan Anstey. After studying architecture at the University of Witwatersrand, Jonathan launched his career at Stauch Vorster Architects. To date, his many architectural accolades include Transit Centre – Johannesburg, St Regis Hotel – Mauritius, Mooi Rivier Mall – Potchefstroom, Standard Bank Headquarters - Nelspruit, Stoneridge Shopping Centre, Discovery Health Fun Factory - Sandton, Riverside Shopping Centre - Nelspruit, Radisson Hotel – Mozambique
Question: Why would you encourage students to enter design competitions?
Some artists hear the rhythm of footsteps, and mentally reconstruct the sensory experience into a symphony. It’s in our DNA. We were wonderfully and fearfully made, with a creative energy in us, that is absolutely insatiable.
Design Competitions are potential outlets of infinite creative opportunity. While the rewards are great motivators, we must never underestimate the power of simply engaging with the process of design and allowing others the opportunity of seeing the world through our eyes…….who knows – our visions could change the world…
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Darren Bester IT IS Design
Darren Bester’s burning desire to be an Interior Designer saw him leave the corporate world to complete a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Interior Design at Greenside Design Center (validated through the University of Nottingham Trent) in 2005. He is a previous winner of the PG Bison Student Design Awards and has had his Honours work published in Denmark.
Under the mentorship of Charles Storr, Darren was apprenticed as a Junior Designer at The Kite Works. Now his own company, It Is Design, specializes in Commercial, Retail and Restaurant Design across South Africa. His design philosophy is strongly based on passion, commitment to hard work and attention to detail.
Darren’s enthusiasm in locally promoting young Interior Designers has placed him on the panel of judges for various student and professional competitions.
Question: How do interior design competitions benefit students of the discipline?
Student competitions are great platforms for students to showcase their creative and analytical design abilities as designers and to help strengthen their own personal brand of design. These types of competitions bring out some of the country’s most extraordinary young talents into the spotlight and introduce them to the Professional industry. It is not necessarily the winning student who solely benefits from the competition. Not only do the competitions promote education but also encourage healthy competition amongst the students and various colleges and universities. The winning students usually have exciting new doors opened to them and are exposed to new ideas and learning opportunities both locally and abroad. In most instances, previous winners of student competitions have become leaders in the Interior Design Industry. To acknowledge talent through competitions helps to encourage confidence. Confidence, as a designer, will steer a young talent in the right direction in his/her career.
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Janina Ewa Masojada designworkshop : sa
A degree in Architecture from University of Natal took Janina further afield to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to complete a Masters Degree. Her work to date includes urban design, architecture, interior and furniture design. After jointly winning the international design competition for the design of the new Constitutional Court in Johannesburg with partner Andrew Makin and Paul Wygers of Urban Solutions, Janina’s present architecture practice focuses on a achieving a high level of contemporary design, relevant to the time, place and culture of the project location. The work undertaken ranges in scale and type, from the procurement and product development of art and craft, to the delivery of building projects.
designworkshop:sa has received to date seven Regional Awards of Merit, five National Awards of Merit and four Awards for Excellence, the highest accolade from the South African Institute of Architects. The team is involved in regular international travel for the purposes of research and experience of best global practice and has exhibited architectural work in international exhibitions including London, Berlin, San Paolo, and Venice. Janina is frequently invited as guest speaker to local and international architectural conferences and is involved as an external examiner and lecturer at universities across the country. Numerous Architectural Awards grace their office, the designworkshop’s walls.
Question: How can students best prepare for the ‘real’ world of architectural practice?
Whatever your particular individual strength as a student of architecture, the reality of our profession requires us to exercise a broad range of skill in the development of buildings, ranging from technical expertise to conceptual vision. If you are a 'natural' designer with a creative instinct, technical skills are an empowering and necessary tool. If you are technically accomplished, an appreciation and understanding of design and theory will give you freedom from commercial market forces.
Look around, see, and think. Notice how people live, and socially interact in different environments, all around are lessons from which we can learn - the good bad and ugly - take note. From a street curb to a skyline, a rock formation to shadow pattern, design and making are in everything.
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Sonja Petrus Spamer Design Space Africa
Sonja Petrus Spamer studied architecture at the University of Cape Town but claims that she came to consciousness on a large sheep farm in the Great Karoo.
Her many accolades include C.P.I.A Group Prize for Simulated Office Project, Best Final Year Student in Architecture, Top Bill / Momentum Life Style Award for Architecture, Cape Institute for Architecture award, South Africa Institute of Architecture award and 2nd place in best building in South Africa survey.
Her extensive travels have inspired her to be in touch with the element qualities of nature and people. She has previously lectured at the University of Cape Town and her research included the difficult issue of housing. She is currently a senior architect at Design Space Africa. Some of her projects have been Weavers Nest in Cape Town, New Mechanical Engineering building for CPUT, The Kidz Zone at Cape Town Book Fair, among many others. She insists on providing strong, imaginative concepts that reflect the nature of contemporary Cape Town.
Question: Does winning awards have real bearing on your architectural practice?
Winning awards affirm and reward us as architects for the large amount of work that goes into making buildings.
But most importantly for me, competitions and awards encourage debate about architecture and about how to improve the built environment for everyone in our cities.
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