KZNIA

KZNIA Staff celebrates Diwali in style :)

Kubash, Alene (UIA2014), Emeldah & Des

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Being blonde is HARD work….

The tease of sunshine today, after two solid weeks of rain, drew me out into the Bulwer Park, which essentially is KZNIA “back yard”. The park is currently undergoing a massive upgrade.

I could hardly contain myself when I saw a new “sculpture” installation, still wrapped up in plastic and cordoned off with danger-tape. Needless to say….I started snapping away and by picture #5, I realised that the “sculpture installation” was actually “gym equipment installation”….*blush*

In my defense, they have a rather architectural look about them….ha ha 😀

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Paper planes…..

On Friday 2 November 2012, the KZNIA Regional Committee met for the penultimate meeting of 2012. Contrary to popular belief they don’t meet to play with paper planes…..as the pictures might suggest 🙂

The paper plane shot was in fact a publicity picture for the Final Regional Committee Meeting of 2012, which will be sponsored by Safintra Roofing. We thank Safintra Roofing for their on-going support of the KZNIA.

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eThekwini Sustainable Living Exhibition

KZNIA was right at the front door to welcome the crowds to this year’s sustainable living exhibition. On show were a few of our members projects and general information for the public on sustainable building. Interestingly the focus this year was very much toward people-centred organisations: NGO’s, schools and skills-development projects took the majority of the stands while building and energy-related stands filled in the rest of the gaps. There were also a few quesitonable fillers too: who knew AMC cookware was sustainble? When queried the stand host explained that because you use less electricity and water with these pots they are better for the environment.

I am not quite convinced about the cookware, but it was an informative and interesting afternoon overall.

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u and i

Tonight at the KZNIA we look forward to opening the UKZN students exhibition. The exhibition comprises primarily fourth year Shift housing projects 2012 but also a creative project undertaken by the whole school which has produced some pleasing results.

As a pre-exhibition celebration KZNIA invited UKZN staff to share a lunch at 160 Bulwer Rd today. There was a great turnout and Nina Saunders  (KZNIA President) had a few things to say about the university’s role in the KZN architecture community.

Many of the members have a sense of connection to UKZN because it is our alma mater. The New Paradigms video highlighted the new directions in the built environment and how much architects are thinking about their role in relation to this. UKZN has an aspirational role to play in twinning practice with research and drawing on the experience of established professionals and the exploratory thinking of young students.

Another positive development is the appointment of a new Head of Architecture at UKZN, Mthembeni Mkhize, who brings several years of experience in architectural research and practice with him from around the world. But that is for another post.

More pictures on our facebook album:

A smile from our Heritage committee

One of the most active task teams at the KZNIA is the heritage committee. In fact they are meeting right now, as they do every month! Another thing they do quite often is run the Heritage Course, a popular series of courses which introduce attendees to the various aspects of heritage practice where architecture is concerned.
We’ve run several of these events so far covering the two main parts (Part 1: Principles and Philosophies and Part 2: Building Conservation in Practice) with additional add-ons such as as the Amafa Guidelines course. Much appreciation goes to our sponsor, Safintra (who also blog btw), for their constant support of our architects.
The courses will all be available on CCN webinar soon but in the meantime you can enjoy a pic of Prof Wally Peters, fresh from the Vrystaat, giving his lecture on Principles and Philosophies.

An edgy evening on the Ridge

We had a very unusual evening last Wednesday night. Firstly we had 3 fabulous Spanish architects in town*: Elena Rocchi, Angelo Bucci and Claudio Vekstein. Then we had sundowners and eats on a dramatic venue on the Berea Ridge in Durban (thanks to design workshop for the incredible space). And then there was a lunar eclipse. How could it not be memorable?

My favourite comments from attendees:

“It is wonderful to see so many architects attending such honest and passionate presentations.”

“This house should be in a film.”

(A South African reminder of the US Case Study Houses perhaps?)

Many thanks must go to the Cement and Concrete Institute for bringing the speakers out, and to NPC Cement & Cimpor for their generous sponsorship of the drinks tab. The red wine went down so well with the chilly winter evening.

*They were here for the 3rd International Design Masterclass themed “On the Edge”, conducting the studio along with local architects Peter Rich and Andrew Makin. For more pics, see our facebook album [ click this link ]

design workshop : sa site on the Ridge

Westwards

Cimpor, who took care of the warming red wine and other sundowners.

Elena Rocchi

Andrew Makin, Angelo Bucci, Elena Rocchi, Claudio Vekstein and Peter Rich