All it takes is one phone call or conversation to spark an idea and set the wheels in motion for life-changing and society-building projects.
And once that initial contact is made, it is crucial to engage with people on the ground and environments in question to ensure that challenges are met with sustainable solutions.
This is the philosophy on which multi-award-winning SA architect Carin Smuts has built her business and reputation and it which formed the basis of her message during the 2023 Milde McWilliams Memorial Lecture at the Nelson Mandela University south campus auditorium on Tuesday.
The lecture attracted hundreds of students, lecturers and architectural professionals from the Bay.
The lecture provides a forum where students and professionals in the field can engage and exchange ideas.
The event was hosted by the NMU school of architecture and funded by the Milde McWilliams Trust.
The trust was established in 1990 as a charity organisation that aimed to build on the legacy of entrepreneur and property developer Albert Milde and his partner, prominent Bay architect Herbert McWilliams.
Smuts’s lecture, titled “Dreams and Space”, shared some of the philosophies that informed the design elements of some of her favourite projects, and how community engagement formed the most crucial step in the design process of all of them.
“The structures I helped design do not belong to me,” she said.
“They are a culmination of conversations, workshops and dreams shared with the community they will be servicing.
“We just help bring their ideas to life.”
Smuts, a University of Cape Town alumna, traces her interest in community building projects back to a single conversation with a young teacher in Cradock in the 1980s — a political activist and member of the Cradock Four, Matthew Goniwe.
“The firm where I was working received a visit from a group of domestic workers, asking for assistance to establish a community centre in Lingelihle township in Cradock.
“Upon visiting the location, I met Goniwe and he asked me: ‘Why don’t you use architecture to effect social change?’
“It was a conversation that always stuck with me long after his death, and it is something we still strive to achieve in every project we do.”
Smuts said it was important to remember that sustainability revolved around more than just the environment’s health, and should include social development and economic viability as key factors when a project was approached.
She said community engagement was crucial as it gave the end users of the structure an opportunity to voice their concerns and ideas, and ultimately inform exactly what the purpose of the building would be.
But her message also came with a sobering dose of reality, and the tale of each inspiring project came with an unfortunate twist — a community leader killed in the middle of the project, a key point of a design petrol-bombed by thugs, projects abandoned and picked apart — each highlighting exactly why these projects were so important to the impoverished and disenfranchised communities they were meant to serve.
“It is very important that the highlights of each project are measured against the challenges,” she said.
“People need to realise that the world is not all beautiful and wonderful, and the challenges are where we can make an difference.”
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