Loved or loathed, Brutalism is back in fashion, well for some!
This series of four one hour Zoom sessions can be watched on Culture Connect’s YouTube channel.The first, Brutalism 101 including in South Africa is by Culture Connect’s Kate Crane Briggs. This was on 9 July, 1-2pm, (South African time). Then on the following two Thursdays, 16 and 23 July, architect, urbanist and artist, Martin Kruger, who is based in Cape Town was joined by Catherine Croft, director of London based 20th Century Society and author of Concrete Architecture. Using UK comparators, they focused on buildings in Cape Town – UCT’s Sports Centre, the Werdmuller Centre, Good Hope Centre and Artscape (formerly known as the Nico Malan Skouburg). Martin was taught by Roelof Uytenbogaardt, the architect of Werdmuller and UCT Sports Centres. Roelof studied at Pennsylvania University under Louis Kahn (“one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century” Wiki). For the third one, Catherine and Martin were joined by Prof Gabriel Nevi who is co-authoring a book on the Italian engineer/architect Luigi Nervi who with his studio designed the Good Hope Centre. Annie Wingate spoke about living in the iconic, thriving Barbican, UK.
For the fourth in the series, the architect and academic, Albert van Jaarsveld, showed how the Apartheid government embraced modernity to show its sophistication, internationalism and de-colonisation. Buildings include Konservatorium/music dept, Stellenbosch Univerisity, Baxter Theatre and once again Artscape and Good Hope Centre.
Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrG9gGXkx237woKQpTehjRw
Architects registered in South Africa can get their CPD points by watching these and answering questions afterwards. This is being led by InDetail.
Thanks to Sanet Tattersall, for her research and moderating for this series.
Architectural tours in Cape Town, Pretoria and Stellenbosch will be organised by Culture Connect in due course.
