Amira Osman

University of Johannesburg | uj · Department of Architecture

Societies build for reasons, including and, beyond the need for shelter. The layers of meaning that make up the building process include status, power, social convention, values and ideas on aesthetics. This inherent layering of meaning through building ensures that every built work as a deliberate act – consciously or unconsciously – communicates...

This paper will explore the notion of ethics in the built environment, and professional accountability, topics which are generally sidelined or given little direct consideration in teaching and practice. However, this status quo is increasingly being questioned, and built environment educators and practitioners need to develop the intellectual and...

Our understanding of architecture has significantly changed over time. Having been trained in a post-modernist idiom in the eighties, one of the authors has witnessed the transformation of the profession and architectural design teaching over this time. Younger architects have been educated at a time of intense debates on relevance, justice and new...

It is no longer sustainable for the state to deliver full and fixed housing units to the poor. Moreover, while all people act on, and influence their immediate environment, this is especially evident in situations where people have difficulty to access the formal housing market. These initiatives create an energy that needs to be celebrated and man...

This article maintains the importance of a contextual and humanist understanding for the design of public space through the incorporation of concrete and changing realities in the analysis of the urban environment. In an attempt to reach a greater understanding of the construction of space through social networks, qualitative fieldwork methods are...

In 2010, President Zuma’s State of the Nation Address called for faster, harder and smarter government action for service delivery. The Department of Human Settlements then called, through its Social Contract process, for a new vision for human settlements in South Africa. The result was a document titled: “Faster, Harder, Smarter: Towards a shared...

Poor living conditions in informal settlements may be attributed mostly, though not exclusively, to the lack of basic services. Informal settlements, which also go by the name of squatter camps, are volatile by nature. Even within relatively fixed settlement boundaries, change in urban fabric continually manifests through altering dwelling configur...

The CSIR Built Environment and their partners have been investigating the concept of sustainable building transformation within the South African housing context. These investigations have relied heavily on theories such as Habraken’s Supports, Open Building levels, concepts of disentanglement as presented by Stephen Kendall, as well as theories of...

The CSIR Housing Research Group in collaboration with a number of partners has been investigating the concepts of sustainable building transformation in the South African housing sector. These studies have relied heavily on a number of theories, including Habraken’s Supports, Open Building levels as well as concepts of material/component reuse. All...

This article is part of a study on the Sudanese social and political context during the formation of the Modern Movement and the manifestations in built form and spatial expression during the period 1900-1970. The study has been on–going for several years and includes a literature search, local surveys (of unpublished and undocumented information)...

Medium-density mixed housing (MDMH), social housing (SH) being one component of that, is perceived to have the capacity to contribute to the transformation of fragmented South African cities more than the massive roll-out of government-subsidised “one-house-per-plot typology”. It is also perceived that higher densities are more economically and env...

South Africa’s urban landscape still suffers from the spatial legacy of Apartheid. Many problems need to be addressed in order to reshape our cities. Unemployment, rapid urbanisation and an expanding population are problems which all affect the provision of housing, and the quality of our cities.

This paper is a brief portrayal of the state of housing policies and programmes in South Africa, as well as the role of the design professional in the context and teaching of housing at the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria. It attempts to relate the issues to some of the themes of the conference: policy making, architectural desig...

The term 'African City' is discussed

The main problem is the construction of an interpretative framework, intended to be a foundation for future research on the architecture of the Sudanese northern riverain region and for architectural education in Sudan. The research evolved out of issues pertinent to the area. Scant information exists on architecture of the area and there is no ade...

This paper investigates how staff and students perceive housing at the Department of Architecture, Landscape and Interior Architecture, University of Pretoria, South Africa. The Department’s reputation is that of a strong design-oriented school, producing technically proficient graduates.This characteristic is possibly a reason why housing issues t...

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria is working in the South African housing context while gaining knowledge of such issues worldwide. Various innovations are being carried out in terms of housing design and delivery methods in South Africa. Through a methodical approach to design, it is believed that future architects will...

This paper explores the possibility of increasing adaptability in low-and medium-cost residential buildings in South Africa. The suitability of the concept to this particular context will be tackled in terms of existing industries, the need for sustainable and labour intensive technologies, participation and changing ideas regarding professionalism...

Sudan For many people the mention of the Sudan brings up images of famine, war, child soldiers in the south and slavery and ethnic eradication in the Nuba Mountains. For those who know more about the country maybe what is remembered are the ruins of hundreds of small pyramids scattered on the desert plains of Nubia, the uniqueness of its art and ar...

This is a section of an on going study on 'Space, Place and Meaning in Northern Riverain Sudan'. This research eco-systemically identifies and analyses the spatial and physical features of settlements and buildings along the Nile Valley in Northern Sudan. The problem is articulated through the study of selected artifacts and inter-disciplinary inte...