BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
Architecture graduate Luzuko Funda won the annual national Corobrik Student Architecture Awards, the fourth winner from Mandela University over the past five years keeping the tradition strong.
His winning project entailed designing the Agriculture department’s buildings at Fort Hare University in East London and aiming to revitalising the city around the campus.
Luzuko completed his fifth year in Architecture in 2022 and was selected as top student from his class to represent the University’s School of Architecture at this national competition.
Luzuko has always been a hard-working student, even through adversity, and is truly a deserving recipient of the national prize, says Architecture senior lecturer Clayton Johnson-Goddard.
His project creates an ‘edge building’ that interacts with the public realm while lightly touching the natural landscape. It adapts the existing Old Miriam Makeba building on the site and uses modular systems to create a sustainable structure that fits the context.
“In architecture, I have discovered a platform that allows me to express my art and creativity. Coming from a technical background helped me to understand the nature of construction and architecture taught me a way of communicating through art in a way that others can visualise by means of a physical model or building. Architecture has allowed me to find my own creative path and leave a mark wherever I go”, Luzoko says.
The technical design looks at the adaptation of the existing Old Miriam Makeba building located on the site and the use of modular systems as an architectural expression to create a sustainable building that fits the context.
Luzuko is now working as a candidate architect at SVA International Architecture and Urban Design.
“This year, the judges felt it was such a close competition that they wanted to commend a student who delivered outstanding work,” commented Corobrik chairman Peter du Trevou.
The finalists were selected from the eight major universities based on architectural master’s theses from the class of 2022.
The judges were Wandile Mntambo from GASS Architecture Studios, Jodi Davids-Harber from TJA Architects, and Henry Pretorius from Typology Architects. The judges commended the eight finalists for the high quality of the work produced, which they said bodes well for the next generation of architects in South Africa.
Source & image: Nelson Mandela University
