Page 16 - Buzz Magazine

ARChITECTURE AwARDS
Africa, the time is now!
The future indisputably lies in Africa. Long featuring in the Western consciousness only as a land of unending suffering, it is now a place of rapidly falling poverty, increasing investment, and young populations.
It seems only fair that Africa’s rich cultures and growing population (predicted to reach 1.4 billion by 2025)
nally take the stage, but it’s crucially important that the continent’s future development is done right.
“Following in the footsteps of the hugely successful Architecture for Social Gain programme that we ran in 2015, the Africa Architecture Awards (AAA) seeks to celebrate design excellence,” says Evan Lockhart-Barker, Weber MD and sponsor of the awards.
“The aim is to promote an increased awareness of the role and importance of architecture across Africa. Based
on values rather than categories, the awards seek to honour established architects and crucially, encourage emerging and future voices.”
A world-class award
By creating an internationally recognized, world-class award for African architecture, Saint-Gobain promotes design excellence across a range of built environment disciplines. The company also generates stronger awareness of the role of architects with the general public.
“We want to educate public and private sector clients to commission better work, and build conversations, connections and collaboration for architects across the continent,” states Evan. “Another objective is to provide a new global view of African architecture.”
AAA consists of four categories:
w Built: Projects in Africa built within the
last ve years
w Speculative: Concepts and projects that are unlikely to be built
w Emerging voices: Student work
w Critical dialogue: Writing, lm and
exhibitions on architecture
Acclaimed judges
The patron and ambassador of the awards are the acclaimed architects, David Adjaye from Ghana, and
Phil Mashabane from South Africa, respectively. The other members of the judging panel are Guillame Ko (Ivory Coast), Anna Abengowe (Nigeria), Edgar Pieterse (South Africa), Patti Anahory (Cape Verde), Tanzeem Razak (South Africa) and Dr Mark Olweny (Uganda).
Entries will be evaluated according to three criteria – innovation, identity and implementation.
Five entries from each category will be shortlisted for the awards ceremony. From these, two merit and one trophy winner will be chosen. One of the four trophy winners will receive the grand prize of USD10 000.
The general public will also have a say by voting online for the Peoples Choice Merit Winner. w
You can follow the awards on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and LinkedIn, and on www.africaarchitectureawards.com.
TIMElInES
June 2017 . . . . . July 2017. . . . . .
August 2017 . . . . September 2017. .
Entries open first quarter 2017
. . . Entries close (except the People’s Choice Award ) ... First round of judging
Shortlist announced
. . . Peoples Choice Award closes
. . . Final judging, seminar, exhibition and awards ceremony
16 | BUZZ | SUMMER 2016