Shaped by Place: 40 Years of Architectural Practice

SAOTA, South Africa’s most globally successful architectural practice, opens Shaped by Place: 40 Years of Architectural Practice – a free exhibition and series of public conversations in Cape Town that highlight the thinking behind the practice.

WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Courtesy of SAOTA

Tracing SAOTA’s 40-year journey, the exhibition at Brundyn Arts & Culture in Cape Town, presented in partnership with Poliform, invites visitors to look closely at how architecture is made.

Through architectural models, large-scale imagery and accounts of the practice’s design process that has developed over four decades, Shaped by Place: 40 Years of Architectural Practice reveals how spaces relate to one another.

SAOTA began in a small Sea Point apartment in 1986 and moved to Church Street in 1992, the street on which the exhibition now opens. Its approach developed within a wider Cape tradition of responding to climate, landscape and life between indoors and out.

“Cape Town taught us to look carefully at how a building sits in its landscape and how people move between inside and outside. Those questions have stayed with us as we’ve worked elsewhere. Bringing the work back to Church Street feels particularly meaningful,” says Stefan Antoni, SAOTA principal.

“We want people to see how an architectural idea develops through questions, drawings and conversations. Sharing that process gives younger architects something they can test against their own experience. After forty years, we have knowledge to pass on, and the exhibition is also an opportunity to hear what others are asking of architecture,” says Greg Truen, SAOTA principal.

The exhibition invites students, emerging architects and the wider public into the discussions that shape the practice’s work.

Throughout October, talks with SAOTA principals and invited guests will explore architectural practice, social opportunity, the Cape’s modernist heritage and the implications of automation for design. Upcoming talks include:

The exhibition takes its name from SAOTA’s new monograph, Shaped by Place, which is available for pre-order. Through projects and reflections, the book develops the exhibition’s ideas beyond the gallery. Its four themes are Form and Foundations, Atmosphere and Experience, Context and Culture, and Legacy and Influence.

Shaped by Place: 40 Years of Architectural Practice runs until 31 October at Brundyn Arts & Culture, Mandela Rhodes Place, 21 Church Street, Cape Town. saota.com | @_saota

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