The 25th International Union of Architects (UIA) world congress is coming to Durban from 3 to 7 August 2014. The congress is a major gathering of architects, which happens every three years in a different city – and this will be its first time in Sub-Saharan Africa. The South African hosts chose a resolutely positive African angle through the theme: “Architecture Otherwhere”.

Conventional approaches to architecture stemming from the West do not necessarily provide adequate answers in the context of Africa and in the developing world generally. “Otherwhere” alludes to alternative and innovative ways to make architecture a tool for social progress and the eradication of poverty. The event will be a platform for architects from around the world to exchange, debate and invent new ways of practicing architecture and building cities, through three days of keynotes, panel discussions and workshops. In parallel to the congress, the city of Durban has also offered itself as an experimental lab to test and demonstrate innovative approaches, through a range of urban spatial legacy projects developed and showcased for UIA2014.

Key speakers familiar to local audiences include Architecture for Humanity founder Cameron Sinclair, Ghanaian architect-entrepreneur Joe Osae-Addo, Indian architect and Harvard professor Rahul Mehrotra, and Burkina Faso community-committed architect Francis Kéré, along with several South African champions of socially engaged architecture. Also look out for Susannah Drake, whose inter-disciplinary New York firm creates strategies to commission their own public projects; Gerardo Salinas of Rojkind Arquitectos in Mexico, known for its radical facade designs; as well as two recipients of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, conceptual Japanese designer Toyo Ito and soulful Chinese architecture advocate Wang Shu, who should be the stars of the show.

The international speakers share a common ground: the challenging of conventions that may be outdated or out-of-place. All will seek an architecture that produces inclusive, progressive and relevant cities. 

R5 500 until 30 June, R6 500 thereafter, R750 for students, day passes also available, uia2014durban.org

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“Rescripting Architecture” is the theme for this year’s event, which follows the success of the 2010 festival in Newtown that attracted over 1 000 visitors. Festival convener Daniel van der Merwe explains the theme: “In the past, architecture has played an important role in shaping our landscape, but now, with the world population shifting to cities and increased pressure on resources, we need to start thinking of architecture as a provocateur of change,” says van der Merwe.

“More than ever, architects must play their role in creating better environments for the future. This festival, with its collaboration of architectural and cultural minds, is not about creating pretty things, but is about asking serious questions and pondering our collective future.”

Besides the conference with numerous international and local speakers, AZA also includes debates, masterclasses, exhibitions, a film festival and city tours. This year’s festival also runs in conjunction with the annual Student Architect Congress, and serves as the setting for the announcement of the SAIA Corobrik Awards of Merit and for Excellence, the “Oscars” of the local architecture industry.

Other international speakers are Rahul Mehrotra, an Indian architect and urban designer who is currently leading the masterplan for the Taj Mahal and its surroundings; UK architect and filmmaker Kibwe Tavares of Factory Fifteen, a creative studio specialising in animation, film and architectural representation; and Ghanaian Joe Osae-Addo, whose people-focussed site-specific eco-housing designs have won praise from Los Angeles to Accra.

Some of the speakers representing South Africa are Ora Joubert, the multiple award-winning architect and convener of a seminal reference book on architecture in democratic South Africa; Andrew Makin of Durban-based architectural firm designworkshop:sa; and Thorsten Deckler, co-founder of 26’10 Architects in Johannesburg.

Joubert and Makin, along with Elena Rocchi from Spain, will also present ‘A Piece of the City’ masterclass on Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 September. Conducted in the historical quarters of Cape Town’s inner city through guided tours with a temporary residential design studio as a base, the class will revolve around the larger context of the city and sites chosen as the focus of a design intervention.

For further information, festival programme and registration, go to www.architectureza.org

The winner of our AZA2012 Conference ticket giveaway was Boipelo Tlhalerwa.

More news from AZA2012

• AZA2012 comes to Cape Town
  The Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial Festival comes to the Cape Town City Hall from Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 September. Kicking off the official Creative Week Cape Town with international speakers including David Adjaye (UK) and Atelier Bow-Wow founders Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kajima (Japan), it is clear that Cape Town is not waiting for 2014 to unroll its design capital status.

• The architect as entrepreneur
  Day 1 of AZA2012: James du Plessis is impressed by Thorsten Deckler and Joe Osae-Addo who demand that architects push beyond obvious financial limitations.

• The puppetry of architecture
  Day 1 of AZA2012: Marine Leblond is blown away by Handspring Puppet Company’s presentation on the connections between puppetry and architecture.

• Architecture as a mirror
  Day 2 of AZA2012: Kibwe Tavares’s multi-disciplinary animations and Rahul Mehrotra’s work in urban India stand out for James du Plessis.

• Architecture for everyone, and elephants
  Day 2 of AZA2012: Marine Leblond is enchanted by Indian architect Rahul Mehrotra’s humility, ingenuity and endurance, and just can’t contain her monsoon of praise…

• Bow-Wow and Adjaye
  Day 3 of AZA2012: James du Plessis was most impressed with Studio Bow-Wow’s work in fishing villages and David Adjaye’s slave museum in Washington.

• From minimalist to monumental
  Day 3 of AZA2012: The day of starchitects went from Bow-Wow’s minimalism to David Adjaye’s monumental, but what about the ‘majority world’, asks Marine Leblond.

More news from Creative Week

• What’s on in Cape Town
  Cape Town is a veritable creative maelstrom kicking off with the ArchitectureZA Biennial Festival, which leads into Creative Week and culminates in the Loeries Awards weekend. Here’s our highlights.

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