Ever wondered who or what inspired our current generation of architects? Peter Rich, who has created some of Africa’s most transformative buildings and taken local architectural approaches around the world, says valuing who you are and where you are is the place to start.

Peter Rich tells the story of how, when the Japanese architectural legend Kengo Kuma presented him with the World Architecture Festival award for building of the year in 2009 – for his Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in Limpopo – he leaned in, gave him a hug and whispered something in his ear.

Peter had long admired Kuma, who later designed the Japan National Stadium for the doomed 2020 Olympic Games, so receiving the award from him was especially meaningful. He explains that Kuma’s great achievement was an approach to buildings that allowed their designs to be “open-ended”; more about the relationships between people, culture, the environment and social context than about the building itself.

After a period studying abroad at Columbia University in the US, Kuma looked to Japanese craft, especially the intricate and ingenious joints in timber work, to forge a revitalised brand of Japanese architecture. By focusing on a component such as a timber joint and multiplying it, he invented a kind of architecture that was about construction rather than design, method rather than object, relationships rather than form.

READ MORE: 10 Award-winning SA Buildings

What Peter has found most dispiriting in architecture of the recent past is the developer-led model, which commercialises architecture and commodifies buildings by conceiving them as “self-referential products” that do little to contribute to people’s lives. Too much computer-assisted design, he adds, also forces architects to think and design “in object terms”.“It’s killing cities,” he says.

Peter’s own building designs might look nothing like Kuma’s, but they’re similar in the way they resist being seen as commodifiable. His approach is also premised on starting where you are, and using what you have to invent something new. Peter’s buildings are not so much “things” as ways of making space. It’s a thread that runs through his career – the idea of “African space making”.

His formative influences have been well documented, not least in Jonathan Noble’s recent book, The Architecture of Peter Rich: Conversations with Africa. He was mentored by the maverick Portuguese-born architect and lecturer Pancho Guedes, who possibly did more than anyone else to forge a modernist approach to African architecture.

It was also Guedes who encouraged Peter to document Ndebele architecture, which he did through drawing rather than photography. His drawings were exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2018, which that year was curated by the Pritzker Prize-winning Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, whose work Peter also admires for “dealing with relationships in this open-ended way” and not being “about form”.

Recording Ndebele architecture (much of which has now vanished) began a lifetime’s work, whether here or elsewhere in Africa, of considering and formulating ways in which local cultures, customs and worldviews can be translated into architecture, and rethinking how space itself – the layout of a house or a village or a city – might respond to local ways of knowing and doing, so that it can carry local culture intact into the future.

But Peter has never been a purist. In fact, he still quotes a Ndebele matriarch on the hybrid, magpie nature of their architecture and art. She said to him, “We see what we want to see, and we make it our own.”

“It’s in the reinterpretation,” says Peter, “and how you invest an influence with symbolic meaning relevant to its changed place, context, culture and time, that gives it real meaning. The realisation that we’re part of a multicultural society and have to reconcile these things is actually quite an enriching thing. The contradictions are delightful!”

In engaging with the questions of how to synthesise tradition and modernity, he’s found himself looking to India for cues and dialogue, which he has pursued through teaching and lecturing. One of the figures he holds in the highest esteem is Pritzker Prize-winning Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi, who was also awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal last year (2022). He particularly likes the way Doshi looks for clues in the details of people’s lives – including the sacred – to design buildings and cities that can “enable people”. It’s about the power of observation, looking to people’s lives first, not shying away from the symbolic or, he says, trying to separate “the ordinary, the circumstantial and the sacred”. Those details, he says, make architecture potentially transformative. “Do not be so arrogant that you think you can abstract things and ignore all of that,” he warns.

Incidentally, Doshi, Kuma and Peter are among some 40 luminaries of the architectural world to be interviewed by another important figure in Indian architecture, Durganand Balsavar. His interviews, Peter points out, have become an important resource, and are used as a teaching tool at institutions such as Harvard University.

He also looks to the architecture of Latin America for resonances with our own circumstances. He mentions “projects that are coming out of Mexico and Paraguay that are exceptional”, and particularly admires Alberto Kalach’s “poetic economy of means” and “understanding of what it means to be local”, citing Kalach’s Hotel Terrestre in Puerto Escondido on the west coast of Mexico (featured in VISI 120).

“They don’t have the licence to be irresponsible, but that discipline does not deter them from making poetry,” he says. Peter never forgets the importance of architecture that brings pleasure to people – moments of delight.

What Kuma whispered in Peter’s ear was, “Stay small. Don’t get big like me.” At least for the moment, some of the “bigness” of the architectural enterprise has been disrupted. Despite the fallout this has caused throughout the industry, it is forcing architects to work small, use what they have and start where they are.

Peter is heartened by a new generation of South African architects “doing world-class work”. He particularly likes the way they’ve shaken off the limitations of modernism and are “responding to our multicultural reality… in a relaxed way”. In addition, young Africans are starting to ask questions about who they are and where they come from. There’s a growing appetite, he says, for architecture that actually engages with these questions. “I think we’re in a good place,” he sums up. “But what you need to do all the time is value who you are and where you come from.”

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PETER RICH is op 24 Februarie as die ABSOLUT VISI Ontwerper van die Jaar aangewys vir sy ontwerp van die Mapungubwe-interpretasiesentrum – die eerste argitek wat dié eer te beurt val. Peter het met VISI gesels oor sy prestasie, terwyl sy vriend die ikoniese Suid-Afrikaanse fotograaf OBIE OBERHOLZER die skouspelagtige foto’s geneem het.

Voordat sy firma in November laasjaar die Wêreldgebou van die Jaar-toekenning by die Wêreld-argitektuurfees in Barcelona gewen het vir die Mapungubwe-interpretasiesentrum in Limpopo, het Peter Rich nie eens ’n webwerf gehad nie. Sedertdien spog hy met een wat al meer as twee miljoen trefslae gekry het.

’n Mens kan maar sê Peter Rich-argitekte, ’n span van agt mense, het die “Oscar” van argitektuurtoekennings ontvang. Dis dié geleentheid in argitektuurgeledere, een waar die wêreld se voorste argitekte deur hulle portuurgroep beoordeel en op die skouer geklop word. Daar was 640 inskrywings uit 67 lande. Peter was erg in sy noppies toe hy in die kategorie Kulturele gebou van die Jaar met die louere wegstap, maar hy was “heeltemal oorstelp” toe hy ook die groot prys wen.

Die beoordelaars het bevind die Mapungubwe-interpretasiesentrum, wat in opdrag van Sanparke gebou is, was van al die projekte argitektonies en sielkundig die kragtigste. “Dit het nie net gewig nie, maar dra ook ’n boodskap van kompleksiteit aan die buitewêreld oor,” was die kommentaar van die Wêreld-argitektuurgemeenskap se voorsitter, Suha Ozkan. Daarop sê Peter bloot: “Ons het ’n gebou opgerig wat wonderlik outentiek is. Dis gemaak uit die aarde en die plaaslike gemeenskap het gehelp – dít is die krag daarvan.”

Oor die ABSOLUT VISI Ontwerper van die Jaar-toekenning wat nou by sy lang lys pryse gevoeg is, sê Peter: “Dis ’n groot eer, veral omdat die ontwerpwêreld nie gewoonlik argitektuur insluit nie – al is dit volgens my die moeder van die kunste. Ek het omtrent ’n dosyn merietetoekennings vir vorige projekte gekry, maar Mapungubwe is vir my spesiaal en die lof wat dit ingeoes het, is vir my van onskatbare waarde.” Peter het selfs verdere erkenning ontvang met die aankondiging dat hy ere-genoot van die Amerikaanse Instituut vir Argitekte word – die inhuldiging vind middel Junie 2010 in Miami plaas.

Die Mapungubwe-interpretasiesentrum, geleë by die samevloeiing van die Limpopo- en Shasherivier waar die grense van Suid-Afrika, Zimbabwe en Botswana bymekaar kom, dien as ’n inleiding vir toeriste oor die Mapungubwe- nasionale park. Dis die terrein van ’n oeroue beskawing wat nie net verbind word met die handelskultuur van Groot-Zimbabwe nie, maar ook die plek is waar die beroemde goue renosterfiguur ontdek is.

Outydse boumetode

Die sentrum, wat van die beplanningstadium af drie jaar geneem het om te voltooi, bestaan uit twee hol klipstapels, terwyl ’n spangewelftegniek gebruik is om die golwende vorms te bou waarvan ’n mens die dun dop in die geboë rande sien. Die gewelfwerk, ’n antieke boutegnologie uit die tyd voor versterkte sement, is onder toesig van ’n span kontrakingenieurs van die Massachusetts-instituut vir Tegnologie voltooi. ’n Spangewelf versprei gravitasiekragte horisontaal ondertoe en maak staat op die klouvermoë van etlike lae oorvleuelende teëls wat saamgeweef word. In dié geval is die teëls 18 mm dik en handgemaak van plaaslike grond, sê Peter, en voeg by: “Hierdie outydse boumetode het ook ’n klein koolstofvoetspoor, en dis die rede waarom argitekte weer daarna begin kyk.”

Binne-in die sentrum tref ’n mens sigsag-wandelgange aan. Die binneruimte vir tentoonstellings is spelonkagtig. Lig word deur gekleurde glas gefiltreer en spikkelpatrone word weerkaats op die poele waardeur die lug afgekoel word. Lig word ook op ’n slim manier met geroeste staalskerms en latwerk versag.

Die koepels aan die buitekant is bedek met los klippe wat op die terrein rondgelê het voordat die bouwerk begin is. Mense het al gesê die gebou lyk soos ’n saadjie wat net eenvoudig daar ontkiem het.

“Die sentrum is ’n simbool van Afrika voor kolonisasie, van sy antieke kulture en mitologieë,” verduidelik Peter. “Dis ontwerp om die kwaliteite aan te neem van ’n heilige ruïne, met verskillende lae van betekenis en rykheid. Die gevoel wat ek wou skep, is een van ’n mistieke, heilige plek, een wat die verhaal van Afrika vertel.”

Die feit dat Peter en sy span op ’n slim manier plaaslike materiaal en arbeid gebruik het, het by die Barcelona-fees ’n sterk indruk gemaak op volhoubaarheidsagenda, hoewel die klem steeds bly op die sentrum se kulturele bydrae. “Wanneer ek daaroor praat, vertel ek ’n liriese, menslike storie – nie ’n windgat-verhaal oor watter geniale ou ek is nie, en die mense hou daarvan,” sê hy.

Peter woon in ’n helderkleurige Ndebele-geïnspireerde huis-en-kantoor in Parktown, maar is nooit lank hier nie; hy bring baie tyd deur in Axum, Ethiopië, waar hy en sy span ’n “meesterplan” vir ’n antieke stad beplan – om meer toeriste te lok. Hy werk ook aan ’n soortgelyke projek in Kigali, Rwanda, en tussendeur dit alles is hy ook nog ’n professor wat ’n jonger geslag argitekte en stadsbeplanners oplei.

Peter, ’n ywerige navorser van inheemse stamme en ’n leidende voorstander van kontemporêre Afrika-argitektuur, hou daarvan om voort te bou op tradisies, en sy geboue vind sterk aanklank in die gemeenskappe waar hulle staan. Een van sy merkwaardigste plaaslike werke is die Alexandra-erfenissentrum in die township Alexandra, wat volgens hom baie geliefd en gewild is in die gemeenskap.

“My inspirasie kom uit die spesifieke konteks van my opdrag – meestal Afrika – wat ek dan in die argitektuur interpreteer,” verduidelik hy. “Afrika-mense het in der waarheid al die oplossings… Die Ndebelevrou is net so talentvol in argitektuur as iemand wat deur die Italiaanse Renaissance-argitek Palladio opgelei is, bloot omdat sy ervaring het in ontwerp en bouwerk. ’n Mens is net so goed as hoeveel jy jou ambag beoefen.”

Kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse argitektuur

Met ’n loopbaan van 40 jaar agter hom het dié argitek indrukwekkende werk op sy kerfstok – dit sluit in nasionale geboue, maar ook nederige gemeenskapsgeriewe in Gauteng en Limpopo. Hy hou daarvan om sy geboue te beskryf as “gestroop van styl of mode, maar met ’n respek teenoor die landskap, plek en kultuur”, iets wat eg voel vir die mense vir wie hy dit gebou het. Dit was presies wat hy in gedagte gehad het toe hy op die droë, vergeetbare rif gestaan het wat uitkyk op wat vandag die Mapungubwe-interpretasiesentrum is.

Ironies genoeg was Mapungubwe ook onlangs in die nuus vanweë die omstredenheid rondom die toekenning van steenkoolmynregte aan Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL), nie ver van die interpretasiesentrum af nie – ’n kwessie wat die plek se Wêrelderfenisstatus bedreig.

“As die sentrum gebruik kan word as ’n simbool in die veldtog om die mynbouvoorstel te beveg, dan is ek bly,” sê Peter. “Want mynbedrywighede sal hierdie lieflike kremetartlandskap vernietig.”

Die betekenis van Peter Rich se Wêreldgebou van die Jaar-sege sal miskien eers later ’n tasbare uitwerking hê. Tot dusver het die res van die wêreld nie eintlik kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse argitektuur erken nie, sê hy. Maar prof. ’Ora Joubert se nuwe boek, 10+ Years 100+ Buildings – Architecture in a Democratic South Africa, sal saam met sy toekenning hopelik sorg dat die wêreld dit raaksien.

“As argitekte worstel ons met wat ons spesiaal maak in hierdie plek, in die 21ste eeu, hoe ons dit vertolk en hoe ons dit persoonlik maak. Nou het ons die kans om openbare ruimtes te maak wat werlik ons kulturele diversiteit weerspieël,” sê hy.

Dié erfenis het reeds begin. By Mapungubwe gebruik die werklose klipmesselaars wat op die terrein opgelei is, die res van die projek se teëls vir hulle huise in die nabygeleë dorpies. En só sit hulle ’n wonderlike Suid-Afrikaanse suksesverhaal voort.

• Peter Rich-argitekte 011 726 6151, www.peterricharchitects.co.za

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In February 2010, Peter Rich walked away with the ABSOLUT VISI Designer of the Year Award, the first time ever that an architect has won this prize. We take a look at his winning project: the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre.

Before his firm won the World Building of the Year award at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona last November for the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in Limpopo, Peter Rich didn’t even have a website. Since then, his site has had over two million hits.

Essentially, Peter Rich Architects, an eight-strong team, won the “Oscar” of architectural awards, the pinnacle occasion when the world’s leading architects are reviewed and celebrated by their peers. There were 640 entrants from 67 countries and, while Rich was thrilled enough to win in the Cultural Building of the Year category, he was “completely overwhelmed” when he won the big prize itself.

The jury found that the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre, commissioned by SANparks, was the most architecturally and psychologically powerful project of all.  

“It carries both weight and a message of complexity to the outside world,” commented chairperson of the World Architecture Community, Suha Ozkan. To that, Peter adds simply: “We built a building that is wonderfully authentic, made from the earth and with the help of the local community. That is its power.”

Asked about adding the ABSOLUT VISI Designer of the Year Award to his list of prizes, Peter says, “It is a huge honour, especially given that the designer world doesn’t usually include architecture, though, to my mind, it is the mother of arts. I’ve won around a dozen awards of merit for previous built work but the Mapungubwe project is special to me and I greatly value the accolades it’s received.”

Even further recognition has followed, with the announcement that Peter has been made an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, with the inauguration in Miami scheduled for mid-June 2010.

Site of an ancient civilisation

Located at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers where the borders of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana meet, the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre serves as the tourist’s introduction to the Mapungubwe National Park, the site of an ancient civilisation linked to the Great Zimbabwe trading culture and where the famous golden rhino figurine was discovered.

The centre, which took three years from planning to construction to complete, comprises two hollow cairns, while timbrel vaulting was used to construct the billowing forms that expose the arched edges of their thin shells. The vaulting was overseen by the contract engineers, a team from the Massachussets Institute of Technology.

Vaulting is an ancient building technology, used before the advent of reinforced concrete, that makes use of hyperbolic paraboloid geometry (a potato-crisp shape). Timbrel vaulting doesn’t rely on gravity but on the adhesion of several layers of overlapping tiles that are woven together. In this case the tiles were 18mm thick and handmade from local soil, says Peter, who adds: “This old-fashioned method of construction also has a low carbon footprint, which is why architects are looking at it once again.”

Inside the centre one finds zig-zagging walkways. The internal exhibition space is cavernous. Light is filtered through coloured glass and dappled patterns are reflected from the ponds that cool the air. Light is also cleverly tempered with rusted steel screens and slatted timber.

The domed exteriors are covered with loose rubble stones cleared from the site before building. Observers have remarked that the building looks like a seed that simply grew there.

“The centre symbolises Africa before colonisation, its ancient cultures and mythologies,” explains Peter. “It has been designed to evoke the qualities of a sacred ruin, layered with meaning and richness. The feeling I wanted to inspire was of a mystical, sacred place, a place that tells the story of Africa.”

Resourceful use of local materials

The fact that Rich and his team made such resourceful use of local materials and labour made a strong impression on the sustainability agenda at the Barcelona festival, although the emphasis remains firmly on the centre’s cultural contribution.

“When I talk about it, I tell a lyrical, human story, not a windgat story about what a genius I am, and people take delight in that,” he says.

Peter lives in a brightly coloured Ndebele-inspired home-cum-office in Parktown but is never around for long, spending a lot of time in Axum in Ethiopia where he and his team are “master planning” an ancient city after winning a tender geared to enhancing its tourism appeal. He is also working on a similar project in Kigali in Rwanda and at the same time dons his professor’s cap to teach a younger generation of architects and urban planners.

An avid researcher of indigenous tribes and a leading proponent of contemporary African architecture, Peter Rich likes to build on tradition and his buildings resonate strongly in the communities where they stand. One of his most notable local works is the Alexandra Interpretation Centre, which he says is loved and embraced by the community.

“My inspiration comes from the particular cultural context I’ve been commissioned to work in, mostly African, which I then interpret in the architecture,” he explains. “Africans actually have all the solutions… The Ndebele woman is just as talented at architecture as someone trained by Palladio (the Italian Renaissance architect), simply because she is experienced in design and building. You are only as good as how much you practise your craft,” Peter says.

Buildings devoid of style or fashion

With a career spanning 40 years, the architect has an impressive body of work behind him, which includes national buildings as well as humble community facilities in Gauteng and Limpopo.

He likes to describe his buildings as “devoid of style or fashion” but with a “respectful treatment of ethnicity” that rings true to the people for whom they are created. This was exactly what he had in mind when he stood on the dry, unremarkable ridge overlooking what is now the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre.

Ironically, Mapungubwe recently became a hotbed of controversy over the awarding of coal mining rights to Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) not far from the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre, presenting a threat to its World Heritage Site status.

“If the centre can be used as a symbol in the campaign to fight this, then I’m happy because the introduction of coal mining will destroy this beautiful baobab landscape,” comments Rich.

The significance of Peter Rich’s World Building of the Year win has perhaps yet to be felt. To date, contemporary South African architecture hasn’t been recognised by the rest of the world, he says. But the recently launched book 10+ years 100+ buildings – Architecture in a democratic South Africa, by Prof Ora Joubert, topped by this victory, will hopefully put it on the map.

“As architects we are wrestling with what makes us special in this place, in the 21^st century, how we interpret it and make it personal. We have the chance now to make public spaces that truly reflect our cultural diversity,” he says.

This legacy has already begun. In Mapungubwe, the unemployed masons trained on site are using the remaining tiles from the project for their houses in nearby villages. And so they continue a wonderful South African success story.           

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