Convener: Hannah le Roux (Wits School of Architecture and Planning)

Friday 23 October 2009

Registration from 08h00

09h00 – 17h00

Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building

(A light lunch, and teas will be available)

(R320 or R110 for students)

modernx: the transformations of modern architecture: This full day colloquium will look at how, at different scales of practice – architectural and urban/strategic - the residue of modernist infrastructure of the post-WW2 era offers possibilities for new social and creative interpretations. How do spaces that in their time were heroic and clear now limit and structure an ever more fluid, diverse and materially poorer contemporary condition? How do new social conditions provide opportunities for the strategic reshaping of space, and what can architects and other professionals do to identify and design these changes?

The structure of the colloquium will be an overview of this field of work, followed by the presentation and interrogation of six case studies of transformed modernist space by a number of architects and urbanists. These will include hostels in Cape Town, office buildings in downtown Johannesburg, buffer zones in townships and social housing in Europe. The transformation of these sites responds to dynamics of social change, through different formal tactics. But loosely, there are threads to the projects: they acknowledge modernist space as a significant historical layer in the city, reuse its material, and use minimalism as a design approach. The colloquium will be aimed at an audience across disciplines of architecture, conservation, landscape and urban design, planning, public art and politics. CPD certificates will be issued to attendees.