Mercedes-Benz Award for South African Art and Culture 2007
Contemporary South African Architecture
The Mercedes-Benz Award for South African Art and Culture, established to give young people working creatively in the field of culture their first international exposure, is being awarded for the seventh time since 1999. The eight architects or architecture practices and their major projects from the various South African provinces nominated for the Mercedes-Benz Award for South African Architecture 2007 are being presented at Mercedes-Benz Contemporary in Berlin, followed by major exhibitions in South Africa and Brazil.
A special presentation is be devoted to the prize winner, Heinrich Wolff.
Heinrich Wolff (*1970 Roodeport, Gauteng, ZA) is working as visiting professor at Cape Town University and has received numerous national and international awards. Wolffs buildings are characterized by material-conscious, regionally adapted and carefully integrated architecture which meets the demands of the construction assignment and its location in each case. Wolff considers the fact that due to the many years of Apartheid, to be a kind of self-discovery process is currently underway in South Africa as a central impetus for his work. International architectural trends are now being adopted and connected to traditional South African architecture and lifestyle, thereby creating a very specific architectural language.
Projects: PELIP Low Cost Housing, Walmer Township 2000; House Buntman, Villa Camps Bay, Cape Town 2001; Firma Indigenous Systems, Midrand, Gauteng 2002; House Toussaint, Midrand, Gauteng 2003 Red Location Museum of Struggle, Port Elizabeth 2005; Inkwenkwezi Secondary School, Du Noon.
List of Nominees: archilab (pty) ltd (Michael Borgström, Marco Bezzoli, Ishmaiel Meyer), Thorsten Deckler, Heather Dodd, Andrew Horn, Ndabo Langa, Henning Rasmuss, Chris Wilkinson, Heinrich Wolff (alle ZA)
Further exhibition venues:
7th Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo
Oct 15 – Nov, 2007
Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg
Sept 20 – Oct 19, 2007
Durban Art Gallery
Nov 9, 2007 – Jan 13, 2008
South African National Gallery Cape Town
Jan 27 – March 30, 2008
Publications
-
Heinrich Wolff
Mercedes-Benz Award for South African Architecture 2007
Seippel Verlag Cologne, 2007out of stock -