Architecture and Spatial Planning

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    Positioning Namibia’s first school of architecture theoretically within its post-colonial context.
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. School of Architecture and Planning, 2016-09) Lühl , Phillip
    Architectural education has on several remarkable occasions been the locus of radical change, usually in the wake of deep social transformations. In post independence Namibia, decolonisation of space has not been the subject of much debate. The architectural profession remains elitist, skewed in race and gender and largely disjointed from the everyday realities of the majority of ordinary citizens who often lack the most basic aspects of a dignified living environment. With Namibia’s first undergraduate architecture programme established in 2010, the question arises how it situates itself theoretically within this postcolonial context, as well as within the wider debates on architectural education and how that might inform pedagogy. This paper reflects on how, through curriculum review, the school positions architecture as a critical response to prevailing socio-spatial challenges and the architect as co-producer of space within a complex field of social, technological, economic and political dynamics context, as well as within the wider debates on architectural education and how that might inform pedagogy. This paper reflects on how, through curriculum review, the school positions architecture as a critical response to prevailing socio-spatial challenges and the architect as co-producer of space within a complex field of social, technological, economic and political dynamics.
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    Planned layouts v. ‘planning for slums’: the case of Rehoboth Ext. 5 & 6
    (Namibia University of Science and Technology, Integrated Land Management Institute, 2016-10) Esterhuizen, Louis
    The project in question refers to the case of 'Ext.5 & 6' in Rehoboth, in which the speaker took part as employee of the town and regional planning consultancy office that undertook the assignment. The aim was to provide a formal layout to an informal settlement East of Rehoboth in the quickest way possible. The case shows some of the challenges that are faced in the process of formalisation when the goal is to provide a planned plot for dignified living low-income vis-a-vis the full land delivery process from surveying to proclamation.
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    Making Architecture
    (Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning. Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences. Namibia University of Science and Technology., 2017) Lühl, Phillip
    How do we educate young architects to be not only technically literate professionals but also critical citizens able to question their role as professionals in the post-colonial context of Namibia? This is a major challenge for the relatively young Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, established only in 2010 at the then NUST and currently Namibia University of Science and Technology. The validation of the undergraduate programs by the Namibia Council of Architects and Quantity Surveyors in 2016 allowed for some introspection and guided the review of the curricula in the long term process of de-constructing dominant narratives of western architectural and urban theory and re-building them from a more situated perspective. More immediately and practically, the type of projects students are tasked with in design studios must reflect contemporary, socially relevant challenges. Instead of considering projects for informal economies, or housing upgrading and neighbourhood re-blocking as incidental interventions, we realize that such projects will provide major challenges for future architects and other spatial practitioners. Such projects require serious engagement with user communities and the development of methods and tools that transcend the classical representational techniques of architects, in order to co-produce spatial interventions with non-expert stakeholders within a complex field of social, cultural, economic and political dynamics. The sequence of architectural design studios within the undergraduate architecture programs has been developed over the past few years and was consolidated in the current curriculum review. Beginning with exercises on abstract space andstructural understanding in semester 1, students explore the interrelationship between form, volume, structure, materials and basic human spatial and functional requirements without the constraints of context.