Modern

Movement Architecture in South Africa

 Ruskin. 1849 The Seven Heroic period Hitchcock & Johnson 1932 The International Style: Architecture since 1922
Lamps of Architecture
1915 - 1929 Giedion 1941 Space Time & Architecture:
1850 the growth of a new tradition
Ruskin. 1851-53 The 1851 Crystal
Stones of Venice Palace London
A&P Smithson 1965 The Heroic
Period of Modern Architecture
Darwin. 1859 On the Origin of Species
Le Corbusier. 1923 Vers une architecture

WW I 1914 – 1918
Russian Revolution 1917
(1927 Towards a New Architecture) Venturi 1966 Complexity and

1912 Titanic sinks

1860 Contradiction

WW II 1938 – 45
Viollet-le-Duc 1863 Entretiens
sur l'architecture
1925 Bauhaus Dessau 1946 New Towns Act

1870 USA 1925-30 Ernst May

voting rights
1870 for all races
Frankfurt housing
Einstein 1905 / 1915 Special /
General Theories of Relativity 1927 1961 Berlin wall built
Weissenhofsiedlung
Howard 1898 Garden Cities of Tomorrow Stuttgart 1969 Woodstock music

1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980
1889 Eiffel Tower
1925 Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf 1963 Kennedy & Martin Luther King assassin

1930 Gandhi's Salt March 1947 India independence 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have a Dream”

1918 UCT campus 1928 UCT students visit Bauhaus Dessau

Classical revival
1930 Wits students visit Weissenhofsiedlung Stuttgart

1921 Langa & 1933 Martienssen Zerohour 1957 Centlivres

Pinelands
1933 Ideal Homes competition 1959 Moffat Bld

1944 “green belts” introduced

1886 Johannesburg
established
1923 Native (urban areas) Act 1950 Group Areas Act & CSIR & NBRI

2nd Boer War Botha Smut Herzog Smuts Malan Verwoerd Vorster Botha
1899–1902 1910 s 1924 1939 - 1948 - 1958 - 1966 1978 -
-1919 1919 -1939 1948 1954 1966 -1978 1984
-1924 A P A R T H E I D
ongoing British / Boer conflict for power in SA 1909 Union of South Africa (British Commonwealth) 1961 SA Republic

UK : Queen Victoria 1837 - 1901 Edward VII George V 1910 - 1936 George VI 1936 - 1952 Elizabeth II 1952 - present
1901 - 1910
 http://www.viewfromabove.co.za/CapeTown.htm
1917 Rietveld
red and blue chair

CAPE TOWN
English speaking
conservative/traditional

Baker reference to Cape Dutch style &

classical references: UCT upper campus: 1918 classical revival style
distinctly colonial but paid attention to architect JM Solomon (1886–1920)
local conditions, climate, craftsmanship http://uctscholar.uct.ac.za/R/?func=collections-result&collection_id=2173

UCT school of architecture

1922: CIA formed a school to prepare
students for RIBA exams
1925: included into UCT in the art faculty
strong connection with practice
introduced studio teaching to architecture

1928: UCT students visit Bauhaus Dessau

1937-64 Prof Thornton-White
(educated at the Bartlett London)
introduced modernist principles: pragmatic
approach
The library, the central hall and the students’ centre as conceived
by Groote Schuur’s first architect, J.M. Solomon
1957/59 Centlivres Building (Elliot Collection) See UCT vol.4, no.4, Dec. 1972
1957
Architecture school moves to UCT upper
campus Centlivres
designed by Thornton-White
(director from 1937)
CAPE TOWN 1933 South African National Gallery
Department of Public Works
Franklin Kendall

1940 Mutual Heights

Louw & Louw Arch
Fred Glennie

1938 Land and Agricultural Bank

Brian Mansergh
 1931 - 45
Cape Town Foreshore Plan

KANTOROWICH+–THESIS,+CAPE+TOWN+

Foreshore - Late 1940's

1938 Roy Kantorovich thesis project
1962 Naspers Centre - Hannes van der Merwe

1970 Trust Bank (now ABSA) - Colyn & Meiring 1971 Thibault Square - Revel Fox and Partners
 1975 Roelof Uytenbogaardt:
Werdmuller Centre Claremont

http://www.cityscapesdigital.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/03_Issue5_CITYSCAPES_City-
Reports_SOT4-e1405344390375.jpg http://www.mahala.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/42.jpg
 Tony and Adele de Souza Santos:
House Stekoven Newlands 1970 - 72

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1RanS0GRie4/TtzGozdrOcI/AAAAAAAAALE/BttfR1lZ3hI/s1600/stek13_b%2526w.jpg
 student work
JOHANNESBURG
Architecture as Art
discovery of gold
no dominant ethnic culture

common ground: opportunities and profit

strong link to outside world / global economy

Wits school of architecture

1921: School of Architecture
in engineering faculty
Tin Temple
Prof G.E. Pearse director - open approach

1926 Stanley Furner (classical training in

England) taught at Wits and became editor of
SAAR – Wits dominated the journal for 40
years

1928 Cape Tour: Pearse with students

1930 Wits students visit Weissenhofsiedlung
Stuttgart
1933 Zerohour manifesto by Rex Martienssen
1947 John Fassler director – move to a more
humanised approach with attention to
weathering
1959 John Moffat Building inspired by Auguste
Perret
1931 Stanley Furner Joubert Park Flats www.artefacts.co.za
by Gordon McIntosh, Norman Hanson, Rex Martienssen
dedicated to Geoffrey Pearse
sent to Le Corbusier who was enthused and named them
the Transvaal Group

1933 Zerohour
Rex Distin Martienssen 1905-1942 Note from Le Corbusier to South
African architects
 “The winning design may be described as modern as
1933 Rand Daily Mail Ideal Homes Competition opposed to the traditional style, but it is not alarmingly so.”
1933 Rand Daily Mail Ideal Homes Competition
designing prototypes

1937 Aiton Court

Bernard Cooke
with Angus Stewart
Aiton Court, current context
 1937 - 42 Denstone Court
Norman Hanson

According to Pancho Guedes,

influenced Le Corbusier for the demolished in 1960s
Unité d’abitation (1947)
1939 House Martienssen 53 Cruden Bay Road, Greenside
http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/12674/House
%20Stern%20drawing%20plan%20img011.jpg?sequence=1

1935
House Stern 1930s 1959 Moffat Building by John Fassler
brought back decoration

House Stern 1960s

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1438670&page=55
1948 Wilhelm Pabst (trained under Poelzig)
United Chinese Club
1943 Wilhelm Pabst Durban Street 42
Colin Gordon Nursing Home
PRETORIA Architecture through material and construction
government ideology
Afrikaans speaking
agenda to construct an identity

UP school of architecture
1929 The Transvaal University College taught
architecture but degrees awarded by Wits
1936 Voortrekker Monument by Gerard Moerdijk
1943 independent Department of Architecture
Prof A.L. Meiring director (education at Liverpool
Univ)
Gerard Moerdijk and Helmut Stauch (Itten-Schule)
influential:
rational, pragmatic, local climate, materials &
technology

1944 Norman Eaton visits Brazil

Pretoria architects developed regionalist style:
Gabriel Fagan, Karl Jooste
1945, Helmut Stauch
House Winkley
MODULE
3’4” = +1m
Hellmut Stauch
Meat Board Building
Pretoria, 1952
1955-59 Polly’s Arcade, Pretoria CBD

1949 House Anderssen Norman Eaton

CAPE TOWN
Conservative (British Neo Classical and Art Deco)
Introduced pragmatic aspects of modern movement architecture
Architecture and the City – reinforced by architect-urban designers
Le Corbusier reference came in the 70s with Adele and Tony de Santos
and Roeloff Uytenbogaardt

JOHANNESBURG
Globalisation, migrant workers from Europe
(imported international style ideas)
reference to Le Corbusier and Brazil Build
Rex Martienssen, Zero Hour / Wilhelm Pabst
Architecture as Art – later reinforced by Pancho Guedes

PRETORIA
Architecture landscape and materials
In search of a local identity, in reaction against the international style
Regionalism, reference to local materials and landscapes
Reinforced by Helmut Stauch and Norman Eaton
 c

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d6/41/ce/d641ce2cf784d7fdc8c5c3e6b497cd2f--historical-photos-cape-town.jpg

Cape Town
(Bezzoli et al 2002)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3470/3874448935_daab706730_b.jpg
 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6b/c1/42/6bc142ed15b28e9324af64ffef446103.jpg

Cape Town Implementation of modernist

(Bezzoli et al 2002) concepts in the apartheid city
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/94/80/b0/9480b0d814de15677ad4261aa6930f5a.jpg
The Cape Town Foreshore plan diagram by R.E.G. Hope.
Diagram 1 shows Table Bay before reclamation. Diagram 2 shows the same area after reclamation, and
indicates the land available for the planning of the extension to central Cape Town. Diagrams from ‘The
Gateway to South Africa, the Cape Town Foreshore Plan’. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/hilton-
t/sets/72157623774559774)
Cape Town 1940-50’s
https://res.cloudinary.com/dkd5dyaua/image/upload/c_scale,q_auto:low,w_700/v1494934783/Cape_Town_Foreshore_Freeways_oqod85.jpg
 Cape Town 1940-50’s

Roy Kantorowich of the proposed Cape Town

Hötorget skyscrapers built 1952-1966 Foreshore development done 1947-1948
1950 Group Areas Act
1966 District 6 declared ‘white’
 Reference to Ebenezer Howard

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/4/23/1398259224583/db851b2e-848a-46e8-8ef2-2be5b197965a-
540x720.jpeg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=d75afc3d547b5ce50f3365f430db9983
Zoning was used by the apartheid
government to separate people as it
was used too separate functions such
as industrial and residential areas. Urban planning under apartheid used strict
zoning principles. Source: David Kay
1902 Ebenzer Howard, Garden Cities of To-morrow
Pinelands Garden Cities Trust established in 1919 Construction began 1921
Langa: oldest surviving native township
established in 1921

Reference to the urban

expansion of Frankfurt in
the 1930’s by Ernst May
using satellite towns
surrounded by green
belts.
 Reference to the plans produced by
Levitt & Sons, American real estate
developers, famous for the town Levittown
NY, introduced suburbia to America on a
massive scale

Plan of Levitt’s house published in “4,000 Houses

Per Year.” Architectural Forum(April 1949):87.
http://house-
http://www15.uta.fi/FAST/US2/REF/images/levittwn.gif housing.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/1949_levitt_home
D.M. Calderwood
NE 1951/6; 51/8; 51/9

The NE 51/9 standard

three-roomed house
(Calderwood, 1953:31).
 D.M. Calderwood
NE 1951/6; 51/8; 51/9

1950s ideas for housing

developed at the National Building Research Institute
of the CSIR in Pretoria were based on a belief in
science and technology and a rational process.
The South African city continues to be defined by spatial separation, fragmentation and
sprawling between different parts and functions of the city - that were reinforced through
the MODERN PROJECT - with considerable social and economic inequalities.

https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/sdf/PublishingImages/SDF_Cover_2.jpg
kenya nairobi
school of architecture: ADD Building University of Nairobi
Nicolas Cisse,
Senegalese
architect