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Five projects received the Corobrik SAIA Award for Excellence from the South African Institute
of Architects (SAIA). The projects are:
• EPA Studio for Java Trench (Pty) Ltd by Elphick Proome Architects
• Igoda View House for Diamond Igoda View (Pty) Ltd by designworkshop : sa
• Willowbridge Lifestyle Centre for Mini Cape Developments (EPS Kagiso Intaprop JV) by Vivid Architects
• Courtyards on Oxford for G & C Shelf 63 (Pty) Ltd & Blue Horizon by studioMAS Architects & Urban Designers
• Red Location Museum for the City of Port Elizabeth by Noero Wolff Architects in association with John Blair Architects
The Awards for Excellence programme is, since 1990, the highest of the accolades by which the South
African Institute of Architects acknowledges the achievements of its membership in the design and
delivery of projects that are exemplary of the art and practice of the discipline of architecture.
Projects are submitted biennially to regional committees for a first round of peer evaluation and
from these regional awards the next round of national Awards of Merit, and the Awards for Excellence
are made by a national panel.
All projects which receive Awards of Merit are automatically considered for an Award for Excellence.
There is no limit to the number of awards that may be made nor are awards necessarily made, although
to date only in 1992 was no award made. Projects that are deemed worthy of an Award for Excellence are
those that showcase the talents of the practitioners of South African architecture at the highest level
of achievement.
This year Hassan Asmal, President of the SA Institute of Architects, convened the panel of adjudicators.
Other members of the panel were Aziz Tayob, a prominent award-winning architect; Prof Roger Fisher,
architect, critic and academic; Paul Kgole, a prominent quantity surveyor and immediate past president
of SABTACO and Peter du Trevou MD of Corobrik, who participated in the adjudication on behalf of the
sponsor.
In reflecting on the five projects that have been selected by the panel for this accolade, certain
commonalities emerge. In four of the cases, co-incidentally - there has been the involvement of
architects at some other level of the project – in one instance as commissioning client, in another
as own client, in a third as co-client, and in a fourth as adjudicators of a competition. In the one
instance this very awards programme assisted the client in identifying potential architects for the
design of his South African retreat.
It has been lamented that there was little by way of low budget projects for broader and needy
communities reflected in this round of Awards. Yet, while it is so that the projects that are
recipients of these Awards for Excellence reflect well financed projects, three of them are in
the commercial sector where budgetary constraints determine the viability of the project, and
the other financed from the national purse. Only one project derives from private client funding.
Another aspect shared by the projects is the use of limited palette of materials which make demands
in enhancing the skills of local crafts-persons yet delivered with a finesse of finish and detail.
All practitioners with whom the panel met indicated that the Awards programme was not the motivation
for the delivery of projects at the highest level of achievement. For those practitioners who pursue
architecture for the sake of architecture, the motivation to perform at the highest level is an
internally driven challenge. The Awards however confirm their attainment of their objective.
The panel applauds the architects as designers of those projects selected as recipients of these Awards for
Excellence – the greatest number awarded in one round to date - and congratulates them on their achievements.
This bodes well for the future of architectural design in South Africa, where the discipline of architecture
is often practiced under harsh, harried and hurried circumstances.
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