Al became a member of SAIA and the BKIA Regional Committee in 2002, and was elected President of the BKIA in 2004. Since then he has been a board member of SAIA and convenor of the Habitat committe. In August 2006 he was elected as Vice-President of SAIA. He has won awards for industrial design from the South African Bureau of Standards and a SAIA Award of Merit for Stratfords, an office and conference venue in East London. He is also the author of a number of patents and registered designs.

Al became interested in architecture in 1971 and set up his own building company where he designed and built houses before moving to Durban to take up a position with a multi-disciplinary professional practice. In Durban he worked across disciplines and later moved to Building Design Group with Paul Mikula and then on to Marek Masojada, an engineer who shared offices with Hans Hallen. With the advent of the Urban Foundation, Al set up a Self Help Housing Centre in Umlazi with the late architect Peter Malefani. In 1980 Al moved back to East London where he designed and built his own home and at the same time patented the Winblok ® pre-cast concrete window system. He then set up the national business infrastructure for the Winblok® system.

His overarching focus is on the development of a broad based approach to habitat starting with ‘DNA’ grounded in sustainable technology linked to the transference of skills and the development of new compact urban communities. To this end, he is practicing with his partners, in Buffalo City East London where, with the assistance of private developers, foreign aid and the municipality, he is working towards the establishment of sustainable high-density affordable development and urban renewal.

Al is married to Iris, and they have three sons one of whom is also an architect.

Fanuel Motsepe (Vice President)
Having lectured at Wits University, Johannesburg, Fanuel Motsepe now practices as an architect and urban designer. As Director of Motsepe Architects (M Arch) (Pty) LTD, he heads significant inner city rejuvenation projects in Johannesburg's CBD and South Africa's capital city, Tshwane. Fanuel also works on M Arch's non-profiting social projects in tribal villages and historically black townships.

Fanuel is the Immediate Past President of the Gauteng Institute for Architecture (GIfA) and currently the Vice-President of the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA). He has since 2000 been serving as a heritage conservation architect at the South African Heritage Resources Agency - Gauteng (SAHRA-GP). Fanuel is also an executive board member of the Black Business Caucus in Built Environment (BBCBE) and a board member of the Confederation of Black Business Organizations (CBBO).

Fanuel's architectural philosophy focuses on cultural adequacy through the concept of Botho/Ubuntu, 'said to reflect a deep-rooted African maxim, "A person is a person through other persons" - "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu".' (David Olivier, Faith and Earthkeeping, 1998). Fanuel belongs to a school of thought, which promotes a multi-culture-inclusive design philosophy, to address the culture-exclusive built environment doctrines and practices in South Africa.

As part of furthering and advancing knowledge ingrained in multi-culture-inclusive and multi-culture-receptive doctrines and practices, M Arch set up a research unit called Motsepe Architects Research Unit cc (MARU). MARU is fully equipped with a library, a computer room, an audio visual room, and a model making laboratory. MARU recruits and engages local and international researchers where outcomes include publications of research findings

Hassan Asmal (Immediate Past President)
Hassan was born in 1955 and grew up in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal. After initially studying at the ML Sultan Technikon, he obtained a B Arch degree at the University of Cape Town in 1982. He gained experience in several practices before establishing ACG Architects and Development Planners in 1993, where he is a partner.

The practice was awarded the SAIA Award for Excellence for Hartleyvale Sports Stadium in 1998. In 2002 Hassan received the SABTACO Joint Initiative Award first prize for leadership in the Unicity Council Chamber Project for the City of Cape Town, and the SAIA Award of Merit was conferred to the practice for the Unicity project in 2003. His practice was part of an association of firms that received an Award of Merit on Friday for the Cape Town International Conference Centre.

Hassan was elected President of the Cape Institute for Architecture in September 2002 and since then has served on the SAIA Board as one of the elected members of the Management Committee. In August 2004 he was elected Vice-President of SAIA.

He has lectured and has been an external examiner at the University of Cape Town and the Peninsula Technikon. He was a member of the Advisory Council for the Wesley College of Education and also served on the Planning Advisory Board of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape as well as a number of community organisations.

As a keen sportsperson, Hassan Asmal has achieved honours in soccer and cricket. He is married and has three children.

Patricia (Trish) Emmett (Past President)
Trish Emmett is the third woman in the history of the South African Institute of Architects to serve as its President. She obtained a B Arch Degree from the University of Natal in 1977 and later completed a Diploma in Datametrics from Unisa, majoring in Quantitative Management.

In 1991 she formed the practice of Emmett : Emmett Architects with Frank Emmett. The practice has won two South African Institute of Architects Conservation Awards; one KwaZulu-Natal Institute for Architecture Merit Award and fourteen Conservation Awards from the City of Durban.

In 1998 Trish became the first woman to be elected as President of the KwaZulu-Natal Institute for Architecture, a position she held for two consecutive terms of office. She has served as Chair of the Natal Architectural Heritage Committee and has been the Chair of the South African Institute of Architects Heritage Committee from 1999 to 2004. She represented SAIA on ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) for a number of years.

Trish is currently a Council member of the southern region of the African Union of Architects as well as a Council member of the International Union of Architects for Region V Africa. She was born is Johannesburg and has three children.

Su Linning (SAIA Executive Officer)
Su graduated from the University of Pretoria with a B Arch degree in 1973. During the early seventies she worked for Brian Sandrock in Pretoria, the Stauch Vorster Partnership, respectively in the Pretoria and Windhoek offices. After relocating to Swaziland early in 1976, she worked in the Mbabane offices of the Myles Porter Pugh and Horn partnership and was involved in a wide variety of projects. She served as honorary secretary of the Swaziland Association of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors for a number of years.

After returning to SA in 1982, she established her own practice in Johannesburg, which she ran from her home studio, until she took up the position of Executive Officer of the SAIA in 1997. She is a Trustee of APIGIS, Trustee (alternate) of Bepmeds, and serves on several SACAP committees as the Institute’s representative.

Su is married to Mike and they have one daughter.

Bryan Wallis (SAIA Director Practice & Education)
Bryan was born in Johannesburg in 1944, matriculated from Krugersdorp High School in 1961 and completed his B Arch degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1974.

He entered fulltime employment as an architectural assistant with the practice Radomsky Smith and Partners in 1970 in Johannesburg. He transferred to Durban in 1972 and from 1974 to 1976 was employed as a registered architect. The practice portfolio comprised largely commercial and residential projects.

In 1977 Bryan joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as Technical Secretary to the Agrément Board of South Africa and was later appointed Manager of Agrément South Africa. This work involved the technical assessment and certification of innovations in the fields of building and construction. Between 1993 and 2005 he held various managerial appointments in the field of building research and application within the CSIR’s Division of Building and Construction Technology, including a period as provincial Programme Manager, stationed in Stellenbosch. He retired from the CSIR in 2005 and is currently employed as Director: Practice and Education in the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA).

Bryan is married to Kathleen. They have a daughter and two sons, living in different parts of South Africa. His interests are eclectic and include the outdoors and photography.