Building with spirit

THE Namibian public has a unique opportunity to participate in a series of architectural events.

The University of Cape Town’s Architecture Department and the Namibian Institute of Architects have invited two of Australia’s most distinguished architects and educators, Peter Stutchbury and Rick Leplastrier, to collaborate on a unique teaching programme. Their area of expertise is inventive and sustainable approaches to design through a special interpretation of the natural landscape.A design workshop (already fully booked) will be held at the Habitat Research and Development Centre in Windhoek.The centre, an award-winning building by Namibian architect Nina Maritz, is the setting.It was designed to demonstrate sustainable building methods for a desert climate, which include, among others, an array of eco-friendly building methods from rammed earth to recycled walls, passive solar approaches to building comfort, energy efficiency and alternative energy sources.Rick Leplastrier has won the ‘Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award’ in Finland and was invited as a tutor on the 2003 Utzon Summer School in Denmark – he worked with Jorn Utzon at the time of the Sydney Opera House.Rick has lectured and taught at Institutions throughout the world for over 30 years and is currently a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and a director and teacher with the Architecture Foundation Australia, who conducts three Master classes every year.In 1999 he was awarded Australia’s highest Architecture honour, the ‘Gold Medal’.Peter Stutchbury is well known in Australia for his innovative approach to sustainability and design within architecture.He has taught both nationally and internationally, most recently as Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona.He is currently a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and director and teacher with the Architecture Foundation Australia.Since 1995 his firm Stutchbury and Pape have won an unprecedented 36 Royal Australian Institute of Architects Awards.In 2003 Peter became the first Architect to win both of the nation’s major architectural awards, repeating this feat in 2005.In 1995 he won the Australian Timber Award and in 2004 the Universities Convocational Medal.Recently Peter was runner-up in the ‘Innovative Architectures – Design and Sustainability” award out if Italy.Stutchbury and Pape have exhibited in Germany, Luxembourg, France, America, Japan and most recently in Slovenia and at the Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy.The public is invited to attend the following lectures: Public Lecture by Rick Leplastrier Date: Wednesday, March 28, Venue: CIF Building, 22 Stein Street, Klein Windhoek; Time: 19h00 (7p.m.) Public Lecture by Peter Stutchbury Date: Thursday, March 29 Venue: CIF Building, 22 Stein Street, Klein Windhoek; Time: 19h00Their area of expertise is inventive and sustainable approaches to design through a special interpretation of the natural landscape.A design workshop (already fully booked) will be held at the Habitat Research and Development Centre in Windhoek.The centre, an award-winning building by Namibian architect Nina Maritz, is the setting.It was designed to demonstrate sustainable building methods for a desert climate, which include, among others, an array of eco-friendly building methods from rammed earth to recycled walls, passive solar approaches to building comfort, energy efficiency and alternative energy sources.Rick Leplastrier has won the ‘Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award’ in Finland and was invited as a tutor on the 2003 Utzon Summer School in Denmark – he worked with Jorn Utzon at the time of the Sydney Opera House.Rick has lectured and taught at Institutions throughout the world for over 30 years and is currently a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and a director and teacher with the Architecture Foundation Australia, who conducts three Master classes every year.In 1999 he was awarded Australia’s highest Architecture honour, the ‘Gold Medal’.Peter Stutchbury is well known in Australia for his innovative approach to sustainability and design within architecture.He has taught both nationally and internationally, most recently as Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona.He is currently a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and director and teacher with the Architecture Foundation Australia.Since 1995 his firm Stutchbury and Pape have won an unprecedented 36 Royal Australian Institute of Architects Awards.In 2003 Peter became the first Architect to win both of the nation’s major architectural awards, repeating this feat in 2005.In 1995 he won the Australian Timber Award and in 2004 the Universities Convocational Medal.Recently Peter was runner-up in the ‘Innovative Architectures – Design and Sustainability” award out if Italy.Stutchbury and Pape have exhibited in Germany, Luxembourg, France, America, Japan and most recently in Slovenia and at the Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy.The public is invited to attend the following lectures: Public Lecture by Rick Leplastrier Date: Wednesday, March 28, Venue: CIF Building, 22 Stein Street, Klein Windhoek; Time: 19h00 (7p.m.) Public Lecture by Peter Stutchbury Date: Thursday, March 29 Venue: CIF Building, 22 Stein Street, Klein Windhoek; Time: 19h00