The First Architects in South Africa
South Africa is one of the most diverse countries in the world, due to the many cultures that settled here throughout the centuries. The first structures built in South Africa were built by the first nomads when they expanded into South Africa in 300 AD from central Africa. They constructed their huts out of reeds and covered it with mud to keep the elements out. Part of their travelling nomad lifestyle, they never needed to build permanent structures as they did not stay too long in the same place.
Colonization
The architecture style of South Africa changed with the settling of the Dutch and various other nations that came to South Africa to explore and settle here. Through this migration and exploration came various architecture styles like the Cape Dutch and renaissance styles. Castle of Good Hope was constructed by the Dutch East Indian Company between 1666 and 1679. This is the first structure build in South Africa based on Colonial Architecture, and after all these year it is still standing and one of the famous tourist attraction in the mother city.
Interestingly enough the design for The Castle of Good hope was not even designed or drawn in South Africa. Architect Pierius Cool was commissioned by the Dutch East Indian Company to design the fort, but never viewed his creation as he never set foot in South Africa.
The First Architect to be registered in South Africa
The first recognized South African architect in South Africa was Hermann Shutte who had design The Green Point light House in 1821. Hermann's designs didn't end there as he designed over 20 buildings in the Cape region. This includes designs of museums and police stations.
The expansion of Architecture in the Cape
Cape Town was developing fast which caused an influx of international architect to South Africa like John Skirrow who was the government architect of Cape Town between 1825 and 1846 and was involved in major developments in the Cape. He came up alongside architects like Henry Willey Reveley and Charles Freeman who designed an abundance of churches and residential buildings in the Cape. Mr freeman was the architect behind the iconic design of the South African parliament building and this was his original design for the building.
The expansion of Architecture inland
The Cape's economy started to expand and South Africa's architectural styles started to grow and expand in-land to Pretoria and Johannesburg due to the gold rush. International architects poured in from Holland, England, and other European countries to start expanding South Africa's infrastructure
The first South African Republic (ZAR) Architect
It was a Dutch architect by the name of Sytze Wopkes Wierda who was announced as the first architect for the South African Republic (ZAR) in 1887 and was responsible for Pretoria's Palace of Justice, and the first design of the Rissik Post Office in Johannesburg, which was one of Johannesburg longest standing structures.
The Historic and Post Modern Architects of South Africa
It was towards the end of Wierda's career that Architectures like Herbert Baker, William Hawke, Walter Nicol Mckinkay, Gordon Leith and Gerhard Moerdyk started to shine.
Herbert Baker is one of the most influential architects in South Africa during the late 1800's and earlier 1900's. Mr Baker had designed over 10 different schools in South Africa including Rhodes University and Saint John's College. Herbert Baker was also in-charge of designing the train Station and the Union building in Pretoria.
Gordon Leigh is another profound architect who started to working for Mr Baker, and ended up designing the Reserve Banks in Johannesburg, as well as designing The Johannesburg Park Station in the cities central business district.
William Hawke and Walter Nicol Mckinkay formed a partnership and helped shape Johannesburg and Bloemfontein by designing the Johannesburg City Hall and the supreme courts in Bloemfontein and many more buildings.
Gerhard Moerdyk was an Afrikaans architect and perhaps one of the most famous Afrikaans architects, for he designed the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria and a few churches and public buildings in the same region.
The beginning of Modern Architects in South Africa
A new movement of architecture started again in South Africa thanks to French architect Le Corbusier who led Herbert Baker to invest and inspire two of South Africa's most famous architects in the early 1930's; Norman Eaton and Rex Martienssen.
Norman Eaton who had obtained international architectural knowledge and recognition through winning an architectural award set by Herbert Baker in the 1930's. Norman was well known for building amazing houses and banks that still stand today across the South African plain, such as The Bank of Netherlands (Nedbank) in Durban and many more.
Rex Martienssen had only a few architectural designs behind him, but it was his meeting with world renounced architect Le Corbusier that made Rex more passionate about the theory of architecture and the writing of it. So he became a lecturer at WITS University, creating and collecting extensive research on South African’s architecture over the years, as well teaching and inspiring the next South African Generation of architects like Gawie Fagan and Revel Fox.
Gawie Fagan is rated as one of South Africa's top architects and rightly so with his concepts on modern architecture with a mix of Cape Vernacular. Gawie was a top lecturer at the University of Cape Town helping to grow and morph Cape Town architects of today.
Revel Fox was also a unique innovative architect born in Durban in 1924, Mr Fox also set the tone for South African Modern Architecture with his Designs such as 'House Ross' in Worcester, designed in 1955. Revel Fox was also in charge of major design developments across South African, such as 'Durbans Beach front' in 1988 and 'The University of the North' in 1998.
The future of Modern Architects in South Africa
There are plenty of more worthy South African architects to mention in the building and designing of South African, but Hub Architects feels that these architects mentioned above definitively helped set the foundation of South African Architecture and inspired the birth of many of South Africa's current top architects.
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