Opportunities for Relevance

Architecture can play an important part in redressing the problems inherited from South Africa's past, and in reflecting the paradigms and changing value system of a transforming society.

This critical study provides ideas about new directions in South African architecture, about how new approaches to design may provide fresh opportunities for relevance, and about how the new collection of problems which the architect faces, embodies a multiplicity of learning possibilities. The critical issue of 'Africanisation' is considered, not as an image-making process, but as an opportunity to engage with African philosophical ideas where the textures and sense of history become points of departure.

The authors also cover other issues surrounding relevance: serving communities rather than architects, community participation, the social and physical environment, appropriate technology, humanising aesthetic arrangements, cultural relevance and the preservation and enhancement of traditional skills.