Anne-apolis

  Last week I mentioned that the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre by Rich and Lerotholi Architects won the World Architectural Festival Building of the Year Award in 2009 . I was fortunate to play a role in this prestigious project as the consultant on job creation. SANParks offices from the main building For some background: the Mapungubwe National Park is part of a conservation area that stretches over three countries - South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. On the South African side of the Limpopo River, the land for the park was previously used for farming. Many of the farm workers who were displaced have been employed and trained by SANParks, the new site owner, to engage in conservation and tourism jobs. Beyond this, they wanted the construction of the Centre to create more jobs that could later be transferred into the local communities. Apart from the ecological conservation aspect, this is an important archaeological site which housed a settlement that was part of the Stone A...

As a child, I remember going to the annual Rand Show, hosted by the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society, one of the highlights of which was visiting the Flower Hall - a vast space carpeted from wall to wall with flowers. In more recent times, the land on which the Rand Show was housed was taken over by Wits, the University of the Witwatersrand, thereby doubling the area of the main campus, the original lands of which are immediately to the east. The soaring roofs of the Flower Hall: photo Jennifer Fitchett Wits has retained several of the original buildings, many of which have been retained largely in their original form, such as Hall 29 (used as a basketball venue and doubling up as a large exam venue) and the Wits Club and Alumni House which used to be the wine tasting venue at the Rand Show. Other buildings have their shell retained, but remodelled interiors, and the most ambitious recycling project was the Science Stadium, which ingeniously reused the stadium seating for the large l...

  A couple of months ago I posted a blog on hanging pictures   but today I take a step back to look at the mounting and framing of artwork. You may already have some frames lying around with pictures that you no longer like that can be recycled. I inherited some photos of buildings that my grandfather designed, so I selected those that I liked best, and gave one of them a face-lift to fit in with my colour scheme. I painted the natural wood frame and replaced the discoloured cream mount with a pale grey to blend in with the black-and-white photo. You will see that I gave a thin black border to the photo to accentuate the image because the mount was quite big for the size of the image. An architectural photo in a refurbished frame and mount I took one of the other frames and recycled it for a mono-print by my sister, Elizabeth Beard, of one of her land-art pieces that she made as a student. As with the architectural photo, I painted the frame that had become quite tatty ov...

  My daughter recently repainted her flat to put it on the market: she had previously painted it in shades of blue, but for broader market appeal she opted for a more neutral colour scheme of white and mid grey for an accent wall. The transformation was extraordinary! The original colours worked very well with her taste, with the carpets and some of the larger furniture in a bluish-grey, and with many pieces in accent colours of coral, red and other bright colours. With the furniture and decor removed, the flat looked quite small, even though blue is usually used as a receding tone - because the colours were quite saturated, it gave the feeling of compactness, but maybe a bit claustrophobic for some tastes. Living room with blue wall and blue-grey soft furnishing The new neutral tones and bright white made the main open-plan space seem very much larger, with the mid-grey adding to this feeling of spaciousness. I have always been a fan of white and shades of grey, but I admire peopl...

For those of us who live in a summer rainfall climate, the first buds on the jasmine should alert us to the beginning of springtime and the need to catch up on some seasonal maintenance of our home and garden. During the winter, the roof gutters will have been filling up with leaves, twigs and general pollution, often clogging up the downpipe inlets. Before the first spring rains, it is important to clean these out thoroughly, and wash down the gutters to remove the silt that will have accumulated. At the same time, it is a great opportunity to check the general condition of the gutters and downpipes: are there any rusted areas or holes? Are there parts where the paint has flaked off? When you rinse down the gutters with a hosepipe, are there sections where the water does not flow out easily - this is a sign that the brackets holding up the gutter need adjustment. A bit of work before the beginning of the rainy season can save you much hassle and expense later in the year. While you ar...