Change the world

06/12/2019

Reasons to be Proud - #R2bP: Sanette de Villiers, a 3rd year Architecture student at Nelson Mandela University has won the highly acclaimed PG Bison 1.618 Education Initiative 2019 competition.

As one of the ten finalists, she flew to Johannesburg for the awards evening at the Apartheid Museum where she claimed top honours. As the winning student, she has won a trip of a lifetime to the 2020 FURNITURE FAIR in Milan, Italy. It includes return air tickets, accommodation, entry to the fair and a contribution to daily expenses for herself and her lecturer.

This national competition is open to all universities and tertiary institutions for 3rd year Architecture, Architectural Technology and Interior Design students. It is now in its 27th year and was created to recognise the future interior and industrial designers, architects and key decision makers in the South African design industry.

In this time, it has come to be known not only for the prestige it offers its winners, but also for the tradition-defying competition brief given to the students each year.

The competition, which culminates in an awards ceremony each year, has established itself as an integral part of the syllabus at the majority of design and architecture institutions across the country.

The 2019 competition brief was A DELICATE BALANCE - creating space in a world of densification. Students had to investigate, conceptualise and develop a residential design model, aimed at middle-income earners, to help facilitate their housing programme. The aim was to improve perceptions of urban compaction and attract the growing band of middle-income earners to the city.

The entrants were told that their proposal should “must break the mould!”

Students created a space with which residents can easily identify and communicate, taking them on a journey, starting with an attractive and engaging street front, across an inviting threshold and on to a comfortable and relaxed living experience within.

Contact information
Mr Barry Bradley
Senior Lecturer - Architecture
Tel: 041 504 3650
barry.bradley@mandela.ac.za