Following the 2015 & 2016 student protests in South Africa, which saw the terms 'transformation' and 'decolonisation' enter everyday usage in tertiary education, a new and exciting space has opened up in African architectural education. The lecture follows the setting up of the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) at the University of Johannesburg, a decade-old institutional merger between an all-white Afrikaans-speaking university and an all-black technical college. The adoption of the AA's legendary unit system has yielded unexpectedly transformational results in a context far removed from its original 1970s London setting. Unit System Africa is now in its third year and, as its recent accreditation visit panel agreed, '[has created] a space for black students to find their voice.'
Lesley Lokko is a full professor of architecture and Head of School at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg. She holds a PhD from the University of London and is the author of eleven best-selling novels (none of which have anything to do with architecture).
Image: GSA Summer Show 2017. ©Tristan McLaren.