MMA Achitects (Cape Town, South Africa) was awarded a prize for their pioneering design in new affordable housing systems. “The idea was to utilise design to come up with innovative housing solutions using the plot size and budget usually allocated to an RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme)house”.
Originally paired with Will Alsop, the MMA Architects, developed a system which comprises sandbag walls, creating the thermal mass, with a lightweight "ecobeam" truss (timber-frame structure).
South African architectural firm MMA Architects has won the Curry Stone Design Prize at the 11th International Venice Architecture Biennale.
The newly-established Curry Stone Design Prize honours “innovative achievements in humanitarian architecture and design”. MMA was awarded a prize of US$100 000 for their pioneering design in new affordable housing systems.
Nominated for their 10X10 Design Indaba low-cost housing project, where ten teams of South African architects were teamed with international designers to pioneer new affordable housing systems. MMA Architects were originally paired with Will Alsop to develop a system which comprises sandbag walls, creating the thermal mass, with a lightweight "ecobeam" truss (timber-frame structure).
Located in Cape Town’s Freedom Park in Mitchell’s Plain, “The idea was to utilise design to come up with innovative housing solutions using the plot size and budget usually allocated to an RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme)house”, Luyanda Mpahlwa of MMA Architects explains.
As one of only a handful of predominantly black firms in the country, they have long struggled to get work. “Old prejudices die hard,” Mphahlwa said. “Some people take one look at me and do not believe I can build them a house.” The firm took a number of government commissions out of a sense of civic pride and duty but also because they had little choice. Thanks to the success of those projects, including embassies in Berlin and Adis Ababa, they have been able to afford more humanitarian work.
“From the jury’s point of view, it was both a conventional and unconventional firm doing conventional and unconventional work,” David Mohney, secretary for the prize, said. “They saw it as an inspiration to other conventional firms that they could start doing unconventional work themselves, that they can bring a high level of design and comfort to a project that doesn’t usually have access to it.”
As a testament to MMA’s commitment to their work, when asked what he would do with his share of the money, Mpahlwa said he would likely buy a few more 10X10 houses and send some underprivileged kids, as with two others he has already sent, to architecture school.
Mpahlwa studied architecture at the University of Natal and Natal Technikon in the late 1970s before being incarcerated for anti-apartheid political activities in 1980. Upon his release, he completed his M.S. in architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. He was project site architect for one of the Nordic Embassies projects in Berlin and was coordinating architect for the Berlin Embassy and co-initiator of the South African Embassy project with Morojele. He currently serves as a technical advisor for the construction of all 10 stadiums for the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
http://www.mmaarch.co.za
http://currystonedesignprize.com/?page_id=98 (10X10 Housing Project Description)
http://currystonedesignprize.com/?p=434 (Online Acceptance Speech)
http://currystonedesignprize.com (Further Info on Award)
