Inhab:t Architects Studio

27/10/2024

It will be an exciting week attending the twelfth UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum in Cairo as part of the South African delegation, engaging relevant and meaningful discussion on urban challenges. This meeting of minds is necessary not only for intervention projects and upgrading informal settlements, but for knowledge exchange on all cities and sustainable development as we as urban designers, master planners, architects and researchers plan for liveable future cities.

🏘️ It all starts at home. Local actions have the power to shape sustainable cities and communities. But to tackle today’s global challenges—like housing…

01/09/2024

Resilience, problem solving, adapting to change, team work, initiative - soft skills that all the great teachers along the way place great emphasis on as necessary in today’s world. Skills that are required in daily lives in work and play. These kiddos had their cheese moved with the latest big change as they hone these soft skills through life experience in what we call the ‘global classroom’ - one for adults and kids alike, with no graduation - only continual learning. Excitement and nerves in equal measure! On to the next Team Thompson adventure that keeps the team together.

16/07/2024

A great start to the week with another new client that we’re excited to get sketching for, and studio design sessions with the 4th years!

02/07/2024

Rounding off the flight that was June with a presentation at - a discussion within the framework of that I am co-authoring a journal paper on with Matthew Barac - bringing years of Inhab:t Architects Studio and thinking together, while hearing relevant and extremely interesting research by colleagues old and new!

12/06/2024

It’s last month's news, but the inspiration will live on for years. Attending the RIBA Gold Medal 2024 event to hear Lesley Lokko's acceptance speech, and that of Tara Gbolade, who nominated her. Their contributions to architecture and architectural pedagogy inspire us to do more!

02/06/2024

We're excited to share a design that has been developing in detail over the last months. We are always proud of our
5-star reviews that keep the team motivated to deliver even more! We're always finding ways to make things easier for our clients, and this latest review was from another happy client that loved sharing in the process with us, as we 'walked' them through their soon to be new home on our Virtual Reality headsets! Scan our QR Code and contact us for any project big or small.

25/04/2024

A great day of introductions and inductions of the first cohort for the L7 Architects Apprenticeship course at Kent University, with Bob Allies, Jonathan Tinker and Peter Wislocki. A chilly site visit kicked off the start of the fourth year design studio looking at 'urban livingrooms' as spaces that could foster connectivity in the university masterplan.

25/04/2024

TB #4 - While we've been using 3D modelling for over 20 years, specifically with Revit and Sketchup, there's always space to reflect and grow. Returning to the drawing board for hand sketches and physical models is great for resolving details and spatial connections, but that hasn't stopped us having fun exploring new ways of presenting designs and including hyper-real rendering and Virtual Reality.

18/04/2024

TB #3 - A snapshot of community projects by :nhab:t architects Inhab:t Architects Studio

At :nhab:t we have relished in the experiences gained over a 25-year career, through engaging high-level international projects with award-winning change-agents such as Sir Terry Farrell and Aukett Swanke. As we continue to take on board multi-cultural experience in our international adventures, there is always a joy in ‘bringing it home’.

Reflecting on our community projects in our village-turning-town of St Francis Bay, South Africa, these 5 projects offer a snapshot of some of the many fulfilling community projects we’ve initiated, contributed to policy for, and compiled designs for, where a lifetime of living in this coastal town, combined with international experience continues to position us uniquely for engaging projects with a 'think global–act local' involvement.

These largely-implemented projects include: a proposed masterplan enhancing connectivity of the main street of the town with the waterfront; proposals for the idea and designs of the coastal boardwalk; proposals for the Granny’s Pool development for Kromme Trust; proposals for a new entrance and master planning for the growth of St Francis College; and one of our micro-infill projects - the bus stop at the entrance to town for the SRA and St Francis Links.

#:nhab:t #:nhab:tarchitects #:NHAB:T

16/03/2024

TB #2 - As we gear up towards UN-Habitat WUF 12, looking back to a great week of engaging 'thinker-doer' discussions with UN Secretary General Dr Joan Clos and National Director of Housing RSA on informality and housing in a Global and Global South context. Here we were discussing the Shack Urbanity Intervention Tool (SUIT) and it’s use and roll out as a new method for upgrading settlements in South Africa.

12/03/2024

Loving Friday design studio sessions at Kent University Canterbury, with a vibrant, engaging group of students. With the increasing rate of urbanisation, the Collective Dwelling module is ever relevant. A thriving thinking space that is navigated iteratively between organised chaos, sketching, massing fun with Lego and engaging relevant precedents inspiring their own designs.

07/03/2024

TT #1 - Aerial footage either via drone or plane is one of the tools in the toolbox we've always loved using to get a full understanding of the site and context before getting out the pen and sketch roll. This site near the beach had beautiful views to harness, and setting the drone to particular heights helped with designing for views from every level of the house, replacing this old lady with a more sustainable construction, and design that paid homage to its location.

29/02/2024

:NHAB:T 2012 - 2024 ... 12 years ago we wanted to start an architecture practice that would embrace a thinker - doer approach of 'research in order to implement' - looking to understand before doing, and looking to understand in order to do!

Three leap years later and the vision is just as strong with new research projects on the table and a passion for design that has positive impact. Over the next 12 weeks we will post nostalgic imagery of implemented designs and projects to keep the focus fresh and the fires stoked!

The overarching thinker-doer mindset continues focus on bringing positive change through architecture and design, whether contributing to policy to implement change through legislation or seeking to bring people in South Africa out of poverty through architecture and implementing research. It also leads the thinking on pro-bono community design projects of all sizes such as larger urban designs to foster connectivity and a school masterplan for future development; or smaller projects like a bus stop to offer shelter and lit linked pathways making life safer for citizens. This approach has also added depth of understanding during the design process of clients' homes, and we've loved seeing how it has brought significant positive change to peoples' lives.

08/12/2023

The invitation back to Al Jazeera Studio B Unscripted, to join ‘The AI Series’ discussion, delved deeper into the positive and negative possible effects of AI. The debate circled the provision of ‘guardrails’ and a question I raised, with Urvashi Aneja and Maria Ressa, about the a space where humans and machine working side-by-side. The concern will always be about what is done when who has access to all the data.

24/11/2023

:nhab:t Architects Studio is excited to be invited back to Al Jazeera Studio B Unscripted, with Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, discussing AI. My interactions will seek to discuss the possible effects of AI on design and architecture. I'll be at The Shard on 29th with later YouTube posting.

27/10/2023

Exciting news from my LinkedIn post: It’s been a while since I started my pro-bono role at the non-profit, Bophelo Impilo Development Centre - BIDC as a Board Member with the portfolio of Strategic Development, and this month we were successful in further USD based grant bids to continue the development work we do in underprivileged communities in South Africa. #:NHAB:T

30/05/2023

There are many conversations still to have beyond the question I got to ask in this Al Jazeera: Studio B session with Trevor Paglan and Eyal Weizman, that relate to the urban intervention projects seeking to bring citizens out of poverty through development.

My research has formulated an approach I called Intervention Forensics - taking account of place and space - the abstract and the concrete (urbs and civitas) and the social aspects of urban intervention projects - focussing on the Global South and specific to the South African demise where intervention projects are often left without achieving resolve to the unfreedoms experienced by many - a digitised interactive tool that affords a to-and-fro of engaging data, to give voice to the marginalised.

While this was developed in response to a need to understand the social, policy and political processes that develop the facilitators and inhibitors to reprieve and remedy, it became apparent that this approach - Intervention Forensics - also afforded the possibility of serving as a 'minority report' that could assist in the delivery of these urban projects, and prevent future crimes.

29/06/2022

UN-Habitat WUF - World Urban Forum 11. Since our last joining of the South African delegation to Malaysia, the world has been through a lot! The need for focus on delivering SDG 11 has only increased as a result, as the sustainability of human settlements and the effect on the poor has worsened! Today, discussions on how private practice and philanthropy can contribute to change, are as relevant as ever.

:nhab:t has recently been appointed as non-executive board member to BIDC - a development facilitator in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, to assist with identifying and guiding developments to improve livelihoods of the poor. Todays attendance at WUF11, highlighted this relevance and involvement on a global scale.

28/06/2022

Some of the portfolios collated, among many that the team collated, for the REF submission for London Metropolitan University, over many months while navigating new ways of collaborating remotely!

As the reports stated:
The majority of our research has been rated “world leading” or “internationally excellent” for impact; and that we’ve jumped 10 places nationally for our impact.
Our results demonstrate the excellent quality of our research and more importantly, our people - this achievement belongs to our whole community.
Overall, 86% of our research is internationally recognised, whilst 60% is world leading or internationally excellent.
We’re particularly proud that the impact of our Maths research has been ranked joint top in the country, with 100% rated “world-leading.”
In addition, our Art and Design research saw 100% of its impact rated as “outstanding” or “very considerable;” as did Area Studies, which was ranked 8th in the UK for research power.
Our Vice Chancellor, Professor Lynn Dobbs said, “In recent years, we have shown a renewed commitment to research, which has been highlighted in these fantastic results.

28/06/2022

A great result after months of working with the team to achieve research goals!

The impact of London Met's maths research was joint top in the UK, while overall 86% of our research is internationally recognised and 60% is world-leading or internationally excellent.