Research Focus Areas

The research focus areas in the Department of Architecture include architectural history, theory, and themes within construction science. Researchers focus on the development of settlements in Southern Africa, the history of dwellings in the Free State, the history of Bloemfontein and surrounding areas, as well as conservation of heritage buildings.

Additionally, we focus on technical aspects surrounding vernacular building methods, sustainability, and the education of architecture students relating to several aspects of higher-education pedagogy. Further focus areas include architectural theory, namely phenomenology and the work of Heidegger, Norberg-Schulz, and Casey. Staff members are actively investigating the links between architecture, art history, and philosophy, especially as it pertains to the ethics in the built environment.

Research articles

2020

• Auret, H.A. 2020. Care, Place and the Sophia Gray Laureates: pursuing architecture as a focal practice. Architecture SA 98: 28-33.

• Auret, H.A. 2020. Drawing on “interfinities”: a reflection on Jonathan Jacobson’s book and Sophia Gray Exhibition. Architecture SA 98: 8-11.

• Auret, H.A. 2020. The responsibility of architecture: beauty, justice and the call of care. Acta Theologica 40(29): 152-175.

• Noble, J.A. 2020. Mediation and materiality at the South African embassy in Ethiopia. South African Journal of Art History. Vol 35 (2): 1-18. 

2019

• Auret, HA.  2019. Care, place and the Sophia Gray laureates - part 1: Architecture as an art of care. ArchitectureSA. Vol 96. pp 37-46
• Auret, HA.  2019. Care, place and the Sophia Gray laureates - part 2: Architecture as an art of life. ArchitectureSA. Vol 97. pp 31-48
• Peters, WH and Raubenheimer, H. 2019. Rooted in purpose, time and place: The architecture of Henk de Bie & Van Wijngaarden in Bloemfontein of the 1960s. ArchitectureSA. Vol 95. pp 39-48 

2018

• Noble, JA. 2018. Assimilation, Ambiguity and Artefacts: renovating the home of architect Peter Rich. South African Journal of Art History. Vol 33 n 3.pp74-87
• Verster, W, Janse van Vuuren, A. 2018. From rural naïveté to urban discontent: Framing post-Apartheid South African Film identities. Journal of African Cinemas Vol 10 (1&2) pp111-126
  

 2017

• Bosman, G. 2017. Ownership and care in culturally significant architecture: three case studies. Acta Structilia. 24 (1) pp. 1-27
  
• Du Preez, JL. 2017. To have a roof over one's head. South African Journal of Art History. 32 (2) pp.26-37
  
• Peters, WH. 2017. Competitions, politics and the production of modern architecture: Jack Barnett's Free State oeuvre. South African Journal of Art History. 32(1) pp 1-16
  
• Noble, JA. 2017. Like a Fish in Water: the smooth hybrids of Jackson Hlungwani. South African Journal of Art History. 32(2) pp 120-131
  
• Van der Vyver, Y. 2017. Crafting urban space with Pretoria’s Church Square as an example. South African Journal of Art History. 32(2) pp 190-211
• Verster, W, Bysell, L and Magnusson, A. 2017. Post-apartheid reconciliation through buildings: A comparison between two South African museums. Tidskrift for ABM: Uppsala University. 2(2) pp39-60. 

2016

• Auret, H and Du Toit, C. 2016. Welcoming the stranger with intention and architectural edifice: beyond the geopolitical hollowness of crimmigration. International Journal of Public Theology. Vol 10. pp.443-460
• Auret, H. 2016. Bloemfontein (1848-2015), mapping eight moments in time: measuring and appreciating that which is nearest. New Contree nr 67, November supplement. pp.193-212
• Pienaar, MY. 2016. There is a there there: femininity, place and phenomenology in the work of Mira Fassler Kamstra. Journal of the South African Institute of Architects. nr 81 September/October. pp.40-53
• Peters, WH and Du Preez, JL. 2016. The idealism of architectural competitions: The case of the Free State Province. New Contree. December number 77. pp.1-24
• Van der Vyver, Y. 2016. Temporality in the [re]shaping of the landscape of Pretoria’s Church Square. South African Journal of Art History. 31 (2). pp166-186
• Verster, W. 2016. Domestic space in the contemporary art gallery: Sven-Harrys Art Museum,
  Stockholm and Circa on Jellicoe Gallery, Johannesburg. South African Journal of Art History. 31 (2). pp49-62

2015

• Auret, H. 2015. Architectural phenomenology and the tyranny of the lived experience. In The South African Journal of Art History.30 (3) 
• Bosman, G. 2015. Situated neighbourhood safety and fence decoration. In the South African Journal of Art History. 30 (3) pp.74-86
• Peters, WH. 2015. Max Kirchhofer and the new town of Sasolburg. Creating the spatial and architectural framework. In the Journal of the South African Institute of Architects. July/August. pp.55-61
• Peters, WH. 2015. Absorbing the influences of Le Corbusier: Roelof Uytenbogaardt and the architecture of the Werdmuller Centre, Claremont, Cape Town. In the South African Journal of Art History. 30 (2). pp.45-68.
• Stoffberg, M. 2015. Situating through representation: Two community centres investigated through Lefebvre's Spatial production. In the South African Journal of Art History. 30 (3). pp.99-111

2014

• Bosman, G and Van der Westhuizen, D. 2014. The effects of climatic conditions on attitudinal changes towards earth construction in South Africa. In Acta Structilia.  21 (1). pp.117-141
• Bosman, G and Van der Westhuizen, D. 2014. The impact of climate phenomena on attitudes toward traditional earth construction and decoration. In the South African Journal of Art History. 29 (3). pp.65-76
• Peters, WH. 2014. Environmental management as a touchstone of modern identity: Hans Hallen’s St Olav church, Berea, Durban, 1966-68. In the South African Journal of Art History.  29 (3). pp.1-20
• Peters, WH and Du Preez, JL. 2014. The "wall of flesh" of the Conquered territory: farmhouses and towns established in defence of the eastern boundary of the Orange Free State beginning 1866. In the South African Journal of Art History. 29 (1). pp.201-223.
• Verster, W. 2014. Observing the city: imagining through faceless figures. In the South African Journal of Art History. 29 (1). pp.101-118

2008-2013

• Peters, WH. 2012. Durban’s King Shaka International Airport as a place of transition. Architecture South Africa, Jan/Feb 2012. pp.27-32
• Peters, WH. 2012. Voortrekker monument at Winburg: Threshold for a new generation of commerative architecture. Architecture South Africa. Jun/Jul 2012. Vol. 55. pp.36-45
• Peters, WH. 2011. (Rand Afrikaans) University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus. Part 1: A Framework for Development.Architecture SA, May/June, pp. 42-51.
• Peters, WH. 2011. (Rand Afrikaans) University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus. Part 2: Realisation. Architecture SA, Sept/Oct, pp. 57-70
• Peters, WH. 2011. Durban’s Beachfront Upgrade in Perspective. (not refereed) Architecture SA, Jan/Feb, pp. 22-23
• Peters, WH. 2011. “Men are as great as the Monuments they leave behind”: Wilhelm O Meyer and the (Rand Afrikaans) University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus.SA Journal of Art History, Vol 26(2), pp.69-80.
• Verster, W. 2011. The role of photography, place and memory in gallery and museum design. SA Journal of Art history, vol 26(2) pp. 143-156
• Raman, PG. 2008. Modernism Public Space and Public Art. South African Journal of Art History 23(1): pp.245–257.
• Raman, PG. 2008. Restructuring of the Central Building, University of the Free State. Architecture South Africa: Journal of the South African Institute of Architects May/June: pp.26-29.
• Raman, PG. 2008. From Sweatshops to Places of Production, Global Evolution of Industrial Buildings. Architecture South Africa: Journal of the South African Institute of Architects July/August: pp.12-15.
• Raman PG. 2008. Placeness to Place: Lilliesleaf Liberation Centre, Living History. Architecture South Africa: Journal of the South African Institute of Architects November/December: pp.60-67.

Conference contributions

• Auret, H.A. 2020. The responsibility of architecture: beauty, justice and the call of care. Acta Theologica, Supp 29, pp. 152-175.

• Bosman, G. 2020. Change for contemporary earth construction: a second paradigm shift. Archtheo ‘20 / xiv.  International theory and history of architecture conference. Conference Coordination: DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Centre), Istanbul, Turkey. November 2020. 

• Bosman, G. 2019. New perspective towards social acceptability of earth-constructed buildings , IV International City Planning and Urban Design Conference CPUD’19 Conference Proceedings DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center), 14 June, 2019
• Bosman, G. 2017. Planning for acceptable contemporary earth construction in SA. Proceedings of SOSTIERRA RESTAPIA 3rD Versus September 2017, Valencia Spain
• Peters, WH. 2016. Planned towns in the 'conquered territory' between Basutoland (Lesotho) and the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State (Free State Province of South Africa), 1867: balancing security with inherited cultural traditions and townscapes. ISUF Seminar on Urban Form, Brisbane Australia. Queensland Univeristy of Technology
• Bosman, G and Salzmann-McDonald, K. 2015. Contemporary soil-cement and rammed earth in South Africa. Rammed Earth Construction - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Rammed Earth Construction, ICREC 2015
• Olivier, J. 2015. Towards an Ethos of Dwelling with Pre-democratic Things. ArchTheo'15, Istanbul, Turkey October 2015 [under review]
• Peters, WH and Olivier, A. 2015. Urban morphology & academic writing: A pedagogical experiment. REUSO, 3rd International Conference on Documentation and Restoration of Architectural Heritage and Landscape Protection, Valencia
  
• Verster, W. 2014. Framing the museum: Urban thresholds and embodied experience. In CONTEMPART '15: Urban Identity, Space studies and contemporary arts. Istanbul, Turkey.8-9 June 2015
• Auret, H. 2014. Architecture as the art of care: a Heideggarian augmentation of Christian Norberg-Schulz's art of place. XXV World Congress of Architecture, UIA otherwhere. Durban 3-7 August 2014. pp.425-432
• Bosman, G. and Steyn, JJ. 2014. Affordable housing opportunities for Southern Africa: Rethinking contemporary earth construction for housing. SAHF. Cape Town, South Africa, 28 Sept-1Okt
• Nel, JH and Bosman, G. 2014. Exposing architecture students to vernacular concepts. CIAV 2013 Vernacular heritage and earthen architecture: Contributors for sustainable architecture. Vila nova de cerveira, Portugal. 16-20 October 2013. pp.767-772 (Award for best contribution)
• Peters, WH. 2014. Sasolburg, A South African New Town, 1951. The 'Sasolburg pattern' at a crossroads. 20th century New Towns: Archetypes and uncertainties, Porto, Portugal 22-24 May. pp.318-333
• Verster, W. 2014. Depicting Trauma: museums as narrative devices. In Not ever absent: Storytelling in art culture and identity formation. Story 6: 6th global conference on storytelling. Lisbon, Portugal.
• Wagener, A. 2014. An architecture for marginalised South Africans: the role of education. XXV World Congress of Architecture, UIA otherwhere. Durban 3-7 August 2014. pp.1425-1432
• Wessels, ZG and Bosman, G. 2014. The city vernacular in South Africa. CIAV 2013 Vernacular heritage and earthen architecture: Contributors for sustainable architecture. Vila nova de cerveira, Portugal. 16-20 October 2013 proceedings. pp. 227-231
• Bosman, G. 2012. “Local Building Cultures and Perceptions of Wall Building Materials: Influences on Vernacular Architecture in Rural Areas of Central South Africa Attendance to the CEAA/ Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araujo at the Escola Superior Artistica do Porto (ESAP) in Oporto, Portugal. presented: 17-19 May 2012
• Olivier, J. 2012. Interpreting Fictional Spaces as a Model for South African Institutional Architecture: The House in André Brink’s Imaginings of Sand and Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying. Presented at Archtheo’12: Theory of Architecture conference. Istanbul, Turkey 31 Oct-3 Nov. 2012
• Peters, WH. 2012. The Women at Winburg’s Voortrekker monument. Presented at the 6^th national conference of SA Journal of Art History with theme ‘The human body’, TUT, Pretoria, 25-26 May
• Peters, WH. 2012. Communicating Neglect: The Women in the Voortrekker Monument at Winburg. Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research, 'South-North Conversations', UKZN, Durban, 15-19 July 2012
• Peters, WH and Du Preez, JL. 2012.Die Vrystaatse Oosgrens en die Strukture van Verdediging. Presented at National Congress of the SA Society for Cultural History, Pretoria, 20-21 July

• Peters, WH. 2012. Research in Architecture: a tryst with a new paradigm. KZ-NIA Architectural Conference: New Paradigms, Durban, 26-27 October 2012
• Stoffberg, M. 2012. Architecture and public space, Comparing two Provincial legislatures in Kimberley and Nelspuit, South Africa. Presented at Tirana Architecture Week: [Re] appropriation of the city. Tirana, Albania 9-12 October 2012
• Tumubweinee, PN. 2012. Advertisement, Fashion and Home. Presented at Archtheo’12: Theory of Architecture conference. Istanbul, Turkey 31 Oct-3 Nov. 2012
• Verster, W. 2012. Converting Space: changes in the Liturgical Spaces of the Protestant and High churches of Bloemfontein. Presented at the ATINER 3^rd Annual Conference on Art, Culture and Design. Athens, Greece 4-7June 2012