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12 September 2018 Photo iFlaire
Architectural excellence celebrated at recent Sophia Gray lecture
Prof ‘Ora Joubert, a leading architect and academic, delivered the 30th Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture at the UFS.
A jolly kink, creative, aesthetically sensible, a dream house, welcoming, true colours, bright lights – these are some of the terms one can use to describe the work of Prof ‘Ora Joubert, leading architect, academic and former head of the UFS Department of Architecture.

A journey through time and space

She is also the 30th laureate to deliver the recent Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). The lecture was titled: La Promenade Architecturale – A journey through time and space. “The title refers to the revelatory experience of an observer who wanders on a pathway in and through architectural spaces,” said Jan Ras, lecturer in the Department of Architecture and organiser of the event. 
“As the observer tours the architectural configuration, a sequence of composed images, themes and ordering systems are revealed. This gradually unfolds as the observer moves through the spaces,” Ras said.

The lecture, which coincided with an exhibition at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum, is a highlight of the South African architectural community and celebrates outstanding practitioners and academics in architecture.

Besides the numerous design awards she received as practitioner, Prof Joubert’s work has also received critical acclaim internationally in publications from Australia, to Russia and the UK. In 2001 she was cited as one of the most esteemed architects under the age of 40 and her work was included in the 2004 Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary Architecture. She is also a well-respected academic with 34 articles published in a variety of publications.

Recognising the intelligence and ingenuity of design

Prior to the lecture, the department also presented a mini-congress, introducing the new PhD with Design programme. This programme recognises the intelligence and ingenuity of design and is aimed at, among others, younger MArch graduates who wish to explore creative research. The department envisaged that the PhD study might be practice-based for architects who wish to document and research their own work and or design-led for candidates who wish to explore a new creative project. 

Forming part of this week filled with architectural creativity was a fundraising breakfast, with contributions going to the Sophia Gray Bursary Fund. The fund is part of a greater call to alumni and friends to be actively involved in the department’s continuous development and future endeavours towards imagination, care and excellence. 

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorate to global peace ambassador Dr Lakhdar Brahimi
2015-07-07

Professor Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS and Dr Lakhdar Brahimi.
Photo: Mike Rose from Mike Rose Photography

The Faculty of the Humanities and Centre for Africa Studies rewarded the contributions of Dr Lakhdar Brahimi, a prominent global peace leader, with an honorary doctorate on Thursday 2 July 2015.

The conferment formed one of the highlights of the 2015 Winter Graduations. Dr Brahimi’s work as a United Nations’ (UN) envoy, and African peace leader of note, was deeply respected by the university. Professor Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies at the UFS, accepted the PhD on his behalf.

In his acceptance speech, read by Prof Hudson at the Chancellor’s Dinner the same evening, Dr Brahimi expressed his gratitude to the university. “I deeply appreciate your generous recognition, and even now, in the twilight years of my life, I shall try to be worthy of your confidence in everything I say or do.”

“My generation did its share: its successes and its failures are things of the past. We must accept to be judged by you, the graduates. You, the young graduates here at the University of the Free State, and your fellow members of the African intellectual elite, have an exciting opportunity to take on the challenges and fulfil the dreams you have. We must accept to be judged by you.”

Algerian-born Dr Brahimi was first involved with the UN in 1992 as rapporteur to the Earth Summit. Distinctively, he is the most-frequently appointed special envoy of the UN. Amongst many other countries, he has worked as a mediator for South Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Burundi, Angola, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, and Côte d’Ivoire on behalf of the UN.

Significant peacekeeping efforts in South Africa (1993- 1994)

The ambassador– in his capacity as special representative to South Africa from December 1993 to June 1994 –played a direct role in South Africa’s democratic transition.

Prof Hudson expressed appreciation for the ambassador’s role in facilitating a peaceful transition from South Africa’s Nationalist government into the current democratic dispensation.

“One of the reasons we selected him as recipient of the honorary doctorate, is because of what he did for the African continent,” she said.

In addition, she commented Dr Brahimi for being a living testament of Ubuntu. “He has displayed an ethic of humanism in everything that he has done, in the way that he has mediated in certain conflicts - his main contribution is as a mediator.

According to Hudson, his humility, modesty, and generosity are the epitome of Ubuntu which states that “I am because we are.”

Dr Brahimi as a global peace practitioner

Dr Brahimi served as Undersecretary-General of the Arab League, Arab League Special Envoy for Lebanon, and Foreign Minister of Algeria.

The UN Peace-building Commission was established as a result of recommendations in his2000 Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (Brahimi Report).

Since 2007, Dr Brahimi has been a member in The Elders - an alliance chaired by Kofi Annan -of peace and human rights advocates including Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson, and Jimmy Carter. His passion for justice led to his membership in the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

In 2010, he was Laureate of the Special Jury Prize for Conflict Prevention, awarded by the Chirac Foundation (France), which promotes international peace and security.

Dr Brahimi’s influence in Peace Education

The Brahimi Report has had an indelible impact on scholars specialising in the broad field of peace operations. Dr Brahimi’s writings have also contributed to knowledge on post-conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD), a signification part of the African Union’s narrative.

He is a distinguished senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. He has taught a postgraduate course on Conflict Resolution at Sciences Po, Paris (2011); is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University; and is affiliated to the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, where he was a visiting professor from 2006 to 2008.

In addition, Dr Brahimi is a founding member of the French-language Journal of Palestine Studies, and a board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.


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