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13 January 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Lund Humphries
Prof Jonathan Noble has published a book on the work of internationally acclaimed and award-winning architect Peter Rich.

“We see what we want to see, and we make it our own”, is the opening line of Prof Jonathan Noble’s new book The Architecture of Peter Rich: Conversations with Africa. Quoted from a Ndebele woman, this captures the very essence of ‘everything’ because, says Rich, a creative life is one that takes and remakes; a way that finds the ‘open path’ in life.

Prof Noble has recently published a book on the internationally acclaimed and award-winning architect Peter Rich. 

Prof Noble is the Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State (UFS). He taught design, history, and theory of architecture for 20 years at the University of the Witwatersrand and completed his research master’s at the same institution in 1998 with collaboration from the Department of Comparative Literature. Later, between 2003 and 2006, he did his PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, which was to result in his first published book with Ashgate, African Identity in Post-Apartheid Public Architecture: White Skin, Black Masks (2011).

Quirky and original

“I wanted to share the unique quality of Rich’s work with the world. Peter's work is quirky and original. He is one of the most original architects in South Africa; his style and manner is quite unique and very African!”

“The title 'Conversations with Africa' was chosen because the quest for a modern, African architecture underpins everything he does,” says Prof Noble, who was taught by and later worked for Rich.  

Rich’s work has received wide recognition. He is a South African Institute of Architect Gold Medallist, as well as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). His work on the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre also received the Building of the Year prize at the 2009 World Architecture Festival.

Prof Noble explains that he is inspired by Rich’s philosophy that architectural solutions should evolve from circumstance, which gives his architecture a ‘fresh, bold, fearless and original’ quality. 

“He knows how to build with low budgets in tough circumstances, with simple building technology. He learns from the genius of vernacular architecture, and he talks to ordinary people.”

In his blog, Prof Noble notes that Rich creates ‘an architecture motivated by observation and drawing, tuned to the circumstantial, the ordinary, and spiritual qualities of life’.

African space making

The book focuses on Rich’s fascination with indigenous settlements, especially his documentation, publication, and exhibition of Ndebele art and architecture. 

Noble explains, “It also explores what Rich calls ‘African space making’ and its forms of complex symmetry. It includes examples of various collaborative community-oriented designs of the apartheid and post-apartheid period, especially Mandela’s Yard in Alexandra township. Also incorporated in the content of this book are Rich’s timbrel vaulted structures, constructed from low-tech hand-pressed soil tiles derived from his highly innovative and award-winning work at Mapungubwe; and his more recent organic work in China.”

“The book shows how Rich combines African influences with an environmental awareness aligned to modernist design principles,” Prof Noble says. 

In his blog, Prof Noble indicates that it was important to experience the architecture, taking time to wander, to observe, to sketch and jot down those sudden surges of imagination, and to look for the captivating moments that might illuminate the narrative. 

“It was a remarkable five-year long journey, in which I learnt and grew as an author, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share this book,” he concludes. 

The Architecture of Peter Rich: Conversations with Africa became available to the reader market in South Africa in October. It can also be ordered online and will be available in local bookstores by the end of the year. 

News Archive

Faculty of Law establishes unique panel of advisors
2005-11-11

Photo: Stephen Collett

Some of the panel members who attended the Collegium Iurisprudentium of the Faculty of Law at the UFS were from the left His Honorable Judge of Appeal Lex Mpati (Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Appeal), His Honorable Judge of Appeal Joos Hefer (former Chief Justice of South Africa), His Honorable Judge of Appeal Frits Brand (Supreme Court of Appeal) and Mrs Alet Ellis (lecturer at the UFS Faculty of Law).

At the back from left were Prof Johan Henning (Dean: Faculty of Law at the UFS), His Honorable Judge Faan Hancke (High Court of the Free State and chairperson of the UFS Council) and Adv Jannie Lubbe Sc.

The Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) has established a panel of advisors comprising of all the honorary and extraordinary professors of the faculty.

“The faculty has been known for its excellent practice-orientated training as well as the involvement of law practitioners in the training of LL B-students,” said Prof Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the UFS.

“The faculty was greatly dependent on the services of advocate lecturers, full-time members of the Bar and Side Bar who lectured on a part-time basis at the faculty.  For this reason lecturing in the faculty was mainly done after-hours to part-time students,” said Prof Henning. 

With the shift in emphasis to full-time lecturing and the appointment of full-time lecturers, especially because of the increasing student numbers, the full-time LL B-programme and the increasing pressure on students for quality research inputs, a greater need for meaningful contributions of judges and senior law practitioners to the faculty was experienced.

“To comply with this urgent need, three honorary professors and nine extraordinary professors were appointed.  This group of experts deliver an indispensable contribution to the practice orientation of the faculty by means of formal lectures, public inaugural lectures and guest lectures, direct lectures to graduate and post-graduate students, participation in research projects and the  constant evaluation of lecturers, modules and the content of modules and learning material. The international exposure of students and lecturers is also promoted by their contribution,” said Prof Henning.
“A need to have the involvement of this special class of professors structured in a more organised way was identified and a decision was made to establish an advisory panel called Collegium Iurisprudentium.  It is a privilege to us that all the honorary and extraordinary professors accepted the invitation,” said Prof  Henning. 

The panel will provide the faculty with continuous, distinguished, practice- orientated capability and capacity as well as international expertise, not only for direct inputs to students but also to advise lecturers about the curriculum, the compilation of the content of the LL B and M module, learning material and others, as well as to strengthen the research capacity of the faculty.

“The panel will also deliver a decisive contribution to the faculty’s preparation for the constitutional audit of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the Council for Higher Education (CHE) that will take place in October 2006,” said Prof Henning. 

The Collegium Iurisprudentium, which has been formally constituted, comprises of:

Appeal Court Judge J J F Hefer,
Appeal Court Judge L Mpati
Appeal Court Judge F D J Brand
Appeal Court Judge I G Farlam
Prof B A K Rider
Judge S P B Hancke
Judge A Kruger
Judge D H van Zyl
Adv S J Naudé
Adv J Lubbe Sc
Prof M M Katz
Prof R J Cook
Mr S van de Merwe
Mr W van der Westhuizen
Mr D C M Gihwala

Media release
Issued by:Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:  (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
11 November 2005

 

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