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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

Zakes Mda honoured at UFS Summer Graduation
2013-11-21

 
The awarded author, Dr Zakes Mda, received his honorary doctorate at the University of the Free State at the December Graduation Ceremony. Pictured here with him is Dr Khotso Mokhele, Chancellor of the UFS.

Live streaming will be available: http://www.ufs.ac.za/ufslivestreaming/ 

On Thursday 5 December 2013, the University of the Free State (UFS) will award more than 300 degrees and qualifications during the Summer graduation at the Bloemfontein Campus.

The graduation will take place during two ceremonies in the Callie Human Centre, where master’s and PhD degrees will be awarded during the first ceremony at 10:15 and diplomas, certificates and undergraduate qualifications awarded to students from the School of Open Learning and the Faculty of Health Sciences at 14:30.

An honorary doctorate from the UFS will also be bestowed on the author, Dr Zakes Mda, during the morning ceremony.

Dr Mda is a South African literary icon and public intellectual with extraordinary local and international influence. Mda’s contribution to world literature and contemporary South African public life resonates powerfully with some of the fundamental principles of the Academic and Human Projects articulated in the strategic thrust of the University of the Free State, which makes him an ideal candidate for an honorary doctorate from our university.

Some of his most famous works include Ways of Dying, Heart of Redness, The Madonna of Excelsior, The Whale Caller, Cion, Black Diamond and his recent memoir: Sometimes There is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider.

The Springbok rugby player, Jannie du Plessis, will address graduandi during both ceremonies.

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