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12 October 2021 | Story André Damons | Photo Unsplash
Bring your blood and get a free doughnut. The Faculty of Health Sciences is conducting a blood drive this week and encourages everyone to roll up their sleeves and donate blood.

The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) is conducting another blood drive at their office in the Francois Retief Building this week (12 – 14 October 2021), and will be rewarding each donation with a free doughnut.

The faculty is challenging every doctor, nurse, and pharmacist, every paramedic, radiographer, and technician to roll up their sleeves and lend an arm to donate a pint of blood. If every health-care worker joins the donation and donates blood four times a year, there would never be a blood crisis.

The Faculty of Health Sciences invited the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) to the UFS this week to provide all students and staff the opportunity to donate blood at their place of work and study.

The Mental Health Awareness Campaign of the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences has included a community service component in our efforts to raise awareness of mental health issues since 2020. This is in light of increasing evidence that altruism and volunteering provide significant benefits to mental health and feelings of well-being. As all our staff and students know the vital importance of blood, we decided to focus on the SANBS as our partner to provide a quick, convenient opportunity to feel like a real hero by donating blood every three months, while enjoying a free snack.

October is Mental Health Awareness Month – we would like to invite all staff and students on campus to participate in this life-giving event.

Details for blood donation are as follows:

When: 12, 13 and 14 October

Time: 07:00-15:00

Where: Francois Retief Foyer, UFS

News Archive

Innovation the focus of 28th Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture
2016-09-06

Description: Stratford furniture design Tags: Stratford furniture design

Stratford never lost his passion for designing
furniture. Pictured here is some of his furniture
exhibited at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum.
Photo: Francois van Vuuren: iFlair Photography

Al Stratford, designer, inventor and architect, presented the 28th Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture on 25 August at the Reservoir at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein. The event, hosted by the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State, was also the opening of an exhibition of Stratford’s work.

In his career of 40 years, Stratford has patented many products and won several awards in industrial design and architecture. He is known in South Africa for his development of innovative building technology such as the Winblok Precast Concrete Window System. In 2009 and 2010, he also served as president of the South African Institute of Architects.

The title of his lecture was: Reductive Innovation in Architecture. Throughout his career, Stratford endeavoured – through his designs and inventions – to apply the principle of “reduction” to the building material he used and technology he examined.

Stratford designs and builds smart buildings
Stratford says a home is the paradigm of self-expression. His career as architect started with the building of five houses in Gonubie, near East London. Everything he knew about architecture at that stage, he had taught himself by reading on the subject at the local library. Later on, he achieved great heights in his career by designing and building, among others, the Stratford Guesthouse; the sustainable and resourcefully designed campus buildings for the University of Fort Hare (an institutional building not utilising any electrical air-conditioning); the Edenvale Baptist Church; and a community hall.

His technology is widely used in the building industry

“The arrogance in me gets humiliated when I
see what other people and God has done.”


His technical drawing skills, acquired at an early age during his training as motor mechanic, are still practised years later, particularly in his inventions. Stratford is the inventor of technology commonly used in the building industry today. Of these, the Winblok window system which he patented in 1981, is one of his best known patents. The use of these windows is characteristic of many of the buildings he designed and built. Other technology he invented and patented, includes the Winstep stairs, the Windeck flooring system, and the StratFlex furniture technology.

Furniture designs win him awards
He likes to quote architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: “A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is easier.” Stratford started designing and manufacturing his own furniture and never lost this passion. In 2013, he won the Innovation Award at the Design Indaba for his “flat pack” furniture technology.

The humble Stratford – designer, inventor, industrialist, and architect – says he is simply playing around with God’s creation. “The arrogance in me gets humiliated when I see what other people and God has done.”

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