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Changing landscapes the focus of 33rd Sophia Gray lecture

31 August 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Mpeti Morojele and Prof Jonathan Noble, Head of the UFS Department of Architecture, at the 33rd Sophia Gray Laureate exhibition at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

The Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State (UFS) this year hosted the first entirely face-to-face Sophia Gray lecture since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Talking about Changing Landscapes, Practice and Pedagogy, Mpeti Morojele presented the Sophia Gray lecture – the biggest and most prestigious architectural lecture of its kind in South Africa – as the 33rd Sophia Gray laureate.

Hailing from the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, Morojele established his design practice, the award-winning MMA Design Studio in Johannesburg, in 1995.

Local and international recognition

He is recognised for his work locally and internationally. Some of his projects include the South African Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the South African Embassy in Berlin, Germany, the Maropeng Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, as well as various Freedom Park projects, including Isivivane (the symbolic final resting place for South Africa’s fallen heroes), //hapo (telling the South African story of liberation and the triumph of the human spirit over three billion years), and Isikhumbuto (a place of remembrance, a gathering space at the top of a hill surrounded by the wall of names, sanctuary, gallery of leaders, and the Moshate).

His work engages the African landscape, incorporating indigenous knowledge and ritual to respond to and enhance the emerging African condition.

Becoming conscious

In his presentation, Morojele explained his journey as an architect. As a student at UCT, he said he felt invisible because of the kind of architecture they were talking about; mostly architecture of the Western world. He elaborated on this point in his lecture, explaining about becoming conscious.

“It took me back to the origins of humankind. I found it interesting to consider what the architecture at our origins was, and what the environment was in which we first became conscious of ourselves. It has been said that becoming conscious was the beginning of spirituality and art. The idea of origins interested me, and also how we as humans became conscious of ourselves and the space around us, until we achieve the state where we actually create these spaces for our own use,” he said.

As we evolved and became more conscious, we not only found objects, but placed objects in ways that commemorate our unity and spirituality, signifying society coming together to build something collectively.

Symbiotic relationship with the environment

For Morojele, animism – the belief that inanimate objects have internal and distinct spiritual essences – also played a role in his designs. “It allows us to have a symbiotic relationship with our environment, as opposed to one where we exercise dominion over all things. Animism locates us in the environment as part of it rather than as outside observers of the environment.”

The Kigutu International Academy, located on the Village Health Works Campus 100 km south of Bujumbura in Burundi and nestled in lush mountains overlooking the beautiful Lake Tanganyika, is an example of where he places humans close to the environment. Here he essentialises the architecture. This project, with its open spaces, also brought about the question of walls. Do they unite or do they divide?

Morojele remarked that architecture takes lessons from landscapes by giving shelter, security, and prospects of freedom.

Re-establishing what it means to be human

His goal was to plant an idea in the minds of the architects who attended the lecture. Given where we are headed in the world, we need to re-establish what it means to be human; it is only when we recognised the humanity in all of us that we can begin to use architecture to unite societies.

In order to do this, our focus needs to be less intellectual and more about how we as biological beings behave in environments; for example, do people feel alienated or do they belong in our spaces?

“These are the important things, I think, our architects need to talk about in the future,” he concluded his lecture.

• Examples of Morojele’s work, including drawings and designs, can be viewed at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

News Archive

In January 1, 2003, the Qwa-Qwa campus of the University of the North (Unin) was incorporated into the University of the Free State (UFS).

2003-02-07

FREDERICK FOURIE

IN January 1, 2003, the Qwa-Qwa campus of the University of the North (Unin) was incorporated into the University of the Free State (UFS).

While this is merely the beginning of a long and complex process, it does represent a major milestone in overcoming the apartheid legacy in education, realising the anti-apartheid goal of a single non-racial university serving the Free State.

The incorporation is also part of the minister's broader restructuring of the higher education landscape in South Africa - a process which aims to reshape the ideologically driven legacy of the past.

In contrast to the past educational and social engineering that took place, the current process of incorporating the Qwa-Qwa campus of Unin into the UFS is informed by three fundamentally progressive policy objectives, clearly outlined in the education white paper 3: (A framework for the transformation of higher education):

To meet the demands of social justice to address the social and structural inequalities that characterise higher education.

To address the challenges of globalisation, in particular the role of knowledge and information processing in driving social and economic development.

To ensure that limited resources are effectively and efficiently utilised, given the competing and equally pressing priorities in other social sectors.

Besides informing the way the UFS is managing the current incorporation, these policy objectives have also informed the transformation of the UFS as an institution over the past five years.

In 2001, former president Nelson Mandela lauded the success of the UFS in managing this transformation, by describing the campus as a model of multiculturalism and multilingualism. This was at his acceptance of an honorary doctorate from the UFS.

Indeed our vision for the Qwa-Qwa campus as a branch of the UFS is exactly the same as it is for the main UFS campus - a model of transformation, academic excellence, community engagement and financial sustainability, building on the histories and strengths of both the Qwa-Qwa campus and the UFS (Bloemfontein campus).

Realising this vision will be a giant leap forward in establishing a unified higher education landscape in the Free State.

In more concrete terms, the UFS is working towards this vision by focusing on the following areas of intervention: access and equity; academic renewal; investment in facilities; and sound financial management.

These interventions are being made not to preserve any vestiges of privilege or superiority, but precisely to increase access for students from poor backgrounds and to promote equity and representivity among all staff.

The current growth phase of the UFS has seen student enrolment almost double over the past five years, in particular black students, who now constitute approximately 55 percent of the student population of nearly 18 000 (including off-campus and online students).

But it has not just been a numbers game. Our approach has been to ensure access with success.

Our admissions policy, coupled with the academic support and "career preparation" programmes we offer, have resulted in significant successes for students who otherwise would not have been allowed to study at a university.

This will be continued at Qwa-Qwa as well.

Our academic offerings too have undergone dramatic change. We have become the first university in the country to offer a degree programme based on the recognition of prior learning (RPL).

This is not just a matter of academic renewal but of access as well, especially for working adults in our country who were previously denied a university education.

As for the sound financial management of the UFS (including the Qwa-Qwa campus), this is being done not for the sake of saving a few rands and cents, but for the greater value to our society that comes from having sustainable institutions.

It is sustainable universities that can make long-term investments to fund employment equity, provide information technology for students, upgrade laboratories, construct new buildings, develop research capacity, and provide a safe environment for students and staff, as is happening now at the UFS.

As a result of such management, a practical benefit for prospective students at the Qwa-Qwa campus of the UFS will be lower academic fees in some cases compared with the Unin fees.

As is the case with all these processes, there are concerns from staff and students at Qwa-Qwa and the broader community of the region that the Qwa-Qwa campus serves.

To get the campus viable and to ensure its continuation in the short term, tough choices had to be made by the minister of education regarding which programmes to offer and fund.

But we have been encouraged by the community's understanding that these concerns can be addresed over time as the campus becomes financially viable.

Meetings between the top mangement of the UFS and community representatives, staff and students at Qwa-Qwa have laid the basis for building a climate of trust in such a complex process.

We should not be captives of the past divisions but build this new unified higher education landscape that can meet our country's developmental needs.

It should be a higher education landscape that is based on broadening access, promoting equity and social justice, developing academic excellence, and the effective and efficient management of scarce resources. This should be our common common objective.

Professor Frederick Fourie the rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS)

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