Heritage Forum

The Stellenbosch Heritage Inventory and Management plan is innovative and authoritative and a significant achievement for Stellenbosch. Heritage Western Cape endorsed it on 23 May 2018. The inventory is an overview inventory for Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and the...

Fabio Todeschini was a tireless explorer of landscapes. As lecturer and head of the University of Cape Town's School of Architecture and Urban Design and as a consultant and activist, he encour-aged fellow workers, students and fellow human beings in general to take...

Opposition to provincial road engineers' plans for the R44 between Somerset West and Stellenbosch increases. At the same time, there is no indication that engineers will adapt their key assumptions and approach. The latest development is that a consortium of...

Each of the first three items in this newsletter resonates with an episode from Stellenbosch's history that Fabio Todeschini would have recalled drily. As a prospective student in architecture and town planning in the 1950s, Fabio Todeschini had a glimpse of...

Extreme weather is not the reason behind disasters such as the catastrophic flooding following Hurricane Harvey that hit Houston in August 2017. The blame should rather go to poor urban planning. This is the opinion of disaster expert Ilan Kelman on Dezeen. According...

Two South American architects were awarded Architect of the Year Award and the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture in this year’s Women in Architecture Awards. The Capetonian Ilze Wolff of Wolff Architects was also on the shortlist for the Moira Gemmill...

South Africa is not the only country where monuments commemorating the past have led to public debates on the interpretation of history and the act of remembering. In an article in the New York Times, journalist Sabrina Tavernise tells of a visit to a Russian summer...

The French town of Saint-Malo is for many a typical European town rich with history and charm, with cobblestone streets, a fortress and medieval layout. During its tourist season the town’s average density is more than double that of cities like Tokyo and Vancouver,...

The Pritzker Prize for 2018 was, for the first time, awarded to an Indian architect, Balkrishna Doshi.   According to the jury, Doshi has "an understanding and appreciation of the deep traditions of India’s architecture”. ArchDaily also reported the jury lauded the...

ArchDaily created a list of interesting facts on Doshi:   * Doshi’s office, Vastu Shilpa, created a list of “must-see” architecture sites in the city of Ahmedabad so that visitors to the office can see the city and understand the context in which Doshi creates his...

'n Plaasdorpshuis - Our brief was simple - create a home where you are constantly aware of the beautiful mountains surrounding us, the reason we gave up city life.   Click here to read the full article.  

  People voted with their feet when the Municipality made a portion of Andringa Street more accessible to pedestrians during Transport Week. Pedestrian traffic was consistently good and, especially in the late afternoon and early evening, developed into an...

Wolfred Damen and other ex-residents of Die Vlakte will share their recollections at a public tour of Die Vlakte on Saturday 18 November 2017 from 10:00 to 13:00. The tour is hosted by the Stellenbosch University Gallery. In April 2017, the previous tour, coincided...

The presence of Nieuwe Molen, the third wheat mill built in Stellenbosch, is being re-established at Meulplein near the Braak, thanks to a project undertaken by the Stellenbosch Arts Association and the municipality. Strijdom van der Merwe handled the design. Because...

Bicycle stands as outdoor sculpture is the theme of Stand, the latest exhibition of the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust.  Works by Strijdom van der Merwe, Gerhard van Eck, Guy du Toit, Marne Viljoen and Jacques Buys is already on display.  More artists will be...

  The City of Cape Town's latest Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN) has recently been approved by the council and the plan is to involve minibus taxis in a prominent manner. The taxis will not only form part of the fleet of vehicles by which commuters...

Jan Gehl, doyen of city designers, has five rules for designing good, large cities.  See and read more.  

The French capital believes it has a head start over more modern cities with private vehicles becoming fewer. A city like Paris, which was founded before the arrival of cars, was never developed with cars in mind. It will therefore be easier for such a city to adapt...

The architect of Cape Town's new Zeitz MOOCA art museum tells how his fear that people would not come to the museum had guided the design. Also read the Visio report:      

Jeff Speck, who writes about pedestrians in cities, believes that an outing on foot should be useful, safe, comfortable and interesting. An article in the Guardian, also tells of initiatives and projects undertaken in different world cities – from New York to Gangzhou...

Architect and urban designer Henri Comrie has supplied these photographs of a pedestrian crossing on a fairly busy road in the French province of Provence. The crossing made of coarse stone seems to be a very successful means of calming down traffic. It connects a...

  The Stellenbosch Heritage Foundation receives various inquiries about buildings and landscapes in the town and district every week. We provide one example of a query and an answer, in the hope that readers of the newsletter may want to become collaborators on a...

Name:  The Table House Client:  Undisclosed Location:  Philippi, Cape Town Status:  Ongoing First prototype:  build by Hands of Honour     Informal shack dwellers in Cape Town exist in a state of helpless temporariness – helplessness as they don’t possess...

Proposed changes to the R44 between Stellenbosch and Somerset West were discussed on 15 August at a public meeting arranged by Mr Donald Grant, Western Cape Minister of Public Works and Transport, and Advocate Gesie van Deventer, Mayor of Stellenbosch. People at the...