Heritage Forum

Paul Roos Gymnasium received a blue plaque when they recently celebrated the school’s 154th birthday. A blue plaque reminds the passer-by that something noteworthy and historically significant happened at that specific spot.  In the case of Paul Roos the blue plaque...

Elaine Aucamp, a well-known, colourful figure in Stellenbosch, passed away in January this year. She was actively involved and committed to the preservation of Stellenbosch's cultural heritage. As a founding member of the Stellenbosch Interest Group, she also served...

Stellenbosch lost her oldest two oak trees in the storm that hit the town on the 18th of January 2020. One oak was uprooted and blown over, while the Emergency Team of the Municipality cut off the top halve of the other oak, which stood further down Ryneveld street....

With 99,1% Vienna is, according to the annual index of the Economist, the world’s most liveable city for 2019 - the second year running. Vienna is known for it’s lavish architecture, art and coffee shops. However, the index also takes factors such as stability...

Three female architects from Johannesburg were honoured when their firm, Counterspace, was invited by the Serpentine Gallery in London to design the 2020 Serpentine pavilion. The three women, Sumayya Vally, Sarah de Villiers and Amina Kaskar, are the first South...

Two female Irish architects, Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara, received the 2020 Pritzker Prize, which is Architecture’s highest international honour. Farrell and McNamara are the only members of Grafton Architects in Dublin. Both women also have a keen interest in...

The Heritage Association of South Africa (HASA) recently updated their website on which they explain that the Heritage Association of South Africa is the voice of conservation bodies from around the country that are dedicated to conserving the national estate. The...

Accessibility and mobility in towns and cities are international issues and increasingly so becoming burning issues to solve for town planners as more and more people flock from rural areas to larger towns and cities. Accessibility and mobility can never be solved in...

Trevor Manual provides the audience with a wake-up call The recent (21 – 23 Februarie) Adam Small festival in Pniël impressed audiences with a unique and varied programme, which was compiled by Darryl Earl Davids and presented by the Pniël museum. Highlights included...

Benjamin Franklin presumably said that "the bitterness of poor quality remains long after we forget the sweetness of a low price". This saying is turned upside down in the design of a family home which won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 's award for...

Two research publications traced the ancient patterns of cultural heritage and the location of ancestral homelands to Southern Africa and in doing so, focused international attention on Southern Africa. A team of researchers from the African Centre for Coastal...

Unstitching Rex Trueform: The Story of an African Factory A book that follows the story of a Cape Town building that housed a clothing manufacturer, Rex Trueform, received its second prestigious award. Unstitching Rex Trueform: The Story of an African Factory, by Ilze...

Goldsmith Street, a community housing project in Norwich, wins this year's prestigious Stirling Prize for British Architecture. This is the first time in history that the prize has been awarded for social housing – or for a street, according to some commentators. The...

The Stellenbosch Municipality's Heritage Survey and Conservation Management Plan have just won the Presidential Award of the Institute of Landscape Architecture (ILASA).  In response to this honour, the mayor, Advocate Gesie van Deventer, has said that it is...