Silver Pigeon roosts in Namibia
Namibia was recently awarded the Silver Pigeon Award for the best national contribution at the London Festival Of Architecture. The award ceremony took place at the Ambika P3 exhibition space at the University of Westminster earlier this month. The exhibition was divided into five parts named Babylon Katutura, Desert Landscape, Definitions of Space, Men are Working in Town and Story Unbolted. It portrayed a rich, layered insight into social and spatial developments in Namibia, and allowed the visitor to get “under the skin” of a country, known to few in the international architectural arena. It focused and portrayed the evolution of buildings such as the KCAC (Katutura Community Art Centre), which used to be the kitchen that served food for the 6,000 men who were housed in the old migrant workers compound, COTA (the College of the Arts) and NAGN (National Art Gallery of Namibia) According to the curator, Philip Luhl, the exhibition was not a mere marketing campaign for the country, but rather it exposed some of the urgent challenges facing its future development. Luhl also said that the important thing was to counter the idea that architecture is pure spatial design, that it is also about beauty and form. “Many of the buildings and urban developments we design are deeply influenced by the way we live together as people, which of course is still largely informed by our colonial history and especially apartheid planning. The inequalities that we inherited from our past, are perpetuated in the way that we conceive our cities”. Minister of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture, Hon. Kazenambo Kazenambo handed the award to the Rector of the Polytechnic. Dr Tjama Tjivikua. Speaking at the handover Kazenambo said the award gave him a feeling of fulfilment that Namibia managed to bag the award and that this milestone will encourage any environment to enable learning institutions to develop and encourage art. The 2012 award was commissioned by the British Council and the Embassy of Japan and was designed by Tomoko Azumi. As the winners of this year’s award Namibia will have to design the next award for the award ceremony which will be held in 2014. This will act as a frame work to the Namibia Institutes of Architects (NIA) 60th anniversary.
The exhibition was divided into five parts named Babylon Katutura, Desert Landscape, Definitions of Space, Men are Working in Town and Story Unbolted. It portrayed a rich, layered insight into social and spatial developments in Namibia, and allowed the visitor to get “under the skin” of a country, known to few in the international architectural arena. It focused and portrayed the evolution of buildings such as the KCAC (Katutura Community Art Centre), which used to be the kitchen that served food for the 6,000 men who were housed in the old migrant workers compound, COTA (the College of the Arts) and NAGN (National Art Gallery of Namibia)
According to the curator, Philip Luhl, the exhibition was not a mere marketing campaign for the country, but rather it exposed some of the urgent challenges facing its future development. Luhl also said that the important thing was to counter the idea that architecture is pure spatial design, that it is also about beauty and form. “Many of the buildings and urban developments we design are deeply influenced by the way we live together as people, which of course is still largely informed by our colonial history and especially apartheid planning. The inequalities that we inherited from our past, are perpetuated in the way that we conceive our cities”.
Minister of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture, Hon. Kazenambo Kazenambo handed the award to the Rector of the Polytechnic. Dr Tjama Tjivikua. Speaking at the handover Kazenambo said the award gave him a feeling of fulfilment that Namibia managed to bag the award and that this milestone will encourage any environment to enable learning institutions to develop and encourage art.
The 2012 award was commissioned by the British Council and the Embassy of Japan and was designed by Tomoko Azumi. As the winners of this year’s award Namibia will have to design the next award for the award ceremony which will be held in 2014. This will act as a frame work to the Namibia Institutes of Architects (NIA) 60th anniversary.
