Architecture, Design, and Culture
White, Bright Bravado: Ernst de Jong and the Construction of Afrikaner Identity in 1970s South Africa
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lize Groenewald
In South Africa, in the early 1970s, two architectural projects — the new campus of the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) and the Afrikaans Language Monument — came to signify, for many, unsettling aspects of Afrikaner cultural identity. The architect Johan Carel van Wijk, who had worked in the USA, was closely involved in both undertakings and drew the artist Ernst de Jong into the task of transforming the plastic qualities of both architectural spaces into the visual rhetoric of two-dimensional corporate identity design. De Jong, who had obtained a degree in painting and information design at the University of Oklahoma in 1957, transferred his American experience to his native country and was, almost single-handedly, responsible for elevating "commercial art" to the more rarefied profession of graphic design in South Africa. Immediately upon his return from the USA, he established Ernst de Jong Studios (EDJS) that rapidly took on legendary status as de Jong and his staff forged the identity of a newly independent, bright and putatively modern nation. The output of EDJS was vast and this venture allowed de Jong the freedom to practice as a fine artist. EDJS closed its doors in 1994, the year in which South Africa finally set aside the ideologies of the apartheid era. This paper selects the case studies of RAU and the language monument in order to reflect upon the contexts in which creative practitioners align themselves with ideologies with which they do not necessarily identify and yet come to exemplify.
Using Existing Drawings in the Architectural Design Process
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amos Bar-Eli
Architectural drawings role as a source of inspiration as well as a means of interpreting the past has always been key within the architectural design process. Unique to the 21st century is the increase in the sheer amount of existing drawings attainable. This plenitude is manifested by aspects which drawings are: accessed, collected, and manipulated. Consequently, it becomes crucial to critically engage new possibilities of using images of architectural drawings in the design process. The paper explores this by posing design exercises which correlate to each of the issues mentioned above i.e. - accessing, collecting, manipulating. Each of the exercises is targeted specifically for new tools unique to each. Accessing - sketching with drawings, using existing drawings as sketch models. Collecting - creating personal association boards, which serve as triggers for the subsequent studio project. And finally, an exercise of creating "metaphoric collage" is conducted to challenge the issue of manipulating. The ‘metaphoric collage’ is a specific form of collage which combines verbal interpretation and analysis of images. The three exercises conducted in a design studio teaching environment over the past four years were analyzed by visual qualitative research methods and design process understandings. The exercises served as case-study to examine translations, understandings, and possible new uses of existing architectural drawings in the architectural design process.
