Ugandan architect Doreen Adengo is profoundly concerned with how city development is responding to urban growth in Africa, and the role of the architect in this context. “The way a city functions affects everything else,” Adengo observes.

As Ambassador for the Africa Architecture Awards 2017 Phill Mashabane believes that the Awards will play a significant role in shaping the future of African architecture by encouraging professionals to recognise Africa as a diverse and unique continent.

In a profession that is increasingly expected to operate in multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder environments, where technology and easy travel have made it possible for architects to practice simultaneously in multi-contextual realities, teaching architecture is rapidly evolving beyond the realm of the design studio.

"Building a practice incorporates the skills set of an entrepreneur and running a business, together with loving architecture enough to be able to passionately sell it to the client – because a client can sense whether or not you are excited about a project." Thomas Chapman, Local Studio Architecture & Urban Design

“Every step of this undertaking ( Chocolat Residential ) has been a design process – from designing the legal framework that would allow the projects to happen, to the financing and marketing of projects, to the way in which ‘house rules’ are implemented for occupants,”

Through their work, craftsmen provide a link between culture, identity, & how craft pieces are imbued with value. This is the philosophy of Allan Schwarz, architect, journeyman, craftsman, artist and environmentalist.

The primary entry mechanism for the Awards is film. As an engaging and easily accessible medium for the creation of dialogue, together with available technologies extending to mobile devices and social media, film becomes a highly democratic form of market engagement.

Luis Urbano – architect, producer, director and academic – recently visited South Africa to participate in the first Steering Committee panel discussion for the Africa Architecture Awards, and as a guest speaker at the Architect Africa Film Festival 2016.

Designer, brands expert and entrepreneur - “From a macro perspective, Africa needs to look beyond product design to design thinking – the design of processes, policies and business models that allow people to prototype their way out of problems.”