The Delightful Wonder & Diversity Of South African Architecture

If we had to envision what the cities and villages of South Africa would look like to a potential community, where would we begin? Imagine that the inhabitants of South Africa have been wiped out by a plague or a natural catastrophe, and that a thousand years from now futuristic artists have been studying our architecture in search of knowledge about our art, history and civilization.

They’d be in for a lot of fun finds.

These architects of the future will encounter a broad variety of architectural delights, wonders, puzzles, and variety of South African architecture, visiting city centers and deserted townships alike.

Although other nations may give these potential architects a solid understanding of what their nations respected best, as well as the nature of their countries, the architecture of South Africa may leave them shocked.

Think of the twisting Golden Mile of Durban, with its graffiti-covered skate park, vibrant parasols and abandoned bars, all surrounded on one side by the golden beaches and the Indian Ocean, and hundreds of high-rise hotels and art deco towers on the other. (Did you know that South Africa has some of the best art deco buildings in the world?)

If the architects made their way to Cape Town, they will discover layers and layers of history at every turn in the absolutely majestic city centre. With a haphazard combination of old and modern houses, public urban areas and overgrown parks, not to mention the large V&A Waterfront, Cape Town will be mystified and fascinated.

Johannesburg will clearly be our nation’s manufacturing and commercial centre with an overflowing number of warehouses, workshops, offices and boardrooms. It would be very easy to think that merchants and factory employees would occupy these rooms. But Johannesburg is not just a task and there is no play. It’s hard to picture a post-apocalyptic Jozi without imagining a spooky Sun City and overgrown amusement parks full of outdated roller coasters.

Fourteen cities like Stutterheim, Scottburgh and Poffadder’s richness of South African architecture will arouse and thrill these future minds as they would visualize people living every day. Dream of how they will see the traditional huts, sprinkled on a hillside overlooking the sea in Port St Johns.

South Africa is really an architectural wonder, with our traditional and contemporary architecture revealing tales of our lives and the lives of those who came before us. We should be proud to live in a country with such rich and fascinating architecture that we hope it will be around for a long time to come.