Image: UWCWolff Architects PTY (Ltd), an architectural and design studio, has announced that one of its projects, the Iyatsiba Lab at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), has won the Building Project Award from the Cape Institute of Architects.
The arts and humanities hub is situated in a renovated former school building in Woodstock, Cape Town, thereby breaking the spatial boundaries imposed by apartheid. The Lab, developed in partnership with the renowned Handspring Puppet Company to explore movement, performance and object-based storytelling, hosts advanced studies to rethink post-apartheid freedom through the arts.
The owners of the architectural company, Ilse and Heinrich Wolff, were pleased with the win. Ilse Wolff said, “We are proud and thrilled that this project got this recognition and even more excited to celebrate the key contribution from UWC and Professor Premesh Lalu, the former Director of the Centre for Humanities Research.”
Manie Regal, UWC’s Executive Director of Finance and Operations, said, “We are very proud of the Building Project Award for transforming a dilapidated heritage site to a place of learning and research. The UWC Infrastructure and Engineering team took on the project with a restrictive budget and insurmountable project challenges, including COVID lockdown rules.
“We successfully completed the project within budget and within the design brief in difficult circumstances. The Iyatsiba Lab has positively influenced the surrounding community and has become an example of increasing our footprint in the Western Cape.”
