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Extract from 'In Ons Bloed' compiled by Hilton Biscombe. PUMFLET 'GAIETY' My father, Wilfred Damon, has written down his memories of going to the Gaiety Bioscope, the cinema that once stood in Andringa Street in an area that was known as Die Vlakte in Stellenbosch. Die Vlakte was demolished between 1960 ad 1970 as part of apartheid’s project of separate development and forced removals of racialised people of colour from the centre of Stellenbosch. Wilfred recalls particularly two stories. The one occurred during the earthquake of 1969, where the film, a typical Hollywood action flick of the late 1960s, was interrupted because of the effect of the tremor. At that moment, he writes, fantasy and reality was confused. Patrons ran out of the cinema feeling as if stepping out of the cinema meant stepping inside a real life extraordinary drama of the earthquake and its after effects. The second story that Wilfred writes about concerns the Plaza Bioscope, the cinema that was de...

We hosted, conceptualised and published the catalogue to a group photographic exhibition called Real City. We collaborated with photographer Barry Christianson  who founded therealcityofcapetown instagram feed.  The # therealcityofcapetown group consists of a growing group of embedded and engaged photographers and for the exhibition we displayed the work of Lidudumalingani Mqombothi, Iqraa Daniel, Barry Christianson, Lindsey Appolis, Leanne Brady, Ashraf Hendricks, Musaed Abrahams and Zayaan Jappie.  An image of Ocean View taken by the late Peter Clarke formed part of the exhibition as a starting point for the conversation around the plurality of  imaginaries, public practices and lived experience in and of Cape Town.  Photo by Masixole Feni Photo by Masixole Feni Photo by Masixole Feni Photo by Masixole Feni

Open Studios is an annual event organised by the Cape Town Design Network. The event is an opportunity for the general  public to enter into architectural studios and in this way initiate discussion and discourse around the profession of architecture. For Open Studios 2016 we organised an exhibition of models of the Chere Botha School for learners with special educational  needs. The Chere Botha School is a current project in our studio and located in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. For the  Open Studios event we focused on the way light is explored as a key architectural element in the organising and articulation of space and volume. The exhibition consisted of a series of models, a film and a catalogue of drawings for viewers to take home.   Photo by Masixole Feni Photo by Masixole Feni Photo by Lindsey Appolis Photo by Lindsey Appolis Photo by Lindsey Appolis

Pumflet - art, architecture and stuff is serial publication co-founded with artist Kemang Wa Lehulere. The publication seeks to connect architectural spaces with cultural and social practices of the imagination. “Daar gaan die Alabama’ was the first iteration of the project. The project was conceptualised as a public intervention around the history and demolition in 1984 of an old city cinema. We discovered that the film was interrupted in order for bulldozers to proceed with demolition. The intervention included: the re-screening of the interrupted film on the pavement where the old cinema once stood; the display of newspaper clippings in the corner shop that now occupies the site; and the publication of Pumflet, a set of letter exchanges dwelling on the events surrounding the demolition.    Photo by Lindsey Appolis Photo by Barry Christianson Photo by Barry Christianson Photo by Barry Christianson

oh.a collaborates with Studio X Johannesburg to invite you to the launch of DARK SPACE: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity, a collection of critical essays  by  Professor Mario Gooden. RSVP to  studio@oharchitecture.com limited numbers apply   TIME  18H00-19H30     MEET 136 Buitengracht Street Cape Town   ABOUT MARIO GOODEN Mario Gooden is principal of Huff + Gooden Architects and a Professor of Practice at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) of Columbia University where he is also the co-Director of the Global Africa Lab (GAL). He is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. His firm’s work has been featured in journals and publications including Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record Magazine, Metropolis, The New York Times, Architecture & Urbanism (A+U) and ARTFORUM International Magazine. Huff + Gooden Architects work has been exhibited at the Internati...

'Clocks on the Floor': towards re-spatializing time in Rex Trueform, is a long essay publication that explores ideas around how the 20th century African factory has vividly spatialised the entanglement of modern constructions of space, time, personhood, labour and idleness. It interprets, amongst other, the use and the design of the 55 minute hour, a technique Rex Trueform implemented during the 1 940s to increase productivity on the factory floor. I argue here that it formed part of a general modernist civilizing and disciplining of black bodies.  The 55 minute hour has now been used in the title of 'Live Architecture: the 55 minute hour', an event made possible by Off Plan International curators Mary Corrigall, Amy Watson and Neliswe Xaba. They have invited a host of amazing artists including: Zyma Amien, Igshaan Adams, Bernardo Guiamba, Jenevieve Lyons, Gerald Machona, Francesco Nassimbeni and Richard De Jager, Buhlebezwe Siwani and James Webb to produce work for the...

Four letters and some new words about a walk. Photo by Barry Christianson 1. Post and lintel - a letter to Barry  Dear Barry Its the first week of 2016 and I finally have a moment to view the image you sent me on the 18th of December. When the email came through that day I saw it briefly on the screen of my phone and thought: ‘ok .. it must be part of a bigger image, I’ll look again later.’ Now I see it in its full glory on a bigger screen on the computer in a better resolution. No, its not a fragment of a larger image. It is a focus on a small part of a bigger space, a shot that highlights a detail of the larger architecture. It is a ‘detail shot’, or at least this is what we call it in archi - lingo, (lingo that both repel me and endear, depending on my mood on the day that I encounter such an image). Normally ‘detail shots’ are taken to highlight specific innovations that the architects are keen to show off when publishing their work. One famous architecture journal called ‘DETA...