Call for Applications for Academic Staff!
The School currently has the following vacancies:
- Lecturer in Architecture (80%-100% FTE) with specialisation in architectural history and theory
- Lecturer in Architecture (20%-40% FTE) with specialisation in architectural design and/or construction studios or technical courses
Applications for all positions are due on 08 June 2026 at 12:00pm.
Find the full call on the employment section of our website:
www.wits.ac.za/soap/staff/employment/
(Link in bio)
@gifa_jhb@sacap_council_for_the_arch@saia_national
Please join us for next week's FoTC
Abstract: Sharon Lewis has spent the last 7 years working for the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Asia and Africa. From supporting the refugee response in Bangladesh to building oxygen plants in remote parts of Zambia, she has worked within the UN implementation system to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals in some of the toughest places in the world.
In this talk, Sharon will share some of her experiences and extract lessons for the new phase of infrastructure planning, delivery and management in South Africa.
Bio: Sharon Lewis is an urban planner and was awarded a BSc (Town and Regional Planning) at Wits in 1994 she also has an MSc in Cities from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her work experience includes housing and urban policy, public finance, city development strategy, and development partnerships; and is based on more than 20 years in the public sector in South Africa and 7 years with UNOPS in Asia and Africa. Sharon has played a role in leading fiscal reforms related to public transport, social housing and mortgage lending. She has managed public programmes in infrastructure delivery and management, regional economic development, city leadership development, and the restructuring of public sector organisations. Her most recent UNOPS experience has been as Head of Programme in East and Southern Africa.
ONLINE Details
Please join us at 16:00-17:30 online using the following link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95811018374?pwd=BYk5csVLs0WXdqNNbj7IRTGQG94nJ4.1
Meeting ID: 958 1101 8374
Passcode: 100206
Please join us for next week's FoTC and book launch!
"Johannesburg, South Africa, is often associated with inequality and referred to as the quintessential “apartheid city.” Yet this book argues that Johannesburg, part of the highly urbanized Gauteng City-Region, is actually an “ordinary” space where spatial changes both marginalize and create opportunities for people going about their lives. Relying on more than a decade of empirical research, the book also interrogates the concept of “spatial dialectics” proposed by Henri Lefebvre. Through deep insight into the practices and experiences of everyday life, Lindsay Blair Howe shows how cities and regions like greater Johannesburg are more than just a sum of their parts. Individuals, and the collectives they forge, influence processes of urbanization and capital accumulation. Extra/ordinary Johannesburg reveals how Lefebvre’s assertions about the production of space remain relevant today, but also where they reach their limits, and how theories on the production of space can be further developed by a stronger understanding of this African urban region. What we can learn from how people are able to navigate the urban fabric of centralities, peripheries, and the spaces between matter greatly in productively reimagining ways to encounter urban Africa."
Prof. Dr. Lindsay Blair Howe is a Full Professor of Urban Development and Spatial Planning at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where she leads the Centre for Urbanisation and Peripheralization (CUSP), and teaches architectural and urban design. Her work challenges dominant Western approaches to knowledge production by foregrounding urban theory and practice from African contexts, predominantly from Johannesburg.
HYBRID Details
Please join us in person 16:00-17:30 in the Post Graduate Seminar Room, John Moffat, south basement, or online using the following link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95811018374?pwd=BYk5csVLs0WXdqNNbj7IRTGQG94nJ4.1
Meeting ID: 958 1101 8374
Passcode: 100206
Please join us for next week’s FoTC!
Abstract: This seminar explores how participatory graphic design can support inclusive and circular placemaking within a contested colonial urban heritage precinct in Johannesburg’s inner city. Drawing on Ursula Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory, the study reframes an Art Deco mining precinct as a narrative container rather than a monument to extraction. Through two co-designed interventions, the research demonstrates how graphic design can function as communicative infrastructure. It introduces the concept of symbolic circularity, showing how urban meanings and visual languages can be continuously reinterpreted without intensifying material footprints.
Bio: Yolandi Burger is a postdoctoral fellow at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, based in the Department of Graphic Design at the University of Johannesburg. Her interdisciplinary research explores how graphic heritage and storytelling intersect within the urban environment, focusing on visual traces, toponymy, and design as tools for shaping memory, identity, and spatial justice. Through practice-based methods, she collaborates with academic and civic partners to advance inclusive urban heritage interpretation. Yolandi is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Loughborough University, where she contributes to international dialogue on design, narrative, and cultural memory in urban public space.
Online Event Details
Join Zoom Meeting
https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95811018374?pwd=BYk5csVLs0WXdqNNbj7IRTGQG94nJ4.1
Meeting ID: 958 1101 8374
Passcode: 100206
On the 12th of March the Urban Planning students of the ARPL3032 Politics of Planning and Housing course, presented their Quarter 1 final exhibit, based on this year's theme:
"Navigating a Polarised World? Developing a Politics of Nuance, Integrity, and Recognition".
The exhibits addressed questions about the forces, processes and practices that shape the city, from within and outside the state.
Congratulations to all of the students for their work!
WITH OUR HANDS
Masters in Architecture Charrette Exhibition : opening 23 April 2026.
An invitation to come see and experience an approach to design that begins with making encouraging thinking through the hand. Before it’s on paper, it’s shaped, tested, and understood through touch, process, and material.
Open Talk by Liale Francis Slow Making and Deep Knowing
: Design as an Act of Presence
📍 John Moffat Atrium 🗓 Thursday, 23 April 2026 🚶🏽 Walkabout: 12:30 PM 🗣 Opening Talk: 1 PM
#OnTheHighestLevel #WitsMArch2025 #WitsUniversity #WitsArchitecture #DesignProcess ArchitectureStudents Charrette ExhibitionOpening
A reminder of next week’s exhibition: Methods: Research Praxis in Making, Doing, Teaching - Exhibition Opening
0.3 CAT 1 CPD Points (SACAP)
Please join us for an opening walkabout and reflective discussion.
Time: Wednesday 1 April at 5:30 pm
Place: John Moffat Extension Atrium, Wits School of Architecture and Planning
This exhibition marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of research within architecture and planning in South Africa. "Methods" brings together a body of work by practitioners and educators whose practices move fluidly across design, art, teaching pedagogy, and built form. It foregrounds research not as something that follows making, but as something embedded within it.
At a time when the Department of Higher Education and Training increasingly recognises creative and practice-based outputs as legitimate forms of knowledge production, this exhibition positions itself within an emergent national shift. It reflects the growing presence of practice-based PhDs and alternative research trajectories that expand how inquiry is defined, conducted, and shared.
For a discipline and school long situated at the intersection of thinking and making, "Methods" establishes a critical precedent. It offers new ways to formulate questions, generate insight through practice, and contribute to knowledge beyond conventional written formats. In doing so, it signals the beginning of a new research era within the school and beyond.
The exhibition will remain open from 1-10 April 2026.
Methods: Research Praxis in Making, Doing, Teaching - Exhibition Opening!
0.3 CAT1 CPD Points (SACAP)
The School of Architecture and Planning Staff invite you to engage with a praxis exhibition at John Moffat Extension Atrium. Join us for an opening walkabout and reflective discussion on 1 April at 5:30 pm.
This exhibition marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of research within architecture and planning in South Africa. "Methods" brings together a body of work by practitioners and educators whose practices move fluidly across design, art, teaching pedagogy, and built form. It foregrounds research not as something that follows making, but as something embedded within it.
At a time when the Department of Higher Education and Training increasingly recognises creative and practice-based outputs as legitimate forms of knowledge production, this exhibition positions itself within an emergent national shift. It reflects the growing presence of practice-based PhDs and alternative research trajectories that expand how inquiry is defined, conducted, and shared.
For a discipline and school long situated at the intersection of thinking and making, "Methods" establishes a critical precedent. It offers new ways to formulate questions, generate insight through practice, and contribute to knowledge beyond conventional written formats. In doing so, it signals the beginning of a new research era within the school and beyond.
The exhibition will remain open from 1-10 April 2026.
2026 School of Architecture & Planning First Year Orientation
Welcome to SoAP! 🏛️✨
Join us for two days of introductions, inspiration, and exploration as we kick off the 2026 academic year.
📅 Day One | 27 January 2026
🔹 Welcome to SoAP
🔹 School Resources Intro
🔹 Walkabout: School & Studios
🔹 BAS & BSc Programme Explanations
🔹 This is how we do: Intro to Studio Learning
🔹 Look at me now: SSC, URP & FFS — featuring select SoAP graduates
📅 Day Two | 29 January 2026
✏️ Sketch City Tour
🖼️ Sketch City Exhibition
🥂 JM Foyer Reception
Get ready to explore, sketch, connect, and start your SoAP journey.
#SoAP2026 #ArchitectureAndPlanning #SketchCity #StudioLife #FutureDesigners
Call for Applications in Architecture! Advertised positions include sessional teaching in architectural history and theory; design and theory; design representation; and construction.
For details on the positions and how to apply: www.wits.ac.za/soap/staff/employment/
Deadline: Applications for all positions are due 16 January at 18.00pm.
@gifa_jhb@sacap_council_for_the_arch@sainstituteofarchitects
