The announcement of the 2022 PG Bison Education Initiative for architectural students was a bit of “an anti-climax” as judges this year chose not to award a first prize.
Instead, two students, Yolanda Mpanza, an architecture student from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Daniel November from Grassy Park, an architecture student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), were announced as joint winners.
November, who matriculated at Grassy Park High in 2019, told People’s Post he realised quite early on that architecture was his passion.
“It is a lifelong journey with design and construction; when I was younger, I was design minded because I first wanted to be an engineer but later realised that architecture is actually my passion.
“As an architect you design something for someone to live in and the beauty of architecture is that you can imagine a space in your mind and then you can create it, see it develop in front of your eyes and also there is the impact you can have on so many people.”
Commenting on being announced as joint winner, November said it was an “anti-climax”.
“It’s quite a weird feeling actually and it is a bit of an anti-climax because every year there is one grand winner.”
The young man said he hoped to make a difference through architecture.
“The plan is to make my own impact in the world in my way.”
Jason Wells, brand and marketing manager at PG Bison, said judges felt that not all requirements were met for a top winner.
“Congratulations to Yolanda and to Daniel, as well as their lecturers and institutions.
“Their entries showed great promise and addressed most elements of the brief.
“While our expert panel of judges acknowledged the wealth of architectural and interior design talent on display at the judging event, they ultimately agreed that it would not be right to nominate a winner when no one entry met all the requirements we asked for.
“We encourage the education institutions to spend more time on the human aspect of future briefs and look forward to engaging with them on this point at our debriefing session next month.”
Nathaniel Wakefield, a 2022 competition brief author and judge, said the standard of designs was generally high.
“We felt the submissions missed certain important aspects of the brief, particularly regarding context. It’s important in any development to not only understand the technical requirements, but also those that relate to the human aspect.
“We feel the students need to firm up this aspect of their competition submissions in future, and remember the focus is ultimately on meeting the needs of the people who will be using the space.”
Mpanza and November “created the best entries overall” and shared the combined second and third placed prizes of R25 000 and R10 000 that was “split down the middle” taking home R17 500 each.
