Over the two days of the summit, participants will be introduced to a mind map of the multi-layered challenges and opportunities for architecture and the built environment in Africa.

Whilst these may be specific to Africa, the oldest and youngest continent on the planet, they will resonate with all our futures and the urgent need to reconnect, through our shared humanity with a world beyond ourselves. The aim of the summit will be to seek and structure opportunities for future collaborations across practice and pedagogy, diversity culture and identity, resilience, and sustainability at various architectural and urban scales.

Architecture

Mphethi Morojele

Mphethi Morojele is owner and founder of the MMA Design Studio, an award-winning architecture and urban design studio based in Johannesburg, South Africa. For the last 25 years MMA has been involved in architectural and urban projects in various countries on the African continent including South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia, Botswana and Burundi. Mphethi is an occasional lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and has served on numerous advisory boards, competition juries and consultancies dealing with the built environment in Africa and beyond. Some of these include the “Urban Age” global conferences (London School of Economics) in 2006, the Xth Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006 the Conference of the Parties (COP17) Durban, South Africa 2011, Holcim Sustainability Awards (Africa and the Middle East) in 2011, the Scientific Committee for the 2014 Union of International Architects (UIA) congress in Durban South Africa and the Symposium on Indigenous Design (Melbourne Design School )2018. Through his practice and writings, he has emerged as an important voice in architecture in Africa celebrated by both Archdaily and the New York Times as one of “an influential group of architects whose work will define the architectural character and identities of a rising Africa.”