Thursday August 22nd, 2024, 19:00
Haughton Lecture Theatre, Museum Building (Geology, Geography and Civil Engineering), 1 Park Lane East, Dublin 2
Tickets on Eventbrite
The AAI are delighted to host Heather Dodd, Principal Architect and Director of Savage + Dodd Architects. “Small Moves Housing Stories from Johannesburg” will explore the transformational possibilities of adaptive-use using a series of spatial tactics within the contested context of the inner city of Johannesburg, South Africa.
This lecture will be the first in the AAI’s 2024-2025 series on Housing. With thanks to the Trinity College Dublin School of Geography, School of Natural Sciences for offering the space for this talk.
Savage + Dodd
Savage + Dodd Architects believe in the power of design in restorative spatial justice and urban resilience. This is reflected in the scope of projects undertaken in the Practice, which encompasses buildings within the public realm such as social housing and universities, which are reflective of new building types for a new society.
Working in the inner city of Johannesburg for the past 20- years has given Savage+Dodd a unique insight into housing processes, urban living and the urban condition. Their work in practice has involved the tactical spatial transformation of buildings to deliver places for people enabling ordinary lives in a complex environment.
In their own words:
“The post-apartheid city is very dynamic and the post-colonial debates are very strong here, yet there is also an amnesia amongst our public officials about the nature of buildings… I’m always very cognisant of the social history of buildings and the political legacy of buildings.”
“We are inserting housing into very intense neighbourhoods and always look for the elements that change the relationship of a building to the urban realm. At the heart of it, it is about creating places for ordinary people to live in and to connect a community in a neighbourhood.”
Heather Dodd has a particular interest in social housing and urban regeneration and has been involved in the delivery of multiple large-scale housing projects contributing to the revitalisation of the inner city of Johannesburg. She received her PhD in Architecture with specialisation in Design from the University of the Free State in 2022 on the topic of Small Moves – Spatial Tactics for Transformation.
In 2019, she contributed to the Development of Norms & Standards for the Social Housing Regulatory Authority in South Africa.
The Practice has been the recipient of several design awards including being awarded two WAFX Awards at the World Architecture Festival in 2019 and 2022.
