Launch of Books on ‘old Natal Architecture’

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UKZN Campbell Collections in association with the Durban Heritage Trust recently launched two books A Measure of the Past by Ms Michele Jacobs and Professor Rodney Harber together with Emeritus Professor of Architecture Brian Kearney, who also launched his book Stern Utility at the event.

A Measure of the Past publishes together for the first time the fine measured drawings of local buildings by three decades of architectural students from the former Natal School of Architecture, and brings together exciting images of a unique Natal building legacy.

It provides a basis for discussion on the social and physical ways in which such buildings developed and were used. It is also a vital record of buildings of historical value to researchers and historians. Included are vibrant colour drawings of many cottages, houses and villas from Pietermaritzburg, Durban, the Old Main Line suburbs and also domestic examples in wood and iron. There is an extensive glossary of building elements in colour.

While Stern Utility is a publication about a simple and economical building system used extensively in Natal from 1870—1930. Wood and iron had its roots in 19th Century prefabrication. By 1860 such British buildings were being imported into Natal but within ten years a local species had evolved.

This is the story of that evolution; the sternness and the utility; uses in many different building types; its official unpopularity and how it came to be an architecture of the poor.

Speaking about the book, Kearney said: ‘There are several themes- the background technology and industrialised building construction; the bold development of different factory produced materials; adaptation to and integration with local architectural models; the many problems of the system and the ambiguous and often hostile public and official attitudes which often only tolerated them as temporary buildings with the ultimate objective of replacing them with masonry ones.’

It is noted within his book that there are two overriding streams of thought- the sternness and utility of corrugated iron and the ways in which generations of designers, manufacturers and users sought to overcome that sternness and derive value from the utility over nearly a 150 years.

For more information or to purchase the books, please contact Ms Michele Jacobs via gijimajacobs@gmail.com or telephonically on 031 260 1207.