UKZN Architecture hosts Masihambisane: Drawing Parallels Exhibition

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UKZN’s Masters Students in Architecture together with Drama and Performing Arts students recently showcased their Masihambisane: Drawing Parallels Exhibition on the Howard College campus.

The theme of the exhibition - held under the guidance of lecturers, Mrs Bridget Horner and Dr Miranda Young-Jahangeer - was: Shifting Perceptions of Spatial Practice through Alternative Methodologies. It was a reflection and exhibition of work emanating from Masihambisane, A Walking City Personified, an innovative interdisciplinary community engagement project that took place earlier in the year along King Dinizulu Road in Durban.

This project further expanded the research findings from the first inter-disciplinary study undertaken in 2014 between UKZN Architecture and UKZN Drama and Performance Studies to conscientise students to “other” ways of learning.  

Student, Ms Adheema Davis, said: ‘The exhibition stems from the first Masihambisane project in the city and continues to a learning process that allows for a collective way of learning, engagement, interaction and reflection. Overall, it is a collaborative experience.’

One of the outcomes of the exhibition was a digital book of Masihambisane Drawing Parallels, featuring drawings, essays and historical maps that have the complementary themes of perception, time and movement.

Masters student in Architecture, Mr Juan Miguel Dorta Ruiz, describes the book and the exhibition as one that ‘has no beginning and no end. It allows readers and the public to reach their own perceptions without the narrative component. It’s both a discovery and a cyclical learning process and is interdisciplinary’.

The public, students and architectural professionals attended and participated.

Student Counsellor for the Humanities Access Programme, Ms Megan Greer, said: ‘Congratulations to the Masters in Architecture students on their successful exhibition. I was walking through and saw all the hard work being done. I was also super proud to see some of my students excitedly buzzing around a model with one of the architecture students explaining it and the Masihambisane project to them! Great job guys!’

Dean and Head of the School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS), Professor Betty Mubangizi, also attended the function. ‘Attending this exhibition opened my eyes to a space from a whole new perspective.’ She encouraged the researchers to produce an academic publication from the exhibition.

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Melissa Mungroo