The soft/well spoken design genius - Mokena Makeka

I was blown away by this well spoken man. Turns out he is a genius. Designers like him should be leaders of the Arch industry and shows that we can hold our own against any other country.

Makeka and his company Design Lab (lovely branding) approach problems not as designers only but also as philosophers and urbanists. This in itself is not a unique approach but this is one of the few groups that really applies it and dont just preach it.

The presentation started out extremely boring (my opinion) with a LOT of reading but it all made sense a few minutes later when he showed how the theory was applied. Any negatives regarding this presentation was saved by his amazing passion regarding the implementation of these theories.

The basic premise of his design philosophy is that design influences people and their behaviour. Once again not a new concept but brilliant implementation.

Take for example the SAPS Retreat project he did.

Yes - it is a police station...

Working on the basic premise that people will respond like delinquents if you design for delinquents he designed this building to inspire pride in it's occupants and neighbours. To date there's been no vandalism to this building.

There is a great article on their website here where they discuss the design intent of this building and how it was achieved.

Take some time and browse through their site - it is truly inspiring.