IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION A
Abstract
Apartheid spatial planning, particularly the Group Areas Act of 1950, displaced Black South Africans from cities into peripheral townships and Homelands, creating a spatial segregation that persists today. Although post-apartheid reforms enabled more unrestricted movement, many continue to maintain ties to the marginalised spaces. Constantly in-transit between the margin and centre. For many, the concept of home remains layered and plural, referring both to where one lives and where one’s being is located. The Nguni phrase Ngise khaya, “I am home”, captures this duality. It signals both a sense of presence and an ambiguity about location. This raises urgent pedagogical questions for architectural education: What shifts are needed in the studio to meaningfully engage the layered realities of home shaped by colonial and apartheid legacies? How might such engagement inform housing (or homing) strategies and spatial practices? In two undergraduate studios based in historically Black geographies, we examined these questions through phenomenological, decolonial, and situated approaches. Drawing on our experiences as Black spatial practitioners, we introduced critical and transformative methods to rethink architectural pedagogy. While students often grappled with complex histories and spatial inequalities, they also demonstrated the capacity to speculate and imagine alternative configurations. These pedagogical strategies encouraged confidence, critical reflection, and a sense of agency. For us as educators, this shift enabled a more authentic teaching practice, fostering environments of brave dialogue, spaces where we, too, could feel at home within institutional settings.
Nomalanga Mahlangu: An artist, professional architect, and lecturer from South Africa. She holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Johannesburg and a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. She lectures at the University of Johannesburg, where she coordinates the second-year architecture stream. Her research explores alternative approaches to architectural education, focusing on the spatial legacies of apartheid in former Bantustans. She has collaborated with schools across South Africa and beyond, including Kingston University and Makerere University to name a few.
Jabu Makhubu: I am a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, a researcher, curator, and PhD candidate at Tshwane University of Technology. My research interests are in architectural pedagogy, critical design methods, African urbanism, decolonization, and queer politics. I have extensive teaching experience at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with supervision across architecture, urban design, and urban planning disciplines. I have served numerously as an external examiner at various architectural institutions in South Africa. I am an urban designer by profession and have extensive industry experience working for numerous architectural and urban design practices in Johannesburg, most notably ASM Architects and Urban Designers.
I am also a pop culture enthusiast and member of the Beyhive.
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Friday 26th June, 2026