Miguel Carvalho, James Russwurm and Tiago Vasconcelos from the University of Johannesburg have achieved second place in the ISOVER Global Multi-comfort design Student’s competition. They also achieved the highest first time entry for any country in the history of this competition.
The ISOVER Students competition has been an annual highlight on the event calendar of ISOVER Global for the past 12 years, and 2016 saw South-Africa participate for the first time. In just six short weeks, 24 entrants from the University of Johannesburg’s Architecture department jumped in with great enthusiasm, and astounded the judges with their ingenuity, commitment and skill.
From left: Mikalai Ulasiuk (Chief architect, Brest Executive Committee), Tiago Vasconcelos, Miguel Carvalho, James Russwurm (second prize winners, UJ), Giles Leva (international marketing director Saint-Gobain Insulation Activity).
The setting for this year’s competition was Brest in Belarus. Leading up to the millennial celebrations of this city in 2019, students were offered two plots in the city to propose urban multi-purpose building design, with a key focus on energy efficient building techniques, and of course designing Multi-Comfort spaces, taking all elements of comfort into consideration, and correctly applying Saint-Gobain and Isover products to achieve optimal performance. With the drastic climate changes throughout the year, this was a task that demanded focus, fine consideration and a deep understanding of how to use the environment as part of your design.
Our ambassadors from South-Africa won the South-African leg of this competition and were given the opportunity to present their proposal on a global stage in Belarus among 54 other teams from 23 countries, South-Africa being the only country from the southern-hemisphere. This prestigious event was hosted in Brest from 25 – 28 May 2016.
“It was an exceptionally proud and surreal moment when we realized that we had won the second prize. The contestants faced a number of challenges; they only had six weeks to prepare, as opposed to six months for their northern counterparts. Also, their inherent frame of reference when designing talks to the Southern-hemisphere and not that of the Northern-hemisphere where these plots are situated. They had to change their whole perspective and keep it in mind during design stages. I am indeed astounded by the quality of work they have produced within these circumstances, and was very proud to showcase our talent on the global stage,” says Sibusiso (Sibu) Mthembu, business development manager for ISOVER SA, who coordinated the South-African leg of this competition.
Mthembu has been the driving force behind this achievement. His commitment to this project has been highly commended, and the students all agree that this has been the highlight of their studies so far.
“Our aim for the trip was to leave a truly positive South African mark on the global architectural community. We can say for sure that the community has left its mark on us. The experience of sharing and learning from such a vast mix of cultures and minds, coupled with the opportunity to compare and critique a mixture of projects, literally a world apart. This has been something we will always keep in our minds. It has, without a doubt, been an experience of a lifetime, one which we've proudly represented our country and continent to the best of our ability. An experience we are above all proud to have had, and thankful to have been a part of,” they said.
