Architect’s beautiful asylum

There were times during her last year at Wits University when Nontokozo Mhlungu's friends would not see her for days. She was holed up in an architecture studio, either sketching designs by hand, or working on layers of design development on computers.

In November last year, Mhlungu finished working on her post-graduate thesis titled Hillside Sanctuary. Last week, the project won her the prestigious Corobrik Architectural Student Award, beating seven finalists from other universities. Also, she is the first black student to bag the honour.

''I was humbled and honoured to be part of those eight," she said. ''They had a huge ceremony and big prizegiving. Then they announced the winner. The rest of the night was a blur."

Mhlungu's friend and classmate, Kuka Mofu, said she remembers seeing the project come to life: ''I told her the thesis was going to be 'Google-able'."

Hillside Sanctuaryis rooted in physical beauty and social responsibility. Mhlungu created a hybrid model of a refugee centre and church, which was inspired by her frustration with xenophobic attitudes.

''I saw a programme about a [Mozambican national] being burnt alive in one of the townships [during 2008's wave of xenophobic attacks]," she said. ''Nothing is being done for [refugees and asylum seekers]. They come [to South Africa] distraught and displaced, [but are] not accepted."

Mhlungu tracked the trajectory of refugees' daily struggles and what coloured their reality. Churches and other religious organisations were often sanctuaries to which asylum-seekers could retreat in the absence of a formal government facility dedicated to their plight, she found. Also, during 2008's xenophobic outbreak, the same institutions plugged the government gap.

''My idea is to create a refugee centre anchored in a religious institution," said Mhlungu, adding: ''Many religious institutions are run by foreign nationals. I thought if you put people in a place of godliness, they would be tolerant of one another."

South Africa receives more refugee applications than any other country in the world. There were nearly 107000 submissions in 2011, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Mhlungu took that into consideration when she was working on Hillside Sanctuary - the model she conceived could hold up to 2000 people during an emergency.

''If there was a flood in one of the townships, people could be [taken] to the centre for temporary accommodation," she said. ''My project is an exploration of the lack of foresight in terms of catering to emergencies in this country."

Such a building would be situated between Hillbrow and Doornfontein, which have the highest concentration of refugee communities in Johannesburg, she said.

Mhlungu now works at DSA Architects, a company that designs hotels and resorts mainly in Dubai, Portugal and Nigeria. Though it is different to the kind of work she was doing at Wits, she enjoys being with a big company, she said. She is, however, taking steps to ''do my own thing in future".

Wits architecture professor Hilton Judin, who helped Mhlungu with her thesis, describes her as ''open to ideas, free-wheeling and creative". Though the competition was challenging, ''in the end, an interesting, powerful project won", Judin said.

www.claybrick.org/category/image-galleries/ corobrik-architectural-student-awards

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