South Africa: Archiving and researching architectural drawings

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria organised a public meeting on Architectural Drawings on February 22. South African and Dutch experts exchanged experiences and discussed current issues. The function was supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Pretoria and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE).

This public function was the conclusion of two projects running under the Shared Cultural Heritage Programme; both a collaboration between South African parties and the RCE. One is a workshop on archiving architectural drawings. The other is an authors’ meeting of the so called Tectonic Wilhelmiens project.

The archiving workshop was executed in four different archival depots during four successive days, and deals with the management and preservation of these vulnerable records. Four Dutch experts, under the lead of the RCE, travelled to South Africa for the occasion, following an earlier visit from South African experts to the Netherlands in 2018. The Tectonic Wilhelmiens project on the other hand is a comprehensive research project concerning Dutch architectural influence in South African practice during the first half of the 20th century. The current authors’ meeting is aimed at synchronising the research executed by South African parties and the RCE. The RCE is represented by prof. Dr. M.C. Kuipers.

Since the first project deals with the archives used by the second, the coinciding meetings offer a wonderful opportunity to exchange the knowledge generated by both projects. The joint function is open to the public and expected to be attended by numerous architects dealing with a Dutch legacy and/or archives.