Palladio and the Modern Architects Exhibition

The traveling exhibition returns to its home city with a final exhibition being hosted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth from the 17th of August to the 15th of September 2017. The opening of the exhibition is on Thursday 17th of August at 6pm at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum. This exhibition is open to the public and free of an entrance fee. The citizens of Port Elizabeth, members of the Architectural profession and students are kindly invited to participate in this important, one of its kind, cultural event.

As the title suggests, the 36 Villas of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508 – 1580) and the 36 houses of International and National architects from the 20^th and 21^st century reflect on the similarities and differences of work from different centuries placed in direct conversation through the 288 drawings and 144 models on exhibition, in their reciprocal themes of exploration of the language of architecture.

The 432 exhibition pieces show the first two projects that the first year architecture students were engaged with, after leaving school with little experience in architectural drawings and building architectural models. Their dedicated commitment to the task given, forms part of a three year research program of 2013, 2014 and 2015 in architectural composition given by the Senior Lecturer Arch. Ernst Struwig with Senior Lecturer Arch. Dr. Magda Minguzzi and Lecturer Arch. Jean-Pierre Basson.

All the work exhibited is realised by hand. Students of the School of Architecture of the Nelson Mandela University were directly involved in the installation and striking of the exhibitions.

It is the first exhibition of its kind of scale, over 400 exhibition pieces, in South Africa of first year architecture student’s work. The traveling exhibition received attention in the local press and was published in the ARCHSA, Journal of the South African Institute of Architects No 82 Nov/Dec 2016.

Mr Jean-Pierre Basson
NMU Lecturer
Tel: 041 504 4895
E-Mail: jpbasson@mandela.ac.za