“In Plain Sight: 5 Decades of Aziz Tayob”

The Archive of Design and Architecture (ADA) presents: “In Plain Sight: 5 Decades of Aziz Tayob” 

In association with the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.

In Plain Sight is the theme of the Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) Department of Architecture and Industrial Design’s Archive of Design and Architecture’s (ada) public lecture series in collaboration with Platform 100.

The series grapples with the scant history of black architects documented in the industry and the stories of others that are in danger of being left behind. Intentional and visible, ‘in plain sight’ tasks us to rediscover the lives and work of black architects who have been left out in repositories on the continent.

The lack of knowledge available on black designers has made us question the role of the archive in perpetuating exclusivity and paucity within the industry.

This series explores themes around rewriting and reflecting on the rich history of black designers on our continent.

The Archive of Design and Architecture has hosted and will continue to host a series of lectures; each welcoming a prolific black designer to be in dialogue about their work and life. Providing a place for discourse, exploration and community, we hope to create a platform that creates access to the designer’s work.

In July 2022, the In Plain Sight documentary series was launched at the first edition of the “The City is [Not] a Tree: The Urban Ecologies of Divided Cities (UEDC)” conference which was held in Pretoria.

The documentary series is a long-term project which follows the lives and works of architects and designers of colour that have been excluded from history.

In the first episode, we followed the story of the first black architect in South Africa, Mr Aziz Tayob, who recalled the discrimination he faced as a student and practitioner and how he overcame adversity to become the first registered black architect.

Credits:

A SSL-Studio Production

Directed by: Oratile Mothoagae

Written by: Sushma Patel

Edited by: Fast Feed

Sound Engineered by: Finaltrax

Director of Photography: Nhlakanipho Mashinini

Executive Producers: Prof. Amira Osman and Dr Emmanuel Nkambule

Produced By: Oratile Mothoagae and Nhlakanipho Mashinini