practice

about

The Johannesburg-based practice, Kate Otten Architects, are architects of place, rooted in the context of South Africa, its landscape, materiality, culture, and politics. Formed at the close of the apartheid era, when space started opening up for women to practice successfully, the work has consistently sought to define what it means to be a (South) African practice. Through collaboration, experimentation, hands-on enquiry, and our people (predominantly women architects), we have produced work of a different sensibility, recognised through wide publication and awards received over the thirty-plus years of the practice’s life.

Much of our very varied body of work takes place in Johannesburg, Egoli or City of Gold, which is formed along the Witwatersrand ridge, with some of the deepest and richest seams of gold in the world. This ridge is also a watershed with a man-made forest1 to the north of the city, Soweto and mining waste dumps to the south. Our architectural work records, weaves together, and re-imagines the layers of this city and its people into new physical landscapes, all linked by an invisible thread – this ridge of gold.

The choice of craft and material is a specific response to the context of each project; available materials, available skills and how we can use these resources to express the idea of the architecture, make meaning, engage the user and make space that moves the inhabitants. Through discussion and collaboration, ideas are reflected back in different ways, offering unusual ways of using ordinary materials and alternative ways of making and conceiving architecture.

Experimenting through making is part of how we develop our architectural language, one of our most experimental forms of making being through our “constructions for self”. These are buildings made for ourselves, as studio spaces and/or living spaces. They are highly cost effective and usually built by small artisanal groups of builders. Ideas are constructed and tested in-situ and, depending on their success, used in future projects for clients.

An interest in education and research, specifically in knowledge systems other than a western canon, underscores our work. The use of earth as a building material, for example, or an interest in Islamic architecture, are threads woven through the work. We often seek critiques from colleagues and other collaborators and are active in the discourse around transformative architecture, specifically in relation to women. Through our participation in lectures, mentorships and by maintaining links with several schools of architecture, we engage and share knowledge with future generations of architects.

We are alive to the social, economic and environmental impact of architecture; to its potential to destruct and to heal.


“Ultimately, my journey has been one of navigating the times into which I was born, and using architecture to make a line in the sand, a quiet act of rebellion and refusal to acquiesce to a crushing of the spirit.”

detail

established 1989

physical
lulu kati kati
67B 5th Avenue
Melville
Johannesburg
2092
South Africa

postal
28A 6th avenue
Parktown North
Johannesburg
2193
South Africa

e-mail: kate@kateottenarchitect.com
telephone: +27 11 880 3764
cellphone: +27 82 789 4297
website: www.kateottenarchitect.com
instagram: @kateottenarchitects