On 1 September, the Designer, Architect, Specifier (DAS) event took place at the Lagoon Beach Hotel in Cape Town – the first time in three years due to the pandemic.

As previously, it was a wonderfully entertaining and enlightening day for the architects, quantity surveyors (QSs) and designers who attended.

From history to high tech

The full programme started with Dr Eitan Karol from Peerutin Karol Architects, who talked about “When Harry met Zelda, Louis Karol remembered the architecture of Peerutin Karol”. Eitan spoke fondly of how the firm was started, reflecting on some of the iconic buildings built by the firm then and now.

Nex up was “Beginning with the end in mind”,with Roelof Rabe and Jozanne Louw from Roelof Rabe Architects. They spoke in-depth about the new BMRI facility at Stellenbosch university. The talk was split to discuss the concept and implementation of the project as well as the practicalities of the use of BMI.

Mpho Sephalane from SAOTA, the Corobrik Architectural Awards winner 2021, presented her award winning work “Recovering place: Africa ways of seeing, thinking and making as a call to rethink and remake places in cities”. The focus was on her Basotho culture and the translation of that into architecture and remaking cities.

As DAS is so much about Award winning work, Greg Truen and Mark Bullivant (SAOTA) discussed their WAF 2022 nominated projects, “Buffelsdrift”in the Karoo and “Starlight” in Arizona.

The final guest of the day, Sarah Patterson from dhk Architects, had a very informative talk about the award-winning Innovation Centre: Parklands College Secondary School. From custom designed lighting to spaces dedicated to robotics, the school really is an innovation.

What did the visitors have to say?

• Combination of products and project presentations works well.
• More of these! Please.
• Thank you so much, it was a wonderful experience.
• This was a wonderful event, all-round event! Thank you!
• Great distinguished speakers, great food.
• Nice venue and great conference, well compiled and interest provoking.
• DAS, you rock!

The platinum sponsor for the day, BMI Coverland, discussed “Building new horizons” and launched their Vibrant range on the day (click here for more info on the new range: https://bit.ly/3V3gfx2).

Gary Powell from Siniat, Gold Sponsor, presented a talk on “Rethink the way you build with Solidtex”. (Click here for more info on Solidtex: https://bit.ly/3SE0Dyt

A huge thank you to all the sponsors for making this day possible.

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