UNIVERSITY
My academic record leaves a lot to be desired. Actually I have been to university twice. Once in SA where I studied architecture and received the interrelated degrees of B. Building Arts and B. Architecture. Then very late in life I did a MSc in Building Conservation and Management at Heriot-Watt near Edinburgh, mostly done remotely except for exams.
That MSc fulfilled an ambition to get into building conservation. I was already a member of the IHBC, ie the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and was very into the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS). I had done a lot of conservation work over my career, but in liaison with others as specialists. While my later career didn't go quite as planned, doing this masters degree enriched my life and self worth.
But you will probably find that boring. So I will concentrate here on my youth at the University of Port Elizabeth in SA.
University of Port Elizabeth
As a setting, it was idylic. A short walk or cycle from the Cape Recife nature reserve with its lighthouse, water purification ponds full of birds and less used beaches. I visited often on my own and saw monkeys, some mongooses and even a large baboon, most likely wandered down from the distant mountains.
I found aspects of it easy and others very difficult. Got very stressed out and yet enjoyed a great deal of it. There were some highlights.
At first we had our studios in the old university library in central Port Elizabeth. Adjoining it was on the street frontage the modern Biology Department and we got to know some of the students. We sometimes thought their course more attractive than ours when they laid out the catch of the day in the sun - survey trawls in the bay. But would change our minds when the smell of fish in the sun reached our noses.
On the other side of our studios was an old double storey house where we had lectures. And there was a garden up the approach path. But all this was while the new campus was being built in Summerstrand towards Cape Recife. A vast ultra modern concrete place; possibly the laragest single location university campus in the world of that nature. Our new studios were still "on the drawing board" and still some way in the future.
So we were moved as an interim measure into part of the Feather Market Building in the city centre where we had much more space. Adjoining our studios and offices was the large arched central hall that had been the main feather market building during the heyday of the osrich feather boom, but which then had a basket ball court. We were able to watch internation basket ball matches from our studios.
On the upper level beyond that was a large hall that had been part of the feather trade market too, but by this time was used as a multi-purpose space for things such as pop concerts. Not far from here was the opera house, but it was not suitable for such use.
We once managed to casually walk in during the half-time interval to see the Troggs. Never trust a student! And on another occassion saw some mediocre male pop singer that was the supporting act, but which the crowd evidently liked. The main act was Eartha Kitt. She had had her hit Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. Remember this was back in 1972 during apartheid and prejudice. She was not white and it was surprising that she had a tour in SA. The audience was absolutely awful to her and she left crying. Unsurprisingly, there is no mention of her tour on Wiki, but it does note that her career faltered at about this time after criticising the Vietnam War policy of Lyndon B. Johnson and this may have been an attempt to get a wider audience.
But the next year we moved out to the new concrete campus. We still didn't have a our specific building so we were moved into the top floor of the library - a large inverted concrete ziggurat of a building. We set up our studios at one end and of this vast space. I was to later see that the university computers, large fridge sized things with whirring cassette on them, were located at the other (with occassional rainwater pouring down alongside from a leak in the flat roof.
Being students, we managed to get up onto that vast flat roof with its great views out across the campus with the bush and the sea beyond. We planned to have a braai (BBQ) up there, but word got out and we were severely sanctioned.
We were expected to work late on projects and doing that in a studio environment together was far better than home alone so we got quite comfortable in our studio space, music blaring into the night. The university authorities realised this and tried to put a stop to it. A night guard would patrol within the floor at about 10:30 at night. The lights would be switched off so I borrowed a large paraffin lamp. We then found that we could leave the lights on uninterupted if we locked the intermediate doors. The guard would try them, but could not get at the switch and moved on. We went deadly quiet until he had gone.
Sometimes he persisted so I devised a plan to deter him. I taped wild animal sounds, hippos, crocodiles, monkeys etc and set a small speaker within the ceiling panesl far down beyond our studio space, but controlled within it. I then played this very softly as he approached. Just enough to make him wonder. And perhaps be intimidated by the sounds. Imagine him trying to explain what he heard to his supervisor.
We never did get found out.
As we were the "Campus by the Sea" (as it was noted in all publicity material), we naturally spent a lot of time on the beach. I swam, ran and paddle skied. My final digs were in a down market block of rooms right opposite the long stretch of Kings Beach.
We used to have beach parties with a braai (BBQ) and touch rugby on the sand in the evening. Yes we did get to work hard too. Sometimes too hard (as I describe when I rolled my car after a through the night stint to finish a project CARS. But I remember one of the other students who would try to swot on the beach, a flask of wine in one hand, bread in the other, his head in the shade of the walkway. But as he fell asleep in the heat, he not only didn't get any work done, but got extremely sunburnt as the sun moved across this face.
Each year there was a Rag Day. We built floats on trucks and dressed up silly. One year I designed the T-shirt. There were pretty "drom poppies" (drum majorettes) and beauty queen. There was also a male version of the drom poppies, bizzarely attired, Hairy Angels. A magazine of jokes was produced for charity funds. I always walked along with a camera.
Another strange, but fun event was the Anything that Floats "race" in Algoa Bay off Port Elizabeth's Kings Beach.
I had sometimes got my paddle ski and paddled in amongst the strange craft. But I did get to participate and ride in a VW Beetle chassis, roof trusses and a swimming pool. Pools were being made of preformed linings so we simply had to get that into the sea. Large inner tubes were used for flotation of the other craft. Each year we would pester the local bus company for old ones, patch them and tie them together.
These days all tyres are tubeless. Back then all tyres had a rubber inner tube. The larger the vehicle, the larger the tyre and the larger the inner tube.
This event was a nightmare for the lifesaver brigade, sea rescue crews and council. If the wind was onshore that day, it was pretty straight forward. If it was offshore there was the possibility of "craft" drifting off accross the bay. There was one occasion when such an erant craft of bus tyres had a braai going onboard, the students, drinks in hand, found the fire going much too well in the strong wind and had to try to tip it into the sea. Imagine their reprimand from the sea rescue on this occasion. As many students had been drinking a lot, it could be quite dangerous. Some drifting far out towards the shipping lanes. We never lost any students (permanently) while I was there, but I hear it has been curtailed since then, Health & Safety eventually gaining awareness.
But yes, we did work hard too. But that doesn't make as good a story. I discuss the affect of working late on my driving under CARS and computers under TECHNOLOGY in architecture
The campus
The new campus was still under construction at Summerstrand when I started, but this gave us students an excellent opportunity to study the design, processes and materials up close.
I never really got to know Health and Safety on building sites until I arrived in Scotland and began work here. So what you see below involved sneaking past a half asleep guard and through the perimeter site fence quite easily on weekends. We could then wander around, climb about and poke at all sorts of partly built structures. I think the only time that we got reprimanded was when we turned on the high-power water spout fountain. A bit too conspicuous. Most of the time though we were not noticed.
Looking back to the unfinished adminstration building from the roof of the library. This is a vast campus. Judging from concept models we had seen even this was but a small fraction of what was envisaged for the future. Beyond it stretches the wide expanse of the blow-out sands of Cape Recife which were stabilised in the previous century with imported Port Jackson Willow and in the distance is the Indian Ocean.
A view of the library building from down an access track. This inverted ziggurat in amongst the windblown dust and sparse vegetation at this stage was an eerie almost lost South American civilisation image.
A view from the administrative building down into the central courtyard. The chunky cubic building to the left had 3 tiered lecture halls (another mirrors it on the other side). Stretching beyond that is the block with smaller lecture rooms and faculty facilities.
A visit to the upper stories of the administration building during construction with a fellow architectural student. Here he poses while standing on the temporary safety rail and the crane. There was 9 floors of nothing below him. (He died later in a car crash).
Here the adminsitration building is nearing completion. The library is on the right and the two lecture hall buildings forming the cental courtyard are well advanced too.
A view from the other side.
Looking back from the administration building entrance to the library building.
Looking up at the library building. Just in front of us is the raised entrance plaza. The student cafe was below that. The library itself was at the entrance level ("ground level") and the one above. Our architectural department was to be housed in the level above that. What appears to be yet another level is actualy comprised just of very heavy beams.
This is Xanadu, the men's hostel. This was mirrored beyond it by the women's hostel. Note the cars. A kitchen and dining building is out of sight to the left. These buildings were replicated as the student numbers grew.
Simultaneous with all this development were the sports facilities to the left / east, boiler and other service buildings to the right / west.
Rag day
This was an annual fund raising procession through the city - or if you that way inclined, another excuse to get drunk. Good taste was never of much concern.
The architectural department float under construction one year. A moon landing theme with an astronaut heading for a toilet building. At least there was a token reference to architecture.
That is a truck within that structure.
Someone else's float with a simple farm theme.
An equally tatty, but at least more ambitious float with a moving part. Long hair length had been an irritant of the university aurhorities. Here we see the country's founding father Jan van Riebeek with his long hair being pecked at by a vulture. The side of the float reads "CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOKE".
Anything that Floats
I think this started as a fund raising event too, but became simply a great day out just off off the shore. A west wind along most of the coast means good surfing. From here a westerly can blow you out into Algoa Bay.
A view from out at sea on many very dubious craft.
Some hardly qualified as craft.
Some craft with bus inner tube flotation. One has a very ambitious upper lookout level.
This one at least tries to look like a ship. In the foreground is someone on a paddleski much like my own. In the background is a lifeguard lookout tower.
A Hagar the Horrible craft. This was a popular cartoon in the newspapers at the time. Note the "Frisco" tin used for baling out. This was a cheap instant coffee used by students.
Here students get ready to launch a swimmig pool into the sea. Actually this is the preformed fibreglass lining of a pool. It floated well, but almost impossible to paddle or navigate.
The locally based naval patrol boat chugs past keeping a wary eye on the drifting students.
