Mokena Makeka / Makeka Design Lab / Cape Town, South Africa/ “The Multipolar City"

Makeka runs the award-winning interdisciplinary design practice Makeka Design Lab, an architecture and urban design practice. He believes in the power of design to improve people’s lives and that good design is a universal right. “I run my studio as a place of learning and inquiry with a purpose. We seek to inspire our clients and take them on a unique journey from which everybody grows.” Through his sustainable designs and urban developments, Mokena Makeka has shaped the built environment of South Africa with notable projects including the Cape Town International Convention Center and the Railway Station. Mokena Makeka has won many design competitions and is also the recipient of numerous architecture and urban design awards. Career highlights include being selected as one of the "Ordos 100" architects by Hertzog & De Meuron and Ai Wei Wei. Makeka’s vision is to create a sound African aesthetic that serves the public and client, bringing dignity and grace to the built environment.

Sponsored by architecture firms and developers from Ottawa, our Forum Lecture Series is a long-standing and much appreciated series that brings together faculty members and students from the Azrieli School of Architecure and Urbanism, members of Ottawa’s professional community, and the general public. The theme for the 2019-2020 academic year focuses on the engagement of urban crisis through design, and on hopeful responses to city-building today. Mokena’s lecture is part of this year’s “Cities and Landscapes in Common” series.