New to KZN and its local architecture scene, Studio di Architettura is building an identity that offers something new to the local market. Its portfolio is eclectic, having completed stunning projects in the Caribbean, Cape Town, Johannesburg among others. Soffietti – Studio Di Architettura is developing a new architectural language for the Dolphin Coast at Seaton Estate that emphasises an integration of design with sustainability.

Says founder Giuseppe Soffietti: ‘Sustainable architecture is still a ‘nice-to-have’ feature, not a ‘must-have’ feature of development as it’s supposed to be. We are actively engaging in this very important conversation about the evolution of Environmentally Sustainable and Resilient Design.

‘Through local methodology we can imbue buildings with meaning and significance, but also unlock deeper avenues towards sustainability, longevity and stability. By creating a hybrid of modern technology and passive design principles, we can begin to develop a local architecture that values its aesthetic and functional impacts, merging beauty with efficiency.’

The Studio hopes to combat the impact of international architecture by turning towards an architecture of place. Says Giuseppe: ‘We seek to enforce the use of local materials, local building practices, landscape and heritage, cultural symbolism etc.

‘Art echoes the lives of those who create it. As we pass through time and place, art will change. Architecture and design are a means of applying art to the everyday. Our ultimate aspiration is to create architecture that echoes life.

‘As creatives, we get excited when people make us imagine! We want people to imagine a new language, a new way of expressing themselves.

‘Sir Winston Churchill suggested the relevant conclusion that once we’ve shaped our buildings, thereafter they shape us. A new layer of responsibility towards how we see our built environment is suddenly added. We aren’t just designing for how we want the world to see us, but for how we wish to see ourselves.’

Soffietti – Studio Di Architettura wants you to imagine a local identity; to open the question of what local art and architecture can mean to people living in various parts of South Africa. Do we conform to international trends and fads, or do we fight to maintain our own unique languages?

The developers are also targeting the international market with special emphasis on northern Europe / Scandinavia. There’s a lot of demand for alternative investments outside Europe: the North Coast is the fastest developing area in SA, there are so many opportunities here.

Since approaching Pam Golding Projects and Collins Residential Group to partner with Soffietti – Studio di Architettura on the proposal for the exclusive development within Seaton Estate, they’ve been exploring the true sense of the word sustainability in showing how elements of energy saving, environmentally friendly, design-oriented solutions need to become the norm.

Modernist Tropical Architecture adheres to the traditional understanding of its environment and successfully integrates a sense of structural innovation, the fundamental ingredient to Modernism. The approach is able to evolve in a tropical climate with construction materials that adapt to modern lifestyles and technologies; and by those means espousing resilience and evolution.

50% of the world’s population lives in the tropical strip, the fastest growing cities are located in it, as well as 70% of the forests that help contain the increase of CO2 emissions. More than 108 countries are partially or completely located in the tropical belt, and almost all have developing economies, making them fall into the category of countries with medium and low income.

The incorporation of the tropical strip into Global Sustainable Development must be done according to its circumstances in terms of natural resources, human capacities and socioeconomic conditions. To design a coherent and adapted architecture, the values of specificities of tropicality must be recognised.

Guidelines for Tropical Design and Expression

There is a recent trend in international competitions of timid dissemination of regional architectures, including tropical ones with their own design guidelines and expressive architecture. It is, however, perceivable that they continue to be described pejoratively as ‘other architectures’, and in this way, critics and curators insist on valuing them as an anecdotal product of exoticism.