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Lines Through Time: GLH Architects 1945 – 2025

2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of GLH Architects, a Johannesburg-based architectural firm whose longevity and enduring legacy place it amongst a handful of firms in the South African context to have survived the vicissitudes of shifting political regimes, economic downturns, urban transformation and profound societal shifts. Over the course of eighty years GLH has established itself as one of the foremost South African architectural firms, each decade being characterised by a number of landmark buildings and projects that serve as important markers of the social, cultural and political contexts in which they were produced. As such, they remind us of the importance of the built environment in giving shape and substance to our needs of the present and our ambitions for the future. Set against the backdrop of the turbulent and relentless change that characterises both the history of Johannesburg and the South African building industry over the last eighty years, this book acknowledges the importance of GLH’s historical legacy in shaping the present, while reflecting also on its role in rising to the challenges of designing for the twenty-first century.

Authors:
Federico Freschi (ed)
University of Johannesburg
Categories:
PDF

Product details

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64449/9781997468271

Chapters

  • Foreword
    Rodney Grosskopff
  • Preface
    Clive Chipkin
  • Introduction
    Federico Freschi
  • Manfred Hermer and the Making of a Johannesburg Architectural Practice, 1945-65
    Katherine Munro
  • Four Theatres
    Alexander Theatre (1951), Bloemfontein Civic Theatre (1957), Johannesburg Civic Theatre (1961), Market Theatre (1976)
    Sarah Roberts
  • Between Form and Function
    Decorative Programmes in the Buildings of Manfred Hermer and GLH & Associates
    Federico Freschi
  • Ponte as Pivot
    Hannah Le Roux
  • Lines, Threads, Traces
    Key Influences, Moments and Movements in the Work of GLH
    Lesley Lokko
  • Situated Practice
    Sustainability and Public Value in the Post- Apartheid Work of GLH Architects
    Guy Trangoš
  • Building Minds
    The Architecture of Education
    Briget Grosskopff
  • Evolution of the Office Environment
    Xavier Huyberechts
  • Cycles
    The Rhythm of Change in Architecture
    Xavier Huyberechts

Author Biographies

Federico Freschi, University of Johannesburg

Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg. ffreschi@uj.ac.za. He was previously Professor and Head of College of Te Maru Pūmanawa | Creative Practice & Enterprise at the Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga in Dunedin, New Zealand. A widely published art historian with a particular interest in the discursive intersections between art, design and architecture, his recent publications include the co-edited volumes Troubling Images: Visual Culture & the Politics of Afrikaner Nationalism (Wits University Press, 2020) and The Politics of Design: Privilege and Prejudice in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and South Africa (Otago Polytechnic Press, 2022).

Lesley Lokko, African Futures Institute

Lesley Lokko is the Founder and Chair of the African Futures Institute (AFI) in Accra, Ghana. She was formerly Dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, and the founding Director of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg. She was the Curator of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, in 2023. In December 2022, she was awarded an OBE for services to architecture and education. She has published widely both as a novelist and on contemporary architecture.

Katherine Munro, University of the Witwatersrand, University of the Witwatersrand

Kathy Munro is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, having enjoyed a long academic career at Wits University. She researches and writes on historical architecture and heritage matters. She is a member of the Board of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation and is a docent at the Wits Arts Museum.

Sarah Roberts, University of the Witwatersrand

Sarah Roberts is a theatre designer and lecturer. She was Associate Professor in the Division of Theatre and Performance in the School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and has published in the fields of theatre and performance studies.

Hannah Le Roux, University of Sheffield, University of the Witwatersrand

Hannah Le Roux is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield and a Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her work revisits the modernist project in architecture, and considers how its transformation through the agency of Africa presents a conceptual model for contemporary design.

References

Published
December 31, 2025
Copyright (c) 2025 Federico Freschi; Lesley Lokko, Katherine Munro, Sarah Roberts, Hannah Le Roux, Rodney Grosskopff, Clive Chipkin, Briget Grosskopff, Guy Trangoš, Xavier Huyberechts
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF
ISBN-13 (15)
9781997468271
Date of first publication (11)
2025-12-31

Details about the available publication format: Paperback

Paperback
ISBN-13 (15)
9781997468264
Date of first publication (11)
2025-12-31
Physical Dimensions
210mm x 270mm x 24mm

How to Cite

Freschi, F. (Ed.). (2025). Lines Through Time: GLH Architects 1945 – 2025. UJ Press. https://doi.org/10.64449/9781997468271