Bauhaus Earth Awards One of Two Fellowships to Kevin Kimwelle
We are delighted to announce the selection of our third and fourth BE-FELLOWs: South African architect Kevin Kimwelle and Argentinian architect-designer duo Heidi Jalkh and Angie Dub! These two fellowships were awarded through the Second Open Call for the Bauhaus Earth Fellowship Program (BE-FELLOW), a collaboration between Bauhaus Earth and Experimental Foundation. Kevin Kimwelle, whose project “90% plus” will focus on building with discarded and leftover materials in Cape Town, will join us in Berlin in February 2024.
Joe Slovo Community Facility, inside view
90% plus: Recycled Realities
In his project “90% plus”, Kevin Kimwelle will revisit the building materials, methods, and components he has developed for several award-winning alternative design-build projects in South Africa. These include prototypes of a community facility in Joe Slovo Township (Overall Transformation Award 2018 SAPOA Awards), a house in Port Elizabeth (Winner of South African Institute of Architects 2022 SAIA-EC Awards), and his latest Food Pavilion in Cape Town (“Targeting Net Zero”). During his residency in Berlin between February and November 2024, he will document his experiences, as well as rebuild, test, and optimize materials and building components in collaboration with the Bauhaus Earth team at our Marienpark LAB. The results of his project will be exhibited and published to help convince local authorities, developers, and professional building consultants to use these alternative building methods in South Africa and beyond.
Joe Slovo Community Facility, outside view
Kevin Kimwelle
Kimwelle’s experience spans from Kenya to South Africa and includes collaborations in the USA, Germany, and India. His career has focused on sustainable, people-centred community development work in his home country of South Africa. His unique designs respond to the urgency of social and environmental crises, grounding alternative building practices with recycled materials in a holistic application of the Sustainable Development Goals. He was a finalist for Design Indaba’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa 2017 and has won several architecture awards including the “Overall Transformation 2018 SAPOA Award” and the “South African Institute of Architects Regional Commendation Award 2023.” He has been featured in news articles by CNN, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle TV, and Mnet. Furthermore, he has also been showcased in Architectural Record and Metropolis Magazine New York. Recently he participated in the “Copenhagen Film Festival for The UIA” under the Sustainable Development Goal ‘Leave No One Behind‘ and was part of the Creative Climate Coalition for COP27 in Egypt.
Further Fellowship to be Introduced Shortly
Our fourth fellowship, starting in mid-2024, will be awarded to Heidi Jalkh and Angie Dub for their project “From Mono-Material to Multi-Performance” on bio-ceramics made from seashells. The selection of these two fellowships reinforces our mission to support new and innovative methods of achieving a material base for a regenerative built environment. Stay tuned for more information on Heidi and Angie’s project in the coming weeks!
Learn more about our past BE-FELLOWS:
Baukreisel, 2023
Material Cultures, 2023