South African Urban firm wins international industry award

A South African Urban Design firm has just won the most prestigious Industry Award in the world.

This weekend, the Congress of New Urbanism (CNU), based in Washington DC, awarded NEW URBAN Architects and Urban Designers the “CNU Charter Student Merit Award” for its book AFRICA DRAWN: One Hundred Cities.

Since 2002, CNU’s annual Charter Awards have recognised outstanding achievements in architectural, landscape, and urban design and planning worldwide. The CNU Charter Awards honors a select number of winners—including student winners. Winning projects represent major contributions to building more equitable, sustainable, connected, healthy, and prosperous communities.

AFRICA DRAWN: One Hundred Cities is co-authored by experts in new urbanism Gary White, Marguerite Pienaar and Bouwer Serfontein.

The book presents one hundred of the most connected and important cities of the continent – a visual feast of three hundred images and masterfully drawn plans illustrates contemporary and historical place-making actions in Africa.

It is the fourth time that NEW URBAN, with offices in Pretoria, Cape Town and Stuttgart in Germany received a CNU award.

African Drawn was a team effort between Gary White and Associates, Holm Jordaan Architects and Urban Designers and the Urban Research Group at the University of Pretoria (UP). Holm Jordaan and Gary White and Associates have since amalgamated to form NEW URBAN, a new firm with a collective experience of 80 years.