“It is a privilege to represent the TUT Department of Architecture, and also to have my project represented on such a prestigious platform,” says Smuts.
Entitled ‘Se(cure)ing boys’ to men: The design of a contemporary rites of passage tailoring facility for at-risk boys in the Pretoria CBD’, the project proposes a functional facility to facilitate rites of passage or the transition from boyhood to manhood by implementing the artisanal methods of teaching the art of tailoring.
The personal experience of observing a family member mentoring an eight-year-old at-risk boy during the 2020 Covid-19 hard lockdown informed the project context and brought about awareness of the existence of at-risk boys in society. “I became a first-hand witness of a neglected but legitimate societal problem. I became interested in exploring tailoring as an art form. The parallels between tailoring and architecture as a symbiotic relationship further inspired the topic,” says Smuts.
35th Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards - Tshwane University of Technology:
This year's national awards will again be a hybrid event held in May, following a similar format as in 2021. The 2019 awards ceremony was postponed due to Covid-19, with Corobrik instead announcing the 2019 and 2020 winners at a combined event last year.
