User:JustinRSA/Don Albert

"DON ALBERT" - Architect, Don Albert & Partners – architecture, design, interiors. (B. 1971)

About Don Albert
Don Albert was born in Port Shepstone, South Africa on the 20th February 1971, and grew up on a farm on the KwaZulu Natal South Coast. He was schooled at Treverton College, and then went of to study a Bachelor of Architecture, as well as a Post Grad degree in Architecture at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. He was then awarded a Fulbright scholarship to complete his masters in the USA. Don Albert returned to South Africa in 1999, after two years in Los Angeles completing his Masters in Architecture (Urban Design) at the University of California, Los Angeles, and another year as design associate at the office of AIA Gold Medallist Barton Myers, Beverly Hills.

During his Masters degree at UCLA, under the professorship of Barton Myers and Marcos Novak, Don researched pressing social and aesthetic issues concerning the emergence of large-scale developments for emerging creative and information-age industries.

To this end Don conducted research in Malaysia, Europe, South Africa and the United States, and developed new strategies for emerging work and living environments based on typological, diagrammatic and computer generated models that could be modified by place-specific inputs. The result: a master-planned counterproposal for Malaysia’s premier techno-city – Cyberjaya.

In 1998 Don Albert joined Master Architect Barton Myers as Associate in Charge of Design for the adaptive re-use of two significant Beverly Hills landmarks, 8601 Wilshire Boulevard and 421 South Beverly Drive.

Prior to working at [[Barton Myers|Barton Myers Associates]] Don Albert founded his own architectural design firm, Don Albert & Partners, which conceived Barrows, a 10,000m2 Point of Purchase design and manufacturing facility in Durban. This winning limited competition entry was submitted and realised from Los Angeles via the internet, an innovation of the time, and heralded a new mode of “integrated” non-hierarchical work space for post-apartheid industry that has become the accepted norm.

Since returning to South Africa, Don has steered Don Albert & Partners through a number of internationally published projects, including the winning design for the Millennium Tower, Durban, the highperformancentre, at the University of Pretoria, and the award winning Proud Heritage Clothing Campus, Durban, recently published in PHAIDON WORLD ATLAS of 21st Century Architecture.

In addition to his professional commitments, Don leads an annual five-week design studio on Digital Design Methodology to 3rd Year Students at The Universities of Kwa-Zulu Natal and Cape Town, and has participated in a number of international competitions, including Freedom Park Pretoria, the Freedom Statue, Port Elizabeth, The Great Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and the Osaka Northern Station Precinct, Osaka Japan. Don Albert & Partners has also been invited to participate in the Kings Park Iconic Stadium and KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Building competitions, in which they progresses to the final “paid finalist” stages.

Don Albert & Partners are currently engaged in a US$150m tourism project in India.

Quotes
"We were introduced to the work of a young and very capable architect who appears to think logically, clearly and creatively, combining vibrant, sleek administrative spaces with practical ideas. I salute this young designer who convinces owners of industrial premises to transform their work-horse buildings into sculptural elements, when these could so easily have been the usual unimaginative industrial complexes." - Deborah Preller, former President of the Cape Institute for Architecture (CIFA) and member of the 2007 judging panel for KZ-NIA Awards

Education

 * •	1998 Master of Architecture (Urban Design), University of California, Los Angeles
 * •	1994 Post Graduate Diploma in Architecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, Cum Laude
 * •	1993 Bachelor of Architecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, Summa Cum Laude

Projects
THE GREY HOUSE - 2008 HOUSE JOSEPHSON - 2007 THE ORGANIC HOUSE - 2007 PROUD HERITAGE CLOTHING CAMPUS - 2006 (SAIA Merit Award Winner) PROUD HERITAGE WAREHOUSE 2 - 2006 (SAIA Merit Award Winner) KINGS PARK ICONIC STADIUM - 2006 (Invited Competition Entry) KHAYA EMITHINI - 2006 SOUNDSPACE 1 - 71 LOOP STREET - 2006 LR PLASTICS - 2005 METRO APARTMENTS - 2005 HIGGOVALE HIDEAWAY - 2004 SURTAS ISTANBUL - 2003 MILLENNIUM TOWER - 2002 (Winning Competition Entry) HI-PERFORMANCENTRE - 2001 HOUSE BARROW - 1999 BARROWS POINT OF PURCHASE - 1998 (Winning Competition Entry) HOUSE CRESSWELL- 1995

Selected Honors and Awards

 * •	AGA KHAN Award Nomination for Proud Heritage Clothing Campus, 2010
 * •	SAIA 2007 Merit Award for Proud Heritage Clothing Campus, Durban
 * •	KZNIA 2007 Award for Proud Heritage Clothing Campus, Durban
 * •	SAISC 2006 Award for the Best Steel Construction in the Architectural Category for the Proud Heritage Clothing Campus, Durban
 * •	Finalist with Platinum Sports Consulting in the Kings Park Iconic Stadium Competition, Durban, 2006
 * •	SAICE 2004 Award for Best Civil Engineering Project, Durban - Millennium Tower, Durban
 * •	Commendation (with no winners awarded) in the ACCORD Conflict Resolution Centre on the Bluff, Durban, 2003
 * •	First prize and commission to build the National Ports Authorities’ Millennium Tower, port control building, Durban, 2000
 * •	First prize and commission in an invited competition for the new Barrows Point of Purchase Factory, Durban, 1997
 * •	Full-funded Fulbright Scholarship to attend the School of Architecture and Urban Design, University of California, Los Angeles, 1996
 * •	Corobrick Design Dissertation Award for KwaZulu-Natal, 1994
 * •	Post Graduate Simulated Office Project Prize, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 1994
 * •	Geoffrey Le Seur Travel Scholarship, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 1993
 * •	Regional Finalist Award in the SA Housing Trust Affordable Housing Competition, 1990

Selected Lectures and Exhibitions

 * •	Not Knowing – Establishing a process of discovery and poise in architecture - Invited lecture at FEED, Pune, India, 2010
 * •	Not Knowing – Establishing a process of discovery and poise in architecture - Invited lecture at CINARCH, Hyderabad, India, 2010
 * •	Imagining Werdmuller – Student exhibition and panel discussion, Cape Town, South Africa, 2008
 * •	Brand (New) Buildings – Invited lecture at Cape Institute for Architecture, Cape Town, South Africa, 2008
 * •	Brand (New) Buildings – Invited lecture at Kwa-Zulu Natal Institute for Architecture (KZNIA), Durban, South Africa, 2008
 * •	Brand (New) Buildings – Invited lecture at the University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa, 2008
 * •	Design INDABA 09 Speaker, Cape Town, South Africa, 2006
 * •	WORK, WERK, UMSEBENZI, YAPIT – Recent commercial and public projects by soundspacedesign – Invited lecture for the Mpumalanga Institute of Architecture, Nelspruit, South Africa, 2002
 * •	WORK, WERK, UMSEBENZI, YAPIT – Recent commercial and public projects by soundspacedesign – Invited lecture for the Kwa-Zulu Natal Institute of Architecture, Durban, South Africa, 2002
 * •	ND-ID07062002 Exhibition, Durban City Hall, Millennium Tower, Durban, 2002
 * •	MOVE ON! Defining the critical practice of architecture in a global world. Invited lecture at the University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 2002
 * •	ART IN ARCHITECTURE exhibition of Fingerprint House, Gallery Hana, Austin Texas, USA, 2001
 * •	MOVE ON! Defining the critical practice of architecture in a global world. Invited lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, 2001
 * •	2xAO + Floorspace - KZNIA exhibition of current projects, KZNIA, Durban, 2000
 * •	RED EYE @RT exhibition, Durban City Hall, Millennium Tower, Durban, 2000
 * •	REMOTE CONTROL @ BARROWS: Architectural design process and communication in an information age. Presented at Saddleback College, Irvine, California, USA, 1998
 * •	Urban Interventions Exhibition, International Student Work in Urban Design, California Plaza, Los Angeles, California, USA, 1997
 * •	Light, Shade and Shelter: Place creation in subtropical Africa presented for Regionalism, Creating Place in the Global Flux, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA, 1996

Selected Publications
The work of Don Albert & Partners and specific articles on Don Albert have been published in a number of books and journals:


 * •	SOUND SPACE DESIGN The architecture and design of Don Albert & Partners - (Cape Town: Pythagoras) 2010
 * •	PHAIDON WORLD ATLAS of 20th Century Architecture - (London: Phaidon) 2010, Barrows
 * •	South African Contemporary Architecture – (Milan: 24ORE Motta Cultura) 2010, Proud Heritage Clothing Campus
 * •	10 years + 100 buildings – Architecture in a Democratic South Africa - (Cape Town: Bell Roberts) 2009 – Millennium Tower / Barrows / Highperformancentre
 * •	PHAIDON WORLD ATLAS of 21st Century Architecture - (London: Phaidon) 2008, Proud Heritage Clothing Campus
 * •	DIGEST of South African Architecture 2008/9 (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) - The Grey House
 * •	Elle Decoration – Aug 2008 (Cape Town: Avusa Media Ltd.) – The Grey House
 * •	HOUSE & GARDEN – July 2008 (Cape Town: Condé Nast) - The Organic House
 * •	ARCHITECTURE South Africa - May/June 2008 (Cape Town) - Proud Heritage Clothing Campus
 * • 	ELLE Dekor (Zagreb: HFM Media), June 2008 - soundspace1
 * •	CAPE TOWN Architecture & Design – (Cologne: DAAB) 2007 – Higgovale Hideaway / Organic House / soundspace1
 * • 	DIGEST of South African Architecture - 2007/8 (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) - The Organic House
 * •	DIGEST of South African Architecture – 2006/7 (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) – Khaya Emithini / LR Plastics / Proud Heritage Clothing Campus
 * •	ARCHITECTURE South Africa - May/June 2008 (Cape Town) - Highperformancentre'''
 * •	One Small Seed, (Cape Town: One Small Seed) 04 2006 – LR Plastics
 * •	DIGEST of South African Architecture 2005/6 – (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) Proud Heritage Clothing Campus
 * •	WORLD ARCHITECTURE Journal – (Beijing: W.A.M.P.) Feb 2005, Highperformancentre / Millennium Tower
 * •	DIGEST of South African Architecture 2005 (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) – Barrows
 * •	KZNIA JOURNAL – (Durban: KZNIA) Issue 3, 2004 Building Abroad, The Barrows & Surtas Factory, Istanbul
 * •	PHAIDON WORLD ATLAS of Contemporary Architecture, (London: Phaidon) 2004, Barrows Factory / Millennium Tower
 * •	DIGEST of South African Architecture 2004 (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) – Millennium Tower
 * •	DIGEST of South African Architecture 2003 (Cape Town: Picasso Headline) – Highperformancentre
 * •	VISI Design Magazine – (Cape Town: New Media Publishing) Dec/Jan 2003 – Highperformancentre
 * •	BLUEPRINT – (London: Blueprint Media) August 2002 – Millennium Tower
 * •	KZNIA Journal – (Durban: KZNIA) Issue 1, 2002 – Emerging Architects - soundspacedesign
 * •	KZNIA Journal – (Durban: KZNIA) Issue 1, 2000 – Millennium Tower
 * •	KZNIA Journal – (Durban: KZNIA) Issue 2, 1999 – Barrows