Philosophy

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Werkhof Architects was founded in 2016 by Rudie Botha (Pr Arch).

Werkhof is noted for sensitive and humane design that ranges from residential to commercial and industrial buildings. We consider architecture to be a profession that should serve the people and the public, whether it be a rationally designed workspace or a carefully considered family house. We do not create buildings to merely look at. We design them from the inside out. Our approach is to envision what the person in the space would want to see, touch, hear, smell and experience.

Our objective as a firm can be summarized as the following: 
“to create pleasant places for people.”

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Our design principles focus on restoring the relationship between the natural and the man-made. We always consider two clients; the place on which we build and the people whom we build for. The place is focused on external factors such as the slope of the land, the trajectory of the sun, the vegetation and/or man-made infrastructure. The people are the end-users of the building.  We try to understand exactly what their needs are and how the building can contribute to that. Although these situations are only theoretical at first, we believe in applying them on a physical level. This is achieved by the joining of materials to make space. Materials have an immense influence on the spaces we use. Consider a room completely out of concrete versus a room entirely out of wood. Materials have the potential to move us and therefore should be carefully applied. We study the nature of materials which allows us to join materials the way they want to be joined. 

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