Coastal Contemporary

Coastal Contemporary - Architecture of Nelson Mandela Bay: 2000 - 2013 presents fifty-five meritorious buildings in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMBM). The intention of the book is to illustrate the contemporary architecture which has been produced in the metro over the past decade, and produce an architectural ‘snapshot in time’. . Another objective behind the gathering of work and putting together of the book was to investigate whether or not there are identifiable features which characterise the work according to the time and area in which it has been produced. It poses the question “is there a contemporary, coastal, local architectural style which carries through most or all of the work being executed in the NMBM?” Buildings presented in Coastal Contemporary emanate from various fields, and work is categorised as Public & Institutional, Commercial & Industrial, Residential, Conservation and Urban Design projects. The project began in 2012 with a call to architects to submit work which they deemed suitable for publication. An editorial committee was put together (Albrecht Herholdt, Tim Hewitt-Coleman and Andrew Palframan) in order to make the selections of work to be included, and editorial committee members have also contributed introductory essays. These essays cover the roles of the ECIA and the NMMU School of Architecture as well as the process of adjudicating meritorious architecture, particularly with regard to the ECIA Awards programme. A sponsorship was secured from Plascon in order to assist with the printing costs, and an introductory essay on colour in architecture was also provided by Plascon. The images, text and project information were provided by the featured practices, and the layout and design were done in-house by Dot Matrix Publications, the publishing branch of the The Matrix Urban Designers and Architects. Coastal Contemporary was launched during the ECIA Awards Week in October 2013.