Design biography

Born in Johannesburg South Africa in 1944, my schooling, academic and working life in that city ended in 2001, when my wife Florence and I relocated to Cape Town.

FORMAL STUDY 1963-1970
I studied architecture at the University of the Witwatersrand and industrial design at the Johannesburg College of Art. Five of the College staff lecturers in particular were so talented, helpful and inspirational: Spies Venter, Noel Bisseker, Attie Tromp, Ellen Nel and the prototype workshop manager Mr Lotz.

VACATION EMPLOYMENT 1963-1969
Throughout my academic studies I worked virtually every vacation in architects’ drawing offices and for some commercial manufacturers doing product design work. While working in the offices of Rhodes-Harrison, Hoffe and Partners in June 1965 I was most fortunate to meet two talented and highly motivated architects, Mel von Broembsen and Reg Rippon, about 8 years my senior. They taught me so much and were directly instrumental in my going on to study industrial design. Both employed me several times over the next six years, during vacations and later in each of their own architectural practices.

FORMAL EMPLOYMENT 1970-1983
After completing my studies in December 1969, I was employed by Rhodes-Harrison, Hoffe and Partners, Architects, as assistant to and at the invitation of their chief designer, Mel Von Broembsen. He had studied under and worked for German-American architect Mies van der Rohe in Chicago for ten years. We worked on large milling and airport projects. When Mel left to start his own practice I transferred to the interior and industrial design department. Under ex-British Design Council director and industrial designer, Peter Whitworth, we worked on product, furniture and interior design. When the architectural firm split I remained in my position, now the Mallows Louw, Hoffe and Partners practice, working on hotel Interior designs for partner-architects Andre Hoffe and  Bill Birrer. Andre had studied under Wright at Taliesen, and Bill had studied under Louis Khan in Philadelphia. Their projects included the Kimberley Transito Hotel and the Chobe Safari Lodge in Botswana, for which I sourced all the furniture and fittings in then-Rhodesia. Professor Wilfred Mallows invited me to enter an internal office competition to design an eleven-unit staff housing scheme for a mining company. My design was selected and built. George Rhodes-Harrison then lured me back to his multi-disciplinary practice, now with partners Robin Fee and Peter Bold. I worked on large scale industrial projects for GR-H and Robin Fee, then headed their industrial and interior design unit from 1978. By 1983 I was responsible for the interior, furniture and furnishings for the JCI head office, high-rise building in central Johannesburg. 

For one year in 1973 I was employed as designer for Schachat-Cullum, Homebuilders. Here I produced about 200 conservative house designs, gaining knowledge of this fine company’s well-planned, efficient methodology, from design to on-site construction. I enjoyed working with the Randburg Sales team, Mike Wood, Ian MacMillan, Graeme Harrows-Smith and others.

From my early 'green-finger' childhood in my parents' home, garden design interested me. This grew from residential garden layouts for family and friends during the Sixties, to commercial landscape designs for large scale architectural projects for my employers and others, after 1970. For each of our six own family home garden landscapes, my wife, a talented and passionate gardener, was responsible for the planting, planning and development. We worked well as a team. 

PRIVATE PROJECTS 1963-1983
Within a month of starting architecture at Wits University, I was privately asked to draw up a small toilet block for some shops in Randburg. Hereafter and for the next 20 years I was seldom without private projects, mostly residential alterations and additions, growing in the early 70s to new houses. Some of my employers, particularly Robin Fee,  kindly passed on ‘private’ residential projects. This work, in dealing with clients, local authorities and contractors has been invaluable. I also did some product design work for the wine industry, the office equipment and meter industries. 

OWN DESIGN CONSULTANCY 1983-2010
In October 1983 I started my own design practice, with my wife Florence as financial and administrative partner. We offered services in the fields of architecture, interior, product, furniture graphic and landscape design. We were fortunate to secure so much work in the next 27 years. For ten of those years 1987-1996 most of our work consisted of commercial and industrial projects for Old Mutual Properties, which grew to include the new Radio 702 offices and studios in Sandton and the new Pepsi-Cola factory in Germiston. OMP’s Tenant Installation Manager, efficient and effective Mike Shaw was a pleasure and an education to work with. After relocating to Cape Town in 2001, residential projects continued, some on fabulous viewsites. Before leaving South Africa in May 2010, the last project I designed was the Wanetsi Game Lodge in Mozambique adjoining the now fenceless boundary with the Kruger National Park. This came from the kind introduction of my student/colleague/friend and talented graphic designer, Norman Hanna. We both enjoyed working on Wanetsi with the passionate, competent and experienced African wildlife expert and project manager, American Charles Smith.

CARS AND JOURNALISM 1974-2016
My early interest in cars and racing (academic rather than participatory) led to my wife encouraging me to get my work published. This started with Car magazine (SA) and grew to include articles for magazines in Italy, UK, Holland, Canada and Australia. I had applied my interest in cars during the mid-sixties to form my own design approach, and published some articles analysing car design. In 1967 I submitted a sports car design project/model to General Motors for a critique, which enhanced my appreciation of the field. In 1980 I bought a rare 1961 Alfa Romeo sports coupe and with the help and enthusiasm of my son Brendan, restored it over a six year period. Intrigued by the car’s exceptional aerodynamic shape, I researched the designer, Franco Scaglione’s biography, and later that of another unacknowledged Italian car designer, Federico Formenti.  Both biographies were published in the prestigious American Automobile Quarterly. In 1995 my wife and I met the two families in Italy, which was gratifying.  After years of research and analysis of Grand Prix racing, all typed by my wife before the age of word-processors or computers, we had my first book, A Century of Racing 1894-1993 published in 1994 by the AA of South Africa.

While doing very little design work since coming to France in 2010, I keep my interest ‘up to technological speed’ by publishing my analytical work on Grand Prix/Formula One racing from 1894 to the present. This has been accomplished with the invaluable academic and graphic layout input of my daughter Catherine.

OWN HOUSES: 1972 -2010
My passion for residential architecture led to designing and subcontract-building our own four family houses. Three were in Johannesburg, built in 1972, 1975 and 1983. Each was a challenge on several fronts, all being done while working. The fourth, our current house in France, built 2008-2010, was of practical necessity the least structurally and architecturally adventurous and the most conservative.  However we have enjoyed living in each one and developing the landscapes. Being able to realise my own design concepts, my wife's interior layouts and furnishings, the indigenous treed landscapes, all based on efficient use of materials, money and space, has been rewarding. 

RELOCATION TO FRANCE 2010.
In May 2010 we retired and relocated to France. We built a simple timber-framed and clad cottage in the Pyrenees, south-western France. The mountainous scenery is breathtaking, the broad-leafed forests vast and beautiful. I have done some small residential additions for neighbours and friends. One exciting project, converting an old riverside sawmill into six flats, was aborted by the owner at the design stage, through lack of funds.

Looking back over these often frenetically busy 53 years, I have been pleased to have been involved in the design fields. Experiencing the stimulation that design encourages has raised our awareness of man-made structures, items, spaces and the natural environment.


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