Judges
Nadia
Tromp
Founder and Owner
,Ntsika Architects
Nadia Tromp heads Ntsika Architects in Johannesburg city, a practice concerned with developing relevance through the mediums of design, advocacy, research and documentation and is the president of the Gauteng Institute for Architecture (GIfA), Johannesburg, South Africa.
During her studies at UCT, where she graduated in 2000 with a B. Arch degree, she volunteered at a community based organisation focused on the upliftment of the historically disadvantaged community of Ocean View through access to housing and social amenities. This approach has informed much of her work.
Nadia went on to work at Noero Wolff Architects in Cape Town, where she was able to hone her skill under the mentorship of acclaimed architect Jo Noero. She made the move to Johannesburg in 2004 where she joined a large commercial practice before starting her own practice, Ntsika Architects in 2008. In 2012/3 she spent a year at Harvard University studying a variety of topics, primarily at the Harvard Business School. This experience would lead to the development of the idea that architecture could be a mechanism for creating social change and becoming an advocate for social justice.
With a specific interest in refugee camps across the African continent, and specifically how these temporary structures often became permanent fixtures, led to Ntsika Architects’ involvement in a solutions based project hosted in Rome. Ntsika’s winning project, the Museum of Human Migration (MoHM) specifically addressed the migration crisis to Europe with strong overlap with the situation in South Africa in terms of xenophobia and economic complexities.
Nadia has been invited to exhibit her work at the Venice 2018 Architecture Biennale, Italy. Through Ntsika, she has collaborated on international projects in Italy, Lebanon, UK, Kazakhstan and Mozambique. She has has been the recipient of multiple national and international awards including 19millionproject winners award 2015, Mbokodo award for Architecture 2015, GiFA award of merit 2017 and WAF (World Architecture Festival) winners award 2017. She is currently the president of the Gauteng Institute for Architecture in Johannesburg, South Africa