Situated in Riviera, Johannesburg, the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Centre will reveal knowledge of ancient and contemporary African history through both form and program. The landscape design is informed by the ‘Litema’ and the isiBheqe Sohlamvu script. The ‘Litema’ is an art form based on decorative and symbolic patterns engraved, painted and/or moulded to the clay walls of homes by Basotho women. The Sesotho word means both, “text” and “ploughed land”. The isiBheqe Sohlamvu script is a syllabic system consisting almost entirely of triangular character forms. The script was designed to better represent written southern Bantu languages such as IsiZulu, IsiXhosa and TshiVenda.
From the analysis of traditional pattern-making and African scripts – a continuous triangular pattern landscape is derived, combining the physical action of ploughing the land and the symbolic language of triangles represented in African culture, linguistics and art. Within a linear grid, brick triangle modules (with various sized openings in the centre) are placed. Thus, planting emerges from the paved landscape similar to rows of crops.
