A collaborative studio of young architects based in Johannesburg formed by Amina Kaskar, Sarah de Villiers and Sumayya Vally is dedicated to ‘to research-based projects, which take the form of exhibition design, competition work, urban insurgency, and public events’. Their work is focused in deconstructing and reconstructing space and city and encourage inhabitants to think and change perception of Johannesburg with their future ideas.
Their work often involves a certain sense of activism against the norms of policy and space in south africa‘s biggest city, especially in the forgotten and contested areas.
At this moment Counterspace is working into the re-appropriation of johannesburg’s mine dumps led counterspace to discover clues (‘urban fossils’) of how abandoned spaces in south africa are being used: tools from ritualistic ceremonies, unmarked graves, tales of ghosts, and antique shards of glass. they presented their findings in a ‘forensic scan’, which was exhibited as part of the inaugural chicago architecture biennial.
Here you can watch the video where they explain their project:
