Principal, Ntsika Architects
Over her 20 years in architecture, Nadia has worked at some of the most prestigious design firms in South Africa. In 2008 she started Ntsika Architects, one of the few female, black-owned practices in the country.
Ntsika Architects is a design-driven practice that strives at doing work of substance, engaged in research and design which tackles issues of social and spatial injustice. Nadia’s particular interest is in the spatial fragmentation of South African cities and the need for increased density and integration.
She has received multiple awards for her work locally and internationally. Nadia is an advocate for the profession and is the director of the UIA Work Programme – Community Architecture + Human Rights.
In 2017 she became the first female architect from the African continent to win a World Architecture Festival Award (WAF). In November 2018 she received two German Design Award prizes for architecture. Her work has been exhibited at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition Venice Biennale (2018) and her sculpture “refuge” displayed in the Garden of the Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy.
In 2019 she was awarded the Architecture Masterprize (AMP) in Bilbao, Spain (2019), for mixed use building. Her philosophy is to provide an architecture that is humane, accessible and a delight to experience. Good design can transform the quality of the environment and they aim to provide an architecture that is equitable, innovative, sustainable and an imaginative response to context. The practice crosses the boundaries of sector definitions through their depth and breadth of experience in many different areas.
