CNN —As a young boy growing up in the 1960s in Mthatha, South Africa, Luyanda Mpahlwa loved to draw houses. Mpahlwa was among the first Black Africans permitted to study architecture in South Africa. “South Africa was in a state of emergency,” he said. There, he earned a master’s degree in architecture from the Technical University of Berlin in 1989 and began working for Pysall.Ruge, a design firm based in what is now the German capital. “The reality is the majority of people of South Africa live in conditions that are actually below what we should be defining as an urban environment,” he said.

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Persons: Luyanda Mpahlwa, ”, Mpahlwa, Nelson Mandela, “, Curry, ” Mpahlwa, iThemba, “ We’ve Organizations: CNN, Town, Design Network, South, Radisson, Technical University of Berlin, Pysall.Ruge, Technikon Natal, Durban University of Technology, Embassy, African Institute of Architects, MMA, Department of Basic Education, Design, Lutheran Community Center Locations: Mthatha, South Africa, Robben, ”, Cape Town, “ South Africa, Berlin, Germany, Luyanda, Africa, “, Eastern, Cape Town’s, Kosovo, Philippi Township, Western Cape