Training and Capacity Building Workshops

Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou (Senior Lecturer) with Martin Ball (Principal Lecturer) and Rob Garvey (Senior Lecturer) from the Department of Property and Construction, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment visited Durban this February to deliver a three-day training course on Project Management, Procurement and Digital Construction at the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

These training and capacity building workshops are funded by a Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship which between Dr Claudia Loggia (Senior Lecturer in Housing and Research Fellow at UKZN) and Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou (University of Westminster). Sharing information on these topics helps to build capacity and knowledge exchange between UK and SA construction practice. The training workshops were attended by UKZN academics and early career researchers, as well as, planners, engineers and architects from eThekwini municipality and industry practitioners in Durban.

Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou (left) kicked off the workshop delivering a presentation on the Royal Society and ESRC – NRF ISULabantu research programmes.

Rob Garvey (right) delivering a session on Digital Construction and lessons learned from the UK

Each training session ended with a stakeholder engagement focus group discussing the application of the training material in the area of low-income housing and informal settlements upgrading. Whilst covering construction-related aspects, the UK team found it particularly useful to share approaches, skills and techniques for multidisciplinary research in the context of urban regeneration across UK and South Africa. These sessions were also very valuable for our (ISULabaNtu's) ongoing collaboration between Westminster, UKZN, UCL and uTshani Fund (NGO based in Durban), on participatory, community-led upgrading of informal settlements in South Africa.

(From left to right) Martin Ball (University of Westminster) with Dr Claudia Loggia (UKZN), Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou (University of Westminster) and Martin Rob (University of Westminster) at the end of the workshop.

Staff and students from UKZN and eThekwini municipal officers were among the participants in the workshop.