CV

BIO

Dr. ir. Gerhard Bruyns is a Dutch - South African architect and urbanist. He is Associate Professor, School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He is discipline leader of the Environmental & Interior Design and PhD Programme Convener.

With his 15 years in design education, he has taught in undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels. Before relocating to Hong Kong, Dr Bruyns held tenure at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology [TU Delft], the Netherlands. After working in practice within South Africa he joined the Chair of Urban Renewal and Management of the TU Delft’s Department of Urbanism, for his MSc and PhD Studies. In 2008 he was invited to join the Delft School of Design [TU Delft], an advanced research unit focused on combining critical theory, philosophy and design within the disciplines of Architecture and Urbanism, in both MSc and PhD curricula. Here Dr Bruyns’ role was to teach core design studios as well as being the MSc coordinator. 

Dr Bruyns has lectured at universities in South Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. He has been an invited jury member to architecture schools in South Africa, Asia, South America, the United States and Europe. 

In 2007 he coordinated, with Professors A.D. Graafland and I.B. Low, the Urban Development Stall of the African Perspectives Africains, which formed the core backdrop to African Perspectives [South] Africa that engages with urbanization, politics, literature and spatial form of Southern Africa [2012]. During 2014 he was Assistant to the General Reporter for the UIA 2014 - World Congress on Architecture as well as Registrar of the UIA 2014 International Student Competition under the theme of ‘Architecture Otherwhere’, with more than 300 student entries from across the globe.  

Presently he is an Executive Team member of the International Forum of Urbanism [IFOU], and Editorial Board Member of Cubic Journal and Journal New Design Ideas.

In 2015 he co-edited Footprint Journal issue 15 on Commoning [TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture]. His present professional design and practice work is done in association with CP, Arquitectura, Urbanismo, Investigacion, Colombia & ICON Consultancy in Singapore.

He lives in Hong Kong. 

THESIS

Doctor of Philosophy Degree

Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. Delft, The Netherlands, 2011. 

Urban Dispositif: An Altas of Spatial Mechanisms and the Contemporary Urban Landscape. A Reading of Movement as an Interpretive Device for Urban Form. 

Specialization: Urban morphology | spatial landscapes.

This thesis-atlas engages with Urban Morphology, the core debate on urban form. It forms part and parcel of a more specific and continuous Typomorphology debate. As a debate it looks at the various morphological conditions of cities, as well as the possible methodologies in existence which engage with the questions concerning the contemporary urban structure of cities. At its core, this thesis postulates an argument that the city is a city no longer. It argues that the city should rather be understood as an urbanized landscape, primarily legible through the way in which transportation infrastructure [road networks] structure regions and territories at various levels of scales. 
The area of focus is that of a European urban context, with a specific interest and focus on the Dutch Randstad. The study area is a demarcated strip [60 km x 25 km], which includes Amsterdam and various other settlements within the region. 
The thesis contains 4 parts. Each section is dedicated to specific research questions which forms part of the larger Typomorphological ‘problematique’ and the contemporary conditions surrounding the urban landscape. Part 01 [chapters 01 - 04] specifically addresses the general and larger spectrum of theory and background to this thesis. Part 02 [chapters 05 - 09] addresses the issues regarding the formulation of an [empirical] working method and the reclassifications of the urban structure. Part 03 [chapter 10] reflects on the entire process as well as the conclusions of the thesis. Part 04 functions as the Atlas, collecting all maps and other information as part of the visual representation of the study area, theoretical notions and data collected. 

Master of Science Degree (MSc)

Faculty of Architecture. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, 2002.

Post-Colonial-Urban-Tribe-Space (Cum Laude).

Specialization: Spatial Structures – Post segregated urban landscapes.

The Post colonial Urban Tribe Space is the commencement of a life long process. What at first started off as a conventional urban scale of intervention, has rippled outward, making myself and others aware of the mere delicacy of the South African urban landscape and its spatial realities. Post-Colonial-Urban-Tribe-Space shifts literal boundaries. it mechanises economic thinking to strategically question how both the city and its users function. Although the syntax and structure of urban space was the initial idea, this design thesis represents a process of analysis, understanding, reapplying key concepts, whilst also backtracking conventional decision processes related to a post colonial space.

The Bachelor of Architecture (BArch, 5 Year, RIBA accredited)

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology. University of Pretoria, South Africa, 1998. 

Connected Isolation. A Beer Brewery as Industrial Legacy of Pretoria Architecture. (Cum Laude)