Aamena Vally

The Art of Making reimagines the Johannesburg Gas Works as a community-driven arts institution that decolonizes education through traditional craft.  Bridging formal academia with informal creative economies, the project explores how architecture can support embodied knowledge, cultural  expression, and economic empowerment.  Through studios, exhibition spaces, spiritual areas, and workshops using recycled materials, the design centers making as a form of learning, healing, and resistance. It challenges Eurocentric models by positioning traditional art forms as valid  education, fostering a sustainable, inclusive space where craft shapes both  identity and architecture. Ultimately, the project envisions an arts institution that is not just a site of learning, but a living process where traditional craftsmanship informs contemporary architectural language, and where making becomes a means  of decolonization, healing, and cultural renewal.