Phathutshedzo Nevhungoni
Mavu ɛmˈeɪˈviˈju/ [MA-VU]: Meaning “Soil” in Tshivenda. Preserving, storing and sharing of Indigenous African knowledge through a site-specific building in the Lake Fundudzi basin.
Mixed-use
Lake Fundudzi, Limpopo, ZA
This thesis investigates how architecture can act as a living archive that preserves and revitalises indigenous African knowledge, with a particular focus on Venda culture and the sacred landscape of Lake Fundudzi. Venda history has often been marginalised within dominant South African narratives, relying heavily on colonial archives that distort or erase indigenous perspectives. As a result, the cultural memory of the Vhavenda is fragmented, while oral traditions, clan praises, and vernacular practices face increasing erosion under the pressures of modernity and globalisation.
The research adopts a qualitative, interdisciplinary approach, integrating
archaeological evidence, linguistic etymology, oral histories, and fieldwork
with elders and custodians of sacred sites. The study is framed by theories of decoloniality and indigenous epistemologies, aiming to construct alternative historical narratives that centre African voices. Precedent studies of vernacular and contemporary works which includes Cave Bureau’s Cow Corridors inform a speculative design process situated at Lake Fundudzi. The design proposal envisions an architecture that is both protective and participatory. Rather than storing knowledge as static exhibits, the building facilitates storytelling, ritual, ecological stewardship, and intergenerational exchange. In this way, heritage becomes embodied in practice and place, ensuring its continuity.
The thesis concludes that architecture, when rooted in indigenous cosmologies and lived experiences, can resist colonial erasures and act as a medium of cultural reclamation. It argues for a redefinition of preservation: not as passive storage, but as active re-membering of identity, lineage, and landscape. The design proposal envisions a granary building conceived not only as a store of food but as a symbolic store of culture. Reinterpreting the granary as an architectural archive, the building facilitates storytelling, ritual, ecological stewardship, and intergenerational exchange. In this way, heritage becomes embodied in practice and place, ensuring its continuity
