I believe that the beauty of the built environment lies within its permanence - as a constructed platform that provides human beings with a sense of continuity. My work is concerned with historical context and the urban setting. It interrogates the permanence of the built environment and a built legacy that inherently portrays the enormity of history, memory and tradition within architectural thought and practice. Both projects, the Braamfontein Commons and the Natural Museum of Johannesburg, make use of Alucobond aluminium cladding as a primary material. The cladding on the external façades is envisaged as providing a significant socio-environmental stimulus within the context of the local building trade, since it is fully recyclable, malleable, simple to construct, and may be easily adapted and changed without an adverse environmental impact. With the aging colouration of the aluminium, these works express the transformation of material in time.