A PORTFOLIO BY PHINOLA ARUNAMEMORY · PLACE · PEOPLE

Spaces of
belonging.

Axonometric view of the curving archive building in Makokoba

01 / THE IN(BE)TWEENMAKOKOBA, BULAWAYO

Hi, I’m Phinola.
I explore how architecture can bring people, place and memory together.

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01 / A LITTLE ABOUT ME

What makes
a place feel
like ours?

A QUESTION I KEEP COMING BACK TO

I’m interested in the stories
a place already holds.

My undergraduate work keeps returning to questions of memory, migration and belonging. What happens to a place when its original use disappears? How can a new building help people feel connected to somewhere unfamiliar?

Through projects in Makokoba, Brixton and Yeoville, I explore these questions through models, drawings and the details of everyday life: a market stall, a shared courtyard, a place to sit.

Phinola Aruna — a few questions, a few explorations, and more to learn.

Cultural memoryCommunityMaterial exploration

02 / SELECTED WORKTHREE PROJECTS. DIFFERENT SCALES.

CHAPTER 01MEMORY / EARTH / WATERMAKOKOBA · BULAWAYO

The In(be)tween

ARCHIVE BUILDING
MAKOKOBA / 2025

MEMORY AS A LIVING SPACE

I began with a question: what can we do with abandoned spaces? In Makokoba, I explored an archive that brings history into daily life through galleries, markets and shared spaces. This project gave me the confidence to experiment with form—and made me think more carefully about what to retain.

Rammed earthTimberLiving roof

Heavy forms hold the past. Open edges invite daily life.

A SMALL MOMENT IN THE DESIGN

A gallery.
And when it rains?

The Gallery of Reflection is a place for memory and encounter. In the project, rainfall brings another kind of gathering: the shared act of collecting water.

EXPLORE THE IDEA

Interior view of the Gallery of Reflection

GALLERY OF REFLECTION / MAKOKOBA

CHAPTER 02ARRIVAL / MOVEMENT / BELONGINGBRIXTON · JOHANNESBURG

Spaces of Transit(ion)

STUDENT ACCOMMODATION
BRIXTON / JOHANNESBURG

HOW DO WE BEGIN TO BELONG?

For this 300-bed student housing brief, I asked how arriving in Johannesburg might feel less isolating. I used preparation, isolation, celebration and reflection to think through a journey from arrival into community, on the complex site of Brixton Cemetery.

Weathering steelLocal clay brickConcrete

Layered skins. Shared gardens. A gradual sense of belonging.

FOLLOW THE SPATIAL JOURNEY

Arriving is a moment.
Belonging takes a journey.

Entrance and seating at the arrival point

01 / PREPARATION

A place to arrive.

The entrance brings bus-stop seating into a porous public space. There is room to pause, meet someone and find your way into the site.

CHAPTER 03REMEMBRANCE / MAKING / LIGHTYEOVILLE · JOHANNESBURG

The Light House

PAVILION
YEOVILLE / JOHANNESBURG

REMEMBRANCE IN EVERYDAY USE

With The Light House, I worked at a smaller scale, exploring how a pavilion could hold memory while remaining useful every day. Within Yeoville’s damaged African Market, I focused on how steel, patterned breeze blocks and a sculptural roof could come together as a place to gather.

Steel frameReclaimed concrete aggregateFiltered light

A memorial that remains part of everyday life.

MEMORY IN THE MATERIAL

Something lost.
Something carried forward.

The proposal uses crushed concrete from damaged parts of the market in some of its breeze blocks. The screen carries a physical trace of the site’s history into a new place to gather.

SOLID / VOID / LIGHT

From light to structureUNFOLD THE ASSEMBLY +

Exploded assembly drawing showing the roof, steel frame and breeze-block panels — The frame, screen and roof, shown as separate parts.

A small building, explored through the connections that hold it together.

03 / INSIDE MY PROCESS

Thinking by
making.

My process moves between physical models, drawings and construction details. I use each to explore a different question: what the idea feels like, how people move through it, and how its materials come together.

Take a look through my portfolio ↓ PDF

Conceptual physical model exploring structures and suspended forms — 01 / TEST THE IDEAMODEL STUDY / THE IN(BE)TWEEN

Spaces ofbelonging.✳

I’m interested in the storiesa place already holds.