ABSTRACT
The massive growth in the student population of the University of Pretoria was widely heralded at the time. This was conspicuously institutionalised by Afrikaners embracing their own culture in more opportunistic ways, and to demands for their newly trained civil servants and professionals under apartheid. Aspirations for economic advancement and political unity were intimately bound up with the language itself. Identity for the Afrikaner Broederbond was about dominating and bringing others under their sphere of influence. Different voices and interests within Afrikaner nationalism did little to challenge the violent direction followed by Nationalists in advancing apartheid for the consolidation of white political power. Instead of grappling with and expressing traditional values, young architects were increasingly interested in adopting new technologies and forms. They were part of the first generation to be trained directly at the university architecture department, Boukunde. The modern campus masterplan was extensive and notable for its bold educational and administrative building blocks. A modernist vision of a new Afrikaner university had arrived with its repetitive and imposing monolithic series of office and research slabs in the landscape, in particular the Musaion, Extramural and Engineering II Buildings, that showed the sheer scale of urban and economic ambition.
