In Memory of Heinrich Kammeyër

SAIA notes with sadness the passing of Heinrich Kammeyër on 6 April 2026, an architect, urban designer and educator whose career spanned four decades of practice and teaching across South Africa.

Kammeyër qualified in 1971 with a B.Arch from the University of Cape Town, where he was a Class Medallist and received the Helen Gardner Travel Grant and the Pilkington's Tile Bursary. He became a studio master at UCT's School of Architecture in 1972, and went on to teach at the University of the Witwatersrand for ten years, the University of Pretoria for ten years, the Tshwane University of Technology for five years, and most recently at the University of Johannesburg. He was very well known and respected among South African architects for his inspiring lectures.

He later earned an M.Arch (1992) and a PhD (2011), both from the University of Pretoria, with his doctoral thesis exploring reciprocity in the making of homes as artifacts through a phenomenological study of the BaSotho female in her vernacular architecture.

His built work includes the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Pietermaritzburg (1976–1980), won through open design competition and voted one of the best buildings of the twentieth century. He was also project architect on the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre, voted World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in 2009.

SAIA extends its condolences to his family, colleagues and the many students he mentored over his long career. We honour his contribution to South African architecture and architectural education. May his memory be a blessing.