Tammy Ohlson de Fine — former interior designer, MBA graduate, and winner of the National Corobrik Student Architecture Award — shares her unconventional path to becoming South Africa’s top architecture graduate. We talk about balancing motherhood with design school, the sacrifices and rewards of chasing a dream, mentorship, networking, and what it takes to excel in one of the most demanding creative fields.

Connect & Explore: 🎙 Listen to more episodes: @blacksableza ▶️ YouTube: Black Sable Designs 📖 About the Corobrik Award: corobrik.co.za

What happens when an architect creates art? In this episode we explore the intersection between architecture, art and architecture education and the spiritual side of designing with humanity.

Having worked in prestigious architectural studios, created award- winning artworks and lecturing at one of South Africa's top architecture schools, Dirk Bahmann, currently busy with his PHD in architecture shares his experience as a student, architect and artist and creating meaningful work.

👤 Guest Bio – Dirk Bahmann -Architect, artist, and PhD candidate -Research focuses on ritual, repair, memory & embodied making -Blends theory with intuitive practice and slowness in design

💡 Key Themes -Memory and energy in old buildings -Erosion, repair, and the poetics of presence -Ritual, resistance, and silence in architectural making -Slowness and “not knowing” as design tools -Theory vs embodiment in academia -Architecture as a carrier of emotion and intuition

🏛️ Buildings & References Mentioned

🕒 17:23 – Punk Culture Reference 🔗 https://paulmcbride.me/2016/11/02/essay-the-punk-movement-in-the-realms-of-subculture-fashion-and-style/

🕒 13:17 – Wooden Hut in San Francisco (Parasitic Architecture) 🔗 https://www.dezeen.com/2012/02/16/manifest-destiny-by-mark-reigelman/

🕒 01:21:48 – Villa Savoye (Le Corbusier) 🔗 https://lecorbusier-worldheritage.org/en/villa-savoye-et-loge-du-jardinier/

🕒 01:31:58 – Kolumba Museum by Peter Zumthor (Cologne) 🔗 https://www.thisispaper.com/mag/kolumba-museum-peter-zumthor-rasmus-hjortshoj

🕒 01:33:52 – Therme Vals (Zumthor Bath House) 🔗 https://www.archdaily.com/13358/the-therme-vals/5fc1415563c017d62c001226-the-therme-vals-photo

🕒 01:59:41 – Sagrada Familia (Gaudí) 🔗 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sagrada-Familia

🕒 02:14:13 – “Ironman House” in Cape Town 🔗 https://peerutinkarol.com/project/clifton-nettleton-road-iron-man-house/

🔗 Stay Connected

🎧 Listen to the podcast: www.blacksable.co.za 📸 Follow us on Instagram: @BlackSableZA 🌍 Explore more: blacksable.co.za

📌 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to hear more from the hidden side of architecture.

#BlackSablePodcast #ArchitecturePodcast #DirkBahmann #DesignThinking #PeterZumthor #LeCorbusier #SagradaFamilia #ArchitectureTheory #SlowDesign #HiddenSideOfArchitecture📸 Follow dirk on Instagram: @dirkbahmann

In this episode, I chat with Mikayla De Gouveia — a third‑year architecture student at Cardiff University who’s also built an authentic online presence sharing the highs and lows of life in studio.

We get into:

• What it’s really like studying abroad as a South African architecture student

• How social media can be both a creative outlet and a pressure cooker

• The sleep‑deprived chaos of studio life (and why that’s a problem)

• Her hands‑on design‑build experience in Guatemala

If you're thinking about studying architecture — or already deep in it — this episode gives a grounded, no‑BS look at the grind, the growth, and the creative spark behind it all.

🔗 Follow Mikayla: @mikayla.deg 📍 Mentioned: Jewish Museum Berlin designed by Daniel Libeskind — a key stop in exploring how built spaces can tell stories jmberlin.deberlin.de+10en.wikipedia.org+10jmberlin.de+10,

00:00 – Intro and who Mikayla is 01:30 – Balancing social media and studying architecture 03:00 – Time pressure and the studio grind 05:00 – Tutor feedback and the design power dynamic 07:00 – Toxic work culture in architecture 09:00 – UK architecture qualification route explained 10:30 – Why many don’t go all the way to registration 12:00 – How Mikayla got into architecture 13:00 – Artistic background and choosing architecture over fine art 14:30 – Study trips: Berlin, re-adaptation, and sketching 15:30 – Jewish Museum Berlin by Daniel Libeskind (@mikayla.deg

✅ Like the episode? Subscribe and help us grow the conversation. 🖤 Follow us on Instagram: @BlackSableZA 📺 Find more on our channel: @BlackSableZA on YouTube 🌍 Visit our site: www.blacksable.co.za

In this conversation, our host Jacobus chats to the Black Sable dream team: Mieke van Zyl, Jessica Rogers, and Priyan Moodley. They chat about how they fit together as a team, maintaining a healthy work environment, drawing every day and combating perfectionism.

Want more Black Sable in your life?

Connect with Black Sable on our other platforms

• Website https://www.blacksable.co.za/
• Instagram instagram.com/blacksableza/
• Youtube www.youtube.com/@blacksableza
• Email podcast@blacksable.co.za

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:27 Meet Priyan, Jess and Mieke

3:00 Dealing with team friction

5:21 Positive crit sessions

11:03 Reframing “You vs Me” into “Us vs The Problem”

17:04 The power of iteration

20:32 Drawing every day

32:08 Practice, patience & perfection

35:04 Individual drawing style creating a cohesive studio style

38:16 How personality testing transformed the way we communicate

52:02 Outro

Intro & Outro Music: Synapse by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com