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:

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:

What happens when an architect creates art? 

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

💡 Key Themes

🏛️ Buildings & References Mentioned

🕒 17:23 – Punk Culture Reference

🕒 13:17 – Wooden Hut in San Francisco (Parasitic Architecture)

🕒 01:21:48 – Villa Savoye (Le Corbusier)

🕒 01:31:58 – Kolumba Museum by Peter Zumthor (Cologne)

🕒 01:33:52 – Therme Vals (Zumthor Bath House)

🕒 01:59:41 – Sagrada Familia (Gaudí)

🕒 02:14:13 – “Ironman House” in Cape Town

🔗 Stay Connected

🎧 Listen to the podcast: www.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

00:00 – Intro and who Mikayla is

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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.

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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