Emeritus Professor Julian Cooke (1940–2025)

30 April 1940–24 February 2025

All of us at the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics are deeply saddened by the recent passing of our good friend, mentor, teacher and colleague, Emeritus Professor Julian Cooke. Past and present staff and students alike will miss this kind, exemplary architect, urban designer, teacher and human being.

Julian began teaching at the school in 1976. He retired formally in 2000, after having served as the dean of the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, as well as director of the school. Julian played a pivotal role in helping to establish the School of Architecture and Planning (as it was then called) at UCT as the leading academic School of Architecture in the country. UCT architecture graduates would repeatedly do well in postgraduate studies at prestigious schools in Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom.

He also played a pivotal role in forging various programmes within the school, as well as crafting a curriculum which questioned the status quo, was politically progressive and anti-apartheid. Student projects in both planning and architecture were regularly set within the urban and rural conditions of the apartheid city of Cape Town, and small towns nearby. Under Julian and others’ tutelage, architecture was understood to not only be a formal artistic or sculptural endeavour, but also a socio-political one.

Our memories of Julian include many funny and fun moments. The field trips were legendary! Many architects would have been taught by Julian, and many would have gone on one of his field trips to one of the small towns. Julian crafted those trips with great care and looked after us all while teaching both his fellow teachers and students whenever the opportunity arose.

He was constantly thinking and rethinking about pedagogy and curriculum. He knew more than most that teaching is an intensely creative endeavour, and that the ways in which we can teach in architecture are endless. A memorable set of projects was his set of “ORDER” projects which were part of the second-year curriculum for many years. Students would build up from a small intervention to a building with a series of projects, where each project needed to deal with a particular kind of ordering idea, requiring students to do good historical research, research of materials and structure and so on. And so, students developed a capacity for design thinking that had some scaffolding but also required deep creative synthesis.

Julian’s lectures were always interesting and accessible. His calm reassuring voice would easily beam across a crowded room, and he would hold every student’s attention very easily, in part because he made complicated ideas sound simple and accessible. I am sure many will remember his famous Venice lectures, where he recounted his experiences in Venice as a young architect with his wife, Judy, and effortlessly explained the making of this remarkable city – from all the different kinds of public spaces to the detailed design of the wells, or the underwater foundations.

Julian taught history for many years. His knowledge of architectural history was comprehensive and his arsenal of lectures (which were always reworked and added to) was thorough and extensive. He also taught technology, and design, and urban design.

Equally a fan of words and drawings, ideas and making, cities and buildings, Julian was ultimately a humanitarian. An egalitarian. It was Julian’s humanity that endeared him to everyone he met. His capacity for compassion and empathy was more than most.

The fervour with which he continued to teach long after retirement from the school was testament to his unwavering belief in the project of architecture and how vital it is. He ran second year for years at the school, and what a treat that was for his students and fellow teachers alike. When that phase came to an end, he created the famous ‘Architours’. Many architects benefitted from traveling to carefully curated architectural tours of different countries from Finland to Japan, Spain to India. Later still, he would continue teaching by crafting Summer School courses for UCT.

In recent years he came up with the idea of a project called “Ten dreams for Cape Town”. This was a project that brought together many architects and urban designers, to rethink and, importantly, to show, an alternative Cape Town that was more efficient, more egalitarian and more sustainable. This project at first culminated in a series of lectures for one of UCT’s Summer School courses in 2019, with an accompanying exhibition. Later it was turned into a book titled A Vision for a Future Cape Town. Many of us contributed to this project but nothing would have happened without Julian’s leadership.

His passing has jolted us into a state of urgency about our work. Who do we turn to now? In a sense having had Julian as a teacher, colleague and friend was very comforting. You subconsciously knew you could always talk to him about any problem. You knew he would generously share any information or ideas with you. You knew he unselfishly wanted you to succeed and knew that you could.

Julian’s past students and colleagues at the school will continue his legacy by focusing, with at least some of his optimism, on the project of architecture, urban design, and their social capacities to heal our city and country from our devastating past. Hamba Kahle, our dear friend. Your work has not been in vain.

Julian will be remembered at the following two memorials:

• Friday, 14 March at 15:00 at the Rondebosch United Church, Belmont Road, Rondebosch
• Thursday, 20 March at 17:00 at the Cape Institute for Architecture, 71 Hout Street

All welcome.