I love architecture. The way that buildings look, the way they were built and whether the architect had a certain emotion in mind when designing the building. I also can't help wonder why a building makes me feel like it does. Why when I see a beautiful structured house I feel a sense of awe and why when I see a buiding falling to pieces or fenced in do I feel sad, angry or just down right annoyed.

Mokena Makeka, who heads up his own architecture firm, finally put it in context for me and boy am I happy about that. Okay, so to say put it in context is not really true, but he finally made me realise why I feel the way I do in regards to certain architecture. He explained how cities hold great opportunity but they forget about the people living in them and how design can work on an architectural scale to make cities places where we celebrate people.

But in order for people to celebrate the place in which they live, they need to feel as if they belong in that place, as if the walls that surround aren't there to judge them, or dish out punishment, but to show them that there is hope for a better future. He gives the example of a police station he had to build. He was told it had to be face brick since it would be vandalised in any case. But Makena stopped it right there by saying no.

"I wil create a building with white walls then," he says up on the poduim on the main stage. "Because if they vandalise, then you need to clean the walls because buildings must be looked after." And then came the revelation for me. Why do we just assume people will vandalise the building? Why do we feed into the negativity?

Maybe if we change the buildings, then we can change the way people feel and act.

And so it all made sense. Makeka says that since building the poice station 5 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, it has not be vandalised because people don't see it as threatening or victimising.

At the same time he touched on multiple other projects that he is working on, specifically in Khaylitsha where he is creating buildings that don't just shelter, they inspire people to be more than what they are. That by bringing new buildings into places that have never had this experience, you are not only giving people hope, but you are also changing the attitudes of those that never venture into the area.

Design is a journey and Makeka shows just how important it is to ensure that people understand this journey, taking something simple and using it to create something new.