HUTS. The Vanishing Rural Traditions and Vernacular Architecture Found in 1980s Southern Africa

Mark Smoot, professional landscape architect and passionate photographer from California, took a job in South Africa in 1982 at the height of apartheid. Fascinated to learn more about his new home, he began taking road trips, exploring dusty backroads and remote villages, with his Nikon on the car seat beside him. His focus soon became the indigineous peoples’ self-built, rural homes that he found to be meticulously maintained and decorated with loving care. This resulting collection of 577 photographs, poignantly capturing a time and cultures that no longer exist, remained boxed away for 40 years as Mark continued to work and travel around the world until he finally took them out, combined them with 26 sketch illustrations, construction methods, tribal histories and his own memories of adventures. His work provides a rare insight into the lives (at that time) of the indigenous peoples from 14 tribal groups of 6 southern African countries and the complex historical forces that impacted their vernacular architectural traditions.