Revel Fox died after a short illness on December 13. Fox was an innovator, an architect and town planner, an urban activist and a man who was, all his life, committed to pushing the professional boundaries in a difficult and often antagonistic political and social terrain.
As an architect and planner, he has left an indelible mark. The homes, office buildings and academic buildings he designed shaped the character of the urban and natural environment. Cape Town’s historic areas and unique skyline, Johannesburg’s inner city and the eminently people-friendly Durban beachfront are but a few of the projects that attest to his importance as a maker of spaces.
His buildings are sensitive in every sense: to light and space, to architectural tradition, and to the people who would and will continue to inhabit the many, many public spaces he designed and deeply influenced.
Generations of young architects served their apprenticeship at Revel Fox and Partners.
Twice a day, the entire office met to discuss, learn or simply drink tea together as members of a team. For architects, it was a rich forum for the exchange of ideas. For students, it was an opportunity to learn and absorb the principles and wisdom on which the partnership was based. And for administrative staff and visitors, it opened up a world of appreciation and understanding of urban spaces.
Fox never took the easy road. He explored the social and aesthetic possibilities of every project in an entirely holistic way, looking for another and more humane route through the tangled and inhuman mass of apartheid cities.
When he failed to persuade, as he did over the building of an all-white technikon in Cape Town’s District Six, he withdrew his firm from the commission, unwilling to sacrifice his deeply felt principles for an extremely lucrative contract.
When he was asked to upgrade single housing in Langa, he committed a part of his office and much of his own time to the development of core housing and became deeply involved in efforts to improve the urban landscape of South Africa’s desolate apartheid areas.
As the years went by, he continued to be drawn into the pressing political and social issues of the day. In 1987, he formed part of the delegation to Dakar to meet the Africa National Congress.
After 1994, he agreed to stand for the Cape Town council as an ANC councillor and was able to make an invaluable contribution to the Metro’s planning committee. Latterly, he played a significant role in the conception and development of South Africa’s Freedom Park.
He was awarded gold medals and accolades for his contribution to architecture and planning.
Fox made a significant impact on our urban and social environment. He taught generations of young architects and made an invaluable contribution to the conservation of our traditional heritage.
And he will be remembered for his determined persuasiveness, his thoughtfulness, his perfectionism and for the extraordinary clarity of his thinking.
Fox’s life was one continuous whole, at the heart and centre of which was his wife Suzanne and his children Grethe, Revel and Justin. To them and to the many others who benefited from his affection and wisdom over the years, he is quite simply irreplaceable. — Susan de Villiers
Revel Fox: Born Durban, September 20 1924. Died December 13 2004