Llewellyn van Wyk graduated in architecture from the University of Cape Town in 1980. He opened his own architecture practice in 1983, completing over 300 buildings within Southern Africa over a period of 20 years. In 2002 he left professional practice and took up a research post at the CSIR in Pretoria, South Africa, where he heads a research team examining new construction materials and methods based on an advanced construction technology platform. All of his work is predicated on sustainability principles.

Llewellyn is a Past-President of the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA), and the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA). He is the Director for the UIA Work Programme Sustainable Architecture, Region V (Africa).

Llewellyn served on the City Council of Cape Town for 12 years, becoming Deputy-Mayor in 1993.
Llewellyn has presented Keynote Addresses at conferences around the world. He is a visting lecturer and examiner at various universities in South Africa.

Topic for Green Building Focus

Green Buildings as an Instrument of Transformation

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The presentation departs from the generic categories of green building rating tools and, based on the five key concepts of sustainable development as presentd in Our Common Future, constructs Twelve Canons for Transformative Green Buildings. The Canons are supported by specific case studies, some of which are recognized green building leaders.

Green building rating tools generally include management, materials, land use and ecology, energy, water, materials, and transport as categories for assessment purposes. Generally the philosopical approach is to do least harm to the natural and indoor environment. Most rating tools claim to be science-based - although arguments are made against that claim by critics - and generally are outcomes-based, i.e., the tools determine what should be done, and not how it should be done. In this sense, green building rating tools could claim to be performance-based, although again there are too many inconsistencies in approach to validate this claim with any accuracy. Green building rating tools tend to ignore the social or so-called 'brown' agenda, perhaps because of the difficulties associated with assessment.

In response to this difficluty, this presentation constructs Canons derived from the Five Key Concepts as articulated in Our Common Future, referencing other works including the challenges posed by Kingsley Davis in Human Society  and the philosophy of Holism as articulated by Jan Smuts.

The Canons for Transformative Green Buildings are structured according to the five capitals as articulated in Our Common Future, namely Economic, Social, Environmental, Technological, and Ecological.