Meghan Ho-Tong is an architect and educator based in South Africa, operating at the interface of architectural practice and creative research. Her work uses artistic modes of thinking to investigate structures of dominion in the built environment, foregrounding femme perspectives with histories and spatialities of the Global South.
She uses filmmaking as a research methodology, and has co-produced Chorus for MAXXI Museum’s exhibition Buone Nuove: Women in Architecture (2021), also screened at Arquiteturas Film Festival Porto (2022), ByDesign Festival Seattle (2023), and Monument, screened on Future Architecture Platform (2020). She is a research assistant at the University of Cape Town.
Films
Chorus, 2021, MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy, Ho-Tong, M., Bestall, L., and Roodt, M.
Monument, 2020, Future Architecture Platform, Ho-Tong, M., Bestall, L., and Roodt, M. View here.
Exhibitions & Festivals
Buone Nuove: Women Changing Architecture travelling exhibition, Msheireb Museum, Doha, Qatar, 2023, and Italian Cultural Institute, Stockholm, Sweden in Stockholm Design Week, 2023.
ByDesign: Architecture and Design Film Festival, POV: Short Film Programme, in Seattle Design Week, Seattle, USA, 2023.
Focal Point Art Book Fair, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE, 2022.
Arquiteturas Film Festival, Slow Down!, Porto, Portugal, 2022.
Buone Nuove/Good News: Donne in architettura/Women in architecture, MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy, 2021-2022.
Now! Now?, Cape Institute for Architects, curated by theMAAK & Ssoft Stuff, 2019.
Pumflet Spectre, GSA Unit 14 & Wolff Architects, Fox Street Studios, 2017.
A Study in Ikebana, Meghan Ho-Tong, Alix Rose Cowie and Cynthia Fan, Cape Town, 2017.
Publications
'Reading Sino-African Archives: Expanding Histories of the South' in Architecture Archives of the Future, 2023, van den Heuvel, D., Tanis, F., & van de Sande, W. M. (eds.). TU Delft/Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Buone Nuove/Good News: Donne in architettura/Women in architecture, 2023, Motisi, E., Tinacci, E., Ciorra, P.
Landwalks: Across Palestine and South Africa, 2022, Berlanda, T., Ho-Tong, M., Khalifeh, M., Laidi-Hanieh, A. (eds.). Sharjah Art Foundation/University of Cape Town/Palestinian Museum.
Pier Luigi Nervi and Africa, 2021, Antonucci, M., Neri, G. (Editorial coordination and design).
Representing Architecture: Atmosphere, Ethnography & Experimentation, University of Cape Town, 2021, Ho-Tong, M. and de Bonnières, A. (lecture)
Contributor in Pumflet Summer Flowers, 2019, Wolff I, et al.
Letters on Grief in Pumflet Luxurama, 2018, Wolff I, et al. Read here.
Grants, Awards & Residencies
Focal Point Publishing Grant, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE, 2021.
MAXXI Architecture Film Summer School, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy, 2020.
Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Regional Award, Western Cape, South Africa, 2011.
Work Experience
Wolff Architects, 2014 - 2019, Project Architect on V&A Waterfront Old Harbour Cafe Restaurants (built) and Stellenbosch University Library Renovation and Additions project (unbuilt). Further work in this period focused on spatial research, publication, exhibition and installation design including the Pumflet publication series, 2018 ICA Live Arts Festival ‘Pumflet Luxurama’, 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennale ‘Summer Flowers’ and various public exhibitions held by Wolff Architects at their studio.
Werner Lotz Architect in association with Michael Lumby, 2017 Jul - Sep, Project Architect on Tramways office and mixed use building.
SAOTA, 2012 - 2014, working predominantly in areas of design concept and design development.
Teaching
University of Cape Town, School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics, Lecturer, 2024 - current.
University of Cape Town, School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics, Assistant Lecturer, 2022.
University of Cape Town, School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics, Design & Theory Year 2 Studio Tutor, 2020 - 2021.
African Centre for Cities, Creative Research Studio as part of MPhil in Southern Urbanism, 2019. Studio led by Ilze Wolff. Participated as an invited session contributor and educator.
GSA Unit 14, Pumflet Spectre Studio, 2017. Studio led by Thireshen Govender and Sarah De Villiers in collaboration with Ilze Wolff and Meghan Ho-Tong.