Sarah de Villiers

Sarah de Villiers is a Lecturer in Architecture teaching across BA (Hons) and MArch programmes. She leads spaceKIOSK, a research-led practice investigating spatial politics through drawing, mapping, and critical architectural production. Her work examines intersections of trade, decolonisation, and global economic systems, analyzing how material/financial flows shape built environments across Johannesburg, Accra, Berlin, Milan, and Venice.

Her research focuses on power structures, representation, and uneven geographies of transformation through interdisciplinary collaborations. She explores architecture's entanglements with land, property, and systems of extraction/circulation, emphasizing decolonial perspectives and spatial justice in the Global South. Her practice bridges design, technology, and material economies to interrogate territorial politics and infrastructure.

Recent publications (2021-2022) reveal consistent engagement with spatial injustice, radical drawing methodologies, and material histories. These works demonstrate her analytical framework connecting pandemic urbanism, archival practices, and hyperreal prototypes to critique power dynamics in built environments. Her scholarship consistently centers decolonial approaches to architectural representation across diverse geographic contexts.

As an active educator, de Villiers advises architecture students while serving as MArch External Examiner at the University of the Witwatersrand (2021-2023). Her academic contributions extend through editorial work with Ellipses Journal and international lecture series addressing climate justice and spatial praxis.

She directs spaceKIOSK as her primary research vehicle, collaborating with institutions including the African Futures Institute, African Centre for Cities, and Archive of Forgetfulness. Her professional network spans Counterspace (which she co-founded), Biennale di Venezia curatorial teams, and global academic partnerships focused on transformative spatial practices.