Jhono Bennett is a socio-technical architectural urbanist based in Johannesburg. He has recently shifted his leadership role in 1to1 – Agency of Engagement; a non-profit entity that provides a design-based collaborative service between grassroots organisations, professionals, academia and government.

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He has started his PhD at the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand while holding a research position within the DSD Desis Lab at UJ's Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and managing the Just Urbanism Initiative 1to1. His doctoral focus is around the inclusive use and design of our South African cities, specifically the role that design plays in this. This has led him into work with various departments of the South Africa government, key local and international research institutes and international universities including Harvard's GSD, USA and the University of Sheffield, UK.

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In his early career, his most influential work has been with Architecture for Humanity on the Football for Hope Initiative as well as the South African Shack Dwellers International Alliance. Recently he has been working closely with Architecture Sans Frontieres through their teaching and design research initiatives here in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

 

Having been trained in Durban and Cape Town, he holds a master’s degree in architecture with distinction from the University of Pretoria with a supplemented semester abroad at the Carlton University in Ottawa, Canada. In 2015 he was nominated as an Ashoka Fellow and currently part of the YALI Mandela Washington Fellowship (YALI MWF) where he spent the summer of 2016 studying with 25 other Young African Leaders at the University of California, Berkeley.