Mick Pearce (born 2 June 1938) is a

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

an architect.

Biography

Pearce was born on June 2 1938, in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

.Architects of Change
Biography
/ref> He received his diploma with distinction at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1962. He has undertaken projects in the UK,

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, Australia and China as well as

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. In the last 20 years Pearce has focused on sustainable

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and has explored the principles of biomimicry, which is the imitation of natural processes and the use of natural materials. One of the goals of his architecture style is to minimise damage to the environment. He prefers to use local materials and traditional technologies such as

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

s.Architects for Peace. Excerpt from th
jury report
of the 2003 Prince Claus Award, presented to Mick Pearce on 10 Dec 2003

Notable projects

One of his most well-known buildings is the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Harare. For the system of temperature control in the building, Pearce was inspired by the construction of

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blatto ...

mounds. By using this system he combined energy saving and used natural ventilation and air conditioning. The building uses about 10% of the energy used for ventilation by buildings of a comparable size.Prince Claus Fund
Profile
/ref> Pearce left Zimbabwe in 2000 as a result of the conflict in his home country and worked in Australia, where he co-designed

Council House 2 Council House 2 (also known as CH2), is an office building located at 240 Little Collins Street in the Melbourne central business district, Australia. It is used by the City of Melbourne council, and in April 2005, became the first purpose-built ...

(CH₂) in Melbourne, among other buildings. After three years working with Vanke in China, he returned to Zimbabwe in 2012. In 2003, Pearce was honored for his innovations in the field of ecological and sustainable design with a Prince Claus Award from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. File:Eastgate Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe.jpg, Eastgate Centre File:Zimbabwe Harare Eastgate Shopping Mall.jpg, Eastgate Shopping Mall

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, Mick Zimbabwean architects Living people 1938 births People from Harare