Paradox Landscape

A void in networks, break in connections, closed-open space and unsafe terrain – an epicentre of paradoxes and opportunities. As topographically and topologically dynamic landscapes, landfills exist as a unique paradox of public space which is not easily accessible or visible to the public which created them.

The final resting place for most refuse/solid waste, landfills, have become underappreciated and often an overlooked form of public space. The contemporary perception of landfills, and refuse disposal, is that these landscapes should be concealed from public observation. This perception removes the link, and subsequent understanding, of where the waste that they create goes to ‘die’.

Architecture Manifesto 2015

1. Architecture is a process, not an object
If you know the end product before you start, what benefit is the intervention? It is simply constructed from your existing knowledge and experience.

2. Use principles, not manifestations of them
Ask yourself ‘why?’ There is no point refilling a bucket with water, when there is a hole in the bottom of the bucket.

3. Everything is connected
Every place has existing functioning systems, processes and networks. Any intervention must acknowledge and augment these.

4. If you’re not innovating, you’re stagnating
Architecture should improve what was there before, otherwise it makes no sense. There is always a better way.

5. The brief has requirements, so does the site
A brief presents an overt set of requirements. The site has intrinsic requirements, which need extraction and interpretation. Genius loci.

6. Listen and learn
“When you talk you are only repeating what you know; but when you listen, you may learn something new.” - Dalai Lama

7. Architecture should be complex, not complicated
Architecture can be seen as the integration of several entities and systems, every part should co-act. Chaos Theory.

8. Acknowledge context, nothing happens in isolation
A glass house in the desert, probably not the best idea.

9. Architecture evolves, adapts, and changes over time
Subject to time - people, circumstance and the built environment change and adapt. Design to promote and facilitate this change.

10. Open, green public space is cardinal space
People are intrinsically interwoven with nature. A healthy environment acknowledges and integrates this fact, providing space for people to be in nature.

11. Think urban
Architecture sits within an urban fabric, recognise that. Infrastructure should be in place at an urban scale.

12. Understand before you intervene
Respond to what the place/people need. Map, analyse, explore, research and immerse.

13. Architecture creates and takes advantage of opportunities
Opportunities exist everywhere. Engage with them.

14. Don’t accept what has been done without challenging it first
Hypothesise. Speculate.

15. Open Building principles make sense
Design with Levels and Orders of the built environment. Design for capacity and disentanglement.

Mtech 1 Semester 1 Portfolio

Networks and Infrastructure

From immersion in Jeppestown to the capacity analysis of a base building, various themes have formed part of my architectural process and progress, thus far. Networks, beginning with Transient versus Temporary, exploring how people use open, green, public space in conscious and subconscious manners. This translated into Transient Infrastructure, Network Infrastructure (Hard and Soft) and Networks (existing systems). Furthermore, how Stitching Networks through architecture can create place for spaces that are successful for both individuals and higher level orders. Open Building Stitching, examines where Transient/Temporary capacities (relative to the base building) are stitched into an existing building. This theme then cycles around to the first theme, and illustrates how every project builds on its predecessors.

From contexts rooted in Johannesburg, to the hypothetical, each site has presented its own challenges and opportunities. A night in Jeppestown instilled the value of immersion within a context, while a desktop study of Denver highlighted the information that can be gained from a more objective point-of-view. Context, forms an integral part of architectural study – a notion which has been carried through from my first project. While every brief has requirements, every context equally presents its own requirements, which work in conjunction with the themes in the research phase of every project. A particular context of interest, to myself, is Fordsburg. This is due several reasons, most significantly of which is the fine grain nature of the urban fabric which is juxtaposed by the large block of the Oriental Plaza.

Working with every brief, set of themes and context, one develops a response to, and through, this research. Initially responses were more research/exploration based, where I would question ‘Why?’, specifically related around the idea of ‘Transience’ and the related subconscious actions. The next step was a hypothetical/speculative response to infrastructure, wherein the notion of ‘Transience’, evolved into ‘Transient Infrastructure’, still questioning in terms of themes and context, but more related to an infrastructure that integrates into existing networks and temporal systems. This evolution continued into a more holistic analysis and engagement with networks, in several forms.

In response to the context, these networks begin to reveal opportunities for architecture, which is rooted in existing functioning systems.

The progression of projects, and respective outcomes, have encouraged a progression in the process of architecture, rather than the object of architecture. This process was founded on the immersive mapping and understanding of Jeppestown, where I implemented a simple intervention to challenge the ‘subconscious transient users’ of a park. It continued through the proposal of innovative neighbourhood transient infrastructure, then through the stitching of fine grain and large, block grain urban fabric, with response to existing networks - principally a local network of curtain manufacturers.

My semester, and process of architecture, is currently constructed of everything done thus far, inclusion of what was good and the exclusion of what was not - and I believe this leads to a process where the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.

Network Analyses

Curtain Manufacturers' Network

Customer Network

Shopkeepers' Network