Tuesday 5 May 2015

UJ UNIT2 Updated Projects


OPEN BUILDING ARCHITECTURE IS HERE TO STAY -   WITH  UJ  UNIT2    



A QUESTION WHAT IS COMMUNITY AND WHO IS THE COMMUNITY      have been  lately pondering and popping up throughout for as long as one live

A good example is given by Jhon Harbraken referring to housing to recognize two domains of actions of the community and rigidity.

John Habraken first articulated the principles of open building in his book Supports: An Alternative to Mass Housing, published in Dutch in 1961 and in English in 1972 and 1999, and in many other languages.[1] He argued that housing must always recognize two domains of action–the action of the community and that of the individual inhabitant. When the inhabitant is excluded, the result is uniformity and rigidity. When only the individual takes action, the result may be chaos and conflict. This formulation of a necessary balance of control had implications for all parties in the housing process, including architects. A research foundation was established in 1965 at the SAR (Stichting Architecten Research) in Eindhoven, the Netherlands to explore the ramifications, for architects, of the views laid out in that book. Habraken was invited to be Director of the SAR. Later, in the 1980s, a research group (OBOM) was formed at TU Delft under the direction of Professor Age van Randen, the goal of which was to study the practical issues of implementing the ideas in practice


Unit2 project 1.  Korsten Neighborhood immersion

I have chosen one of my previous community project done at NMMU Port Elizabeth in line with UJ Unit2 project one which was  Jeppestown neighborhood immersion community project because of similarities in brief requirements and develop it into an abstract / artistic presentation of what that community was, what community meant to me during  investigations and what stood out for me.

As a 4th year student at NMMU we have been tasked to take part in a community project.
we have to choose a site within the Port Elizabeth CBD and its neighborhood and the area
chosen as a group was the Korsten location on the eastern outskirt of Port Elizabeth, the 
idea was to spend 1-2 days studying the area by interviewing the residents, mapping, taking pictures in order to understand what that community was, what made it what it was and what we thought it was all about towards political, economical and cultural aspects. gathering all the sort of the information was to give us a better tool to conform  our individual design project three based on the findings.

After investigations one could learn a lot about the Korstern community. a community of mix race, a community of different income categories, community with no specific culture and mostly politically disconnected and rather a broken community which is troubled by high crime rate.



Graphic is an illustration of  Korsten map within the port elizabeth CBD and day activities


Investigating the Korsten area was quite an informative exercise and mostly touching to see in what conditions the non affording people lived. The response they gave on the political system administration. it was quite evident that the people living in Korsten were much concerned with crime rate, and economical injustice blaming the current government regarding the situation they lived in.
Some residents interviewed left in fear to an extend of not wanting to talk about criminal activities happening night time.

The diagram beneath is an illustration of a sum- up on the Korsten community at period. Fainting words is the words by criminal offenders when ever asked by police officers after committing a crime cording to a senior community leader human hands in different colors twisting a box written crime represent the different races in Korsten desperate to diminish the criminal element which is the box being twisted within their community together as one

 Diagram is the artefect response of the community towards criminal activities



Unit 2 project 2    People, Systems and Infrastructure-Ferreira mine dump (contaminated under ground water rehabilitation)


The brief required us to design a system for infrastructure delivery to the people / communities within the Johannesburg neighborhoodThis was a 2 weeks exercise on the issues around ground water contamination, i have to look at mine dump sites and investigate to come up with possibilities of rehabilitating and able to sell the treated water back to the community and around Johannesburg. First day to site: the energies of the 2nd project got me overwhelmed to see what was a flat land and now became a landfill of mining explorations.

Understanding the brief allowed an understanding the landfill / mine dump. in deep thinking of what advantages and disadvantages it plays within the Johannesburg community and its neighborhood. it have made me thinking of the ecological impacts it has on human, animals. answer to the questions the problem is the system treating underground contaminated water / a purification system that provide consumable water for the Johannesburg and its neighborhood. 



 Diagram is the artefect response of the community towards criminal activities




Unit 2 project 3. investigations and urban spacial qualities within the new town area. 














Sketches above is an exploration to possibilities on design developments. further developments on design conform diagrams will be posted as latest studio crits outcome














Unit2 project 4 Studio @ Denver desk top analysis. 

The exercise on Denver desk top analysis is a continuation of assignment 5. a 2 weeks intensive studio task with prof  Stephen Kendal guiding on open building principals and how to apply them within the existing build environment / newly design open buildings.

Access to Denver site was limited, desk top study of the site with a one day site access required on intense site analysis. studying on current conditions, permanent and temporal activities and build form conditions.
Testing and investigating on communal spaces, sanitary infrastructure and possibilities of emergencies access into into the entire site. thus allowed us to understand and detect more information leading to fruitful architectural decisions i.e upgrading of the permanent existing structures and proposing newly housing schemes to replace the informal structures. the main idea for this proposal aimed to test and provide the social, spacial qualities within the settlement.


Unit2 project 1.  Korsten Neighborhood immersion

I have chosen one of my previous community project done at NMMU Port Elizabeth in line with UJ Unit2 project one which was  Jeppestown neighborhood immersion community project because of similarities in brief requirements and develop it into an abstract / artistic presentation of what that community was, what community meant to me during  investigations and what stood out for me.

As a 4th year student at NMMU we have been tasked to take part in a community project.
we have to choose a site within the Port Elizabeth CBD and its neighborhood and the area
chosen as a group was the Korsten location on the eastern outskirt of Port Elizabeth, the 
idea was to spend 1-2 days studying the area by interviewing the residents, mapping, taking pictures in order to understand what that community was, what