Final project Mixed use

The Brief:

Your task is to design a mixed-use, multi-storey building along the Louis Botha Development
Corridor.
The design challenge was to engage the needs for dwelling, play and livelihood (all at varying scales). The design of site and surrounds should have been such that it should be easily identified as a well located urban arrangement of multiple programs whilst maintaining a balanced inclusive consideration of diverse urban dwellers/users.

Our architectural outcome must have the following major programmatic components:
- A museum/gallery of Johannesburg Art and artifacts
- A research institution
- A performance space – outdoor, all-weather gathering space
- A residency for students and young families.
- A central studio/workshop/discussion space (related to the above) in which a larger group of
residents can collaborate at the same time
- A creative/craft workshop center for nearby students, artisans and residents
- A crèche for the children of the building’s residents and employees
- Commercial spaces, including cafes, restaurants and bars
- Public spaces (smaller and larger spaces may be considered).
- An open air cinema which will operate on Johannesburgʼs summer nights
- Spaces for informal trade and adaptive user defined uses
- Parking to support the program
- A defined taxi and bus drop-off/pick-up zone (pedestrian link to BRT with added opportunity and
amenity).
In addition to satisfying the above programmatic and accommodation requirements our design must
engage with; an urban environment/landscape in transition, walk-able networks and public
connections, the dialogue between old and new, re-use + re-imagining + re-making.

This was my response:

Building facade as a museum and sign

The Brief:

The brief intended to open investigation into‘urban semiotics’.
The challenge was to re-imagine the building and the site - a museum and sign, a symbolic surface and kiosk of collected information.

The site was Wynberg, Johannesburg.

First I had to understand the site and building through the experimental process of image making:

Building as history

Building as beacon and testimony

Building as axis mundi

Building as place

Building as person

Building as skin and void

Building as meaning

Building as opportunity

Building as vertical landscape

Building as conflict

Building as community

Only then did I realize how I wanted and needed to approach this seemingly boring building.

Second Year Final Design Project

Playground design

For my final project in second year we had a site in Slovo Park, an informal settlement just outside of Johannesburg.

We had to design a playground for the kids entirely from concrete, as this was sponsored to us. Other requirements were that it had to be safe, robust and accessible in an informal settlement. The top three designs would be chosen and be built by our class.

My design with the concept: Learning through movement was one of the chosen designs to be built:

Our site:

Site analysis:

Concept:

Drawings (rough):

After incorporating all three winning designs into one, we started to build. We had one week.

Cleaning the site

Digging trenches 

Cutting the shutter board

Laying the DPC

Pouring the concrete

Smoothing it out and removing air bubbles

Me and a dad from the community volunteering

The three winners: Whandile Mkhwanazi, me, Megan Wilson

Helping hands from the kids

Decorated stepping stones

Kids enjoying their new playground 

A grateful community 

Please visit http://slovo-park.blogspot.com for more information