Waste arts studio of plastic Ilze Mari Wessels [UP} by Issa Mari

Notes on the codification of this book / Language / Abbreviations The research topic of this dissertation is focused on waste and architecture and through various investigations three concepts were developed in relation to attitudes towards waste. These attitudes have been used as a mechanism of structuring this book as a means to emphasize the duality of meanings and the potential of interpretation of conceptual foundations and therefore function as a academic exploration of language and design in architecture. Therefore each chapter will begin with its designated number but also its explored attitude. These attitudes are clearly defined in the conceptual chapter [ch 6] but for summary purposes a short and basic definition will be provided here for quick reference. Accepting; a general attitude of embracing, absorbing, immersion towards to the value of waste Rejecting; an attitude of disposal, separation or non-acceptance of the value of waste Reflecting; an attitude of questioning, debate and discussion relating to the value of waste This book is also in a form a tool for creative expression and serves to stand as final artwork of this dissertation, therefore the use of poetic language will be utilized in the introduction to each chapter, and this completed poem is located in the annex of this book. SLOW : the Social life of waste The Green Markers : inspired by the series of books from OMA called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Elementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the colour green will be used to mark out importance related to waste and its attitudes of value as defined throughout this document.

Contents 00.

Into 01.

Wastes 02.

ag au 03.

slow 04.

conditioning 05.

concept 06.

Theory 07.

design 08.

117

plastic 09. tech

121

figures

reflection

00. Into

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Into

So lets get into it a little bit of something that is this, a little bit of nothing and a little bit of something. Into this mess that is but mass, transfigured into a smell I cant but could and might, a taste I never and sight I shall. This is the dustbin – have you met her ? Now climb inside.

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The search for an issue Issues are not hard to come by. Generally speaking the world is full of issues, those we read about in the newspapers ranging from economic to environmental crisis, those we encounter and experience firsthand, such as the current student protests at all South Africa institutions. Issues are defined as those aspects which are important topics of debate or in another sense it means to distribute. Throughout the final year of academic study at the university, it is interesting to identify how each student has explored a general issue that is also personally related to their own issues but also relating to a message which they wish to issue to the field of architecture. This dissertation does not seek to delve into the psychological meaning of this relation –rather recognize how design and the designer are intrinsically related and that even through the process of abstraction, interpretation and critique, a designer is always interpreting through the lenses of the self. In the case of this dissertation, the general issue is that of waste. An issue identified through firsthand experience and also through active association to an organization called SLOW. The issue of waste can be vaguely interpreted through readings of definitions from the internet and dictionaries as ‘matter which is wasted through carelessness or squandering, matter which is without full potential, which is unwanted’ and so the readings go on. The reason for selecting waste as an issue to deal with as a dissertation topic of architecture is not because of the current understanding of waste, rather the changing attitudes towards waste but also to the explore the broad spectrum of what is considered waste and eventually what do these spectrums mean to architecture. Jeremy Till (2009:45) refers to the presentation of Peter

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Guthrie in his book ‘Architecture Depends’ and quotes him on saying that ‘architecture is waste in transit’. His statement encompasses the challenge that faces the built environment as a whole and to a great extent also confronts the very popular green movements where suddenly architecture is made to be held accountable for its enormous carbon footprint [green building handbook] and contributions to harming the resources of the planet which are clearly more vulnerable than ever before [Frampton]. The position which architecture has taken in response based on the situations related to climate and resource concern has been to become more conscious of the building and its materials and construction methods thereby conserving resources directly but also how the building functions as a machine and uses energy during its post-construction, again in an attempt to conserve resources. It has however been debated that the energy outputs generated in order to conserve energy does in fact use more energy in its totality. [Reference] This dissertation accepts this approach towards a conservation of resources, however would like to explore the means in which architecture can extend beyond its physical parameters of being a responsible entity and explore strategies and methods of making a didactic architecture that communicates, radiates and extends the conservation ethic through to its immediate context. This dissertation seeks to reject the current waste/green aesthetic but seeks to reflect on the architectures that can become realised on a one to one scale for the effect of immediate change, because of that state of planetary affairs and the planet boiling [reference] For this reason this dissertation seeks to remain as close to the real context, but due to the academic potential of an exploration of waste in architecture takes on a qualitative method of a narrative methodology. ------------------------------------------------------------------

Method -MEASUREMENT – VISION -

Drawing theory, pamphlet, the tool Hypothesized outcomes

What this dissertation hopes to explore through the topic of waste is that societies current value system is flawed – and that architecture as a design field situated within a economic and real world framework has the

accepting ability to communicate other values.

01. Wastes

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Wastes Pollution is a necessary result of the inability of man to reform and transform waste. The transformation of waste The transformation of waste The transformation of waste The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest pre-occupation of man. Man being the chosen alloy, He must be reconnected via shit, at all cost.

PATTI SMITH, [lyrics from 25th floor.]

That waste is the expression of mankind’s inability to transform and transform might be assumed true if one has to reflect on the existing social conditions proliferating globally through protest, violence and political, economic corruption, corrupted leadership and environmental turmoil without consequence – in such a context it may be difficult to grasp or relate to any future. Through a hyper-poeticisation of waste there exists the potential to relate a realism of the irrelevance of death and communicate instead the value of life. In other words, waste could exist as a narrative by which secularity can extends itself or perhaps even find itself cultivated into a religious outlook that might relate to reincarnation. This chapter seeks to divulge how waste transmits beyond matter moving along the branches of disposal and discarding, but also exists as matter of a more conceptual nature, be it consciousness or belief stagnating at a specific point within a system. This chapter broadens the understanding of waste by relating it to the context of Silverton and also concludes in how contextual or spatial waste results in social waste. As stated in the introductory chapter it is clear that humanity is in full confrontation with its finite environment, coming to terms both the eventual and inevitable collapse [Frampton 2007: 344]. Frampton

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writes conclusively about the complex territory of the capitalist surface is that it exists within a network of abstracted boundaries or fiscal fences that separate individuals from communicating because of access to the environments in which we interact. The ordering structures of the system in which we function, a system otherwise known as capitalism does not reject its responsibility to both the environment and the planet, however extends itself in directions hard to understand, therefore the dissertation seeks to explore how architecture can serve as this medium of message about the relation between environmental capitalism. [The classic principles of supply demand still govern all aspects of our invisible reality and generate an economist gravity that disregards the science of nature entirely [(Frampton 1980):] and have us defined and categorized according to our position within the consumptive scales. ] Architecture is not the combatant/enemy to ‘the system’ that is capitalism which Frampton associates to the issues at hand of resource depletion, rather the author would argue that architecture seeks to exist as the tool by which introductions to ‘otherness’ can begin to e carried over as a liberal social consciousness that is relatable to the individual. So related that at his/her capacity the perceived meaninglessness or over-meaning of the worlds issues, especially in light of global climatic concerns can become more easily navigated. This dissertation will explore how architecture can simply communicate to the individual as a means of empowerment over the sense of overwhelming crisis. For this reason this chapter will go on to define waste as that beyond the landfills and the matter accumulating in our physical presences and address aspects related to social waste and spatial waste. Wastescape/Plastic rocks and the Monolith In response to a global context of what seems to be an expected endangered future according to the writings of Frampton et al. - the response of the author is to look beyond the general commodities

and issues pertaining to the environment as defined specifically in the introductory chapter of a recent Birkhauser publication called Residential buildings [2015]. Pfeiffer [2015: 10-25] goes on to write about the current architectural context and the five main challenges facing architecture today which will be elaborated on and responded to below. [insert figure sketch] 1. The new social and demographic context that relates to the elderly bubble and the migration conflicts experienced as part of the thirsty planet syndrome. Mention is made of Alvar Aaltos all purpose room [Villa Mairea http://www.alvaraalto.fi/net/ villa_mairea/en/14.htm] The above issue in relation to the topic of waste is directly aligned with social waste [insert figure sketch] ; the continuing complexity of legislation with its rapid rate of accepting new laws but because of bureaucratic tendency not being able to apply them fast enough, ; Another seemingly unending condition that is sprawl and the unsustainable land consumption rates – creating strange and non-resilient pockets of sealed off land, [somewhat like suburbs [] that see islands of function irrespective of the global context. ; The well-publicized climate context, ; And finally the newly popularized LCA analysis of materials, an awareness of the embodied aspects of material use The dissertation intends to engage with perceptions of waste, its belonging to the nature of humanity as much so as the rocks which we build houses upon. THE SUBURBAN RUIN: / Urban waste The context of the suburbs is ruin to social wealth, originating from human endeavors for healthier environments for living and eventually enveloped in its own isolation. What is typology? Another point raised by Pfiefer in the Birkhauser

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publication [2015: 19] ‘The type is not invented, not designed, not developed, the type emerges, grows, culminates, decays, flattens. Types are organically concrete. ‘ A typology embodies collective meaning [2015; 23] ‘TO CREATE ARCHITECTURE IS to create meaning through typology’ The typologies belonging to the suburb are at this point of architectural arguments in South Africa recognized as meaningless realms of interventions, and there is general apprehension or confusion related to the selection of this place. But as is evident in our context, our architecture is often an entire movement or ten years behind that of the world. [Arthur lecture] Today the American suburbs which have already experienced their decline are being re-envisioned. The opportunity for spaces to be used in new ways has begun and typologies such as the mall and the house have already begun being redesigned as places for learning, creating and uplifting communities.

C: The consequences of the suburb, and its typology have resulted in a fragmented social fabric, which the program of an artist residency seeks to address, challenge and engage with. The cities are now in economic capital mode, realizing the potential of investment into urban spaces, however the gentrification of the city will see its own slump yet stabilize the current detoriation of place. However as with gentrification, we see the rise of property prices and the initial communities that gave the place its intrinsic value in the first place. The author imagines as the inevitable gentrification sets in, the communities will shift to the peripheries such a mediator towns like Silverton. Here where property prices are low, space is abundant artists and

entrepreneurs will flock and see it transformed and wait for the space eaters to come along and leave another carcass to which they will begin and make a new flesh. The suburb exists as an opportune environment to which architects have become repelled, because of the urban economic future that we now see ourselves shifting towards. These contexts, where majority of people reside then become ‘waste places’ losing out on the potentials of social changes. The suburbanite either stays or moves to the extreme countryside or perhaps to the city, depending on the circumstances. The urbanite moves either to the suburbs remains in the city or the extreme countryside. This binary is harmful to health of all place. --------------------------------------------------------

BINARY: spatial waste urban decompression

The contextual selection was based on the desire of the author to respond to a concept of ‘waste space’ – a context which is trapped in a binary – that considers a place to be of less worth because of its relation to a context which experiences positive development. In the case of this dissertation, the suburban urban binary comes into question and explores the role of architecture in the suburban context as a means to become the relational calculus for the urban context rather than its polar opposite. Like the’ distributed economies ‘ [insert figure from Venice biennale] idea that there is value in distribution and even sprawl, considering if it is beneficial to invest in ‘wasted’ space as a means of destruction of the binary and also wasteful areas. This dissertation does not support the endless waste of space through distribution of living, rather it

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recognizes argues that the binaries have led to the waste, and by allowing a re-valuation of all space there can come about a more sustainable use of all land, no matter the relation to the urban realm, which in itself has become an entity of mass growth and accelerated growth, to such an extent that it can in fact no longer cope. [URBAN CONFERENCE LECTURES] ---------------------------------------------------------

INFORMATION LANDSCAPES: [social waste]

As technological advancements continue, so to do the means of using it and as Futugawa states in the writings of the Morphosis special issue by the GA Document [2005]. ‘… with each new advancement comes a new means of building,’ it seems that information landscapes are the ones that have become most complex From an architectural perspective, the important point is that we need to translate architecture collectively via different media and perspectives, because only the misunderstandings and the mistakes that occur in the process of translation can make us aware of differences in the understanding of architecture and urge us to make refine our designs or alter and adapt our uses of architecture. (Bovelet 2012) Charles JENCKS [architectural review] The new cathedrals, if one persists in using such an anachronistic metaphor, are not even the gigantic server farms that anonymously house, on remote desert sites, the hardware of Google’s search engines, but the ever-changing software packages and ethereal data banks that they create. Drawings ---- Music

The language of building has become digital, and the problem is here – in South Africa, we don’t speak it. Information poverty (Schroder 2015) A short video in where Bjarke Ingels of BIG architecture takes on his architectural philosophy through the tool of drawing. He address the virtuality of our world and relates it to the dream and states easily how his architecture aims to solve problems without through a mathematics of architectural typologies, parts and fictions - WORLD CRAFT - the craft of making our world, turning surreal dreams into inhabitable space 100 million people populate mine craft Predecessor of mine craft is Lego – minifigs the largest ethnic group on the planet. If geography is the documentation The image in its essence is an object of representation. [Bachelard and Jolas, 1994:10] The image painted at the Lascaux caves in France did not feel anything like a cow, a hunter or even taste and smell like the blood shed from that hunt. It felt like stone; hard, cool and rough, dry and maybe even moist. The image was sculptural. The same is true of hieroglyphs, the flood tablet with the epic of Gilgamesh and other ancient carvings of narratives onto objects, the image itself became the image of place [Certeau 1984: 79] and the image itself is more than just an image, it too is a surface which allows for the existence of image. The surface of the screen is the place where image exists and also fails to exist because of the narrative which is embodied within it. Gotschall [2005:177] makes the argument that storytelling is only as old as spoken word however it could be argued that storytelling was first ‘the visual action’ from which storytelling arose, and therefore language. Yet the amount of ‘visual actions’ which take place in the 21st century are enough to make the world shake off its own axis and stir up a few oceans and

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volcanoes. Technology combined with social networks allows for the constant exchange of information, most of which is becoming exceptionally visual; memes, Instagram inboxing, emoticons, stickers etc. The abundance of visual stimuli related to action has resulted in a hyper-representation of reality [Ross 1995:148] which has contributed to the extreme abstraction of reality as described by Beckmann [1998: 180], thus more and more the image becomes questioned as false place with only a figurative truth. This figurative nature of reality represented in image is criticized for being meaningless; the likelihood of manipulation of image makes image either untruthful or fictional. This becomes problematic for the arts which are dependent on the figurative language of all things including image, as a means to making meaning from reality about reality. 4 How then do we feel the image and its realness? This paper intends to explore the variety of meaning of places related to the digital image in order to understand the new territories of the online world and its effects on image culture. [Wessels 2014: 3] The architectural language must develop beyond that which is, to challenge the form, the method of making will be the ultimate evidence of success. To conclude in reference back to the quote from Patti Smith and her song 25th floor, the lack of transformation of waste is the human weakness, there is ample opportunity, however we are still realizing these. Therefore the approach of this dissertation that will then be further explored in the design and technical chapters of this book is that transformation based on attitudes that have informed concepts which will be elaborated on in the conceptual chapter.

rejected

02. ag au

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ag au

The search for an architecture/ The search for place /

‘Where is the pie in the sky?’

Dylan T. Graham South African Painter

Architecture responds to place and to people, without place there can be no foundations without people there can be no use, but this is a reality merely because of the capitalist culture in which we find ourselves situated at this time. In the spirit of the artist who questions the architect, a friend named Dylan would ask of the author where the pie in the sky was – wondering when architects would return to their art of creating places people were dreaming of visiting – not needed to visit, when would the building be the artwork again?

Yet architectures art is in its ability to meet with gravity and allude to the sky whilst recognizing how tied to the ground humanity it, for the time being. For this reason and also reason of realness and the recognition of the economic and environmental realities. The complex territory of the capitalist surface is that it exists within a network of abstracted boundaries or fiscal fences that separate individuals from communicating because of access to the environments in which we interact. The classic principles of supply demand still govern all aspects of our invisible reality and generate an economist gravity that disregards the science of nature entirely [(Frampton 1980): gggg] and have us defined and categorized according to our position within the consumptive scales.

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Shall we merge our solution on a neutral surface, refreshed from the usual notions of identity related to money? So the site of Silverton became the place of an architecture dissertation, besides having relatively low land prices due its reasonably weak soil conditions and ability to densify. The buffer zone[reference] logic is somewhat applicable to Silverton. Although it was not recorded to have been an active area that sought the separation of local tribes in the area from the city, there are various factors that allude to its role in the separation of white from black {Krtizinger ] Lewis Mumford [ ] and his writings on the suburbs describe the narrative we all know. The city absorbed with its ills of capitalism, workers, rats and disease became a sinking pit that made the countryside appear more appealing than ever. The escapist notions began to fall through as that which the residents of the suburb sought to leave behind soon became the same issues embodied into a different context. The isolation from the city yet continuing dependency on it meant that the car become the role of all, and soon time was a toxic waste of traffic and the suburbanite was a miserable pile of mud sludging through from one place to the next, and arriving at each destination, locking themselves in until it was time to move to the next box and lock into it until the following day. Silverton exists in a slightly different light than most suburbs. Although the first buyer of the farm, Hans Mundt [reference moretele spruit] left Pilgrims rest with his attained wealth, he like most suburban species sought to start afresh and be the master of his environment. Before the halfway house was erected along the Morelleta Spruit the land was a warm and green and grassy and situated on its primordial landscape of

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mud lands and shales, soft soils that flowed sludging like the surbanite traffic jams through the mountains to the low lands of the urban centre. The ebb and flows of the place continued, as even the voortrekkers during their annual visits to the Voortrekker monument for the 26th of December day, tredged through the town of Silverton to arrive at their places of centrality. The suburbs of Silverton were selected as site for the initial context of perceived place of ‘waste’ A waste of land, a waste of place, and a place filled with waste [scrapyards] - and in the readings of waste and rubbish theory {} It then supports the authors rational of how all places are deserving of value-adding architectures - to undermine the social categorization of ‘waste’. Also, considering the reality of how majority of the countries populations are living in suburban typological contexts - the context of the suburb also serves as relevant landscape to which the information’s about the futures of waste can begin to become more effectively realised - and thereby begin to take root for the proliferating applications into the global context. Essentially - to assimilate the place to a mud land which was it primordial land - of mud and tropical climate, with its volcanic qualities that sees the startups of a few mining locations that were not enough to sustain it [Re transcribe the land geological study] Silverton keeps trying to rise up from its content but like the very strength of the soil will not allow [for densification] the architectures seeks to draw

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from and extract its very nutrient and material rich surface and construct a place where the identity of Silverton can be consolidated and represented - and serve as an example of how small architectures are valuable and can alter mindsets at small scales. The mud, as much as it may be dirty and perceived as gross by ideologies of dirt, is rich and filled with goodness. (Kritzinger 1987) Silverton began as a small halfway house, located today at the Pioneer Museum. Hans Mundt having gained new wealth at Pilgrims Rest, decided to move north and acquire land. On this farm which later became the various neighborhoods of Silverton as we know it today, Hans Mundt erected a half-way house. A place where travelers could stop and find rest. Concurrently, Silverton no longer exists as a place of resting. Besides the pioneer Museum still being actively used for events, cultural tours and the weekly Farmers Market every Saturday morning from dawn, there is little and few things to stop besides a car repair, a shopping spree, a police affidavit and the Sunday rituals of church. Silverton is a passthrough suburb. Silverton is located central to Mamelodi, Pretoria Central, the eastern Suburbs and the Scienza district of the CSIR. In support of the exploration of this dissertation, the author seeks to challenge the networks into which architecture inserts itself. Besides Silverton property prices being some of the lowest in Pretoria, the site is situated in the centre of one giant industry of small business. ----------------------------------------------------------

THE PRICE OF SILVERTON

The site selection originated from a desire to find affordable property that could realised projects of a small scale in an area well situated among resources

for making architecture as cost effectively as possible. When fiscal matters become deciding factors, it could be argued that the author contradicts herself in relation to her arguments against capitalism and its commodification of resources. However, one cannot oppose a system from outside, doing things in opposition only results in conflict. When we work in conjunction with existing structures we are able to be an active part of their critique --- the statements in the beginning of this document merely wish to serve as that criticism of the system in which we now find ourselves functioning, and also as a testament of the time in which this project finds will come to exist, albeit fictionally, the context of place and time are equally relevant to architecture. SCRAP GARDENS As mentioned, the context of Silverton although not only rich in a variety of industrial yards and small factories that specialise in building things like lamps, custom hand crafted wood furniture and specialised security fences. On the left, the images reflect the different types of waste yards that are prevelant in Silverton from which the proposed project will draw from [this chapter needs to write about the way in which scrap exists in an organized manner within silverton – and how this existing layer is being translated into the project ] in the form of another scrap centre ---specifically of plastic , that then seeks to unmask the machine [ FOUCAULT] and intergrate the public into the process.

CONDITIONAL PLACE SILVERTON [the nuance]

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Silverton exists as a fringe community located as a soft centre to the surrounding neighborhoods of Eersterust, Koedesport, and Mamelodi etc. Situated to the north are two locations, Mamelodi, established as part of the Silverton’s community’s decision to move the informal settlers on its town periphery to a more established area (Kritzinger 1987) and Eersterust. To the south of the area in what is known as the Scientia corridor, connecting the CSIR through the botanical gardens to the western quarter of Silverton. It’s demographic

reflecting

03. slow

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slow ‘Dirt and waste are merely the products of systems of social classification. ‘Where there is dirt there is a system.’ Jeremy Till 2013

The Social Life of Waste Arts [SLOWA] is an regional network of artists, researchers and institutions that has been allocated funding to investigate, document and communicate through event and exhibition the current issues relating to that of waste. The quote above my Jeremy Till aims to relate how through waste a collection of systems have begun to establish, where the assumed chaos of waste has begun to surmount to a level chaos so too have people decided to respond to this chaos and order it and through these means so research has begun to identify the relation to waste a myriad of social issues, and as the process of waste unpacking continues so too does an understanding of potential solutions for social issues. Ie. Waste as a building material in the areas where housing is an issue, water wastage management where waster waste is an issue. It is through the author’s involvement in this network, as an artist and researcher, that the research topic of this dissertation is based on waste. Through this relation to a real world network the dissertation seeks to contribute to how architecture can function for temporary networks such as SLOWA in order to extend its own life span as a temporary network. The network consists of four different hubs in three different countries. Harare, Maputo, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Every year each hub hosts a regional workshop for the duration of a week, where four artists from each hub contribute their skills and works of art to a culminating event of a final exhibition that is open to the public as a means of communicating the agenda of waste potential. In the past year regional workshops have been dedicated to sharing ideas, knowledge and skills and sees the generation of new information that could be utilized as a primary set of resources from which to begin formalizing the network itself but also work towards

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the greater goal of contextualizing the issues surrounding waste in our societies and making possible solutions clearer and more didactly accessible to the greater public. [INSERT PHOTOGRAPHS OF MAPUTO] The author visited Maputo in 2016, with her introductory chapters to propose how her dissertation attempts to incorporate the artist agenda of the network into a context of relevant waste perceptions - so that the research could align not only with the authors own ideals relating to waste but also aligning to the goals and outcomes of the network itself. Thus this dissertation seeks to be available and used as a tool for realizing ideas in other networks. The realness of the dissertation client is a critique on role of architecture in general. In reference to the previous chapters which outline the various issues related to waste, resource endangerment and the environment in relation to architecture, it is clear that architecture no longer needs to serve as monuments of grand consumption, rather of humble representation and in a Vitruvian [reference] sense, remember that there is a legacy of architecture in the way that it remains, and the authors intent of selecting the temporary yet real client is a means of both expressing and exploring how architecture itself can be temporary, humble and slightly apologetic about how it has played a definitive role in positioning humanity in a situation of compromise. Silverton centre for looking onto waste [the program] Mary Douglas: nothing is intrinsically dirty and waste is not an internal quality of an object. If waste can become the object by which we begin to measure with that then becomes the informants of design then does this contribute to waste consciousness?

The author has to argue, that no, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s does not. An attempt to use form as a generator is however useful in terms of design mechanics but not for social reconstruction. ----------------------------------------------------------

Artist Residency with a culmination gallery: Primary program, root program

Water and Plastic Recycling centre: Secondary Program, branch program Spatial Requirements of an artist residency: AAC Guide to residency specifies the very unpoetic aspect of the rational design required to facilitate artists and the art created. -----------Pretoria and its non residency The collectives FOUND SLOW and the emergence of artists WIllem Boschoff and his relation to Silverton [Kritzinger] -----------The potential of the residency

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accepting the rejected

04. conditioning

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conditioning ‘We stubbornly think we are inhabiting a city, but we are inhabiting situations.’ Rem Koolhaas [2011] As a visitor too place, we often choose to experience the places of a site along the vehichleur access routes because of its ease of access. In the case of Silverton with its extremely automobile-orientated nature this may then seem to be the truest manner in which to experience site. However, beyond the lanes of cars, taxis, buses and waste trolleys are the valleys of the passenger, ranging from footpaths, pavements, fences gaps and then also train tracks and the slipping sliding hillsides, where the police frequently ruffle through the overgrowth to shake out those inhabiting the in-between. On returning from Silverton to the space of the studio, the architect as always in host to a collection of images, some sketches and a range of experiential data. From these pools of information we are responsible for the translation, interpretation and representation of place- if anything, a very ethical foundation to any architect project therefore emerges from the urban framework. as it goes with photo documentation - the images were of what seemed to be the broken and patched together pieces of a neighborhood that was thriving - ‘floating over the mud’ which the semi little highway of Pretoria street facilitated a massive drive through instead of any kind of arrival. As a group, we derived a framework core from the associations of experience to symbols that then later become, like letters in the alphabet - the means by which we constructed the sentences of urban strategies that sought to see Silverton uplifted to the status of ______ successful and visually so. The urban condition of Silverton required an understanding of place through a codification; due to the existing suburban urban binaries [reference] there was a need to approach the place in a literal sense and respond to the language of form and physical

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spatial conditions to develop a language that could be continuously referred to throughout the design development of an architecture, not only to suffice requirements of rigor but also to develop a methodology that could bear findings and if anything be used again in future. For this reason the chapter of mapping the urban conditions is called ‘Conditioning’. The word conditioning often refers to things along the line of ‘training’, ‘preparing’ or even ‘brainwashing’ or in the more everyday way to the washing on ones hair with conditioner, thereby ‘softening’, ‘sealing’ and ‘treating’. Overall to condition is to respond to an existing condition as a means to improve. As with all urban frameworks and to refer specifically to those which have been developed for the city of Tshwane, the agenda is to improve the existing conditions, yet often frameworks are so complex, long-winded and cryptic that they take years to implement and often get rewritten along the way, in other words the becomes shelved and in the opinion of the author, failed frameworks. To avoid this failure the mapping process was unified into a simple code, which may in itself appear cryptic because of the nature of its language being visual and symbolic, however it can be argued in accordance to Venturis’ writings in his book ‘Complexity and Contradiction’ that architecture is the language too a language of symbolism that is explored through the representation of language through form and image, therefore it would seem only logical for the urban exploration to express itself for the benefit of architecture in a similar manner. INSERT METHOD IMAGES AND EXPLAIN STEP BY STEP: The methodology is related closely to the ‘Pattern Language’(1977) and the way in which Christopher Alexander explains urban spaces and ways in which they are more and least successful. This codification of urban conditions was applied in a similar manner. Step 1. Walk.

Step 2. Talk Step 3. Be a tourist [break the rules, be ignorant, and trust people] Step 4. Document landmarks and pathways â&#x20AC;&#x201C; defining what leads your journey The location of Silverton as explained in chapter 2, exists as a buffer space [Detlev Krige 2016] and the The identified conditions the invisible destination This dissertation seeks to confront the suburban context of Silverton through the insertion of an architecture. An existing cultural-civic suburban block as a mechanism by which to activate the lost [x] artisan of the industrial wasteland and so address the ideologies of architecture and its role as social agent through form and program. AS an introduction in Architecture, there is always a problem statement. Something which architecture must correct or fix or question in order to find another answer. The author believes in another approach. That which is unknown or of curious incentive to the architecture is the project the architect should pursue. [however the author is well aware we live in times where the client chooses ] this is however not a criticism on the economics of the world - for this author acknowledges her economic weaknesses - instead it is a dream of a place where architecture is always beautiful - but even this author needs to comment on what beauty is. The ugly with everything is not just that we are bound within a world of too much information, disease and disaster, [GUNS GERMS AND STREEL} where the laws of gravity approach the future of being more frequently rewritten, and in the background I am sitting here trying to figure out the meaning of life of life through my twitter account. The ugly with everything is that it would seem that nothing is as it appears to be and we are wasted to

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the meaning of it all as , however we are trying to establish order within this chaos at all times - this age of chaos and complexity {Charles Jencks 2002 : 3] . [Cosmology etc.] In this lexicon of pseudo stability, Silverton provides a precedent-experimental platform for the unpacking of both social and architectural issues of related to waste and also the greater urban context of Pretoria. Both material and immaterial realms of the context exhibit conditions of the urban ideal only at lower densities. Silverton is a place of cumulative and withheld secondary resources drifting along a series of shifting orbits - can architecture not rather be investigative in its nature - seeks out not a problem rather a potential for unlocking. [Thompson 1991: 35] writes of how the post-literate generation is living a life through the digital realm, how time is manufactured because of technology and

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reflecting of accepting

05. concept

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concept In the premise of this dissertation, which seeks to utilize the program of a community architecture – a place for the facilitation of social interaction and learning through the medium of art – there has always been the question of how do we extract people from their existing social environments – besides becoming more dynamic and complex and integrated into the virtual – but also how does one bring people to the mess that is waste? The author has hypothesized throughout the year that is art – living in a country where art diminished as a reflection of our societies political and economic struggles – there now seems to be an surge of interest in arts – and art even sees itself as a political activists – with recent commotion relating to the Zuma painting by _________ - which saw the ANC woman’s league take to the streets to protest [ a soft and gentle musical one it must be added – so much so the author thought to join – but on tweeting about it was soon informed about the true purpose of it] to defend the dignity of the President Zuma [insert his full name for more emphasis] . So as art establishes itself – not only does it speak of a positive future in the creative industries of South Africa and the booms surrounding events like Design Indaba, Turbine Art Fair and the Social Life of Waste art – are proof of not only the rise of the industry but also the social dimension of these industries – which seek to reach out to large amounts of people – not only to make some money – but also to get more people active agents in the life that is art. However there is an obvious exclusivity when it comes to art – there are people who do not enjoy art, there are people who do not enjoy to see waste elevated to the state of art and there are people who believe certain types of art are inappropriate [ the Zuma piece] – so there exists social contestation relating to art. Even better – because now my dear South Africans – we have what we call dialogue – and this all through art. But is that dialogue accessi-

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ble to the man on the street, not able to afford a slice of bread and who is seeking shelter for the night? Where does this dialogue manifest itself in such a way that a democratic society is truthful in its accessibility to water, freedom of speech? It does so in architecture. The history of art – is a dense one but also not one I seek to delve into – but as architects we are educated in the history of architecture which finds itself running along time in conjunction with art, its paradigms, its shifts and its schools of thought, the same is true of music, and science and even religion– mostly because it has always been the art that has questioned everything from reality to authority – and architecture, inspired by the ideas and notions and questions set forth by works of art sought to not only exploit them, but to question them in the terms of reality itself and the laws of gravity. The Attitudes to Waste Accepting value Rejecting value Reflecting value By ACCEPTING - the waste picker is one such a person who choses, not necessarily through freedom but through a strive for freedom, to engage with waste and accepts its role of life giving in its own capacity. By REJECTING – the nihilist, the person who consumes and exhumes at the same rate, the rate of exchange is equal – and they are the fluid of a system. By REFLECTING - – the waste generators who have not always consciously applied themselves to the generation thereof, or those who have done so actively The following words were initiated through a personal understanding of not how waste is generated or disintegrates and rather how it is considered to approach a social sensitivity to the concepts of gen-

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eration and disintegration, life and death, of waste. The waste issue in itself represents to how we experiencing an understanding of the end of life. [This may have been repeated in another section] Figure 8â&#x20AC;&#x2122;the way of wasteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is a diagram drawn by the author in the early stages of the year, as an intuitive exploration of program in relation to the research topic to be explored

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rejecting the accepted

06. Theory

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theory TIME OF EXPERIENCES Theory emerges through the process of making. This is something the author of this dissertation believes, although she herself does not claim to be the author of theory through making, rather contends that theory should be the informant of design, arguing that there exists such a deep pool of theory from which to draw from that the aligning theories- which we as authors seeks to substantiate our arguments – that the process of making is a sure way to ensure selection of theory aligns even more. This could be argued by a critic to be post-rational and the author understands that, but perceives that theory, no matter when encountered was always the theory which suited the project best. When two people speak the same language they understand one another – and when a design speaks the language of the theory or vice versa, the understand one another and are able to explain each other. This duality and relationship to the continuing emergence of information is related also to the branching logic theory which the author has tried to also connect to a codification of architecture and its science. Below is a screenshot of the theory content of the authors writing in APRIL, there was a notion of what she was looking for to explain her thinking – but through more reading the vocabulary continues to emerge. Syllogism + Branch Logic, Temporal Logic – resonates with the initial diagram of waste. The way in which an object of waste enters into a system is never its final destination, rather there exists the potential for the object to traverse along a selection of pathways, in this case, branches – the initial diagram [Figure above] imagined there to be only two, but in reality there exists more which is being extrapolated through this dissertation. Syllogism suggests that a conclusion can be deduced

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from two premises – and this follows a branch logic in representation, flowing from two to one, as if the return to the root – the core. This dissertation regards waste as the opposite of this logic – rather waste, in the way that it flows through our lives is not deductive – its path is so poorly understood that there can be little deductive arguments made, although students such as Pierre Reynecke in his dissertation of the social conditions relating to waste dumps – expresses part of a movement towards a greater understanding of waste culture. By understanding the path better we can work the logic along the path of a syllogistic argument and destroy the source of waste. Finally in relation to the title of ‘time of experiences’ it must also be noted that on the Bergsonian understanding of sciences’ failure to define time by means of experience of the subject, there has been an active attempt by the author to understand design over the duration of this year. The sheet in the right [fig number] ---------------------------------------------------------

CONDITIONAL CODING

[assuming sources, roots, causes of waste]

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reflecting on rejection

07. reveal

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reveal This chapter is one of the hardest chapters for an author of architecture to write. On a personal level it is related to the spiritual conetations of design and the manifestion of ideas through creation - yet at the same time architecture finds itself situated within the logic of the sciences that require states of measurement. Although rigour may be intention as a means to find the steps and methods for future calculations to be built open, design exists within a narrative state, where factors of daily routine, diet and mood are all factors of different sciences that must then find themselves melded in with the sciences of structure, gravity and materials - therefore one can merely tell the story and as with all stories - no matter where you start or end, the author always knew the story and the process of reading is what allows the reveal of the full picture to come about. This year of design has revealed to the author in her right, how the story of the project was always in her mind and it has been through the creation of drawings to models that a building was able to be revealed. In this chapter, the author hopes to take you through the development of the character that is her art factory that then comes to life through design methods and finally presents itself as the full picture to a series of chapters. -----------------------------------------------------------

reflecting of revealing

In a way of Reflecting on waste through the medium of representation of design, it must be asked what is a wasted design ? On selecting the topic of waste for this dissertation, there was concern relating to how this topic could in itself become a waste - an potential exploration lost. Therefore it is important in the unpacking of this design to express the variances of waste thought It is interesting to discover how simple things can

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become over complicated, despite initial intentions of minimal and simple ideals a clutter arrives due to process and time. With a research topic such as waste there is an understanding that waste itself might become the project, however if anything the author can now in reflection of a year passing finally conclude that the method of the design is similar to that of Michelangeloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement on how sculpture emerges from matter â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how the marble body he so artfully seemed to melt from stone, is not carved from stone but only uncovered from within. His medium was marble and as it goes in discussions of art, the medium is the message or is the message the medium [reference]? Shall we merge our solution on a neutral surface, refreshed from the usual notions of identity related to money? -----------------------------------------------------------

Process story

Once conceptual development of the beacon, the role theatre and the frequencies were developed a precedent appraoch was utilised to inform that sorts of spaces that would be required for the building and its program but also spatial qualities, materiality and structural elements this wad then translated into further drawings of spaces, details and experimented with in model making. ----------------------------------------------------------

beacon The artist residecy design development drew from the authors personal relations to artists and their residency experiences and her own visits to the Nirox Sculpture park situated within the area known as the Cradle of Human kind. The typology of the artist residency is vast, sometimes attaching to existing structures as this dissertation seeks to do in relation to theories of spatial waste. The New york area alone has thousands of residecies available for artists working in all mediums, even architecture. Residency Unlimited is a website that specialises in provided a collection of the avialable residencies for artists to access on a global scale. As mentioned in chapter three, the artist residency is very much non-existent to the context of Pretoria and with the emergence of new artist collectives such as SLOW and Found Collective there is a need for this typology to be developed. The author used her relationships to artists based within both these Pretoria based collectives to starts to inform a spatial set of requirements for each artist to live and work in. On the right are a set of models that were made for 8 different artists. The sizes of the studio space[ in white ] were based on the medium of the artist , illustrators needed small drawing spaces and photographers needed dark rooms whilst scuplture artists needed spaces for cast, moulding, breaking apart and patina spaces. These models served as a conceptual complexity of designing several different types of studios and as design of space in relation to waste became more defined it also required that the residency become more of a residential exploration rather than a studio for several different arts. On a visit to STUDIO FINE in Pretoria North the author was able to access a clear unpacking of the process of fine metal work in silver, gold and bronze. The spatial requirements were complex and at this stage the decision was made to investigate further

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the type of studio that was waste related. Questions about waste steel and its sculptural potential were asked - because at this point the author was still undecided about the matter of physical waste which was to be used within the architecture. This came at a much later stage, and in retrpospect the author has been made aware that deciding earlier on a material informant would have been more useful to the architectural developments - however through this explorative method similarities between waste and precious metals were able to be made that further informed her perception and translation of attitudes of value of materiality, which is in itself as discussed in the chapter of theory [6] an architectural issue prevelant in South Africa. The concept of the beacon physically responds to the issues of physical waste through the activation of spatial waste that then seeks to alter and transform the social wastes.

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Role Theatre The notions of waste with their defined value systems that went on to inform these concepts being unpacked. The space of the role theatre seeks to deal with both value systems associated and defined in accordance to waste of rejecting and accepting.

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frequency The frequency spaces are related to defintions of the social waste and are spaces which the author imagines to embody all attutides of value towards waste because of the intricacies of the social diversity that is related to this program. Ranging from children entering the space after school in conjuction to the daily delivery and shredding ritual and routings of the waste pickers and the artist. These spaces are the entrances, the hallways and the corridors but also culminate in the gallery which situates itself as an elevated slice of earth shaped by the frequencies and flows of a prehistoric landscape. Emerged to facilitate the transformation of attitude through the arts of phyiscal, social [dialogue] and spatial [ architectures]/

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08. plastic

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09. branches

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shreddings.injection.

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ELEVATED The following images are conceptual elevations created with a range of diiferent types of ink, marker and pencils. This elevations were then translated into a more regulated, rulerised and formal elevation [ see bottom right] . This process of conceptual explosiveness with only the framework of scale then becomes the symbolic and emotional expression of the building - which then as seen in the formalised elevation, becomes regularised. What then happens with these two very different spectrums of designing is their intersection, not so much on a physical overlaying method of say - using a light table, rather through the use of modelling. This has been emergent in the way of designing in this dissertation. The 2dimensional drawing although it is the image of the 3dimensional object - is the tool by which to inform the 3dimensional and thereby the 3dimension becomes the tool for testing and thus goes on to inform the 2dimensional, which is then formally, conceptually and finally expressed in the 3dimensional drawing; the perspective. [SEE THE FOLLOWING PAGE]

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compression [heat]

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injection

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extrusion

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10. references

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