ANZA 6- The Architect: what we do! by anza start

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anzamagazine east african architecture

THE ARCHITECT what we do

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People and spaces

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anzamagazine east african architecture

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editorial Architecture is and will always be a profession or a lifestyle that encompasses people and spaces. But for the longest time, 90% of the East African region have failed to actually realize that many of the spaces are as a result of that one person who made the conscious decision to dedicate his/ her life to creating spaces that are both aesthetical and functional from the inside out. This back to basics issue, takes you through the life of an architect. Our feature article pays special tribute to Arch. Ross Langdon, east Africa’s master of Chameleon architecture whose way of practice defined an Architect as “A Sculptor of Shelter”. Author Anderes Esse took the opportunity to use his article, “Designing for people”, to challenge the profession with a food for thought. As we said Architects don’t just think buildings, they think people and spaces together. Lawrence Okoth shares his experience of being an architect in his article, “A tale of Scales”. Bence Komlosi and Zsofia Glatz explain the role of architects outside East Africa as “Architecture for, with and by the users.” Ana Nunez then takes us through a day in the life of an Architect. An architect is co-creator of what we see around us and what we sense around us. He/she focuses on the awareness of what it is to be in a place that might be small, large, light, dark, rough or smooth, and to move through it. In a nutshell, architects can’t design all the sensory experiences you might have in a building; their job is more to create the circumstances in which they might happen. I hope as you read this issue, you get to truly understand the Architect and what we do!

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anzamagazine east african architecture

Prologue

Kariakoo Market, Dar es Salaam Tanzania

Architects design all kinds of buildings. They design schools and skyscrapers. They design hospitals and hotels. They also design churches, train stations and plain old regular houses. Any building that is used by people was probably designed by some architect. Okay then, but what does the word “design” mean? A design is simply a plan. Before constructing a building, an architect needs to draw a plan of the building. Sometimes architects will make a cardboard or plastic model of the building. The building is then built by a construction company, which follows the directions of the plans for the building. The architect will closely supervise the construction company to make sure that the building is built according to the plans.Okay then, but what does an architect do when he or she draws up a plan? Architects have to think of many things before they draw up the plans for a building. First they have to think about what the building will be used for. How many people are going to use the building at the same time? What types of activities will these people do in the building? An office building will need lots of small rooms for offices. A school will need many medium-sized rooms for classrooms. And a train station will need one larger room for hundreds of people to pass thru at the same time. All of these building must be built so that they can be used efficiently by everyone who walks through their doors. When architects discuss what the building will be used for, they talk abut the “function” of the building. But the function of a building is just one of many things an architect has to think about when designing a building. Good architects also spend a lot of time making sure a building is safely designed, and making sure the building will last for many years. A building that is not safely designed could catch on fire or fall down on itself. Architects have to design building so that people can escape from the building in an emergency. Of course,

View of the central business district, Dar es Salaam

By Phil Shapiro

some emergencies, such as earthquakes or tornadoes, destroy even the safest buildings. A few years ago an architect had a real surprise when one of the buildings he designed collapsed under the weight of a foot of wet snow. The building was a sports arena with a large, curved roof. The heavy snow put so much pressure on the roof that the roof collapsed. Luckily nobody was in the sports arena at the time. Besides thinking about the function and safety of a building, architects also spend time creatively thinking about how they want the building to look. Just as a painter decides which paints to put where in a painting, an architect decides where to put the rooms, walls, and open spaces in a building.

Good architects also spend a lot of time making sure a building is safely designed, and make sure the building will last for many years. Just as different painters have different styles of painting, different architects have different styles of designing. One architect might like to use a lot of circles and curves in his or her buildings. Another architect might like to design buildings that look sleek and flat. Architects therefore, have to be good artists and good scientists when they design a building. The building must be pleasant to look at, pleasant to work in and strong enough to be safe from most natural disasters. Trying to do all these things at the same time is part of the challenge and excitement of being an architect. © 1988 http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/architects.html

CONTENTS... 06- Heritage By Mirko Oelschlaegel Using old German maps and ground plans, I found a lot of German footprints of that time in Tanzania. I try to share my knowledge on my website, answering questions from all over the world

10- A Tale of scales By Lawrence John Okoth Architecture plays a subtle but primary role in creating the environment for the user experience, observing and providing protection but a more secondary role in how the experience is experienced which is where objects will play a primary role.

13- Arch.Ross Langdon Bio By Anoek De Smet â&#x20AC;&#x153;One must be present in order to discover beauty in unexpected placesâ&#x20AC;?

14- Designing for the people By Anders Esse We are good at this design process but it becomes confusing when there are multiple voices and different groups that want different things. When power and politics become part of the project, as is bound to happen at an urban scale, we tend to turn a blind eye and attempt to separate what that involvement means from the design of spaces and buildings

16- Sculptor of shelter// Feature By Anoek De Smet Contemplating the environment of a site for a potential project and relating possible shape and materials to the earth immediately under his feet, outlines from the horizon, elements within reach, tools and attire of local people, the palette of impressions rendered through the passing hours of the day.

23- Where is the art in the architecture today By Anitah S Hakika The ideal thing would have been for the client to request the architect for the glass type and quality that would fit the environment where the buildings were built. The trend of clients taking over the procurement of building materials is fast growing.

26- A day in the life of an architect By Ana Nunez Being an architect implies to know the needs of the community for whom the building/planning/project is going to be designed, to have a deep understanding of the culture religion and other singularities that community (or individual) have, to do a broad research on local materials, availability, function and how they can serve the purpose

30- Architecture with, for users and by users By Zsรณfia Glatz and Bence Komlรณsi Collaboration on a global scale can generate a knowledge flow and can help us to understand the different needs, backgrounds and situations.

38- engineer, architect and vice versa By Comfort A Mosha Being an architect implies to know the needs of the community for whom the building/planning/project is going to be designed, to have a deep understanding of the culture religion and other singularities that community (or individual) have, to do a broad research on local materials, availability, function and how they can serve the purpose

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Heritage

Dar es Salaam

by Mirko Oelschlaegel

Collectorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bio I was born at Ocean Road Hospital, but moved to Germany, when I was 6. I started researching on history of German colonies after visiting Bagamoyo in 1998, collecting information and pictures of old buildings in Tanzania. I have been exploring boma places in Tanzania by car since 2001. You can find some reports on my last two trips on my website (www.boma.de). Using old German maps and ground plans, I found a lot of German footprints of that time in Tanzania. I try to share my knowledge on my website, answering questions from all over the world and supporting Urithi Museum Tanga (in former German District Office) by printed old pictures for a permanent exhibition. I am working on a book-project during my leisure time as well. View of the Old Boma building from the waterfront

St. Peterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Church CBD, Dar es Salaam

German administration and currently the Dar es Salaam City Cuncil office

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image on previous page Samora Avenue 1903 & Waterfront Panorama

By Lawrence John Okoth Product Designer, Graduate Architect Design without Borders, Uganda

A Tale of scales

My new maths teacher had proved to be a lot more tolerant than any of my previous ones. However, he seemed oddly more interested in my ability to draw rather than my genetic inability to recite the times-table. It was the Christmas season of maybe 2001. As usual, we were going to spend the holidays in Tororo, dad’s hometown, Tororo was always an exciting idea because there were always presents for the little cousins, who were also ever eager to bond and tease each other about who had gotten taller. I had also just joined a new school for the 5th time in 6 years and the customary routine of making new friends had been slightly less successful this time, so a few friendly faces were all I could have asked for. My new maths teacher, however, had proved to be a lot more tolerant than any of the previous ones- he seemed oddly more interested in my ability to draw than my apparently genetic inability to recite the 6 times-table. Also, for some reason, he had made it his mission to suggest unusual career paths for me, to my father, completely oblivious of the fact that I had been consistently ranked last in my maths and science classes for 3 straight school terms- I suspect, it was a detail that my ‘old man’ had left out when he requested the school to take me in 2 terms into the school year. Architecture, my new teacher often said, was a job for intelligent people like my father’s son!

He took out the paper and spread it to reveal very complex but captivating drawings of a house, as he later explained. ‘Blueprints’ he called them. The Christmas of 2001, however, would prove that my new teacher was indeed onto something. Somewhere in his numerous references to architects and their rewarding life of creation, he must have ‘struck a code’. The presents beneath the bright Christmas tree were not as interesting to poke anymore- instead, the DIY guides and house magazines on my uncle’s shelf now looked more interesting. My good uncle must have taken notice of his nephew snooping around his bookcase, I now know him and the maths teacher shared this grand idea of an architect because every chance he got, he bought

me a book on drawing, landscaping or even asked for my suggestions in a house renovation. On one of those evenings, that holiday, as we sat in silence after dinner, my uncle walked excitedly into his study and returned with an envelope containing folded paper in his hands. He took out the paper and spread it to reveal very complex but captivating drawings of a house, as he later explained. ‘Blueprints’ he called them. He tapped repeatedly around the drawing showing me suggestions that I had supposedly made earlier, proudly pointing out that it could really be a career for me. It felt very good knowing I had created something and the years that followed after, saw me take my sciences more seriouslyand also stick to one school and one math teacher. A few years later, I visited the house from the drawings, it had only been in use for a couple of months. I loved the sight of people living in it...there were actual people moving around, and sitting, talking, laughing in my own little house. The feeling was amazing... At the end of high school, a little over 5 years later, I left for Tororo like I always did for my long vacation. I carried my camera with me to Tororo intent on documenting my experiences. There was that serene spot at the golf course near my grandmother’s house that I always thought would be the best spot for my dream house- the evenings especially, presented the best of nature’s experiences. With my camera I started to film, mumbling in the background to myself and my future viewers, what my house would look like, sitting right there within the green trees. It was a very beautiful sight of the sunset and after a while I simply fell silent utterly blown away by the beauty and perfectness of the moment. I am fairly certain that, at that moment, I had to reinterpret my role of the architect. As I sat still and stared full of bliss, at the trees, a house seemed unnecessary. The trees shook very gently, and the rustling of the leaves could easily throw anyone into an airy daytime slumber and even the drawings that described my uncle’s house project years before, complex as they were, showed a feature that would never fit there. The details that created the moment were amazingly adequate

Frank Lloyd Wright was a very popular architect I read about in the few architecture books I came across. His Falling waters project was showcased countless times in nearly every magazine I could find. (Source: http://www.taliesin.edu/history.html)

in creating this composition that any addition would definitely ruin it all! It was clear I was not going to succeed in visualising the architecture that I wanted to create there, but this was also the experience that I wanted to recreate inside my house. So, in my imagination, I was inside a special house, natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house! The open field, for me, had become the house I wanted to build- my skylights were the clouds that perfectly filtered the beautiful sunlight, the breeze had swept into, across the field and out of a window right there in my imaginary room. With no real education in architecture yet, I had started to mould a basic reference for what architecture was aboutcreating an experience!

The question for me now, was how does the architect create the experience? It is very often that I wonder, today, how these childhood experiences gradually led me to where I am now. After my first sight of the blueprints, I went on to make several sketches for houses, offices and landscapes, I even went on to study architecture for 5 long years- I do recall feeling a little dissatisfied in my fourth year, briefly entertaining thoughts of modifying my career path, but most of the time I probably stayed ignorant of the possibility of doing anything but architecture...not after giving so much! So, yes, even now I ask myself, how is it that I work with a industrial product design firm after years pursuing the

DANCE WITH ME, a drawing I completed 3 years later in my first year of architecture school as an expression of natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call to living life without walls. (Source: Author 2009)

Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling waters house. The house displays a uniquely subtle relationship that architecture can have with the natural environment. (Source: http://www.taliesin.edu/history.html)

life of an architect? There was this one tutor we had at school. A very passionate architect, and designer I should add, who never seemed to see the difference between architecture and any other design field. “You can design anything, if you put your mind and time into it,” he often said. “You can design a car if you take the time to understand the essence of it.” It seemed, to him, the architect, the product designer or the fashion designer could be the same person. A person that was willing to take the time to understand a need, create and offer something new in any form. His faith in us as first years seemed boundless and for many of us, it might have been that feeling of being able to create ‘anything’, that kept us interested in the course. Every project was an opportunity to go wild and solve a problem- and the best part was it didn’t have to be a building! It was my experience of the golf course all over again and it was obvious there were lessons to be learnt from it, that I missed earlier. One was that good architecture plays the role of good host, that protects, observes, subtly guides and creates comfort for the guest, and the second was that the experience of the architecture is, in a major way, fuelled by the experience of activity and the objects within the architecture. Architecture plays a subtle but primary

role in creating the environment for the user experience, observing and providing protection but a more secondary role in how the experience is experienced which is where objects will play a primary role. The open field was a composition of several elements, the clusters of trees, the grass, the termite mounds and the nearby rock piles- all these were features that were at the frontline of creating that blissful experience in nature’s house. On the street, which is a new scale, architecture plays the role of a product or object that people look at and appreciate as landmarks or political, economic and religious symbols. Buildings within the urban scale could be products for a form of interaction within nature’s house- just like bedside lamps, reading desks or even the sounds made by a fridge or an oven in an ordinary house. If everything in nature’s house bares the signature of their creator and designer then it might make sense that the architect’s skill-set needs to remain flexible in his quest to create a desired experience. One year into my job as a product designer and maybe now I could attempt to form my own narrative on the relationship between the two fields- I think it is a tale of scales, one small and another large, both complex but only interpreted with a level of patience influenced by the scale at which each is experienced. The science behind a working phone is complex and so is the network of systems that make a working airport and maybe if I shrunk to appropriate size I might reinterpret the insides of my laptop like I would a concert hall from the space age- could that be? I don’t know. But maybe it starts to establish how right my tutor was, in thinking one only needed patience to create virtually anything. I think the role of the architect/designer is to understand people ,their behaviour and their activities, it is to appreciate how people interact with each other and with objects and the many ways and scales by which this interaction happens- I think the role of the architect/designer is to create safe spaces, places and products that inspire a human experience.

Concept sketch for one of my student projects. The idea for the project was to allow the architecture to grow around human activities but as a faint backdrop that still actively guides and protects the users and their activities. (Source: Author 2009)

Tribute to

Ross Langdon

Concise BIOGRAPHY By Anoek De Smet

“One must be present in order to discover beauty in unexpected places” - Ross, 2012

Volcano ©Ross Langdon

Architect Ross Langdon

oss Langdon grew up in rural South Eastern Tasmania. He studied Environmental Design at the University of Tasmania before going on to complete his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in 2004 with first class honours and the University Medal. Ross has travelled extensively and worked for a variety of established and well-known architects. Ross has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including a British Council Scholarship and most recently the University of Sydney Young Alumni Award. Ross lectures part time in the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design at the London Metropolitan University. He set up an Architectural practice “Regional Associates” together with 2 other Australia trained architects, in London, in 2005. All 3 Associates were involved in teaching while practicing. The practice’s work was published in numerous architectural magazines and won various Awards, including the Monument Magazines Top 10 Next Generation Award - The future of Australian design and architecture, in 2008. Their practice also took part in numerous exhibition, including the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010, with an exhibition entitled ‘Saturation City’.

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DESIGNING FOR PEOPLE By Anders Esse

Huruma ÂŠAnders Esse

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While many architects confine their work to single building projects, others tend to venture outside of the scope of the stand-alone building to take on macro-oriented projects, designing large developments, and spaces in between buildings; public spaces, outdoor areas, and infrastructure. Architects,therefore, are not only designers of buildings. Architects also take on designing at an urban scale. This may be referred to as urban design. Urban design is nothing new, and there should be little need for discussing the role and the need for the architect in this field. However, there are important aspects of urban design that are rarely discussed, which greatly impact the role of the architect.

People have different backgrounds, aspirations, economic situations and personalities. Therefore, their response to the city, the built environment, and design solutions will be different. When we move from the stand-alone building to the urban scale, we are not only changing perspective and scale but also our clientele. No longer are we dealing with the single-user or client but with an urban population. A population that is large, diverse, and complex. Who are they and how do we design for them? As architects and urban designers we are obliged to answer these questions. In order to do so however, we have to seriously

assess â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and perhaps reinvent - the role of the architect. More often than not our designs have unintended consequences. What looks good on paper might in reality lead to a series of results we never anticipated. This is because, at an urban scale, we know very little about the people we are designing for and we tend to forget that, unlike the buildings we design, people are living things, not automatons to be programmed. People have different backgrounds, aspirations, economic situations and personalities. Therefore, their response to the city, the built environment, and design solutions will be different. There is perhaps nowhere that these differences are greater than in cities with great socio-economic differences, where the poor and marginalised make up the brunt of the population. Nairobi is one such city. The age old argument has been and still is that the city is not designed for most of the people that live there: that Nairobi is a colonial product created by and for the elite. While this is not entirely true, in many ways, there is some truth to it. Not because the city is not created by or for the urban population, but rather because we know too little about the multiplicity of Nairobiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population to design properly for them. Examples like this are many where social housing schemes that end up being too expensive for the target groups, and so become middle class housing instead or social housing that is affordable for the target groups, but the target groups sublet expensively in order to make more money. Tenement housing by private investors that is inferior in terms of design and liveability, but still popular because there are no housing alternatives in

the many different ideas that make up society and the city at large. Historians are also good at framing those differences in terms of what has been, and why things are happening now in the way that they are. Only by inviting in other professions such as sociologists and historians, and learning from these, will we able to see our own designs come to fruition as a result of analysis and research, creating designs that are more profoundly cemented in the people that they are meant for.

We are not trained to critically analyse multiple voices and to see them in light of the society and history they are a part of. However, as cities grow, we increasingly need to be able to do this. If our profession is to be useful in the urban future that most countries are moving towards, we need to do something far more drastic: we need to merge with these academics, combining their analytical prowess with our operational mode of practice, thus moulding a new profession that can convincingly tackle the increasing complexity of our cities. Eventually, in order to see fields like architecture, urban design, sociology and history as complimentary professions that are all necessary in order to design cities, we have to re-examine the way in which our professions are governed by national bodies such as the Architects and Quantity Surveyors Board (AQRB). The administrative and judicial distinction made between architecture and sociology makes very little sense from a professional point of view, and is not conducive for creating a better city, be that Nairobi or Dar es Salaam. Ultimately, the change that stand-alone professionals or architectural firms bring to the role of the architect is highly limited without the cooperation and involvement of those that wield legislature.

Highrise Pumwani ©Anders Esse

relative proximity to the city also redefine settlement structures, as they become linear magnets for informal housing and businesses wanting to exploit the market. Even the reoccurring claim, made by architects and planners alike, that urban planning and design in Nairobi is problematic due to the city’s colonial past, is incorrect and symptomatic of our profession’s inability to properly analyse a city and its people. So why does this mean that we have to rethink the role of the architect? Because professionally speaking, we are ill equipped to collect and analyse data about the people we are designing for in a city like Nairobi. We are classically taught to work with one client at a time, guiding the process from a client’s formulation of what he or she wants to an iteration of form. We are good at this design process but it becomes confusing when there are multiple voices and different groups that want different things. When power and politics become part of the project, as is bound to happen at an urban scale, we tend to turn a blind eye and attempt to separate what that involvement means from the design of spaces and buildings. We are not trained to critically analyse multiple voices and to see them in light of the society and history they are a part of. However, as cities grow, we increasingly need to be able to do this. Still, an architect’s training doesn’t necessarily change. And still we, architects and urban planners, are solely responsible for designing urban environments. These are environments that are becoming increasingly important to society as our cities grow and our populations continue to expand. We should not be left alone in this design process. What ultimately needs to change in terms of the role of the architect and urban designer is the recognition that the urban is something far too important and complex to be handled by a single profession. We might be good at creating from single ideas but we struggle with the multiple. Sociologists, on the other hand, are good at seeing that single idea in relation to

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Feature

SCULPTOR OF SHELter SHAPED from the earth into

the landscape By Anoek De Smet

It was a bright day in 2012 and the sun had started its descent onto the Indian Ocean’s horizon. Seated on the upper deck of the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club, a young hugely talented Architect was compiling photographs for his presentation at the TEDx talk in Krakow. That presentation would get the title “Chameleon Architecture”. Architect and friend Ross Langdon showed me -excited and with the face of someone who is aware of having received a privileged that most of us will never observe- a picture he took in Uganda of a circular cloud formation around a mountain. A conic mountain with a few interlacing doughnut shaped clouds hovering above it. Very geometrical shapes in a natural landscape. This picture would be part of his presentation next to a photo of a roof structure he had designed for a lodge in Uganda, a conic shaped timber roof with a hole at the top which enabled rising hot air to escape and drawing cooler air at lower level. Contemplating the environment of a site for a potential project and relating possible shape and materials to the earth immediately under his feet, outlines from the horizon, elements within reach, tools and attire of local people, the palette of impressions rendered through the passing hours of the day. Ross Langdon would collect, absorb, integrate the specific place, the genius loci and this would be the catalyst of a thinking process and paving the way of an architectural journey into excellence, wonder, beauty and also fun.In some way Ross was a Sculptor of Shelter: modelling the elements into a 3-dimensional expression and combining it with functionality, and lots and lots of poetry. Creating beautiful and comfortable spaces telling the story of the place.The existing upper deck at the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club was the open air office to Ross Langdon and his architectural collaborator Llatzer Planas, while they designed the competition proposal for the renewal of the whole DYC site. Entitled “a string of pearls” their submission consisted of a masterplan for the entire site accompanied by a matrix of interventions ranging from small via medium to large investment measures. In the proposal they worked out 2 components of the master plan: the proposed dive cave and the new beach banda at the lower part of the site, which would replace an existing structure known to the DYC members as the pizza restaurant. Unlike most architects they proposed 3 alternative translations and illustrated 3 possible structures responsive to site, context and requirements and that would fit their overall general arrangement. It brought home the point that in architecture 1 question can have 3 or more correct answers, and also signifying that at this early stage of a competition the architect has left doors open for the client to wander, dwell and express. Though this sounds relatively logic, it is quite unusual to find architects following this approach as it requires self-confidence and trust. Though it also acknowledges that -at a competition stage- available information is often insufficient to exclude options. The team won the competition,

Dar es salaam yacht club deck © Nicholas Calvin

against 2 other practices, and were commissioned to develop the competition proposal to a next stage. They would start with the 1st phase for the renewal of the beach banda, and the submission of a Building Permit for the new structure in place of the old Pizza restaurant.

In some way Ross was a Sculptor of Shelter: modelling the elements into a 3-dimensional expression and combining it with functionality, and lots and lots of poetry. Creating beautiful and comfortable spaces telling the story of the place. In that period the design further evolved from the 1st set of proposals. The revised option had a structure that would open up more towards the ocean, as a double set of wing-like roofs retained tightly with buttresses of coral stone, the material a person standing on that site would feel underneath his feet. The project brief and design evolved and changed over time to meet the requirements of the various stakeholders (a range of different water sports and other facilities) at the DYC and Ross had the flexibility to mould the building, -in incremental steps- by merging the array of needs into a building that retained its unity and design principles. The plan consisted of 2 buildings, parallel to the ocean: a lower structure at the back that accommodates the changing rooms and toilets, while the higher double-level

wing along the ocean side includes a bar, an eating area, a kitchen with pizza oven, and a high-level seating deck, accessed from a set of stairs either side. The roof structure is designed as a series of folded overlapping planes opening up to the ocean, and reminding, as an abstracted version, of the expression and elegance of off-white dhow sails . However this would not have been part of the original concept, as Ross was investigating the use of pieces of coral rock to provide thermal mass for the roof below, protecting it from the exposure to the hard tropical sun. The Ocean side is composed of a series of angled coral stone wave breaker walls, sliced with a number of steps onto the lower platform. In that same period, at the back of finalising the DYC competition submission, Ross was approached by various potential clients for whom he worked on Concept Designs. This included the design for a ginnery and a house for a private couple in Kigamboni. The latter’s pavilion structure was located around a central open space, whereby the roofs repeated as a series of steep wind catchers, some would providing shade on open terraces underneath, others formed part of the roof over the rooms of the house. Later in 2013 a client contacted Ross to build a number of franchises of new local burger restaurants. The burger restaurant was to be called Bongo Flava. I remember a bit of a blush [embarrassment? Unease? ]when Ross told me he would work on a “fast food” restaurant. Maybe because the idea of “fa(s)t food” was not compatible with

People and spaces

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Dar es salaam yacht club ÂŠ Nicholas Calvin

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Dar es Salaam Yacht Club Beach Banda Concept

04 1.

existing beach banda

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

insulated roof and rain skin

simple pole framed structure

re-roof using traditional thatch with a steeper pitch, add a wind catcher

first floor mezzanine with dining and viewing

rebuild in the modernist style of the main areas of the original DYC

kayak racks and ablutions block with lockers

open ground floor linking to promenade

an environmentally responsive and contemporary interpretation of traditional and modernist designs materials and construction techniques

ENVIRONMENTAL SECTION

wind catcher and vent insulate from afternoon sun

insulate from morning sun

wind catcher and vent

Regional Associates 19.04.2012 www.regionalassociate.eu info@regionalassociates.eu

the sustainable life and worldview he lived and shared. Though at the same time he saw it as a challenge and an opportunity to create something different from what one may expect from a burger chain. The Concept developed for both restaurants, one in Masaki, one along Morogoro Road near the town centre, is one of contrast. In his design Ross used a number of coral clad shear walls with glass in between. The interplay of solid, mass and void?

and void. A large canopy clad in corroded corrugated iron sheets would provide shade to the outdoor seating areas. The solid kitchen block and indoor seating area were clad in large graphics with the restaurant black and orange logo. In August 2013 Architect Peter Rich came to Dar es Salaam to visit Ross for two weeks to work on the Laetoli bid. Laetoli is a site 45km South of Olduvai gorge in Northern Tanzania, where archeologist Mark Leaky

Dar es salaam yacht club © Nicholas Calvin

discovered hominim footprint dating back from PlioPleistocene age. In dong so he proved proving bipedalism -humans walking upright on their feet in the region, 3.7 million years ago. The oldest known evidence at that time. The bid for this site would comprise of the Laetoli Footprint museum and visitor’s centre. Their team won the bid, even if Ross woud no longer be around to receive the news. Nor would he built and complete the building at the DYCs or the Bongo Flava restaurants in Dar. Ross Langdon, along with his partner Elif Yavuz and their unborn baby, fell victim to a vicious and indiscrimante attack by gunmen, at the Westgate Shopping Centre, Nairobi on 21st of September 2013 around midday. That day above losing an amazing, generous, life-loving, witty, funny, intelligent, hugely talented person (together with his partner and soon-to-be-born-baby), Architecture itself got shot and hurt/ wounded?. Ross’ family have set up a trust that enables disadvantaged rural graduates in Tasmania, Australia to take up Architecture studies. Ross’ family hopes to encourage other young students to engage with the design principles that Ross pursued: sustainable and locally sensitive design solutions. A small library with his books and work, as well as a website covering Ross work and projects have also been set up: www.rosslangdon.info

Bongo Flava fast food © Nicholas Calvin

Ross family, have set up a scholarship fund that enables disadvantaged rural graduates in Tasmania, Australia to take up the studies of Architecture. Ross’ family hopes to encourage other young students to engage with the design principles that Ross pursued: sustainable and locally sensitive design solutions. They have also created a small library with his books and work, and have set up a website covering Ross work and projects: www.rosslangdon.info

Sketches by Ross Langdon - DYC deck and Bongo Flava fast food restaurant

photo on previous page Yatch club DECK ÂŠNicholas Calvin

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By Anitah S Hakika

Where is the art

©Alemi Tayo

in architecture today?

hat used to be is no longer. Up is down and down is up. I don’t know what to make of it – should I accept these changes or should I stick to what I used to know? I learnt that Art is expressive and Architecture involves systematic expressions. The two disciplines are similar in how their products are made but different in how their products are perceived. Both artistic and architectural products are made with the primary goal of meeting the client’s requirements. An artist’s product should express a certain opinion and an architectural product should be functional, serviceable and beautiful. Unfortunately, this is where the confusion begins – in the attempt to control costs, architects design buildings, which fit the cost but lack beauty and style. Additionally, architects focus their designs to ensure maximum returns of the invested costs yet it is more essential that architects control the costs of production while producing beautiful and expressive designs.

In the attempt to control costs, architects design buildings, which fit the cost but lack beauty and style. This is not what is happening right now – architects have literally taken the design philosophy of Mies Van Der Rohe “Less is More” to translate into less construction costs is more profits. Buildings are designed in such a

way that spaces that are non-income generating, like toilets, are paid no attention, making those buildings none serviceable. When you question the architects who have designed such buildings, they will usually say; “My hands were tied by the client’s expectations.” What about buildings that lose their look so fast due to the wear and tear of materials? Who do we blame for that? I was taught that it is the architect’s job to recommend the building materials and their specifications to the client. Before construction, both the client and the architect can review the recommended building materials to evaluate their quality and costs. Nowadays, clients do most of the material purchase and the architects are forced into using them in the design. This is why we find buildings with regular glass facades, which were once tinted. The client had already bought the low quality tinted glass at a cheaper price and in bulk, and forced the architect to use them in the design. The ideal thing would have been for the client to request the architect for the glass type and quality that would fit the environment where the buildings were built. The trend of clients taking over the procurement of building materials is fast growing. How is one supposed to handle such clients? Before hiring architects, clients research on what they want for their buildings. They leave an architect with very little design work as they have already made up their minds after the research. I agree that technology has

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made life easier and very diverse and that people are more aware of things. There is plenty of information available for our clients to access from all over the world. However, they do not put into consideration the circumstances to which buildings were designed so all they want to hear from the architects is; “I will design it your way.” A smart architect would do everything possible to make sure the clients are open-minded from the very beginning. The question is, how many smart architects still get projects? Architects have resorted to developing what the clients have already suggested, disregarding all standards if he/ she must, in order to be paid. The fear of unemployment has caused architects to jeopardise the ethics of their profession.

Let me remind you that as much as an artist and an architect will try to be different, the products of their work have similar characteristics – they should be unique, memorable and have style. You can hardly find the work of an artist without these three characteristics. When architects use computer applications to aid the production of their designs, their work becomes easier and faster. However, it is not just the architects who use the computer applications to produce designs of buildings. The computer applications have been manufactured to allow anybody who has basic knowledge of their operations to easily produce a building design. Instead of paying architects, clients have resorted to paying people who can operate these design applications to design their buildings. These people are not only cheaper in compensation but also very accommodating of the clients’ suggestions – irrespective of their implication on the design standards and regulations. Because these people do not know anything about design standards and regulations, the buildings that are built are neither functional nor serviceable.

We know people who have constructed buildings from downloaded plans from the Internet only to find out that the buildings are neither functional nor serviceable. This is why there are buildings in Dar es Salaam that have kitchens in the middle of the house without any remedies for air ventilation. The internet has made it possible for any data to be uploaded and kept for future references. When one sees a building plan, which he/she likes, it is best to ask the architect to shape the plan to fit the standards of building in the context that the building will be built. My mother always emphasised that I should follow my heart and do the right thing. What should I do when I am faced with situations that are not necessarily right or wrong? Should I ignore and wait for what lies in the future? I am bothered when I see my own countrymen preferring other countries’ building styles and materials instead of appreciating and improving or preserving our own. I guess the saying; “if you cannot beat them, join them” is what they have in mind. People are more consumed with searching for what is good from overseas than perfecting what is within their reach. I suggest that if our local building materials are not up to standard we should perfect them instead of ignoring them completely. Let me remind you that as much as an artist and an architect will try to be different, the products of their work have similar characteristics – they should be unique, memorable and have style. You can hardly find the work of an artist without these three characteristics. Sadly, nowadays architects design buildings with no specific style, they are not unique and memorable because the design is a “copy and paste” from books and the internet. Even though the design process has changed, it is important for architects to accommodate those changes without jeopardising the ethics of the profession. There should be art in architecture at all costs. As much as the decision over the direction to take lies with me, I still believe an architect can have it all – get projects which will allow him or her to design artistic buildings that are cost effective, stylish, unique, memorable and represent the culture of the people for which they are built.

©Muthua Matheka

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People and spaces

Project

A day in the life by Ana Nunez

Vernacular architecture from Lamu Island, Kenya ©Urko Sanchez

of an architect

n East Africa today, Architecture as a professional is among the lIeast understood.” That is the sentence ANZA Magazine has approached us with and that is certainly true. However, if you think about it, the work of an architect has been present in East Africa since forever; it is just that it wasn’t understood as a profession itself. East Africa, has a very rich vernacular architecture, was it elaborated by architects? Certainly not, if we understand by architect someone holding a degree, but we can say most of the vernacular architecture was elaborated with a deep knowledge and understanding of the climate, the cultural references and the daily life of its community: we could say those are some of the facts that define an architect.

Being an architect implies to know the needs of the community for whom the building/ planning/project is going to be designed, to have a deep understanding of the culture Therefore the paper played by architects nowadays was played by artisans and local builders throughout the years. Then, why is architecture as a professional not so much understood?

Well, let´s try and explain what we understand being an architect is. At our office we have a sensitive way of approaching every assignments or project: Being an architect implies to know the needs of the community for whom the building/planning/project is going to be designed, to have a deep understanding of the culture religion and other singularities that community (or individual) have, to do a broad research on local materials, availability, function and how they can serve the purpose looked after on each particular project, to work together with local artisans that can guide us in the use

On a field trip in Bungoma, Kenya

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of their traditional materials and with whom we can think of new ways of using those materials, to study carefully the climate on each particular location. All of this, of course, implies observation, documentation, analysation, reflexion… We draw ourselves into a process of realizing, identifying and understanding the quality of the place/ space and its opportunity which leads to fulfillment of its potential. To go through this process we use different tools of communication: from simple sketches on a note book or a small model made by hand to have a first approached to the basic idea, up to a 3d computerized render or the detailed drawings needed for the site supervision stage. One thing that is truly enriching and makes our profession very enjoyable is that every day is different from the day before, two projects or project’s details are never the same…plus architects cannot work alone, no matter how many of the previous mentioned tools we use: our projects are the result of the knowledge exchanged with

To go through this process we use different tools of communication: from simple sketches on a note book or a small model made by hand to have a first approached to the basic idea... It is sometimes difficult to evaluate when a project´s finally built and in used has been a successful project or not, apart from aesthetics or the general meeting the budget and time frame… because no matter how much effort and thinking you put on it through the whole process, it is only the experiences of its inhabitants/users who will actually be able to tell as time goes by whether the project/building meets their needs and expectancies or not. This point leads us to another singularity of our work: The process of the architecture as in time and space is sometimes more important and significant than the end product.

Notes from a field trip in Nanyuki, Kenya

many professionals from different disciplines. We work together with sociologists, engineers, contractors, carpenters, urban planners, public institutions… And it is this working in conjunction and understanding of everyone´s skills that makes us grow everyday in our profession. Architects as well have sometimes the immense pleasure of being able to follow the whole process of our designs, since it was only a vague idea until it grows up to be a building that will actually have the capability of changing or influence many people’s daily life… And if you think about it…, that is a lot of pressure! But as well what makes it both a challenging and a very enriching experience.

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LEARNING FROM...

ARCHITECTURE BY USERS, ARCHITECTURE WITH USERS, ARCHITECTURE FOR USERS, New problems and the real basic needs Our built environment is developing rapidly. Besides the traditional problems, new dilemmas, questions and failures emerge on a daily basis. We have traditional tools and methods to solve traditional situations but do not have enough new tools to fight against scarcity in our basic infrastructure and organisational problems. The poor do not have the basic supplies and the rich mostly have inadequate answers. The current refugee crisis and the scarcity of urban developments and housing around the world define the real basic need. In the current global situation this minimum is still a dream for billions. During the Refugees - Architecture - Solutions workshop three fundamental architectural elements were defined: private shelter, public infrastructure and organisation. 3 Compared to the poorest situations, in the wealthier cases more and more co-housing projects - initiated and developed by its users - are trying to redefine the real needs to reduce their ecological footprint, revitalise

neighbourhood relationships and to create a healthier and a more equal future. A co-housing in Zürich defines its common goals in the following way: “Das Dreieck combines social and ecological living. Openness, tolerance, responsibility towards fellow human beings and environment form the common basis of the community of people with different sociocultural and ethnical background.” 4 People as designers and users - what is the role of architects? Housing solutions are developed without, by or in collaboration with planners and architects. These are the three main types of developments. In the case of informal settlements, planners and designers are absolutely out of the design and realisation process. In developed countries and cities, uncontrolled projects and settlements are unimaginable. In special and unique cases these informal and formal projects go hand-in-hand in less developed and developed countries as well. In this third group the focus is on people, function and real basic needs, which bring all

by Zsófia Glatz and Bence Komlósi

Komlósi Bence, Refugees - Architecture - Solutions workshop results, [Online] Available from: http://issuu.com/komlosi.bence/docs/workshop_1_refugees_architecture_so [Accessed: 10 January 2006].

Genossenschaft Dreieck, Das Dreieck, [Online] Available from: http://www.dasdreieck.ch/cmsdata/dokumente/2011_dreieck_brosch.pdf [Accessed: 8 January 2006] translated by the authors.

the stakeholders together and encourage the collaboration between them. Bottom-up informal settlements with top-down interventions like the Metro Cable6 project in Caracas by the Urban-Think Tank, bottom-up initiated projects with top-down support such as the Kalkbreite7 co-housing in Zürich, top-down projects with bottom-up participation and usage like the Quinta Monroy8 housing by the Elemental office in Iquique are all good examples of a new approach.

We have traditional tools and methods to solve traditional situations but do not have enough new tools to fight against scarcity in our basic infrastructure and organisational problems. Yona Friedman, with many other similarly thinking architects and planners, was looking for these interdisciplinary and complex design methods. He explains his hunt for a solution: “As a young architect, I began to discover the way to create a house imagined by its inhabitant, even if its form or its plan was different from the one imagined by others.

How could we adapt the form an inhabitant thinks of one day to another form he would prefer later, another day?9 I thus began to search for a “technique.” His theories influenced many architects who created new strategies that reflect on specific cases. Anne Lacaton and Jean-Phillip Vassal10, french architects, are looking for open structures that allow the users to personalise their own spaces and homes. New architecture via ‘new’ design methodologies Looking for new architecture and new design methods is not a new phenomenon. It is a continuously re-emerging issue. With Samuel Mockbee’s words, “The best way to make real architecture is by letting a building evolve out of the culture and place. These small projects designed by students at the studio remind us what it means to have an American architecture without pretense. They offer us a simple glimpse into what is essential to the future of American architecture, its honesty.” 11To modernize our existing architectural tools we have to change or develop them. The education system and practice have to adapt to the new needs and to the new role of architects. Collaboration, teamwork, collaborative design and

Urban-Think Tank - http://u-tt.com/project/metro-cable/ 7Kalkbreite - http://www.kalkbreite.net 8Elemental - http://www.elementalchile.cl/en/projects/quinta-monroy/ 9Yona Friedman, Pro Domo, (Bar-

celona: Actar, 2006), page 9. 10 Lacaton & Vassal - http://www.lacatonvassal.com, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), page 2.

Andrea Oppenheimer and Timothy Hursley, Rural Studio - Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency, (New York:

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collaborative production are just a few of the new key mechanisms that have to be learned and acquired. We can learn from other professions and we can develop our own strategies. The Chef-field co-cooking13 workshop in Sheffield combined cooking, collaboration methods and architecture to test a new educational program for architects. The program focuses on teamwork, community brainstorming and data collection, consensus decisionmaking, tasks and responsibilities, collaborative production and community life. The goal is to simplify the complex process of architectural design and production into a single cooking event where all the stakeholders can learn from each other. Global knowledge & local communities, new techniques, materials and technologies New architecture and methods can be developed or simply learned from existing cases, lessons and patterns, and the best practices can be transferred. In several school projects around the world, already existing knowledge was used and adopted to realise usable and sustainable buildings. Diédébo Francis Kéré “hoped to use what he had learned in Germany about ecological building techniques to provide a model for future schools that were both sustainable and more suited to local needs.” 15And, indeed, projects

by Kéré or theskyisbeautiful architects are just a few examples that could already be used as case studies for further developments. Slum-upgrading projects in the Global South such as the Gimnasio Vertical in Caracas by the Urban-Think Tank are also relevant cases. Small interventions in metropolises can start revitalization processes on the physical, as well as on the psychical level. “It was based on the idea of offering a number of smaller measures, for example providing communal laundry facilities and day-care centers, a meeting place for the elderly, paving streets and building stairways, and erecting sport complexes, with the hope that these amenities might lead to swift but essential improvements in local living conditions.”16

“With the local architect, we had to draw details so that they could be built by the local workers. Think globally but act locally.” Collaboration on a global scale can generate a knowledge flow and can help us to understand the different needs, backgrounds and situations. Bottom-up and top-down developments can work hand-in-hand and can support each other. We have to realise that collaboration is the key to a sustainable and resilient global future. As Nguyen Chi Tam architect said during the Bamboo School project in

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Co-cooking workshops - https://www.facebook.com/Co-cooking-workshops-1640068686279132/ , 15Andres Lepik, Small Scale Big Change - New Architectures of Social Engagement, (New York: The Mu-

seum of Modern Art, 2010), page 33.

Andres Lepik, Small Scale Big Change - New Architectures of Social Engagement, (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2010), page 19.

Vietnam: “With the local architect, we had to draw details so that they could be built by the local workers. Think globally but act locally.”17

Together - participatory, co-design and co-production New governing structures, new problems and needs force us to look for innovative answers and solutions. As Susanne Hofmann, the author of Architecture is Participation explains: “Our democracy is experiencing change. Established political decision-making structures are being questioned, new participation processes in the design of public buildings are being tested, and a new design planning culture is being demanded. What does this mean for city planning, urban development, and architecture? How should planners and architects respond to these challenges? What do they mean for the architect’s understanding of their professional role? Architects can no longer ignore these questions without being accused of arrogance. Whether or not they open up to a participatory process has become an existential question,

because users’ knowledge about the use and experience of spaces offers fundamental insight for architects throughout the design process.”18 Hello Wood is a new way of doing, teaching and learning. Practitioners and students work together on a daily basis to learn from each other and to understand new ways of architecture. The Sleepingtories19 project in 2015, was one of the workshops where two architects and eight students formed a group of users and experts to co-design and co-produce three different sleeping artefacts. The goal was simple. Everybody had equal rights and importance in the design and production process. Basic and real needs were based on the common needs of the ten people involved. Common goals and strategies were discussed and decided collectively. The realisation was based on teamwork. The participants had different knowledge and experience, which helped to form an interdisciplinary and diverse team. The decision-making process, the design and the realisation was not easy but the final results showed that collaboration in the design and production process create products that are loved and acceptable by everyone.

The authors Zsófia Glatz and Bence Komlósi are co-founders of the dotlinearchitects architecture office, the Közösségben Élni - Community Living and the Grand Home Budapest NGOs. They live in Zürich and work on an international level. Research, architectural design and education stand in the focus of their work. Democracy, collaboration, knowledge transfer and housing are key issues of their everyday life. Architecture for Humanity (ed.), Design Like You Give a Damn, (New York: D.A.P., 2006), page 259. 18 Susanne Hofmann, Architecture is Participation - Die Baupiloten methods and projects, (Berlin: jovis,

2014), page 5. 19Sleepingtories - https://www.facebook.com/sleepingtories/?fref=ts

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Engineer-Architect and Vice Versa T

he day begins with a hasty rush to beat traffic and now at my desk a site visit reminder flickers. Being an architect site visits are the highlight of my job and eagerly I put on my site shoes, vest and helmet. Upon my arrival, drawings at hand and pencil in the other I am greeted with “welcome engineer, we have been waiting for you”, I smile with hope I will hear architect next time. Now in my country, being referred to as an engineer happens way to often.

My pride in being an architect goes beyond the vest and helmet, Not only do we draw and interpret drawings, carry the same equipment to site we also have the signature yellow vest and white helmet.In many occasions the architects profession, is often compared to, mostly confused with the engineers. In the past a clear separation of the two professions was never distinctly present and as fate has it, it has been carried into our present. What to do We need to stand tall and help educate our communities on the architect’s role and in turn inspire a generation of creative thinkers and visionaries. Our cities need us and so do our societies as they shift in perspective from the influence of globalization.

My pride in being an architect goes beyond the vest and helmet, but to the satisfaction of being a designer/dreamer that can make your dream home, office or school into a reality with its context. We influence the space we live in, its social activities and in turn tell a story just from a stroke of a pencil. The engineer? We all know that a building will not function without the rest of the team and their unique disciplines. The engineer is one of these disciplines working as part of the design team under the guidance of the architect’s drawings and vision the building comes to life. Now yes its true, we as architects have engineers as our ‘rivals,’ constantly locking heads to keep the aesthetic in place vs functionality. In the end our differences aside and professionalism first, we reach a conclusion and construction begins. On site We dress the same, carry the same equipment, no wonder the confusion exists as society looks at as on a site. As this is governed by rules and regulations of the profession, we all need to go the extra mile. Each one of us has an obligation to educate the society and it one at a time we will walk onto site and hear “Welcome Architect”

By Comfort Mosha

Initiation of ANZA 5th issue Founding members of Anza Magazine

AUTHORS Mirko Oelschlaegel ANderes Esse Anitah S. Hakika Anoek de smet Zsofia Glatz Bence Komosoli Lawrence John Okoth Ana Nunez Comfort Mosha

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Consultants

Tanya mulamula, Sarah Senyonyi, Annika Seifert, Peter Stoker, Mkuki Bgoya

INDIVIDUALS

We at anza magazine would like to thank everyone who put in their time and effort into the making of this issue.