“Buildings are not simply expressive sculptures; they make visible our personal and our collective aspirations as a society.
architecture can give us hope.
architecture
Sanctuaries of healing: Towards anarchitecture of wellbeing and care
Design of a cancer care facility at the Red Cross Children’s War Memorial hospital in Rondebosch, Cape Town. The hospital signifies a major
healthcare campus in the city with ties to many non-profit organisations in SA, which work to aid in the recovery and care of patients (children)
being treated here and their parents. This thesis project seeks to create a space which further facilitates such care, by making use of empty
land on the hospital campus, to develop a new space of wellbeing and care in the form of a cancer support centre.
Maggie centres are cancer support facilities which are backed by a non-profit organisation called “Maggie’s”. The inception of the idea came when Maggie Jencks was being treated for cancer and realised that there was no space of care where she could find comfort and solace after the physical treatment, so she saw fit to devise the concept for such a space. Years later the first centre was built in the UK, a year after her passing.
Currently there is a global move towards creating healthcare spaces which incorporates nature and spaces of care as integral parts of the design conception.
The blueprint for the Maggie centre developed by Maggie Jencks, was centred around different spatial and environmental feelings, which combine to create a new programmatic idea, incorporating all these ideas for a space of healing and recovery.
To create a space of recovery, comfort, safety and knowledge, the existing ideas used for the Maggie centre’s unique conception include : A non-denominational chapel, a home, a hospital and a library.
These images are conceptual explorations of the ideas used in ‘biophilic design’. Biophilia is a theory which states that humans have an inherent connection to nature, which relates to our senses and the pleasure derived from our interaction with natural elements.
View from front entrance approach (SW) Existing clinical healthcare spacesUnderstanding the context to determine the best site placement and positioning of the cancer support centre was key for the programme. Through analysis of the surrounding area, it was determined that the western part of the site would be best for the most public function and the eastern part of the site best for the more private areas of the building, based on the surroundings.
Image showing building heights of Red Cross Children’s Hospital
Image showing spaces of importance at Red Cross Children’s Hospital
Image showing conceptual 3D massing of potential design on site
Map showing Rondebosch area surrounding Red Cross children’s hospital campus with spaces of significance
conceptual massing on site in plan showing sun and shade areas
As the design developed further the goal was to create more green buffers throughout the building, while separating the programme more, to create further privacy and green spaces in areas which required it.
conceptual massing on site in plan showing relation of building areas to context
conceptual massing heights of building, related to context - higher roofs for public and lower roofs for residential
first iteration of sketch design plan on site
first iteration of sketch design for West elevation, which shows the tallest, most public facade of building
with further development, the green spaces become bigger and the hierarchy of the different areas with regard to privacy becomes more clear.
Developed programmatic relationship layout
Second iteration of sketch plan design
step-out garden sketch design
Third iteration of sketch plan design ideas
The plan design starts to relate more to the shape of the site and opens up green spaces to allow more light + natural elements into the space
This 3D serves to show how roof heights step down across the design, as well as defining the different areas of the building with regards to privacy/ function
Second iteration of sketch elevation design
sketch design of 3D massing/ structure of centre
Public areas of building
Semi-private areas of building
Private areas of building
Final
Final Site
Green spaces/ planted courtyards
Diagrammatic Ground floor plan showing different areas of building
Diagrammatic Ground floor showing green spaces within building
South Elevation
Long section (East view)
3D
from NW direction
3D
Public areas of building :
- Waiting room - kitchen - library
- Workspace/lounge area (first floor) - major circulation space to each area of building
Semi-private areas of building :
- Multipurpose room - aromatherapy room - music therapy room - art therapy room
Externally exposed minor circulation walkways with flat green roofs, surrounding green courtyards, which cover circulation routes for private and semi-private areas of building
Private areas of building : - Staff room - Ablutions - private counselling rooms
from NE direction
Central green courtyard which connects to exterior green spaceSemi-private area external circulation + courtyard
Private area external circulation + courtyard
private step-out green spaces for therapy rooms in semi-private area of building (art, music and aromatherapy)
In 2019 we were tasked with creating and designing some sort of temporary infrastructure for a space of event or performance at a site of our choice. Initially I explored the idea of creating a more positive experience of the buildings we study in, shying away from the stress and work related feelings we experience now.
My idea began with exploring the potential for temporary event space to facilitate an expansion of an annual event at the school of architecture, called “vertical studio”, which allows work between different years of architecture students.
Trying to include more departments of the university for this event was the goal of the project, creating more of a “horizontal studio“ through a linking of the backside of the buildings. This would create a new point of interest on campus and create more dialogue/interaction between people in these buildings.
My chosen area of study was at UCT upper campus, making use of the link between the centlivres building, beattie building, AC Jordan building and the Fuller hall garden opposite these sites.
The idea for this project was to address several issues surrounding student views of certain spaces on campus, as being related to stress and anxiety.
Through the imagining of a special event occurring on campus, which centres around the design of infrastructure which could facilitate such activities.
Final site plan showing full intervention and event spaces and final section through cinema space intervention showing occupation and usage.
In 2019 we were tasked with designing a new community day clinic (CDC) for Vredenburg, on the west coast of the Western Cape.
The project began with us studying healthcare space in general around the world, and more locally in SA. Thereaf ter we came up with sketch design, from which a few select projects were chosen, assigned to 3/4 members per project, for us to work on as a group and take from sketch to tender and then construction documentation.
We changed and redesigned the given project according to the new group ideas and concepts, to create designs that encompassed our collective efforts and intents according to the brief given for the CDC. What follows is the area analysis and mapping, design process and concepts explored, to the final drawings and documentation for the project.
My roles/ responsibilities: Design input, concept + representation, site plan, revit modelling for various parts of the building, section detailing and annotations, small room details and exports and final drawing checking + exports.
(Map and urban proposal massings are edited images with originals coming from Urbanconcepts Vredenburg urban proposal for Western Cape Government)
View
external waiting area between consultation rooms offer a “retreat” from more clinical areas
Our scheme for the clinic emphasized care and comfort + familial support and as such we created a series of linear building forms housing consulting and treatment rooms, separated by exterior, planted waiting areas. In order to accommodate for future growth, we designed them in this simple arrangement which also allows for dividers inside the rooms to be separated for more consulting rooms if need be.
Patients have a moment to pause and reflect before or after their consultation/ treatment in these green waiting areas, which offer a reprieve from the clinical environment inside. This design strategy also orders the building along the slope of the site and allow for the terraced, stepped section of the building to come to fruition.
This year our area of focus was Woodstock, more specifically the area around Cavendish square. In this complex, diverse and vibrant area we discovered the community which was lost due to the scourge of gentrification inherent in the area.
Increasing rates and costs of living in the area have caused local residents to be pushed out by businesses who come in to buy up land and space and ultimately ostracising residents who lived here for years.
So as a class and also as individuals, we searched for what our role could be in this vast sea of struggle and displacement which plagues the area.
Our project endeavours to create a new bustling sense of community in the area through the creation of space which is
all-inclusive and does not only cater to those who are wealthy enough to afford it, while at the same time providing accommodation which is comfortable but does not need to be over priced.
Our goal was to investigate how urban and spatial design could create and facilitate a sense of community and inclusivity for all people, where everybody knows the neighbours and fellow members of this community.
What follows is my design for a mixed use bookstore/ apartment building on the North-West corner of the group site (located on the corner of Albert and Tay street in Woodstock).
Woodstock sits in a transitional space in the city, as a thoroughfare between the city centre and the rest of the city. As such, it is a greatly mixed context architecturally, with everything from heritage architecture to the most contemporary design and everything in between.
The goal was the creation of a mixed-use building with a book store on the ground floor + basement (gold-bands) and several levels of apartments above (blue bands)
Western Elevation