M1 Portfolio by: Ndeshipanda Iita

PORTROLIO

by Ndeshi panda Iita

PORTROLIO

by Ndeshi panda Iita

Methods and Materials

T

o inform the design process, architects often begin with a set of formal concerns: conditions of site and context; form and function; legal codes and requirements and clients' needs. Whilst these are clearly relevant, in Unit 17, we consider materiality and construction methodologies to be of equal importance as starting points for students' design investigations.

Through rigorous exploration, we ask students to consider the full potential of materials (their weights, compatibilities, ratios, thermal properties, surface characteristics, assembly methods, etc.) We encourage students to challenge conventions and propose innovative, sustainable and ethical design solutions to a range of everyday real and speculative design problems. Experimentation and application are key design drivers in an explorative 'making' environment.

I, Ndeshipanda Iita, hereby declare that the work in this Masters portfolio submitted is my own work and has not previously been submitted to another University or institutions of higher education for a degree.

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Contents...

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studio briefs

elective research

MDP THEORY+HISTORY...

studio briefs...

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During the first half of the year the unit used a system of short design briefs that where aimed to inspire the maker within to “MAKE” Through this process a material focus and way of making would emerge for each student uniquely.

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HOUSE OF CARDS Modularity exercise

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Brief: Using a modular set or cards, create a three dimensional self-supporting structure. Using little to no glue.

To build this sphere you`ll need 60 playing cards and paper scissors.

Using the template 1 cut all the cards so as to interlock the cards in groups of 3s( 2 and 3). Once I got a total of 20 modules I interlocked them 5 at a time ( 4 and 5 ) to create the sphere.

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1 template

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SPACE - A- FRAME Framing structure

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SPACE A FRAME Framing structure Using origami as a tool to create a modular space frame structure that is easily transported and erected. Through the study of origami, this interdisciplinary approach investigates the , architectural and structural aspects of folded structures, which help to understand how paper folding can be used as a medium to solve structural problems in architecture that deal with modularity.

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BIO - MIMIC Building with nature

Using a glue gun and a cylinder as a scaold I was able to pore melted plastic such that it c re a t e d a n o rg a n i c f o r m through the natural rhythm from my hand eye coordination this.

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IN - SITU Molding exe Upscaling the art of beading used in jewelry and fashion design in architecture to crate feasibility in a single wall structure.

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template

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template cast in silicone ruber to make mold

silicone ruber mold ready for castings

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elective research

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Deploy-ability

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Exploring deployable structures Using tooth some jewellery connection.

Tooth pics

Jewellery connectors

Round Nose

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Exploring deploy-able connections

Space frames are originally used for long span roof systems, a space-frame structure originally has stiff joints. this model is an attempt to build a space-frame structure without the use of stiff joints instead the joints are all flexible The structure used steel rings to connect the beems together. The structure created is in needs a tension member to stiffen.

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Exploring deploy-able connections Wire

popsical

Round Nose

Dremal Tool

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TOOLS

I needed a hinge so I made one.

Using popsicle, wire and a dremal tool I was able to assemble a deploying structure similar to the structure found in an umbrella.

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Exploring deploy-able connections

Using ruber as a joining material

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Geometric material.

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Geometric folding

Flat plains can gain structural abilities through adding stiness through folds commonly referred to as mountain folds and valley folds.

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Exploring deploy-able structures with origami

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Folding squar sheets of paper to produce modular origami element that interlock to form a deployable membrane.

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3

5

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Bio- Plastic Molds & Casting

this deployable origami inspired system works with a system of deploya

using a pattern of sets of three that connect to for sets of ďŹ ve this makes a geodesic dom.

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able connections.

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Material focus

For the first half of the year I explored connections and structures creatively taking inspiration from geometric origami and jewellery for inspiration this is due to my fascinations with moving parts. Collaging through building components I played around with fluid Space Frames the idea was to create flexible connection instead of stiff connections so as to bring about motion in the structure because with motion I assumed deploy-ability would follow similar to how an umbrella works. The joints where too lose without tension my space frames had no back bone.

This hick-up lead me to my material focus for the year. At the time it was merely a homemade organic glue I had learned to make from YouTube. I had found it, it was the perfect material to appropriate into my scale models. This material I imagined will bring the stiff ness into my explorations without the loss of flexibility.

By sample 3 or maybe 5 I decided to put in more research. I found that my magic rubber glue was actually a bio-plastic. How is this a plastic? Plastics are materials with molecules cold monomers connected to other monomers in a liner fashion creating a chain called a polymer. The polymers group together like spaghetti on a plate making up a plastic. By adding vinegar to starch polymers are created and these group together to form plastic too.

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Bio plastics G

C-S

Gelatin based plastics

cornstarch based plastic

Continuing my study on Bio Plastics I found that there are two main categories that I chose to explore through sample making: Corn starch based bio plastics and gelatine based bio plastics. The samples allowed me to familiarize myself with the properties of the material. The plus side is that both materials are available at the grocery shops.

I settled on using Gelatine based bio plastic. This plastic is golden brown and transparent unless tinted. Through the samples I found that the material creates two states of plastic: Sti rigid plastic or exible rubber based on the glycerine content.

After working with this Plastic I have two projects that I intend to pursue next year

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Bio- Plastic Molds & Casting

To cast the plastic I made use of 2 mold making topologies of witch one failed and one worked.

Method one: Plastic dose not bind to metal making metal the perfect material to work with. At the Colour Cube Trevor assisted me in welding a mold from an a 50mm X 50mm hollow square tube with a base plate made from 25mm X 25mm steel angle sections welded together.

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timber block to compress the cast soon after its poured this will help me achieve compact samples.

Hollow 50mm X 50 mm squar tube section.

Base plate made with 25mm X 25mm steel angle sections.

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Bio- Plastic Molds & Casting

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1

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I lined the inner surfaces of the mold plains with aluminium foil to keep the Bio plastic from sticking to the walls of the mold.

to allow the mold exibility the components are not ďŹ xed to each other instead duck tape holds them in place assisted by clamps as I cast into them.

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Bio- Plastic Cooking

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l

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Ingredients

Equipment

Gelatin 94 g Glycerine 100g vinegar 750g

Measuring jar scale foil molds stirring stick mixing bowl

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Gelatin bas

sed plastics

Procedure Add the vinegar, gelatin powder and glycerin into a mixing bowl, mix the ingredients until uniform. Boil the viniger in the pot and once boiled add it to the mixture in the bowl. Mixture and stir continuously until all the gelatin powder has dissolved. Stir the mixture until it cool the pour the mixture into a mold or onto at sheet of aluminium foil to set. Leave it for 48 hours in room temperature to fully set.

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Bio- Plastic Cooking

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Ingredients

Equipment

Corn Starch 20 tea spoons Water 600 ml Glycerine 50 ml Vinegar 50 ml

Measuring jar scale foil molds stirring stick cooking pot

C-S

cornstarch

based plastic

Procedure Add the cornstarch, vinegar, water and glycerin into a cooking pot and mix the ingredients until uniform. Heat the mixture and stir continuously.

Turno the heat when the mixture becomes translucent and gelly like.

When it is clear and like a gel it is done. pour the mixture into a mold or onto at sheet of aluminium foil to set. Leave it for 48 hours in room temperature to fully set.

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Samples...

bellow are a few samples and studies that I have made temporal material for a temporary architecture.

C-S

To the left is a cornstarch plastic sample that.

To right is a clear thin ďŹ l made from a gelatin this shows how thin gelatin b gets.

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e over the course of the semester in searching for a

h based

lm plastic material based plastic

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These sample are of a gelatin based bio- plastic, the samples have no glycerine in them . The absents of glycerine courses loss of moisture in the material causing it to reduce in size and shrivel up into their new state. This material is great in tension and very ridged much like pretorium based plastic.

These samples are corn starch based bio-plastics. This form of plastic is very exible when cast thin and very rigid when cast thick. The material is very weak in both tension and compression. Water dissolves the material to fast making this very bad for architecture unless used as a laminate for wall papers etc.

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These sample are of a gelatin based bio- plastic, these samples have glycerine in them . The glycerine in the sample allows the material to retain its moisture and remain exible after setting. Due to the moisture retention the material weakens in high heat or wet conditions making it unrepayable for outside installation.

tionalVersion

These sample are of a gelatin based bio- plastic.

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Bio- Plastic Making the Plastic - m

Corn Starch

20 tea spoons

Ingredients Corn Starch 20 tea spoons Vinegar 50 ml Water 600 ml Steel rods.

Water

Glycerine

Vinegar

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600 ml

NONE ml

50 ml

methods that failed

A

Although the same ratio of ingredients was used for these 2 samples the corn starch was added at dierent times.

Sample A : corn starch added to boiling water.

Sample B : corn starch mixed with room temperature water before its pored into the pot.

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MDP Major Design Project

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After working with this Plastic I have two projects that I intend to pursue next year under the theme

Geometric Architecture

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First Proposal: Geometric mats

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I imagine a deployable membrane structure this would be achieved through the appropriation of the rubber into emergency architecture. What if this gelatine rubber was researched by material scientists making it more durable and resistant, without losing its exibility and its eco friendliness.

Geometric mats can be designed with membrane and structure as one component. less parts to transport and assemble.

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Geometric Mats emergency housing

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The Decomposable / deployable / te Second Proposal The Decomposable/ deployable / temporary EVENT architecture ...

This material... this plastic can we use it as is? with its in ability to survive storms and the heat from the sun? I have a suggestion; an architecture that is temporary using a temporary material. Gelatin bast bio-plastic both in ruber form and rigid form can be reused though melting it and remolding just like petrol based plastic. this means we can use this product over and over again and once we are done with it nature will break it down in about 6 months.

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emporary EVENT architecture ...

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TH...

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Will it blend?

U Carman e Khaylitsha – Mark Dornford - May and Skin, Aect, Aggregation by Arun Saldanha.

Decolonize Me

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At age 23 in my first year of a two year masters in architecture at the University of Johannesburg, I am originally from a small village, Oshigambo, in northern Namibia, due to the promise of a better life for our family we moved to the city, Windhoek and make our home in Oshigambo the holiday destination.

This essay introduces a discussion on the challenges that black women face with a similar background to mine in relationships on two subjects: decolonisation of self and the reality of submission. Using the South African operatic film 'U-Carmen eKhayelitsha' directed and produced by Mark Dornford-May production in 2005, a film entirely in Xhosa and shot in eKhayelitsha Cape Town, South Africa. The second reference is a paper by Arun Saldanha 'Skin, Affect, Aggregation: Guattarian variations on Fanon'.

Critical conceptions of race have for decades drawn from Fanon's sharp analysis (1967b [1952]) of white definitions of otherness and blackness and subsequent black misgivings about self-identity. Fanon's theory of racism can be said to rest on the notion at once phenomenological, psychopathological, and political of the racial epidermal schema.

Whether in the colonies or Europe, the epidermal schema is a pattern of behavior, a set of capabilities and constraints dividing people on the basis of their skin color into two separate worlds: white colonizer or black Arab native…In fact, it replaces the body image a human being creates for himself or herself. Even an educated and mild-mannered doctor such as Fanon could not safely escape this replacement (Saldanha, 2010).

From late 1884 to 1945 the native people in Namibia, then South West Africa, were colonized by white German colonial rule and subsequently by white South African apartheid administration. Namibia got its national independence in 1990. The colonial authorities came to Namibia with their cultures and religions and imposed them onto

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the native people. The concept of the epidermal 'schema' that Saldanha describes in his commentary on Fanons theories, has transpired in a different but similar form in Namibia during the colonial period, a disconnect was forged between the native woman and hers self-image her: kincky hair became the sign of a lack of education and class; her full body signified bad health; and her dark skin was the mark of inferiority. The black women, who had a fully curvaceous figure with dark skin and kincky hair, through seeking acceptance from the master, introduces the art of 'mimicking' the white women, catalysing the loss of her own identity. The native women learns to manipulate the texture of her hair, to present straight hair similar to that of the white women.

She bleaches her skin to achieve a skin tone closer to that of the white woman and continues to starve herself to maintain a small figure, again like that of the white women.

The black woman and her society have been convinced that her natural self is not nearly acceptable, a belief conceived from popular 18th century western ideas that the African female could never embody 'true femininity', an image drawn around perceived qualities, like being 'delicate, pure and a bastion of moral and spiritual virtue'. (Schiebinger, 1999) Three centuries later, the African woman's mind is still fighting colonization.

Submission is amongst the many deeds that are expected from native women. In the operatic film U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, the main actress Carmen is a strong woman who claims 'to belong to herself'. She meets a man who sparks her interest and acts on her feelings assertively. This is not very lady-like of Carmen. Due to her overwhelming independence her partner subsequently suffers from jealousy and wounded pride.

The woman, irrespective of race, has been the property of her father or her husband for centuries. This is evident through the change of surname from father to husband, similar to the change of name on a title deed once a

house has been sold, the new owners name appear on the title deed. The world is not kind to black women, they are taught a number of conflicting ways to behave and have to find a place for themselves in a world that seems to favour their fathers or husbands most. Since the world has moved away from survival through subsistence farming, the idea that 'you consume what you produce' has allowed for men to dominate women due to their much-needed strength in building a livelihood. In the new world where we rely on accumulating capital in the form of money, it has been made possible for woman to act independently from men by means of education and gender equality laws. The black woman now sits at the decision-making table. This for the woman is a victory and an equalizer between herself and her semicolonizer: the man. Black women who are able to gain more capital than the average men are pushing the norms and within contemporary life the idea of submission creates friction.

In the film Carmen is killed by the hands of her lover because she had left him due to his controlling ways. Her partner, now her killer, intended to 'own' Carmen. This is an undesirable ending for Carmen but is not very far from what happens in the world we live in.

The decolonization of self is a necessary conversation amongst black women, because of the heavy weight of self-rejection we have inherited from our mothers and grandmothers. The idolization and envy to the white women should not be a burden for future generations. For this reason the discussion should come to life.

Submission as a form of respect to our men needs a new contemporary model that accommodates the needs of the black woman who is independent from the man.

I too have been a victim of self-rejection. We most of us have been, but when you reject the pigment in your skin and the texture of your hair it goes beyond the issue of self-esteem.

References Dornford-May, M (dir). 2005. U-Carmen eKhayelitsha. [Film].

Saldanha, A. (2010, March 25). Skin, affect, aggregation: Guattarian Variations on Fanon.

Retrieved August 22, 2017, from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/ a41288 Schiebinger, L. 1999. Has feminism changed science. Hatvard Univercity Press

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