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COMPARED TO THE ENTIRE ARCHITECTURE INDUSTRY, THIS PORTFOLIO IS MERELY A SLIGHT VOICE. YET THERE WILL STILL BE A RIPPLE ON THE RIVER EVEN IF WE JUST THROW A TINY STONE INTO THE STREAM. THE PORTFOLIO’S GIST IS NOT TO MAKE AN ASTONISHING OR BREATHTAKING BODY OF WORK, RATHER, IT IS TO PROPOSE A THOUGHT, A PAUSE, EXCEPT FOR SOMETHING THAT IS “DESIGNED”. TO SHOW THAT THERE COULD BE AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO MANIFEST MAN’S UNIQUENESS BY AMPLIFYING THE DETAILS OF THE UNNOTICED MOMENTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE, IN A QUIETER WAY. THIS PORTFOLIO SHOWCASES A SELECT NUMBER OF PROJECTS TO EMPHASIZE THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY. A WALKER IN THE CITY.
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/ HELLO! My name is Justin Sean Coetzee - a passionate and driven student of the art of architecture and aspiring designer. I am in search of a creative environment in which I can foster and nurture my love for architecture and design, where I can work with equally passionate and creative individuals, where I can learn and keep learning and develop my skills. Know that wherever this portfolio may end up, it was done with extraordinary intent.
If this portfolio was obtained digitally, please consider and respect the ongoing distribution thereof and use it digitally [not printed], unless it serves a personal purpose.
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/ HELLO... My name is Justin Sean Coetzee - a passionate and driven student of the art of architecture and aspiring designer. I am in search of a creative environment in which I can foster and nurture my love for architecture and design, where I can work with equally passionate and creative individuals, where I can learn and keep learning and develop my skills. Know that wherever this portfolio may end up, it was done with extraordinary intent.
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_justin sean coetzee ARCHITECTURE portfolio
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Introduction manifesto
curriculum vitae
Observing - BSc (Arch) - 3rd year mnemonic drift - the anti-museum
des baker: the decay of a liminal protest dwelling in time
dwelling in memories
Exploring - art & design genesis design studio
pyrotechniks dance crew artistic expression
Reflecting
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Narrating - design philosophy
Perspective - B.Arch(Hons) theatre of the blind
Translating - BSc (Arch) - 2nd year
nexus urban library janus house
Experiencing - practice work drawboxdesignstudio architects
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Poets deal with one fundamental issue: the transition from voice to language. From voice as a faculty of speech, to language, one of the most fundamental power structures of society. All good poetry is not about meaning, nor the narrative, but it is about trying to modulate the voice in a way that its potential is still there. Architecture has a similar task - architecture formalizes the moment in which the inborn characteristics of the human animal are somehow contained into structure. The way of the poetic in architecture is similar to, but different from narrative. It works by locating and positioning not merely in physical but emotional, political and cultural space and time. Architecture embodies poetic meaning, but architecture is not an experience that words translate later. Like the poem itself, it is its figure as presence that words translate later. This constitutes the means and end of the experience. Yet, acknowledging that human experience mediates and given our current and particular technological and political context, we still need to ask: What does architecture represent in our current society? Could it be possible that despite its common origin with instrumental and technological forms of representation, it may yet allow for participatory human action over the course and construction of time, rather than manifesting the very denial of man’s capacity to recognize existential meaning in works of art? Could it then embody values of a different order than those rooted in fashion, formal experimentation or publicity, and be cast in forms other than the gloss characterizing all present cultural mechanisms? Rather than naively expecting that architecture may be somewhat miraculously saved by the cultural differences that have recently become more explicit in our society, I believe we should recall that the present cultural fragmentation, despite its complexity, is the only future of a poetic architecture. A poetic architecture rooted in the fundamental elements of understanding through perception, sensation and affection - reaching the broader audience of society and addressing culturally and contextually relevant issues through the conducting of poetic space.
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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF
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N A R R AT I N G design manifesto
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Cipher machine Enigma: A generative mechanism for narrative
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Narrative discourse is not a neutral medium for the representation of historical events and process but a significant mode that endows those events and processes with plot, coherence and meaning. The processes of narrative are a series of subjective simulation which is full of individual experiential judgement and structural control. In the process of searching truth, the truth cannot be restored, rather, the meaning is distorted within the designed structure and finally the will of the author is spontaneously consolidated within. Narratology from a structuralist approach focusses on the mechanism of meaning and not meaning itself. It attempts to answer how the mechanism deconstructs and reconstructs meaning through transference, encoding and grafting. This enlightens me to explore and expand the boundary of architecture and the methodlogy of design. As architecture is inherently concerned with the production of meaning and the appropriation thereof, the journey of becoming a narrator [architect[ of meaning leads to many paths. As an aspiring architect, rather than follow the societal tendency towards a technologically advocated worship, I choose to be a sober witness and poetic narrator in this changing era. Rather than as a vessel or aesthetic obsession, design for me is a means of responding to a societal condition, not criticizing, nor sympathising, not declaring a resistance, nor announcing my allegiance. Design for me becomes a tool to bring together conditions of vagueness and beauty while at the same time critiquing the specificity of such conditions. Such reflection and approach propels me to ask ceaselessly: how to define a right stance; how to endow materials with the ability to narrate; how to avoid ideologically censorship; how to arouse the longing of hope.; how to create without detracting; how to make relevant what is forcefully forgotten. I continue to explore. In addition to architecture, I try to practice the approach mentioned through many other mediums, including landscape, urban planning, film, graphic design, illustration design and art. The forms of expression may vary, but the cores remain: the exploration to link tradition and reality, forging a new alliance between relevance, use, appropriation and meaning. I am a walker in the city.
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PERSPECTIVE B.Arch (Hons)
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/ THEATRE OF THE BLIND
From and architectural implementation perspective the proposal for the architecture is to act as a diametrical theatre. A theatre being a place for reproduction, performance, imagery and simulation. It begins to address the hollow imagery of contemporary society. The theatrical museum challenges the conventions of the spectator’s ‘pre-eminintly’ visual experience which is achieved as the performance exists in a site not constructed to support the act of passive watching. The non-theatre site becoms theatrical with physical presence of the audience, transforming the site from place [location] into space [act]. In essence a museum of conflict is proposed, in opposition to the mortification of history, rather history becomes a narrative for future and present society.
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Choreographing space. This draws upon the surrealist notions of fragmentation and the rearrangement of elements in order to raise questions about the nature of reality. When space is choreographed [theatre] - it becomes an exploration into the overlaps of space, movement and performance. The user/audience [museum] is transformed into a performer [theatre]. Space & movement become one continuous experience which oscillates between static and dynamic states. A dialogue is established in which the audience is assimilated as active participants in space, establishing a theatre of conflict.
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Theatricality is particularly well suited to the museum environment; it is a place out of the ordinary. Already a staged environment, it is a cabinet of curiosities, a Wunderkammer, a catoptric theatre, bristling with objects and details, reflections and illusions. In current museum practice, theatricality takes many forms from the use of traditional scenic effects, to digital scenography, to live performance. Designers are changing the visitor’s perception and ways of seeing galleries through the use of lenses, gauzes, filters, mirrors, shadows and illusions. The aim is to exploit the inherent theatricality of the museum architecture; to approach the spaces, circulation and atmosphere scenographically and to create contemporary interpretations using scenic devices. Just as the theatre space influences the reception of a play, exhibits are influenced by the context in which they are viewed. Often they are almost totally enclosed, enabling the spectator to focus on the object in a controlled, staged environment. Sometimes the exhibition flows through a variety of spaces; the spectator has to follow signs, clues to find each element. As the visitors move around the museum, they have to question what is set, what is exhibit, what is prop, museum artefact, who is spectator, who is performer? The scenography of the museum itself is constructed from the numerous smaller scenographies of the exhibits. In these theatrical scenographies, the exits and entrances to the spaces become highly important. Doors are key scenic elements signalling beginnings and endings and, as such, they can be used to frame narrative, suggest circulation and mark transition. They demonstrate Feral and Bermingham’s argument that ‘theatricality . . . is a performative act creating the virtual space of the other’.19 This transitional space, the threshold (limen), ‘clears a passage, allowing both the performing subject as well as the spectator to pass from “here” to “elsewhere”’. The intention of the design of the installation IS to engage the viewer in a constant dialogue with the exhibition itself. Architecture that lookS solid and substantial from one viewpoint IS revealed to be flimsy paper-thin stage sets when seen from a different angle. GIVING RISE TO CONFLICT IN SPACE.
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The architecture becomes an amalgamation of mnemonic devices. Museum installations become theatre performances. Ultimately a database of interpretations from performers [users] is built up to serve as a public collective of conflicting mempries and narratives. The intervention proposes the initiation of a dialogue between the built environment and the obscured view of humanity on the basis of recall. Progressions such as layering, disbanding, detachment and distortion are proposed - which informs the architecture that responds to and advances the perception of the threshold between the post-human condition and the essence of history and architecture which creates a distinctive transformative space that connects dissimilar realms and introduces a discontinuity through a theatre for the blind passenger
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- How can contemporary heritage and commemorative architecture be challenged to form a new typology that acknowledges the contextual societal changes? - How can isolated, locked, and seperated memories be brought to the fore without a physical connection, and how can these memories be taken further in addressing their role in society today?
- How can the inevitable romantic process of decay and weathering be utilised within the design, to respect the natural aesthetic of place, but also to establish a dualistic relationship with the context and to reintroduce the architecture to the continuum of timely change? - How can architecture bring about new thoughts through addressing the past, present and future conditions?
The main aim is to establish a connection between the lost memory/history of place [fort wonderboompoort and the public realm. There is a clear distinction, and this distinction should be addressed. The proposed connection is not a physical connection, rather in protecting and enhancing the ‘non-existence’ of the Fort the proposal remains as subversive as the site is.
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Aerial View
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Aerial ViewAire and Temperatre movement and variance
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Light Ray Tracing & Temperature Distribution
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Ground Floor Plan
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OBSERVING BSc (Arch) 3rd year
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/ MNEMONIC DRIFT: THE ANTI-MUSEUM My eyes only show me the darkness, The black void that is their world. Yet my mind tells a different story. I connect the dots i feel all around me. and let them take me to a different place, a place where i can see and feel another world. My world. My vision. My touch
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Drift - Drift is a movement by, or as if by, a current of air or water. It can mean the depositing of debris by such a current. It can also connote a veering off from a projected path. What interests me about the word is that it suggests a slight loss of control, but not a devastating one. Most importantly, for this body of work, it implies a passive movement, a transition in which one is not able to control every part. The accelerating pace of modern society and the proliferation of memorials in recent years have distorted general perceptions of time and memory. Moving at escalating rates of speed in maintaining pace with technological innovation, we rarely afford ourselves the opportunity to slow down and appropriately engage in the act of remembrance. Society finds itself in a state of affairs in which time is becoming too fast and remembrance is losing its significance. In calling for slowness and challenging traditional notions of memorial, a new means for engagement of memory is proposed on a public front. It’s a collective system seeking to embody ‘the art of public memory’, creating a dialogue that transcends the mere appearance of any memorial gesture.
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Times change, generations shift and memories blur, calling for the creation of a place that is uniquely a tool for slowing and remembering. A place which is mutable, changeable, and flexible, situated in everyday life – a site for transformative practice. In essence it calls for an in-between space for an in-between time, one based on positive emotion engendering slowness, collectivity and remembrance, whilst encouraging a level of intellectual and emotional engagement by way of user activity in multiple layers. A network of interventions is proposed throughout the structure. The notion of recording has strong implications for time and memory, and acts as the basis for this multi-faceted system. The result is a distributed mechanism: a machine for slowing down, a catalyst for remembrance. Modern society is strictly dictated by hours, minutes and seconds, a chronological time governing our daily routines. While time in this ordered sense provides organization and structure in a society of global acceleration – resulting in behavior leading to undeniable saturation showcased by our libraries, museums, depots, archives and media houses – machines desperately working in defiance of the info-void… Man and nature do not move at the same speeds. Architecture should be a machine for slowing down time, so as to move parallel to natural time… Architecture should interrupt our fast time in reclaiming slow time, allowing us to pause, reflect and transcend.
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/ DES BAKER: THE DECAY OF A LIMINAL PROTEST Architecture out of shadows _ A protest - [ proh-test] - is an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid; remonstrate
DES BAKER 2012 COMPETITION GOLD MEDAL 1st PLACE WINNER This project won the gold medal 1st place at the Murray & Roberts Des Baker Student Competition. The most prestigious Undergraduate Architecture Student Competition in South Africa The project was a collaboration between myself, Rikus de Kock and Alex Becker
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SCRIPT: The existing script represents the passage of time evealed through the degradation and decay of bandoned architecture. It scripts the premeditated expiration of a spatial vessel as a measure ofchange and the toll of time - the condition of inevitable and continuous weathering towards ruination. This tangible process is the measurable evidence of the instability of the human condition and its mortal transcience. The ruination of architecture is a narration of the unofficial histories of place. Architecture, like us, cannot resist time. It has the capacity to become a means for us to confront our own corruptibility and morality. The script transverses many societal layers - a societal Palimpsest. The visible constructs of a society are palimpsests; layered constructions revealing and exposing diversions and diversities in the course of temporal progress and decline. RE-SCRIPT: In re-scripting this ‘decaying’ script the intention is not to resist or refuse time but to confront it through experiential and emotional interactions. Rather than re-scripting the text of time, a super and subscript are added, layering the text as a palimpsest of possibility and revealing unexpected or unintended meanings between the lines. . CONTEXT: Situated in an abandoned productive facility - a flourmill - the question arises as to how such a place has become discarded, a space that once represented productive sustenance now symbolizes futility and regress, indicative of a fluctuating society of consumption and disposal. Altered and transmuted through time the structure dates from 1908 and represents the prototypical space as machine. The site occupies a liminal space between dissolving and emerging conditions on the periphery of the central city. Although the place is particular, its condition is universal.
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INTERVENTION: The intervention is an interjection in the script of time, a deliberately crafted - as opposed to a produced - route that exposes the hidden spaces to public scrutiny and possibilities of liminal occupation. These liminal programmes refer to the hidden cultures and subcultures of the urban condition, a space for the transients produced as by products of contemporary society. The inserted structure has the capacity to become a liminal infrastructure. It both conceals and reveals decay in its construction of materials such as Corten steel where, ironically, decay becomes its own protection. The tectonic is intentionally direct and essential as a means to experience rather than being experience in itself. As such its construction signifies work as poetic act in contrast to the labour associated with the programme previously containde in the structure. The route is ultimately a reflection of the obesrvers’ perception of the existing deteriorating structure and the realization of the fate of its former occupants and the building itself as a manifestation of transcience. The syncopated route is progressively revealed as a sequence of liminal experiences punctuated by varied threshold conditions. It seduces the imagination to deviate from the world of everyday escapisms. It has the capacity to awaken our imagination beyond immediate gratification towards reflection on and acceptance of our transient state...
LIMINAL EXPERIENCE 1 : An inceptional approach into the voids of memory and the mystery of demise. The experience allows the observers to confront their surroundings, comprehending the walls that enclose them, sensing the sound of silence and grasping the texture of self-reflectance
LIMINALITY framing the architecture. Liminality - A critical state of transition, which is wholly separate in character from the experience that precedes and follows. The theoretical study of liminality is deeply embedded within the spine of the existing [decaying] building. Throughout the building the route and sublime [sub-liminal] walkway proposes a transition in a cinematic fashion, framing sequences. Proposing changes of states; a change from one condition to another. Transformation is the implementation of alteration. A more wholly and complete change occurred. LIMEN [Latin] - threshold. The spaces of liminality are the borderlines delimiting the initial perception of a new sensation allowing for a change in state. THE ROUTE AS A WHOLE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY ONE EXPERIENCE OR EVENT ALONG IT.
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LIMINAL EXPERIENCE 2: The subsequent procedural experience engages the observer with the haptic and an appreciation of the human condition. The wall transforms into a stair - ascending. Revealing truth. Representing infinite growth and dominance. The space negotiates with gravity, raising and revealing limits, lasting and acknowledging finitude. The space proposes the coincidence of life with limits [death].
MONTAGE OF THE DEGRADATION OF THE QUOTIDIAN [life] Linear movement through existing spaces. Liminality is the theoretical principle guiding the approach and intervention in the existing building. Allowing for an extended exposure to an altered ‘state’. The movement through the existing [decaying] building penetrates and weaves through the entire building, forming the spine of the liminal realm.
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LIMINAL EXPERIENCE 3 : The third experience refers to dwelling [assimilating to the observer’s surroundings, understanding and learning from them] within the existing [decaying] spaces, abandoned to ‘die’. Experience the sorrow; sense the lifelessness in life. LIMINAL EXPERIENCE 4: The final experience transcends into the realm of the ephemeral and the haptic signifying an acceptance of the purpose of existence... enlightenment.
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/ DWELLING IN TIME In our times of accelerated speed, architecture has become obsessed with newness and contemporaneity, appealing to the eye but failing to create emotions and atmospheres. It is therefor time to reconsider the alternative tradition of modern architecture: buildings that appeal to all the senses, that show concern for materials and textures, and that, by accepting life with all its imperfections, are intrinsically rooted in time.
[image: nerdy album art - dan assel]
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The element of time and what it represents in architecture and specifically this design came from the studies of Michael Wesely’s long exposure [between 2-4 years] photographs of construction sites, such as the MOMA in New York. The photographs become a collection of time. Exposure time in normal photographs are usually something very aggresive-ripping something out of the flow of time. With this long exposure photographs [LOW END] there is no decisive moment, no aggression, just a purely changed space and special light. This is what the intention is of dwelling in time. The intention is to emphasize the fragility of life and the limited time frame within eternity - Life writes the photography - whereas photography is writing with light. architecture tries to create settings for the eye that seem to originate in a single moment of time and evoke the experiences of flattened temporality and absence of life. Vision and immateriality reinforces the feeling of the present tense, whereas materiality and haptic experiences evoke an awareness of temporal depth and a continuum of time.
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TIME CONTINUUM The TIME continuum as a multi- layered manifestation in the minds of people. TIME is the main parameter in life according to which all life forms and subjects conform to. Without us realising time. TIME is thus an entity made up of unnoticeable fluctuations in the vibrations of the universe. To dwell in TIME, the user becomes aware of these fluctuations, subtle as they may be, and the architecture, simple as it may be. enables the connection between the metaphysical and the physical. altering dwelling environments based on a life lived and to be lived. On emotions. On actions. On thoughts. On movement. On desires. As TIME is in flux, peoples thoughts and movements are too, so the architecture, too, is in constant flux. Subtle fluctuations to not hinder the ritual of dwelling.
Within the architectural shell/vessel a blank space mediates between the cleansing zone and the sleeping zone [physical parameters]. There are 4 physical parameters that are subject to TIME as the main parameter. TIME determines what happens within the dwelling/living blank space. TIME is the life of the nomad-his thoughts, actions and movements. Over TIME the architecture is formed around his movements, thoughts and actions. It seems lifeless but is embodied with life. SKIN: Skin is a multi- layered, multipurpose organ that shifts from thick to thin, tight to loose, lubricated to dry, across the landscape of the body. Skin, a knowledge-gathering device, responds to heat & cold, pleasure & pain.
It lacks definitive boundaries, flowing continuously from the exposed surfaces of the body to its internal cavities. It is both living and dead, a self-repairing, self-replacing material whose exterior is senseless & inert while its inner layers are flush with nerves, glands and capillaries...systems. The houseboats - due to the influence of time and the perception thereof by the nomad - grow a timely skin onto the skeleton structure, by selective choices and decisions based on the nomads’ perception of life and the time continuum. The skin ‘grows’ as the nomads’ life progresses. The ‘skin’ is a physical manifestation of his/her metaphysical understanding of the world. At the turn of a new nomad entering the houseboat, the boat sheds its ‘skin’, rebirth, in order to allow the new nomad to make manifest his timely understanding of the metaphysical world.
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/ DWELLING IN MEMORIES From an experiential perspective, memory is often thought of as episodes in which strong feelings of recall briefly dominate a person’s awareness. From a functional perspective, memory is seen as a capability for storage and retrieval of data. Memory consists of much more than what can be understood from simplistic local measurements of recall. The experience of memory forms part of ongoing interactions that are emotionally charged and are embedded in a broad social context. Significant memories are too, a large social phenomena that take place in specific cultural settings. A memory is never a single state: it is an experience. [image: nerdy album art - dan assel
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[a] memory/dream catcher (neural network level) [b] Kitchen unit [c] memorising space [d] storage vessels for memory and dreams (physiological level) [e] cleansing unit [f] memorising space [g] sleeping quarters - family of 3 (physiological level) [h] network catchment radars for harnessing memories and feeding back into the city in architectural spaces [i] social gathering space for memories (psychological level)
Human memory relates to so many complex interactions that it is possible that individual memory ‘traces’ may never be detected. Another way of considering the problem of memory is to imagine scenarios in which memory constructs an interactive involvement rather than simply a storage and recall pattern. There are three different directions within the approach of memory architecture [a] psychological level-social construction of memory, in which memory is seen as a social practice, [b] at the physiological level, memory is a continual process of reconsolidation, and [c] at the neutral network level, where new models based on chaotic dynamics represent memory as nearly periodic orbits that can be altered by small fluctuations. The approach of this architecture in response to what modernity had done to spatial experiences is an architecture of the mind - language of the mind. Memory and dreams are what makes the architecture and forms the spaces.
The approach of this architecture is in response to what modernity had done to spatial experiences, as an architecture of the mind. Memories determine what atmosphere and texture certain spaces and places will have, in an individual unit sense and broad public and social sense. The memories harvested from the public domain are reproduced within the urban realm on street levels and public areas as minute changes in the atmosphere and physicality of the space and places. Dreams and memories are woven into the existing fabric of the city. Thus memory, within the realm of architecture and social spaces becomes a continuous process contingent on experience and never fully fixed or immutable.
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public interface - public dream/memory cathcher/ selective memory filter capsule. memories/dreams are used to create the architecture of the future city public scape
weaving a new layer onto the city fabric, evolving spaces to suit the character of the locale, and to synchronise with the public life
dwelling unit - containing sleeping/dreaming capsuleskitchen unitdream/memory catcher/selective memory filter tanksmemory/dream storage tanks
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T R A N S L AT I N G second year work
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/ NEXUS URBAN LIBRARY An urban library occupying a fringe condition within the city of Pretoria. This project argues for the integration between monofunctional fragmented areas of the city, reconciling the independence of the parts with the coherent sweep of the whole. In doing so an urban hub of communication, and knowledge couold be generated. Connecting the lost and blind urban zones.
You had to choose the margin in order to know where you were.
If this portfolio was obtained digitally, please consider and respect the ongoing distribution thereof and use it digitally [not printed], unless it serves a personal purpose.
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An urban cavity situated on the border of the CBD, submerged into the fringed delineated grid system on the Eastern half of the Apies river and Nelson Mandela Drive. This cavity is surrounded by densely populated precincts, mid-height [7-16 storeys] buildings, as well as low height [1-6 storeys]. Retail zones alos populate the surrounding areas. Other main informants include Pre-, primary and secondary education facilities. The derelict site is re-used and transformed to act as an urban nexus, connection point on the fringe of the city. A public library is proposed to connect with the education facilities as well as with the inert community. The public library acts as a public platform for gaining knowledge and accessing collaborative environments. A revitalisation proposal.
Streets fit into 2-dimensional walls and these walls are experienced as the sides of urban canyons such is in the Pretoria CBD. The street dweller is oriented towards the street, not the buildings [not before his destination has been reached]. His eyes direct his course through an open channel. The street ‘canyon’ is the realm of man’s presence & therefor perceived as the figure, not the ground. The integration of a building’s front facade into the continuous wall of the street can submerge its/the identity of an individual building. Reconciliation with the form of a continuous, longitudinal oriented street with varying degrees of canyon walls.
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The city has been shaped by the natural water system in and around Pretoria. The city grew from an agricultural town into a modern day metropolitan. With passing time the emphasis on the river has decreased. Historically the town depended on the water Furow, which became part of the urban planning. The water source originated at fountains valley; connected to church square and from there distributed to the rest of Pretoria.
‘Street canyons’ respond to the site conditions in acting as a public platform. The existing Moth building on the site allows for efficient re-use allowing for remembrance and nostalgia.
The argumentative premise allows for the design to flow out of a merging of different entities. One being the urban landscape within which it is submerged, with all of its urban ‘canyons’. Secondly is the dynamic movement of a culture of people through, around and between urban obstacles - the ‘canyons’. Thirdly the notion of creating an urban hub from a simple platform such as an urban library, trough unconventional methods and ideas. The design connects [nexus] the urban city grid to the west of the Apies river and the delineated grid to the east of the river. It merges gently with the existing Moth building, hardly touching, so as to not hinder the act of remembrance and nostalgia. The building is intended not to act as a ‘canyon’, but rather as an open field with various elements providing shade and comfort. Separated from the urban density, stepping away from the deliniatory river, and blending seamlessly into the urban fabric.
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The Library is situated on the edge of Nelson Mandela drive, stepped back and down into the naturally sloped site, in order to avoid creating an urban ‘canyon’. The re-used Moth Club building has been transformed into a public art gallery for local artists from the surrounding regions. A connection has been introduced to the eastern part of the side, connecting the local shebeens and shops as well as pre-schools. This allows for the integrated connection. The zoning is diverged into public and private functions, with a clear formalistic distinction visible, where the private areas and offices are situated to the east and the more public functions located on the western side. An open courtyard allows for public storytelling, performances as well as public speaking. The open courtyard also links with the notion of nexus, connecting the open space on the western part of the site. The library book storage spaces occupy the large passage area, with spaces for reading, studying, copying, internet service etc.
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/ JANUS HOUSE In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus (Latin: Janus) is the god of beginnings and transitions,[1] thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. The interpretation of Janus as the god of beginnings and transitions is based on a third etymology indicated by Cicero, Ovid and Macrobius, which explains the name as Latin deriving it from the verb ire (“to go�). Interpretations concerning the god’s fundamental nature either limit it to this general function or emphasize a concrete or particular aspect of it (identifying him with light the sun, the moon, time, movement, the year, doorways, bridges etc. or see in the god a sort of cosmological principle.
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The Affect of Synergy : adapting [to] the contradiction. A house designed for two friends, completely contradicting in nature and personality. The notion behind the intended ‘double-house’ is pulled from the understanding of the Greek god Janus. Two faces, quite different from each other, but they have to live in a symbiotic relationship for the better of the whole. The site is the same site as for the Myanmar Embassy, thus the residential capacity of the area is supported by yet another residential development. The intended argument is for a complete synergetic system to be developed and designed, in order to allow for full integration with the residential area as well as to be as sustainable as possible. In a synergetic relationship with the surrounding environment, tangible and intangible.
One house is created, facing North to optimise natural sunlight during winter and summer. The single house is split into the two halves [two faces], one segment for the financier and one for the writer. Sustainable features are mainly the water harvesting systems for the entire house and the solar panels. As the site is currently naturally populated by trees and overgrown grasses, this natural landscape is kept in tact, so as not to disturb the micro ecosystem. A permaculture system is introduced to minimise dependency on supermarket products as well as to utilise the fertile soil conditions. The synergetic response ultimately becomes a way of adapting to the contradiction of the two personalities as well as the contradictions faced in terms of sustainable living.
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HOUSE WRITER: The writers’ house adapts to his/her personality and mode of living. The house for the writer is largely an open plan dwelling, allowing for clear comfortable access throughout the house. Upon entrance from the permaculture garden, the user enters the large open dining/kitchen/lounge area and he/she can move right through to the patio area. This adaptation with the landscape [bringing the landscape into the interior of the building, forms part of the synergy effect. Zoning was dealt with by separating private areas from public by controlling the open-plan regime more strictly. Bedrooms are situated to the north, whilst the service spaces are located to the south. A main corridor from east to west acts as a binding core to the building and ultimately to the entire building.
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HOUSE FINANCIER: Seeing that the financier is used to a rigid rational way of living and planning his/her life, the house, in its simplicity, functions accordingly. Spaces are rigidly organized and zoned according to a hierarchical system. Access to interior spaces are strictly controlled in contradiction to the writer’s house. Upon entrance of the house, a similar strategy is used to pull the landscape into the house, by opening up the lounge/dining area. This is for the most part the only open-plan zone in the house. As with the writer’s house, bedrooms are zoned to the north whilst service spaces are located to the south. Both houses have comfortable secondary access to permaculture gardens and the garden shed/storage space. The financier’s house is synergetically bound to the writer’s house through the east west corridor.
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E X P LO R I N G additional art & design
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/ GENESIS DESIGN STUDIO BRANDING
ID Branding for Genesis Design Studio, an architecture studio unit. The Unit operated as an independent studio, with a personal manifesto, vision and mission. The approach to the branding scheme was to following the Unit’s manifesto of HUMAN[E] centered design and architecture. Building upon this, the design attempts to translate these notion into the layout and reading of the branding scheme, through the use of subtle, honest colour ranges, with a deep grey undertone as a base from which to work from
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/ PYROTECHNIKS DANCE CREW BRANDING Work done for a Hip Hop dance crew consisting of four of the best Hip Hop dancers in South Africa. Although relatively unknown, their passion for Hip Hop dance betrays their age, Considering the nature of the Hip Hop industry and the branding language commonly associated therewith, the intention was to develop a branding strategy that reflects the maturity and gracefulness of this specific group. Rather than following unofficial branding laws for the Hip Hop industry, the strategy developed follows a minimalist approach. The brief was to illustrate a ‘popper’ with fireworks/pyro’s coming out of his/her hand. The entire design should be read and understood as a playing card. Thus, the brand developed into a minimalist Hip Hop Dance Crew playing card, which forms part of a playing card set, acting as business cards. A poster design as well as shirt print was designed as well.
PLAYING CARDS/ BUSINESS CARDS
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CLOTHING
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POSTER
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/ ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
AGE, 2012
Art is better when not described, but rather read for the story that it is and could be
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SEE, 2010
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WISDOM, 2008
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CULTURE 2, 2009
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THE DISTANCE BETWEEN ‘NOW’ AND THE ‘PAST’ GENERATES SPIRITUAL SPACES TO REFLECT ON SOMETHING
MEANINGFUL.
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06
EXPERIENCING practice experience
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/ DRAWBOXDESIGN STUDIO ARCHITECTS All work experience was gained at the firm of Drawboxdesignstudio Architects. Work produced included presenting projects to clients in an accessible manner, revising the presentation language to suit the firm’s design language, designing details for projects in the initial phases of construction as well as projects in the initial concept phases. Other produced work included conceptual design in collaboration with the partners of the Themba Maternity Hospital in Nelspruit, and the conceptual development and presentation, as well as Council Submission Drawings, and Working Construction Drawings for a Spec. House in Midstream. The experience gained, in the limited time, has broadened my sights and understandings of the practice landscape and the immense shift that is required from architecture at varsity level to architecture at practice level. I thank the team at Drawbox, Nadine Engelbrecht and Carlu Swart, for their welcoming arms and for allowing me the freedom to express my own identity within this young firm, for entrusting me with projects and work which, to some extent, were foreign to me in terms of practical requirements and outcomes, and for their complete patience.
All work illustrated henceforth is the property of Drawboxdesign Studio Architects and they have sole copyright. The work illustrated is co-owned by myself under the name of Drawboxdesign Studio Architects and are projects that I were responsible for and involved with
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/ House Wentzel - Midstream Development - Project outcomes included Coucil Submission Drawings and Construction Drawings as well as developing the balustrade, balcony and sunscreen details. Current Phase - Construction - First Floor
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/ Doris Street Revamp - The project outcomes included developing the revamp to the existing building (family home) in Kloofsig, Lyttelton. A development of roof details were also done to create a minimal and simple extension in contrast to the existing building. This meant that a simple gutter hide-away detail had to be developed. - Current Phase - Awaiting Council Approval - Developing Construction
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/ House Merrington - The project outcomes included developing the presentation to the client, presenting to the client as well as rendering (not too realistic, but believable) and emotional understanding of the final design. - Current Phase - Development of Council Drawings
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/ Menlopark Unit My role in this project was purely to render a spatial setting for the client to understand the design language and intent and to gain insight into the probable outcome of the prohect. - Current Phase - Development of Council Submission Drawings
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/ House Botma - My involvement with this project was not limited as I was involved from the inception of the project. This house is a spec. house for Midstream Developments. This does limit your design capabilities in terms of developing an argument and basing all decisions on this argumant as your client is a developer... However, the scheme was developed in Revit 2013 as the firm is in the process of crossing over to Revit (from Autocad) for ease of use and collaboration. This was the first project in the firm using Revit.were also approced by Coucil.
The first major phase of my involvement was to develop the initial Midstream Home Owners Association Submission Drawings, whereafter another submission was required resembling Council Submission Drawings for approval by the MHOA. After this process the drawings were also approced by Coucil. Current Phase - Further Construction Drawing development - Groundworks
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/ Porous Space A Metropolitan magazine competition entry for a new work space design for 2050. The entry was not intended to be realistic, rather speculative, with the possibility of becoming realized. The speculative nature of this project allowed us to explore the interstitial space between inner city building, that have become devoid of any meaning, other that service space. The question asked, is what if these spaces could be utilised as public work space, doubling up as public space, private living and work environments all in one. The project, as mentioned, is not intended to be viewed and understood as being plausible, rather the notional driver should be considered as being as a means to begin to change an epoch. The project was illustrated in as simple means as possible, in order to convey this Interstitial dwelling notion. A limit to pages was set.
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07
REFLECTING
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The past few years has been an incredible journey, and has yielded some treasured memories. At the inception of this journey, architecture had been, and still is to some extent, a mystery to me. I only understood what my eyes were pleasured with. Architecture had been a mere visual communicative tool with which we as humans could relate to... This was merely a naive impression and understanding as I later came to realise. Architecture became a reason to change our current state of living, and our social and political condition. By understanding the world we live in, you begin to understand that the architecture becomes a reflection of our values and our moral ethic. I began to understand our profession on a much deeper level, and continue to try and understand its full depth. Architecture as a human endeavour is in opposition to the prevailing ideas of industry, economy and commerce. Which means that any profound work of architecture is a force of resistance. The purpose then, of architecture, is to provide us our existential foothold in the world.
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I IMAGINE, AT THE MOMENT WE ENJOY SPIRITUAL PROFIT, WE MIGHT HEAR THE HEARTBEAT OF
DESIGN.
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