THE STORY EXCHANGE: Narrative sharing as a catalyst for creative change in Orange Grove

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THE STORY EXCHANGE: Narrative sharing as a catalyst for creative change in Orange Grove

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THE STORY EXCHANGE: Narrative sharing as a catalyst for creative change in Orange Grove

Tatum Russo 540593

A report submitted to the School of Architecture and Planning, at the University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the course, Architectural Design and Discourse Studio 2016, with the view of achieving the degree of Masters Of Architecture Professional. University of The Witwatersrand Johannesburg 2016

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Declaration I, Tatum Russo, 540593, am a student registered for the course Master Of Architecture (Professional) in the year 2016. I hereby declare the following: I am aware that plagiarism (i.e. the use of someone else’s work without permission and/or without acknowledging the original sources) is wrong. I confirm that the work submitted for assessment for the above course is my own unaided work except where I have stated explicitly otherwise. I have followed the required conventions in referencing thoughts, ideas, and visual materials of others. For this purpose I have reffered to the Graduate School Of Engineering and The Built Environment Style Guide. I understand that the University of the Witwatersrand may take disciplinary action against me if there is a belief that this is not my unaided work or that I have failed to acknowledge the source of the ideas or words in my own work.

Tatum Russo 2017-02-14

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Acknowledgements To begin, I would like to thank God for blessing me beyond belief. Thank you for my family, friends and most of all, the health and wellness which allows me to carry out this research. Thanks to my family whose continued love and support makes it possible for me to excel in my studies and reach my full potential. You are always willing to listen to my problems, share my frustrations and help me overcome obstacles. It is because you are always by my side that I have retained my sanity. Thanks also to my friends - the architectural and the not-so-architectural. I truly value your interest and kindness. You are my comic relief and the production of this work would not have been possible without it. I would also like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Paul Kotze and the various lecturers, teachers and staff members that are always willing to guide my academic journey with helpful advice and directions. Finally I would like to thank you - the reader - for taking time to read this report. Your interest is greatly appreciated.

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[01.]

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Abstract Ever since we as humans sat around fires in caves, we have been sharing stories in an attempt to understand life and the need to survive. Storytelling is an integral part of human experience. We define our lives in narrative form. It gives us a means to explain the inexplicable and understand our lives in the context of a greater whole. The increasing prevalence of technologies like cell phones, tablets, and laptops has lead to a phenomenon of disconnection between people in the physical dimension. Instead of communicating faceto-face, with all of our senses engaged, we rely on technology to interact with friends and share our stories. South Africa’s current political climate, and particularly the protests on University campuses across the country in the past year, has emphasised the idea that society is suffering from a lack of real communication. This research proposes that stories can create change in the built environment, through building design, in the same way that stories affect our personal beliefs and understanding. Thus the concept of narrative and memory and how it manifests itself in architectural design and discourse is explored. This report finds that nostalgia and phenomenology play a significant role in producing connections between people and the built environment and these theories must be employed to create strong narratives in architecture. Orange Grove, once a vibrant suburb along Louis Botha Avenue, has suffered from a lack of investment and development since the 1990s. Ultimately I employ perceptual and conceptual design philosophies to design a sustainable intervention within the already rich context of Orange Grove. The Story Exchange building design proposes that only through art, craft and open tactile interaction (that involves all the senses) - can one produce architecture that becomes a catalyst for the creative upliftment of the area and its community.

Figure 01: The Radium Beer Hall. This pub is one of the oldest surviving bars in Johannesburg. Today it is still a popular venue for live music performances. Many locals frequent the bar to share stories over a cold beer. The Radium Beer Hall, Orange Grove. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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CONTENTS 01. The Story Exchange: A Research Journey

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Introduction

....... 13

Plot Summary & Methodology

....... 15

02. A Tale Of Life & Narrative

19

The Power of Story Exchange

....... 19

The Case for Tactile Narrative Sharing

....... 23

Architectural Storytelling

....... 27

03. The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience

41

Place and Time

....... 41 ....... 43

Conclusion

....... 62

Kinship and Belonging in Stories

04. The Role Of Memory In Architecture Nostalgia and Memory Constructing A Memory Palace

65 ....... 65 ....... 76

Memory Reconstructions

....... 94 ....... 104

Conclusion

....... 108

Reminiscing On Childhood Artworks

05. Studying Precedent Introduction The Ubuntu Centre

111 ....... 111 ....... 113

The Writer’s Theatre

....... 118 ....... 123

Other Story Exchanges

....... 131

District Six Museum

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06. Reading Orange Grove

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A History Of Orange Grove

....... 137

Mapping Analysis

....... 150

Character Analysis

....... 220

Orange Grove’s Narrative Spaces

....... 236

07. Conceptual Exploration

249

Solidifying Memory

....... 249

Impressions

....... 254

Understanding Rivers

....... 260

Deformation (Erosion and Deposition)

....... 264

08. Design Development

275

Site Response

....... 275

Finding Form

....... 279

Program

....... 290

Design Drawings

....... 294

Construction Detailing

....... 318

Project Viability

....... 325

09. Conclusion Closing Words

327 ....... 327

10. Reference List

329

11. Bibliography

337

12. List Of Figures And Tables

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13. Ethics Clearance

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ABOUT: safety

add your story INPUT:

manifests in the form of:

STARTS WITH

life

YOU COULD WANT:

EXPERIENCE

freedom

DREAM IDEA

ITY

M

NI

O AN

RES

PEC

T

PUBLICITY

12

FICTION DR

AM

A

PHOTOGRAPHY

ING

FACT

get inspired

AR T

IT WR T.V

Figure 02: The Story Exchange Machine. This graphic used to explain my initial theoretical concept for this project, likens The Story Exchange to a machine. The engine starts with the input of a story that a dream, experience or idea inspires. The users’ story can be about freedom, life or safety. The user may want to remain anonymous, gain respect or stimulate publicity by sharing their story at The Exchange. These narratives can manifest themselves as various outputs including works of writing, art, dramatic productions, television programs or photography. Whether the final result is fiction or fact, it still inspires others. Digital Graphic: (Russo, 2016)

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01. THE STORY EXCHANGE: A RESEARCH JOURNEY

Introduction I have a deep love of reading and storytelling. Stories are a powerful means of creating change in people’s lives, diversifying their ways of thinking and stimulating creativity. As Coates (2012) states: “In architecture, narrative prioritises human experiences and the need to shape them into stories. It places emphasis on a building’s meaning rather than performance. To architects, the enduring attraction of narrative is that it offers a way of engaging with the way a city feels and works. Rather than reducing architecture to a mere style or an overt emphasis on technology, it foregrounds how buildings are experienced.” (Coates, 2012)

In today’s society people have become increasingly reliant on the twodimensional “image “ or representation of life – a very common circumstance since the surge in the development of online research platforms. This

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phenomenon could be due to an increasing number of people binding their Figure 03: Native American Storytelling. When night fell, Native American villagers would gather around a fire to enjoy each other’s company. The best seat was always reserved for the storyteller. (JSyd’s Journey, 2015)

lives to social media or simply a natural process in the shift towards improved everyday life through digital technologies. Either way, human interaction is becoming steadily more technology based. The result is people are becoming disconnected from their communities and each other. Our current political climate has compounded this occurrence. It has highlighted a stark need, especially amongst the youth, in present society: a safe platform for people to tell their story. Online social media provides us with a means to express our thoughts, but not without the possibility of ostracisation from peers (around the world) who share that platform as it does not offer the chance for anonymity. Face-to-face communication develops stronger, longer lasting relationships between people. Since the beginning of time humans have interacted with each other by sharing anecdotes and passing down cultural traditions. This form of storytelling, where one learns from one’s peers, is at the heart of life’s experience. The goal of this research report is to investigate the ways one can create a space where life changing inspiration can be gained through the sharing and receiving of real-life stories as well as tales of fantasy. By designing an architectural intervention that is well received by the community, this project aims to increase the popularity of inter-personal communication.

[03.]

Orange Grove, once a bustling suburb along Louis Botha Avenue, has suffered from a lack of investment and development since the 1990s. This report will thoroughly examine theories regarding narrative as it relates to space-making and community involvement. Ultimately this research wishes to propose a sustainable intervention within the already rich context of Orange Grove - one that acts as a catalyst for the upliftment of the area and its community.

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Plot Summary & Methodology The project, The Story Exchange: Narrative sharing as a catalyst for creative change in Orange Grove, explores the importance of story sharing in society with a particular focus on architecture as an instrument for creating narratives. The information contained in this report documents my research, experimentation and design exploration in this regard. The study begins with research into the importance of stories. This discussion presents my understanding of why stories are important on a social and cultural level. The containing research places particular emphasis on the effects of physical communication - the interaction between peoples that is done without the use of technology - and proposes the reasons for which this form of story sharing is preferable. Through a thorough literary analysis, this research suggests how the architect can manifest narrative in their designs, for, when architecture tells a story, it creates a kinship between the building and the user.

Figure 04: Tassili n’Ajjer Rock Art. (6000 BCE). The earliest evidence of the ancient West-African Fula people. These rock paintings depict the early life of this culture. (Wikipedia, 2016)

One’s ability to remember influences the way one tells and retains stories. By analysing various literary sources, this study suggests the ways in which memory shapes our connection to different spaces, places and times. The process of building and understanding a memory palace is documented and used to deepen the author’s understanding of intuitive design. An examination of childhood artworks furthers this research. While stories have clear hierarchy and structure, recollections occur as fragmented palimpsests. These studies argue that memories like narratives are experiential phenomenon’s, involving all the senses, which closely linked and at times inextricable. [04.]

A Chapter focused on various precedent studies furthers the connection between narrative history and identity. Museums, theatres, libraries and other forms of narrative sharing are discussed, with particular reference to how they

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create social change and influence community character. Narrative design cannot occur without an understanding of context. The author has researched the story of Orange Grove in Chapter Six fully. This chapter allows the reader to immerse themselves in the suburb’s history, character and broader role in Johannesburg. Many methods of analysis are used to develop this story. These include mapping at various scales, the making of diagrammatic sketches and photographic essays. The last two chapters of this report focus on the proposed design intervention of The Story Exchange. The design process begins with a thorough exploration of concept - achieved through the making of various models and explanatory diagrams. These concepts then influence the creation of building form, section and planning. The author explains the built intervention’s sensitivity to site, narrative program, material use and viability. Finally, a full set of design drawings and precise construction details explain how The Story Exchange is a sustainable intervention that boosts activity in Orange Grove and stimulates creative change in the region.

Figure 05: Everyday Story - One. There is a story behind all the ordinary moments of our lives. This image captures a portion of the unrest present across University campuses this year. Studio Seven Architects (1959), John Moffat Building, University Of The Witwatersrand. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [05.]

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Figure 06: Storytelling Under A Tree. In many cultures, trees symbolise a source of magical stories. Under their branches, communities gather to share oral traditions across the generations. The sheltered zone under a tree creates a comfortable space for story sharing. Sketch: (Russo, 2016) [06.]

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02. A TALE OF LIFE & NARRATIVE

The Power Of Story Exchange “Science, by its own definition, doesn’t give us meaning. It just provides us with facts. Our lives gain meaning only when we tell our story.” (David Steindl-Rast in Juliani, 2014)

In a very basic sense “telling a story” is a means of conveying ideas from one person or group of individuals to another (Cox, 2001). Storytelling is an ancient function of life and is inherent to most cultures. The sharing of stories helps people make sense of the world and often guide one through life’s experiences, dilemmas, and hardships. Stories have a particular power over society. Stories help us preserve cultural beliefs by providing a meaningful way of communicating and translating memories and imaginative thought into physical objects that can last for many years (Bowles, 1995). Sharing stories also give one the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of one’s experiences and therefore oneself.

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Everybody has a unique story. Our personal story is always changing – being rewritten and added to – throughout our lives. We should regard storytelling as one of the “oldest healing arts” (Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999). Parallel to this belief, Hammerschlag and Silverman (1997:52, in Dyer, 2001) state that forming a story about one’s life has been shown to improve physical and mental health and has thus been used for centuries as a way of coping with grief, exploring new ways of thinking and learning different behaviours (Dyer, 2001). People have an intrinsic desire to understand their life experiences. Dyer (2001) suggests that by creating a narrative account or story, one can gain an understanding of these memories. Developing this narrative allows a person to weave moments of their lives together into a comprehensive story from which one can then derive meaning. When I was a child, my mother would tell me a story every night before bedtime. Sometimes the story was based on her childhood fantasies, other times they were read straight from books and others were adaptations of familiar fables. These nighttime forays into the realm of imagination were where my love of stories originated. Over time I developed a set group of favourite stories that I requested be repeatedly told. I was attracted to these stories, not only for the colourful, other-worldly characters they presented but because I could relate them to real events that occurred in my life. I recognised themes and topics that seemed familiar to me – even if I was not aware of it at the time. From these stories, I learned the lessons of morality, creativity and strength that formed the foundation of my upbringing. This circumstance is not unique to my childhood but based on science and research. A 2010 study by the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America” entitled, Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication; discovered that there is a deep

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connection between the brain activity of speakers and their respective listeners during a conversation. Figure 07 demonstrates how the brain area of an engaged audience begins to “sync up” (Stephens, Silbert & Hasson, 2010) with a speaker. From this study it is clear that by engaging others with compelling stories, that convey interesting lessons, one can connect with other people both “emotionally and biochemically” (Juliani, 2014) - thus increasing the opportunities for valuable learning experiences. According to Pamela Rutledge (2011), a Professor and Director of the Media Psychology Research Center, there are many psychological reasons why stories are so powerful. Stories have always formed the basis of human communication and provide a timeless connection to “universal truths” (Rutledge, 2011). They offer a human connection through the sharing of life’s emotions, meaning and purpose. Stories give us common ground with others and allow us to gain a greater understanding of self. In actuality, the very nature of how we think is also through narrative structure. We use “cognitive maps, mental models” and “schemas” (Rutledge, 2011) to make decisions and explain ideas. This structure, present within stories, provides us with order and a sense of certainty that is comforting.

Figure 07: The Relationship Between Speaker And Listener. (Stephens, Silbert & Hasson, 2010) [07.]

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We become psychological participants within a narrative by engaging our imaginations with a story and reciprocally stories trigger our imagination. By using one’s imagination one can bring about creativity, innovation and change making it, perhaps, the most valuable aspect of stories. Scientists have always perceived human beings to be “storytelling creatures” (Walker, 2012). For centuries humanity has told stories to share information, history and beliefs. When discussing the science of storytelling Walker (2012) states: “While stories often have a profound effect on us due to emotional content, recent research also shows that our brains are actually hard-wired to seek out a coherent narrative structure in the stories we hear and tell. This structure helps us absorb the information in a story, and connect it with our own experiences in the world.” (Walker, 2012)

It is evident from the above that stories are a vital part of human exchange. They provide us with inspiration, motivation and allow us to learn from the past. Stories help us make sense of what is incomprehensible in the world by applying structure, hierarchy and rhythm to a collection of moments. It is this structure and order in a narrative that allows us to derive value easily from it. These principles of structure and hierarchy (while being the foundation of a good story) are also fundamental elements of architectural expression. This connection hints at the idea that perhaps the value of narrative can also be successfully explored from a more physical and architectural viewpoint - rather than the traditional written medium of storytelling.

Figure 08: The Relationship Between Imagination and Narrative. (Russo, 2016)

IMAGINATION

Produces Fuel

STORIES [08.]

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The Case For Tactile Narrative Sharing When I think about my most memorable learning experiences, I know that they all involved stories. Many of the valuable lessons I have learned in life have been taught via an engaging narrative – it is the story that captured my attention and became rooted in my memory. Today, society is so focussed on creating change through technology that the importance of personal narrative exchange has been sidelined. Juliani (2004) agrees that while technology is an excellent mechanism for creating change, “storytelling might be a better tool” (Juliani, 2014). Technology is becoming increasingly more sophisticated and easily accessible. This situation has caused the boundaries between those who create, distribute and utilise information to become blurred. Rutledge (2011) discusses how stories transcend technology in her article for Psychology Today entitled: The Psychological Power Of Storytelling. Rutledge (2011) is of the opinion that the human brain is progressing at a slower rate than our constant companion technology. To make sense out of our experiences, we still look for a narrative structure within them. “No matter what the technology, the meaning starts in the brain” (Rutledge, 2011) and thus stories have the ability to bypass technology and transport us to the core of authentic human experiences.

Figure 09: Texting At The Table. (Duino, 2012)

Take a glance around the room at your favourite restaurant, and you will find it difficult to spot people who do not, at some point, have their heads bent over to use their cell-phones. The formerly discussed increases in the efficiency of technology have created a widespread tendency for people to rely on text messages, emails, social media, and various websites to communicate ideas – rather than engaging in traditional face-to-face communication. This inability to communicate physically is prevalent throughout society, and it seems to be having an adverse impact on interpersonal relationships. According to Paul Booth (in Keller, 2013), PhD, an assistant professor of media and cinema studies [09.]

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at the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, “there has been a shift in the way we communicate; rather than face-to-face interaction, we’re tending to prefer mediated communication. We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk on the phone”. Booth (in Keller, 2013) believes that these interactions via the internet while being more frequent, they tend to be weaker than face-to-face interactions. We do not feel as personally invested in the person on the other end of the conversation as we would in person. So in essence “while we’re communicating more, we may not necessarily be building relationships as strongly” (Booth Figure 10: Discussions Under A Tree. Meeting under the shade of trees is traditional in South Central Somalia. Rural Somalia (Griffin, 2013)

in Keller, 2013). Booth (in Keller, 2013) identified three issues around how technology has affected face-to-face communication. Firstly, communication over social media tends to be more trusting and therefore open. Secondly, over time our social connections are not strengthened – as they would be with faceto-face contact – so we do not deepen interpersonal relationships and human understanding. Lastly, people tend to interact with those who share their views and have similar interests. This occurrence exposes us to a lesser diversity of opinions with fewer opportunities to learn. Another negative aspect of sharing stories and narrative over the internet or social media is a lack of privacy and protection. Due to the nature of the web and its connectivity, every statement made online is made public and is accessible by people all over the world, opening one’s opinion or story up to harsh criticism and even persecution.

[10.]

One can liken the case for tactile over digital narrative sharing to the often argued case for physical books over digital e-books. While both book formats offer their respective advantages, it is my belief that being told a story through a physical interaction between reader and printed book leads to greater retention – thus a more significant opportunity to learn from the story’s content. A new research study reported in The Guardian examines this issue.

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This study found that readers using Kindles had a poorer recollection of a particular story as opposed to their paperback reading counterparts (Flood, 2014). The lead researcher on this study, Anne Mangen (in Flood, 2014) of

Figure 11: Reading Books Engages The Senses. George Orwell, 1984. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Norway’s Stavanger University, suggests that “the haptic and tactile feedback of a Kindle does not provide the same support for mental reconstruction of a story as a print pocket book does”. Mangen (in Flood, 2014) goes on to explain that while the reader reads a book, they gain a tactile and visual sense of progress as the story develops. The pages thicken on the left and thin on the right. The soft texture of the paper is also “pleasurable to the fingertips” (Huffington Post, 2015) and engages still more of the senses. Mangen (in Flood, 2014) states that “perhaps this somehow aids the reader, providing more fixity and solidity to the reader’s sense of unfolding and progress of the text”, allowing them to absorb the unravelling story better. The printed book on one’s shelf also acts as a physical reminder. It regularly returns the reader to the intellectual journey they took while reading it – thus immortalising the lessons learnt.

[11.]

Perhaps one of the most powerful methods of sharing stories is through acting them out. The process of humans “creating and experiencing a story” (Raunch in Lambert, 2012) simultaneously, in one room, has a power that will never dissipate. It is when many people gather together to receive a story (as they do in theatres) that you can sense the extent of connectedness between people. Tina Packer (in Lambert, 2012), founder of Shakespeare & Company, a theatrical company in Lenox, Massachusetts, describes this as a “palpable, visceral feeling – a collective feeling” that cannot be experienced through digital interaction. There is truth in this method of storytelling that you do not get via technological means. Packer (in Lambert, 2012) sums up the value of traditional theatre by explaining:

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“Now, we’ve gotten to a stage where the audience and the actors are not even in the same room (when watching films). But asking the questions together (during theatrical productions) —that is the thing that builds community. As an actor, when you’re being successful, you can feel it in your body, you can feel you’re getting there. You have an inner picture of who you’re playing; it makes a coherent whole. You can feel through the audience response that they understand it, too.” (Packer in Lambert, 2012)

The increasing prevalence of technology in society today has lead to the majority of stories being viewed on screen, in 3-D, or interactively. The prevalence of technological storytelling has caused a “hunger for live Figure 12: Cheers To Sarajevo. I watched this small stage production at Theatre On The Square earlier this year. It documented the conflict between Serbia and Bosnia in the 1990s and the intimacy, in this compact space, heightened the effectiveness with which the play tells the jarring story of war. Theatre On The Square, Johannesburg. (Stones, 2016)

storytelling, the shared experience of actor and audience”, (Lambert, 2012). Live storytelling (where the storyteller and listener are in the same room), due to its proximity, is more efficient at replicating a sense of reality. Thus the anticipation of the unfolding narrative is heightened as well as one’s connection to it. The negativity surrounding digital interaction and technology driven communication can be countered with its positive influences. One of which being the ability to communicate easily with more people, at a greater speed across larger distances. While technology is useful, one should see it as a learning aid rather than the primary tool (Sparacino, 2002). From the above research, however, it is clear that society needs a safe space in which to communicate. This analysis has demonstrated that meaningful story sharing requires some physical and sensory engagement and that this form of interaction is preferable to digital mediums of narrative exchange. Through tactile communication, society can develop healthy interpersonal relationships which will lead to the development of meaningful social connections that have the power to produce creativity and make social change in communities.

[12.]

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Architectural Storytelling All designed objects, whether created by artists, industrial designers, graphic designers, architects or artisans can tell a story. These stories may be readily discernable or an elaborate conceptual ordering that one only acknowledges on a subconscious experiential level. Either way, it is my belief that an underlying narrative presence is what gives good design its value. Within the architectural discourse, exploring narrative in built form creates a level of connection between the patron and building that is engaging and stimulating. As discussed in the previous Section the ability of the user to learn lessons, beyond the obvious, gives a piece of artwork (in this case the architecture) cultural relevance.

1.

Architecture presents its content through spatial arrangements, materiality, social relationships and the cultural purposes on which it was founded (Psarra1., 2009:2). One could view architecture as a product of the theories involved in its production. Contrarily narrative is sequential. It is a story of successive actions and events that are bound to space and time. Bordwell (1985:xi) explains that one can also regard narrative as “structure, a particular way of combining parts to make a whole”. However, in spite of these differences, architecture and storytelling are linked in the way they are understood. Design requires an architect and a user in the same way a story needs a narrator and a reader. With this comparison in mind, one can understand that the narrative is not

Dr Sophia Psarra is Reader of Architecture and Spatial Design, Director of the Spatial Design Architecture Cities Course and editor of The Journal of Space Syntax at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Her research in the field of architecture has lead to the publication of several books, artistic installations and design projects. Her research contained in Architecture and Narrative: The formation of space and cultural meaning (2009), has been highly influential in the writing of this report and is discussed and expanded upon in the following Section.

Figure 13: Ancient Greek Vase Painting. The Ancient Greeks used vase paintings as mediums to tell stories. This Vase depicts the epic battle between Achilles and Hector. The Berlin Painter, 530 BCE. (Interactive Ancients, 2013)

only the content of the story but the way in which one tells and interprets the story (Psarra, 2009:2). A story is evident in architecture in numerous ways; such as conceptual symbolism, drawings, models and other illustrations. These products of architectural practice are merely the representation of narrative in architecture (Psarra 2009:2). That is to say that they represent the messages a building wishes to display to a culture or social group. In this way architecture [13.]

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represents meaning. However, architecture also “constructs” (Psarra 2009:2) meaning. The designer achieves this construction through the creating of spatial hierarchy and an ordering of social relationships. The following chapter will explore the relationship between narrative structure,

Figure 14: Space-Making. (Russo, 2016)

ethereal experience and how they are represented architecturally. This discussion will look at how narrative architecture evolves out of a negotiation

Figure 15: Form Creation. (Russo, 2016)

of the client’s needs, the designer’s philosophies, building’s program, site and historical context. This report will place a particular focus on how architectural storytelling manifests itself through Space Making and Form; Materiality and Symbolism and Style to create a “fullness of experience” (Browne, 2010).

Space Making & Form To understand how narrative presents itself, through space making and form, one must understand the difference between conceptual theories of space and perceptual notions of embodied experience (Coulson, 2013). Architects employ conceptual-formal patterns, during the design process, [14.]

that are independent of the viewer’s experience. One can, therefore, understand the conceptual form of a building as being separate from the narrative noted by the user. When designing, architects also organise space from the viewpoint of the user. The act of perceiving is linked with the sequential unfolding of the planned information as our bodies pass through a building’s spaces. It is, therefore, clear that narrative enters architecture through the ways in which space is structured to achieve specific effects on our perception (Psarra, 2009:3). The narrative is the meaning behind the architecture.

[15.]

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In Architecture and Narrative: The formation of space and cultural


A Tale Of Life & Narrative ● The Story Exchange

meaning, Psarra (2009) raises this question about the relationship between conceptual structure and perceptual experience: “how do these fields contribute to the formation of cultural content?” In the twentieth century, two distinct oppositions were developed to try to answer this question: form follows function, and form follows meaning.

Figure 16: The Perceptual Experience - Our understanding of spaces as we move through them. (Russo, 2016) Figure 17: The Conceptual Narrative - Our understanding of a form in its entirety. (Russo, 2016)

“Form follows function” was a result of Modernism and the underlying thought that form can change the ways in which we use spaces. In this scenario, since meaning is socially constructed based on context, nostalgia, identity and history, morphological relations do not affect architecture. However if a “morphological order does not matter, then we could do away with architecture as a social and aesthetic practice or let it happen by chance” (Psarra, 2009:3). “Form follows meaning” is too simplistic because in reality, how form creates meaning, is a complicated relationship between the perceptual and the conceptual. To understand the roles of the conceptual and perceptual characteristics of architecture Psarra (2009:213) likens the use of buildings to the Labyrinth

[16.]

(Fig. 17). This metaphor is appropriate because when one is inside the Labyrinth one cannot get outside of it to experience it in its entirety. In a similar way, Tschumi (in Psarra 2009:4) argues that architecture is the user’s reality (their perceptions as they move through spaces) while this reality also prevents them from seeing the overall concept. The user cannot be within and without the architecture at the same time. With this metaphor in mind, the architect can order these different systems (perceptual and conceptual) in specific ways to bring about specific experiences. In essence manipulating the narrative and implying a “cognitive link” (Psarra, 2009:4) between architect, building and user.

[17.]

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According to Psarra (2009:3), the narrative in architecture is not solely a product of the “morphological properties of spaces themselves”, nor of the cultural norms behind its design and interpretation, but it is the dynamic layering of spatial, social and intellectual properties that give spaces meaning. This layering of meaning or symbolism orders the perceptual experiences in a building, in the same way, story arcs develop over time in a novel – creating an engaging narrative. This research report does not assert that architecture is solely responsible for making cultural meaning - there Figure 18: The Cyclical Relationship Between Narrative and Form. (Russo, 2016)

are social, economic and political factors also at play – however, one clearly needs a middle ground between function and meaning. From this discussion, it is clear that users pull specific meaning out of the building’s form but, the architect produces form out of a need to convey specific messages (or tell specific stories). These two ideas feed into each

Narrative

Form

other in a cyclical manner with one never preceding the other (Fig. 18). It is, for this reason, I propose that form rather “follows fiction” (Scheeren, 2016). By considering architecture in this light, one can think of buildings [18.]

as spaces for stories – stories of the people that use that building and what they perceive in those spaces.

Materiality As explained in previous chapters, meaningful social connections and significant creative development can only actually be developed through tactile communication and immersive experience. Creating a diversity of sensory experiences within the built environment is largely based on materiality. There is a dialogue that exists between the user of a building and its material reality. It is in this subconscious exchange – between architecture and user – that the everyday experience can be made

30


extraordinary. In an analysis of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavillion (1929) Psarra (2009:213) argues that the narrative of the building is characterised by its overall asymmetry (Fig. 19). This asymmetry is accentuated by the use of reflective materials that raise symmetry to the level of visual experience. Invisible surface surface Invisible

Right Rightside sideofofpodium podium

Left Leftside sideofofroof roofplane plane

Axis Axis

Axis Axis

2.4 2.4 Barcelona Barcelona Pavilion. Pavilion. (a) Diagrams Diagrams of of (a) geometric geometric relations. relations.

A Tale Of Life & Narrative ● The Story Exchange

aa

[19.]

(b) (b) Geometric-visual Geometric-visual lines. lines.

Figure 19: Axis Of Asymmetry In Barcelona Pavillion. (Psarra, 2009:48) Figure 20: Geometric-visual Lines In Barcelona Pavillion. (Psarra, 2009:48)

bb

[20.] in in an an orthogonal orthogonal matrix matrix of of lines. lines. But But in in reality reality they they are are triangulated, triangulated, immovable immovable and and fi xed, showing that nothing was independent or incidental in the design. fixed, showing that nothing was independent or incidental in the design. A look look at at other other houses houses by by Mies Mies shows shows that that the the alignment alignment of of spatial spatial A corners and the end points of surfaces is a recurrent characteristic (see Figure corners and the end points of surfaces is a recurrent characteristic (see Figure 2.5). 2.5). In In the the Brick Brick Country Country House House diagonal diagonal lines lines link link areas areas that that seem seem to to have have been been broken broken

31


The Story Exchange ● A Tale Of Life & Narrative

The use of the visual sense emphasises the experience. These reflections deconstruct the building but also allow the interior to be perceived as a consolidated whole (Fig. 23). As the building has no programme of activity, this allows for multiple typologies of meaning. Its properties and optical links draw attention to themselves so one could say the rich meanings embedded in the design arise through contrasts – of spatial relationships and visual experiences – created through the building’s materiality. In particular instances, building materials are gleaned from or nearby the construction site. In these cases materials directly reference context, meaning the building will tell a story of the geography of the surrounding area. Sometimes external factors, be they economic, social or cultural, necessitate the use of certain materials. The narrative surrounding these factors then become embedded into the architecture as a sensory story. An example to illustrate this argument is the use of the onyx wall in the Barcelona Pavilion. Psarra (2009:243) explains that an accidental discovery of an onyx block by van der Rohe and the demands for economic use of an expensive material caused adjustments building design to be made. Van

Invisible surface

der Rohe then changed the height and footprint of the building. This onyx (c) Reflections on the onyx wall mapped on plan. The circle annotates the position where the photograph in Figure 2.7b was taken from. The Figure 21: Reflections Mapped In Plan. The circle indicates where line marks the photograph in Figure 23 was taken. The dotteddotted line connects the line connecting the camera with the edge of the onyx wall. The solid grey lines the camera with mark the reflections of the glazed surface and outer wall on the the edge of the onyx partition. onyx wall. The solid (Psarra, 2009:53) grey lines on the glazed surface and the outer wall mark the reflection of these elements on 32 the onyx partition. If the onyx wall had extended to the left of the

Photographer

Radial of visual field

Plane of reflection Reflected glass partition Reflected outer wall

Line connecting the north-eastern corner with the end point of the onyx wall

[21.]


A Tale Of Life & Narrative ● The Story Exchange

then became not only a determinant of the building’s proportions but also informed the aesthetic decisions made (Psarra, 2009:243). Van der Rohe

then became not only a determinant of the building’s proportions but also

ensured the wall reflected the surfaces it obscured – thus removing it as

informed the aesthetic decisions made (Psarra, 2009:243). Van der Rohe

an optical obstruction – (Psarra, 2009:243) and heightening the emotional

ensured the wall reflected the surfaces it obscured – thus removing it as

response and narrative depth created by the architecture. It is not only

an optical obstruction – (Psarra, 2009:243) and heightening the emotional

the constraints of materiality that give the building meaning in this case,

response and narrative depth created by the architecture. It is not only

but it isthe alsoconstraints the way inofwhich van der withmeaning these limitations materiality thatRohe give engages the building in this case,

that become thought-provoking narrative detail creative but it isevidence also the of way in which van der Rohe engages withand these limitations that become evidence of thought-provoking narrative detail and creative Figure 22: Reflections in The Small Water Basin. Along with the surrounding materials, this small pool of water reflects the sky Figure 22:placed Reflections in The Small“Alba” Watersculpture Basin. Along with the above. Mies George Kolbe’s in an area surrounding materials, this small pool of water reflects the sky where it’s visual impact is at its highest. above. Mies placed George Kolbe’s “Alba” sculpture in an area Ludwig Mies can der Rohe, Barcelona Pavilion (1929). where it’s visual impact is at its highest. (Archi Alternative, 2013) Ludwig Mies can der Rohe, Barcelona Pavilion (1929). (Archi Alternative, 2013)

Figure 23: The Onyx Wall. The reflections on the surface of this wallFigure create23: the illusion that the partition walls extend The Onyx Wall. Theother reflections on the surface of this infinitely. Its reflective surface seems almost to disappear wall create the illusion that the other partition walls extend entirely. infinitely. Its reflective surface seems almost to disappear Ludwig Mies can der Rohe, Barcelona Pavilion (1929). entirely. (Psarra, 2009:62) Ludwig Mies can der Rohe, Barcelona Pavilion (1929). (Psarra, 2009:62)

[22.]

[22.]

[23.][23.]

33


The Story Exchange ● A Tale Of Life & Narrative

Figure 24: Lake Shore Drive Apartments. Ludwig Mies can der Rohe, Chicago, USA. (1951). (Flickr, 2016)

expression. Khan (in Sharr, 2012) indicates how narrative can be a powerful tool when explaining the value of craftsmanship to architectural tectonics. Khan (in Sharr, 2012) succinctly explains the importance of building materiality as a feature of architectural narrative in this dialogue: “What do you want Brick?” And Brick says to you: “I like an Arch.” And if you say to Brick: “Look, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that?” “Brick?” Brick says: “… I like an Arch.” (Khan, 2003) [24.]

This dialogue emphasises how materials should be investigated and their inherent strengths enhanced and layered to create the desired atmosphere and narrative within structures. The way materials are used, whether traditionally or innovatively, tells a story of the design process behind the building and the creative obstacles that one needs to be overcome in its design. An exploration of light and shadow reveals juxtapositions that can create particular emotional responses from users. Other tactile, visual, olfactory, auditory and kinaesthetic qualities of materials occasion a multi-sensory poetic experience within a building and allow a user to read

[25.]

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A Tale Of Life & Narrative ● The Story Exchange

better the story created through form or style. Methods such as these all contribute towards building a vibrant piece of narrative architecture.

Figure 25: Palazzo Farnese Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Rome, Italy. (1517). (Flickr, 2016) Figure 26: Sainte-Chapelle Pierre de Montreuil, Paris, France. (1248). (Pinterest, 2016)

Symbolism & Style This chapter has presented architecture as comprising two interwoven strands. As has already been mentioned, the first of these strands is how narrative enters architecture through the ways in which spaces are structured to achieve specific effects on our perception. The second strand deals with the conceptual patterns and motifs from which one can draw diagrams and understand relationships. This research has discussed that the architect’s space-making techniques best manipulate one’s perceptual experience of narrative. The concept-based narrative of a building, however, is produced through symbolism that denotes particular style. Architects have always aimed to communicate their beliefs through metaphor and building aesthetic (Browne, 2010). This tendency has caused designers to produce buildings of various styles throughout history. Some examples are the dominant Palazzo Farnese (1517) (Fig. 25), the fantastical swooping structures of Gothic Cathedrals (Fig. 26), with flying buttresses and complex groin vaults, or the robust simplicity of Mies van de Rohe’s Lakeshore Drive Apartments (1949) (Fig. 24). Each of these building styles aims to communicate a particular function and therefore a unique narrative message. Tschumi (1999) reinforces this notion by suggesting that abstract forms have social and cultural meaning because of their potential to create symbolism; question contextual histories and architectural principles. The following examination will explore the manifestation of narrative through style and symbolism. In Architecture and Narrative: The formation of space and cultural

[26.]

35


western The Story Exchange ● A Tale at Of the Life & Narrativeside (see Figure 1.3). The Parthenon was dedicated to the goddes

Athena. The west part of the Erechtheion was devoted to Athena Polias (patron deit of Athens), while the east part was dedicated to Poseidon-Erechtheus (Wycherle 1978: 150). So, the Parthenon was simple in physical form and in religious conten being dedicated to one goddess, while the Erechtheion housed more than one go meaning a comparative discussion between the Parthenon (Fig. 29) and and was physically and religiously complex.

the Erechtheion (Fig. 30) is used to address the role of style in constructing an architectural narrative. This comparison places a particular emphasis on understanding the creation of cultural meaning through narrative. The Parthenon (432 BC), according to Psarra (2009:213) is distinguishable by a “conceptual unity” and organisation of space that controls access from the exterior to the interior of the building in a very linear progression (Fig. 27). The Erechtheion (406 BC) contrasts the Parthenon (Psarra, 2009:213). The A

Erechtheion is not governed by a single geometric concept (Fig. 28) and consists of multiple intersecting and interwoven sequences of access and egress. While both these buildings use the same aesthetic “ingredients”, their

Athena and Poseidon contest metopes - battles of Greeks and Amazons

frieze progression

metopes - battles of Greeks and Centaurs

Figure 27: Plan Of The Parthenon. This plan shows the movement of the story on the frieze in a clockwise direction. The themes depicted on the metopes and pediments are also indicated. Parthenon, Athens, Greece (447 BCE). (Psarra, 2009:22)

Statue of Athena

metopes - battles of Greeks and Trojans

frieze progression

metopes - battles of gods and giants Athena's birth

[27.] 22

36


ted next as a the sanctuary

A Tale Of Life & Narrative ● The Story Exchange

conceptual use of geometries and thus their styles, differ. The narrative each building wishes to express is, therefore, different. The Parthenon uses explicit structuring of sculptural elements to comment on the political power of Athens at the time of construction (Psarra, 2009:213). In contrast, the lack of ordering in the geometric properties and “spatial morphology” (Psarra 2009:213) of the Erechtheion, hints at the wide range of myths that had local significance at the time of its construction. In this case, the building confines cultural content to specific individual spaces. On the one hand, the Parthenon’s hierarchical arrangement of elements and geometries constructs a “narrative unity” (Psarra, 2009:40). On the other, the loosely arranged parts in the Erechtheion creates an “open-

A

1.6 Plan of the Erechtheion with shrines.

I e Erechtheion I. Eastern section: C D E A. Altar of Zeus as complete in B2 Hypatos, B. Altar rthenon, it was of Poseidon and ious structure, Erechtheus, C. Altar of Boutes, D. Altar J used to house K of Hephaistos, M of Athena.1 The E. Thrones of I II Priests. the Ionic style L G ines and sites II. Western N H section: F. North F n one structure porch, G. Altar of the design and marks of thunderbolt, H. Salt n the western O spring and trident northern pormarks, I. Tomb o give access of Erechtheus, III J. Athena Polias, Athena’s olive Q K. Hermes, L. Lamp of Pandrosos; of Kallimachos, ale figures in M. Persian Spoil, R N. Caryatid Porch. P ached on the III. Pandroseion: the western O. Tomb of Kekrops, et of columns P. Temple of d of the usual [28.] Pandrosos, Q. Olive Tree, R. Altar of ated by a door Zeus Herkeios. with the courtyard and the sanctuary of Pandrosos at the

gical properties of the two buildings can be best understood reek religious architecture. The following section examines

A. B. C. D. E.

Altar of Zeus Hypatos Altar of Poseidon and Erechtheus Altar of Boutes Altar of Hephaistos Thrones of Priests

F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N.

North Porch Altar and Marks of Thunderbolt Salt spring and trident marks Tomb of Erechtheus Athena Polias Hermes Lamp of Kallimachos Persian Spoil Caryatid Porch

O. P. Q. R.

Tomb of Kekrops Temple of Pandrosos Olive Tree Altar of Zeus Herkeios

Figure 28: Plan Of The Erechtheion With Shrines. Erechtheion, Athens, Greece (405 BCE). (Psarra, 2009:24)

37


The Story Exchange ● A Tale Of Life & Narrative

ended message” (Psarra 2009:40). The stylistic expression in the Parthenon gives rise to only one interpreted story, whereas the Erechtheion provides the opportunity for multiple narrative variations. From this comparison, one can clearly see how a subtlety of design style links directly to prevailing social and cultural beliefs at the time of design and construction. In this way, buildings represent the narrative of a particular time in history. Buildings also denote a piece in the description of a city the same way a chapter describes a particular portion of a story. In essence, cultural meaning can be “read” from a building’s style.

Conclusion This discussion has confirmed that narrative manifests itself in architecture in three ways: through Space-making & Form, Materiality and Symbolism & Style. This report has established that form creates a narrative by the ordering of perception and spatial experience. Architecture achieves this order through structure and hierarchy. Symbolisms adopted by individual styles produce narrative while simultaneously narrative produces a particular symbolism appropriate for the time. The architect creates the physical expression of a building’s style created through an exploration of conceptual motifs and patterns. While both style and form are vital components of creating architectural narratives, they are given extra depth when explored through a lens of material sensitivity. It is the layering of materiality, form and style that gives depth to architectural narratives. Because meaningful story sharing requires some physical and sensory engagement, architecture becomes the perfect platform to create a story exchange.

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A Tale Of Life & Narrative ● The Story Exchange

[29.]

Figure 29: The Parthenon. Parthenon, Athens, Greece (447 BCE). (Wikimedia, 2016) Figure 30: The Erechtheion. Erechtheion, Athens, Greece (405 BCE). (Freemages, 2010) [30.]

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The Story Exchange ●

2.

Robert McCarter is a practising architect based in St. Louis, U.S.A. His role as a professor of architecture, and intensive research work lead him to produce numerous publications that discuss the way architecture is experienced and inhabited. Juhani Pallasmaa is a Finnish architect and former Professor of Architecture and Dean at the Helsinki University of Technology. Over thirty countries have displayed his architectural exhibitions, and many of his essays and articles have become fundamental to understanding architectural theory. McCarter and Pallasmaa combine their experience and knowledge to create the book “Understanding Architecture (2012) “– a publication that was highly influential in the creation of this report.

Figure 31: Sketch Of The Approach To Cradock Heights. This on-site sketch of the Cradock Heights building indicates the location of the new extension added in 2016 with the opening of Starbucks Coffee. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Sketch: (Russo, 2016) [31.]

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● The Story Exchange

03. THE PRODUCTION OF THE RECIPROCITY OF EXPERIENCE

Kinship and Belonging In Stories The discussion in this chapter is based on the premise that narrative architecture cannot be understood or analysed without our experience of it, and it is our experience of buildings that produces reciprocity between the viewer and built environment. Therefore, to perceive how to create belonging in narrative architecture, one must analyse spatial experiences. One does not require specific skills to investigate architecture; merely the simple act of inhabitation. As emphasised by McCarter and Pallasmaa2. (2012:5) “our experience is both the most important and the most appropriate means of evaluating architecture”. McCarter and Pallasmaa (2012) believe that society derives meaning from architecture in two instances: when it provides a setting for daily acts, and when one experiences it with all our senses engaged. Buildings based in, and inspired by, the human experience, endure in societal memory and history, revealing a compelling narrative message.

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The Story Exchange ● The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience

Architecture that frames human experience and enlists all the senses, only imparts its full character in increments, through time. The Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) stated, “It is not what a building looks like on its opening day, but what it is like thirty years later that matters.” (in McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012:5). Conversely, as stated above, architecture that stimulates, not only the visual sense but all the senses simultaneously are experienced in a much more profound moving manner and become of vital significance to our built environment. As discussed in previous chapters today’s reliance on determining what a building “looks like” through books and online mediums, without ever inhabiting it, has disconnected the public from surrounding architecture (in McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012). Thus far, this research has proposed narrative architecture as a solution to this circumstance. The following quote by John Dewey hints that narrative production is bound, inextricably, with the experiences of memory, time and place. “By common consent, the Parthenon is a great work of art. Yet it has aesthetic standing only as the work becomes an experience for a human being... Art is always the product of the experience of an interaction of human beings with their environment. Architecture is a notable instance of the reciprocity of the results of this interaction.... The reshaping of subsequent experience by architectural works is more direct and more extensive than in the case of any other art... They not only influence the future, but they record and convey the past.” (Dewey in McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012:4)

This report has already discussed the importance of stories and mainly how they manifest themselves through architecture. When considering the production of narratives in architecture, for cultural meaning, depth of emotive

42


The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience ● The Story Exchange

experience and its capacity for creative change, one must ask: how can the architect produce a story that truly reaches the level of connection required? I believe people only feel a kinship with a story because of a powerful sense of belonging to that narrative. With a focus on the experiential qualities of time and place, this Chapter explores ways in which design can create a strong sense of attachment between architecture user to facilitate the design of meaningful narrative architecture.

Figure 32: The Dubai Towers. This skyscraper proposal takes the form of clustered sculptures that emulate the movement of a candle. The project focuses on powerful aesthetic rather than experience. TVS Design, Dubai Towers Proposal (2008), Dubai. (Luxuo, 2008)

Place and Time Architecture today is progressively more picture orientated. That is to say that society has become very dependent on the two-dimensional visual experience. The quantity and velocity at which one can access images today have lead to a greater reliance on the representation of the building, rather than the experience of the architecture. This occurrence has created a society that is always disconnected from their environment and is perpetuated by designers heavily relying on superficial aesthetics as means of attraction rather than exploring deeper methods of creating human connections to architecture (ABIBOO, 2015). A phenomenon that has lead me to question possible solutions in the form of narrative design. The following Section expands upon my theory paper entitled “A Place For Phenomenology” (Russo, 2015) written in 2015. To focus this study I will apply my findings to the analysis of a South African building to examine the relevance of phenomenological theories in present day conditions, and how “time” and “place” are essential to the process of architectural storytelling. When visiting Cradock Heights, Rosebank (Le Roith & Associates, 1992), I noted a tangible connection between individual and [32.]

43


The Story Exchange ● The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience

building that seemed to transcend environment (Russo, 2015). Using my findings around zeitgeist and phenomenological theories, I will discuss how this structure achieves spatial and aesthetic depth. Through the research in the following Section, I aim to gain a thorough knowledge of producing kinship between people and the built environment, by employing theories of “time” and “place”, that I can apply to my design process. The dominance of visual aspects and rationalisation in architecture is a common subject of architectural critique. It seems to be the result Figure 33: Cradock Heights Entrance. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2015)

of a movement among architects that feebly apply the principles of phenomenology to their design process. Pallasmaa (2011) writes: “In our time, architecture is threatened by two opposite processes: instrumentalisation and anesthetisation. On the one hand, our secular, materialist and quasi-rational culture is turning buildings into mere instrumental structures, devoid of mental meaning, for utility and economy. On the other hand, to draw attention and facilitate instant seduction, architecture is increasingly turning into the fabrication of seductively aestheticised images without roots in our existential experience and devoid of an authentic desire of life. Instead of being a lived and embodied existential metaphor, today’s architecture tends to project purely retinal images, architectural pictures as it were for the seduction of the eye.” (Pallasmaa 2011:119)

[33.]

From the above statement, one can infer that the relationship between architecture and its image is inextricable (Russo, 2015). A second and almost contradictory relationship also exist as designers continually seek to design innovative yet timeless architecture. In the world today the question of whether to design for context or period is one of great debate. Peter Eisenman (2010) speaks to these two contrasts in architectural theory. He describes

44


The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience ● The Story Exchange

architecture as a dialogue between the spirit of place and the spirit of time - the former is labelled genius loci and the latter zeitgeist. Eisenman (2010) goes on to explain how this conversation, between place and time, was defined for Modern architecture, which was largely a zeitgeist movement, and created a pivoting point in the early twentieth century from which one can analyse subsequent architecture. Today, however, there is a “denial of space as opposed to surface” (Eisenman, 2010) which links to the question of the value of phenomenological design in the present day. Those that support phenomenology as a design methodology tend to favour genius loci, reasoning that more complex and symbolic architecture grows from a thorough understanding of context whereas the avant-guard equates with “temporality and visual excess” (ABIBOO, 2015). One can explain Phenomenology as an attempt to create situations for the objective study of subjects that are commonly considered subjective. The philosophy usually focuses upon consciousness and our experiences, such as emotions, judgements and perceptions. Although phenomenology is often defined as scientific, it does not study consciousness from a chemical or neurological perspective. The theory instead focuses on a systematic examination of the attributes of experience. This preliminary definition is extremely simplified and does not address the full extent of the philosophy of phenomenology. In this chapter, I aim only to present my understanding of phenomenology as a narrative design tool and its relevance to my analysis of Cradock Heights (Le Roith & Associates, 1992). Mitrović (2011) explains that phenomenology was first put forth by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) who is known as the principal founder of the philosophy.

45


The Story Exchange ● The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience

The Greek word phainomenon means “appearance” (Mitrović 2011:118). One can understand Phenomenology as a discipline that studies appearances, and the way things are perceived in human experiences as opposed to the “disciplines that study what things really are” (Mitrović 2011:118). Husserl’s approach was to separate or “bracket” (Mitrović 2011:118) our questions about existence out and study them singularly to discover the contents of our consciousness. Due to this, human intention became a crucial part of Husserl’s approach to phenomenology. Some aspects of a person’s thought processes relate to tangible things in the real world while others are part of imagined realms of thought. Mitrović (2011:119) has discussed that “Husserl endeavoured to create a discipline that would describe pure consciousness – that is, the contents of the consciousness independent of the way they relate to the world”. Early in the twentieth century, philosophical beliefs centred around Husserlian phenomenology and were applied to a variety of human experiences. Of all the students that broke off from Husserl’s original school of thought, it was Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) (Mitrović 2011:120) who went on to exercise the most influence in phenomenological philosophy in architecture. Mitrović (2011) explains how Heidegger opposed Husserl’s idea that one should study the contents of thoughts by separating out the questions about existence. Husserl’s view seemed to suggest that a human being is somehow outside its world - as though “bracketed” from its life context. Heidegger insists that the person cannot be conceived without its context. As put forth by Mitrović (2011) in Heidegger’s view our thought processes are determined precisely by the fact that we are beings in the world. Heidegger (in Mitrović, 2011) believes that we cannot claim to have a disinterested or ignorant view of things because we are human beings that live

46


The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience ● The Story Exchange

on earth. Thus our experiences, and the lessons we learn from day-to-day life already give us subconscious understanding. He states “our understanding of

Figure 34: Diagram Phenomenological Existence. (Russo, 2016)

things is always already predetermined by our prior understanding” (Mitrović

Human Existe nce

2011:122). One can refer to this notion of human existence being inseparable

In

world and the “meaning of being”. Mostly his philosophy states a human being

Individua l

Being and Time (1927) explains the position of the individual within his or her

idual div

from its context as Dasein (Mitrović 2011:122). Heidegger’s celebrated work,

Phenomena

world negates the notion put forth by Husserl of existence that is “bracketed”.

In

is thrown into the context of life. The understanding of Dasein as being-in-the-

idual div

Place

By applying these concepts to architecture, Heidegger created a connection between the built environment, phenomenology and context that has inspired many architects since (Russo, 2015). [34.]

The “Phenomenon of Place” (Norberg-Schulz 1979:6) is a crucial aspect of phenomenology. Our everyday lives consist of robust “phenomena” (NorbergSchulz 1979:6). These are made up of people, animals, flowers, trees, earth stone, streets, buildings, the night, the day and the changing seasons to name a few. However, life also comprises more intangible phenomena such as emotions. The solid things which make up our world connect to one another in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. Towns consist of buildings and fields are comprised of flowers. This concept can be simplified by saying that “some phenomena form an environment to others” (Norberg-Schulz 1979:6). One can refer to this “environment” as “place”. Norberg-Schulz (1979) discusses how phenomenological philosophy states that it is useless to describe occurrences or experiences without reference to location, and location, therefore, becomes a vital part of human existence. Human life, therefore, is defined by place. In phenomenological terms, “place” should thus become inextricable from architectural expression.

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The Story Exchange ● The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience

Figure 35: Typical Neo-Classical Architecture. Axes of symmetry indicate stylistic similarities between artworks and architecture produced in this period. Palladio, Villa La Rotunda (1570), Vicenza, Italy. (Wikipedia, 2016)

“Place”, however, is meant to describe more than a simple, abstract location but rather the wholeness of stable phenomena that have material, form and colour. All these things together give a location character, atmosphere or “the essence of place”. “Place” is, therefore, that accumulative phenomenon which cannot be reduced to any of its properties, such as physical dimensions or spatial relationships without losing its precise nature. This argument emphasises the importance of genius loci to the phenomenologist .” (Russo, 2015) Theorists who follow the traditions of phenomenology, such as Heidegger and Husserl, have shared a critical belief: “to be human is to instantiate a special sort of relationship to time” (Carr in Embree & Moran, 2004:154). Throughout life, we are constantly “located” in our present and are thus subject to timerelated sequence. To understand human time from the perspective of the phenomenologist, one must always view it in conjunction with space.

[35.]

The phrase, “the here and now,” is often used to describe the present. If the “here” relates to spatial surroundings, then the “now” refers to the “vantage point from which we survey” (Carr in Embree & Moran, 2004:155) time (the past and future). That is to say that life, and thus narrative, has both temporal and spatial characteristics. This notion hints that while the narrative attributes of human existence rely on phenomenology (Carr, 1998), they are also closely linked to zeitgeist philosophies. Zeitgeist theories encompass architecture that reflects the “spirit of the age” (Conway & Roenisch, 1994:46). This view came from German theorist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and provided a framework [36.]

48

for understanding the development of architecture through history and particularly the twentieth century.


The Production Of The Reciprocity Of Experience ● The Story Exchange

Figure 36: Neo-Classical Painting. Jacques-Louis David, “Oath of the Horatti” (1784), Oil on Canvas. (Wikipedia, 2016)

A central idea in the theory of Zeitgeist is the concept of history as a progressively evolving “spirit” (Conway & Roenisch, 1994:46) as every age in history gives rise to a newer, reactionary or progressive, movement. This philosophy states that a “spirit” presides over this historical evolution and creates unity within every area of human endeavour - religion, customs, morality, technology, science, art and architecture. Those who accept

Figure 37: De Stijl Architecture. Gerrit Rietveld, Rietveld Schröder House (1924), Netherlands. (4 Gress, 2016) Figure 38: De Stijl Painting. A comparison between Figure 38 and 37 shows how designers in the 20th Century had similar philosophies. In both cases simplicity of form and colour is ideal. Piet Mondrian, “Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow” (1930), Oil on Canvas. (Wikipedia, 2016)

Zeitgeist theories argue that particular styles, such as neo-classicism in the mid-eighteenth century or modernism in the 1920’s, manifest themselves across all arts produced in that period. This occurrence is evident because the architecture, literature, paintings, furniture and fashion, etc. of a particular period commonly contain similar stylistic attributes. One could call these commonalities “manifestations of the Zeitgeist” (Conway & Roenisch, 1994:46) and see, therefore, that similarities in the work of architects, designers and artists are the results of living in the same period. [37.]

While many styles of artistic expression coexist at any one time, this theory asserts that only one style truly reflects the Zeitgeist. Conway and Roenisch (1994) suggest that there is a danger in this belief as anything that does not fit into the “spirit of time” framework is immediately ignored or undervalued. Twentieth-century historians Siegfried Giedion (1888-1968) and Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983) used the concept of Zeitgeist to establish modernism as the only real architectural style of their age. To do this, Giedion and Pevsner identified the main features of the 1920’s that differentiated it from other eras. These elements included new power sources, construction materials of reinforced concrete, steel and glass, and increasing urbanisation. While other styles, such as art deco, coexisted with it, Giedion and Pevsner saw Modernism as inextricable from these features thus making it the only product of its time (Conway & Roenisch, 1994). [38.]

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Eisenman (1984) (in Hays, 1998) ponders how one can, from within their own time, determine the truth of its “spirit”, and concludes that such a situation is not possible. Thus through the lens of Zeitgeist, history becomes a “narrative fiction” (Eisenman (1984) in Hays, 1998:529). Historical and artistic knowledge is often represented in narrative form. With the general intention of storytelling being to produce a coherent tale, with beginning, middle, end, and perhaps with a moral lesson, storytelling about real events runs the risk of being inadvertently more concerned with aesthetic rather than truth-telling (Carr, 1998). Converse to this view it can also be argued that the very nature of history already has narrative form. As Paul Ricoeur (in Carr, 1998) states, “time becomes human to the extent that it is articulated through a narrative mode”. Carr (1998) supports this view with the notion that narrative form is characteristic of the way human life is experienced - with a beginning, middle and end - and gives our affairs coherence. It is not only the ordering structures we find in narrative (beginning/middle/ end) that distinguish our very existence as human beings. Certain metaphysical structures - crisis, solution, suspension and resolution, etc. - also characterise the elements of life. Therefore, this connection speaks, not only to the way

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we tell stories about our lives but, “how we live them from the start” (Carr in Embree & Moran, 2004). This discussion, therefore, emphasises that art - in its narrative form - emulates life, and is thus the physical form of human time. This analysis underscores the argument of this research report - that architecture links inextricably with narrative within our built environment. As confirmed by the examination in this chapter, time and place are vital constituents of the production of meaningful stories. Eisenman (in Hays, 1998:530) states that “architecture is inevitably about the invention of fictions” and if this is so, one needs to employ components of time and place during the design of buildings to create a deep connection to that fiction. Herbert Spiegelberg (1982) outlines three steps for critiquing phenomenology within architecture. He describes these steps as “Intuiting” or living in the phenomena, “analysing” the spatial sense of the events and “describing” the phenomena by guiding the user through the experience (Boeree, 2000). With these steps, the principles time and those of place introduced in this chapter, as guidelines, I will analyse the narrative present in Cradock Heights (Le Roith & Associates, 1992).

Figure 40: New York City In The Early 20Th Century. With its rapid urbanisation; high concrete, steel and glass structures and motorised transport; New York was the picture of modernism in the 1920’s and 30’s. Unknown Photographer, New York City (1931), U.S.A. (State Of Grace, 2014) [40.]

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Cradock Heights (Le Roith & Associates, 1992) is a commercial building located at 21 Cradock Avenue on the corner of Tyrwhitt Avenue in Rosebank. REINFORCEDon CONCRETE This corner site, surrounded by banking institutions three COLUMNS sides of the & FLOOR SLAB STRUCTURE

intersection (Fig. 41), was developed with the hope of attracting two additional CRADOCK AVENUE

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business tenants to the area.

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Le Roith & Associates designed the building as two parallel wings that are linked through a glass atrium space. The atrium houses the main means of public circulation and takes the form of a central glass box (Fig. 41). This glass box allows for daylight to flood into the space creating dramatic movement through the space that heightens the user’s emotional response to the building. As one moves through the light-filled atrium to the wide and sheltered banking from10m a prominent verticality to a 0 halls, changes 5m

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Figure 46: Cradock Heights Public Plaza. A popular gathering space for pedestrians in the area. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2015)

Figure 45: Sectional Massing Sketch. (Russo, 2015)

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pronounced horizontality of movement make the user very aware of the formal arrangements of the building. When considering the presence of phenomenology in this design, it is clear that Le Roith & Associates possessed an extreme sensitivity to context (Russo, 2015). The architects highlight the building’s setting by framing the existing trees with planter boxes – trees that directly reference the canopy-like urban environment of Rosebank. As the user moves through the wings, there is a constant visual link between the internal spaces and landscaping that surrounds them. The facade of the building comprises primarily of glazing and delicate steelwork, allowing for constant visual connection to the environment thus bringing “place” closer to the visitor by gathering what is known to the inside of the structure. Intermittent light entering the northern spaces through prefabricated steel louvres create bold internal illuminations on the walls and add a dramatic narrative to the mundane office activities (Russo, 2015). Cradock Heights and its outdoor plaza create a space of sanctuary and

Figure 47: North Elevation. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2015)

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Figure 49: Vertical Steel Louvres. All the components of the building are fabricated with precision. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Photograph (Russo, 2015)

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contemplation where many visitors congregate to escape the pace of the city (Figure 46). This area of quiet reflection produces a layering of memory between the user, building and context and this interaction gives the building deep roots in the phenomenological concepts of being and dwelling. In April 2016, the popular coffee shop chain, Starbucks, opened its first Johannesburg store at Cradock Heights. The introduction of this public convenience intensified the use of this building and plaza, making it a vibrant public space, with various unfolding narratives. The North-Eastern corner of the building has now become a prime location not only for quiet relaxation and escapism but is now a point of narrative exchange within Rosebank. People from all areas of the city gather here to share stories over a cup of coffee. While this building is successful from a phenomenological perspective, it is not the only methodology at work in the building’s design. Contrastingly, the building responds to conditions in a way that one could consider zeitgeist or temporal. Which to say; aspects of the building’s design respond to conditions unique to its time of construction. [49.]

The use of prefabricated steel as the dominant structural system suggests Le Roith & Associates wanted a simple construction method that resonated with the building program and time-related restrictions around the building’s construction. It gives the building an airy, graceful appearance while contrasting with the heaviness and solidity of the exposed concrete sub-structure. The building narrows as it gets taller (Fig. 45), giving it a “sleek, elegant profile” (Muwanga 1998:185) while framed grilles (Fig. 49), on the northern elevations of the upper levels (Fig. 47), act as sun-control devices and contribute to the building’s “hi-Tech aesthetic” (Muwanga 1998:185). These details prelude to the presently prevailing goal of architecture to produce a seductive “image” of a building and hint at a very time orientated narrative underlying the design.

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Due to the uncertainty of the political climate in South Africa in the 1990’s Le Roith is very sensitive to appropriate architectural styles. This delicacy is perhaps another reason Le Roith has not conformed to traditional nationalist or colonial forms but has rather focussed on expressing the structure of the building to invoke an international appreciation for the architecture (Russo, 2015). In this respect, Cradock Heights (Le Roith & Associates, 1992) chiefly presents the “spirit of the time” or zeitgeist. From the above research and analysis, it is clear that time and place are essential intangible qualities to the production of rich narrative architecture. We experience architecture with all our senses, and this practice is everchanging. It seems that designing with a phenomenological methodology requires the architect to identify meaningful emotional experiences in

Figure 50: Section AA. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2015)

architecture and re-create them as new structures. This subjective process requires the designer to be in search of atemporal truths, but also to adapt to

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the fast-paced times of the present day. Designing from a zeitgeist perspective

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principles and it must, therefore, consider other structures in its design. This

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Figure 51: Section BB. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2015)

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Figure 52: North Facade - South Wing. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Rosebank, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2015) [52.]

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Figure 53: Five prefabricated steel fire escape staircases become a prominent feature of the building. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2015) Figure 54: Plan Massing Diagram. Drawing: (Russo, 2015) Figure 55: The Opening Of South Africa’s First Starbucks Coffee. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. (Times Live, 2016) [53.]

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Conclusion Creating a sense of belonging in architecture is vital to the building performing well as a narrative interaction in the community. As this investigation indicates, using phenomenological methodologies in narrative design and criticism is a complicated process that one cannot view from a single rationalisation. However, it is not so complicated as to negate the value of intuition when making design decisions. Narrative design should require us to use both the left – logical – and right – instinctive – sides of our brains during the creation process to create a depth of architectural and belonging is the result. When one achieves this, buildings have the potential to become machines for the production of strong interpersonal relationships and meaningful social connections. Once one is aware of the subtleties of creating narrative architecture, one can use them to create buildings that will stimulate creative change in communities. I have learned that the architect must be aware of the subtleties of phenomenological and zeitgeist philosophies, and use them to create buildings that the user feels connected to and contribute a poetry of form to our built environment. Ultimately I have learned that whether a building blends into its context or is at the forefront of bold architectural expression, it is the story behind it that will endure. Narrative architecture connects a building both to its place in the world and its place in time and has the potential to reconnect people not only with their communities but with each other.

Figure 56: Interior View Of The Light Filled Atrium. Le Roith & Associates, Cradock Heights (1992), Johannesburg. (Office Rents, 2016) [56.]

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Figure 57: A Typical Childhood Depiction Of A Traditional Western Home. Drawing: Marker On Paper (Russo, 2016) [57.]

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04. THE ROLE OF MEMORY IN ARCHITECTURE

Nostalgia and Memory Architectural quality is often judged on its novelty. This concern with originality, in today’s globalised world, is not merely an artistic desire, but a result of the materialistic and consumption orientated culture in which we live. Society’s determination of what is novel, however, is born from a human construction – to maintain an understanding of the past so we can experience the development of culture and tradition. As discussed in the previous chapters, we live in a reality that is spatial, material and temporal, and all of these experiential qualities support the construction of cultures. As put forth by McCarter and Pallasmaa (2012:329) “The world as we experience it is a layered condition that continuously oscillates between past, present and future.” One can understand this statement by saying that the built environment represents the history and development of civilisation. Thus, it can be said that architecture, along with the arts and literature, is the best way to articulate memory in physical form (McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012). The research

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conducted in the following chapter aims to understand the role the experience of memory plays in the production of narratives. The study in this Chapter proposes that memory is not stationary, and cannot be factually evaluated, but rather is a continual process that occurs in life’s present. Although memories are about the past, they are the product of today’s search for remembrances (usually remembered in selective and nonsequential ways). Memory, therefore, appears at times to be a consistent translation of past moments, into a narrative. Mills (2010:15) agrees with this position but states “perception and experience are always partial and incomplete”, confirming the idea that memory of the past is always exclusionary and fragmented. By furthering this understanding of the nature of remembrance, the following research aims to: identify and explain important themes in contemporary memory, find differences between remembered life and reality, understand the influence of forgotten or suppressed memories and explore the nostalgia felt for a place or time that is partially recalled. This report will analyse these topics with particular emphasis on how they manifest themselves in narrative architecture - a medium through which users can reconcile specific tensions in their past (Mills, 2010) or present thus developing a kinship with their built environment.

Memory Is Imagination During the process of remembering and understanding one’s self, one inevitably does so with a backdrop of different settings and architectures. It seems, from this idea that memory and the built environment are inextricable. McCarter and Pallasmaa (2012), emphasise this by suggesting that one of the best ways of evaluating foreign and past cultures is through the architectural structures they left behind. In this sense, architecture

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becomes an important mnemonic device to the historian. In their book, Understanding Architecture (2012), McCarter and Pallasmaa outline three ways in which architecture functions as a memory device. Firstly, it preserves and makes visible the passage of time. Second, it solidifies remembrance by housing various forms of memory. Lastly, architecture inspires us to reminisce and is the foundation for imagination. From this proposal, it seems that not only are we what we remember (one gains selfunderstanding through the examination of personal memory) but what we imagine (as one cannot recollect without some degree of imagination). Certain building types, such as memorials, museums and burials are designed and built with the purpose of containing a particular collection of memories and thus evoking specific emotions in the user. However, all buildings employ our senses, maintain the experiential qualities of time

Figure 58: Inside the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Eisenman, Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (2004), Berlin, Germany. Photograph: (Russo, 2014) [58.]

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and place, depending on the quality of the architecture in question, and “suggest cultural and human narratives” (McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012:329).

Figure 59: Ruins Of The Forum Of Augustus. Forum Of Augustus (2 BCE), Rome, Italy. Photograph: (Russo, 2014)

These could be stories of civilisations and human destiny whether real or fantastical. With memory as the primary vehicle, these architectures cause

Figure 60: Low Renaissance paintings created setting with architectural details like columns and arches. Fra Angelico, “The Annunciation” (1445), Fresco. (History Lists, 2016)

us to think of cultures and people that have already disappeared, and thus, stimulate the use of all our powers of imagination. Ruins and eroded structures have a particular romantic symbolism and strength over the viewer (McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012). The incompleteness and fragmentation of these buildings awakens the audience’s sense of wonder and causes one to question the reason for this discontinuity immediately and envision the events or circumstances that lead to it (as well as imagine the structure at its inception – when whole and intact). In Renaissance paintings (Fig. 60), the artist needed only paint an architectural fragment, a colonnade, or window opening, to suggest a complete constructed setting to the viewer and hint at the culture depicted in the artwork. According to McCarter and Pallasmaa (2012), Da Vinci advised artists to observe the organic patterns, created by erosion, on walls to boost creativity and gain inspiration: [59.] “When you look at a wall spotted with stains, or with a mixture of stones, if you have to devise some scene, you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes … or, again, you may see battles and figures in action, or strange faces and costumes, or an endless variety of objects, which you could reduce to complete and well-drawn forms. And these appear on such walls promiscuously, like the sound of bells in whose jangle you may find any name or word you choose to imagine.” (Da Vinci in Hughes, 1980:225) [60.]

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This quote suggests that while fragments are all that is needed to induce memory, recollections also emerge disjointedly from our subconscious. Architecture is both sparks and is the foundation of remembrance.

Collective Memory and Nostalgia In the process of creating a shared cultural identity among a group of people or community, one of the most vital components is the introduction of shared memory. This memory is usually created by a state, or similarly powerful body, and involves the creation of memorials, holidays and other “invented traditions” (Mills, 2010:14). Mills (2010) suggests that a collective national memory, usually aimed at through these commemorations, is truly not possible as differences will always exist between the collective and the individual – especially when dominant social groups record memory. In an attempt to cope with a nation’s failure to create a coherent shared memory, society seems to turn to nostalgia. In this case, nostalgia compensates for the lack of community identity, which is a result of rapid change (Mills, 2010). In her book, Streets Of Memory: Landscape, Tolerance, and National Identity In Istanbul, (2010) Mills discusses this occurrence. She explains that “structural nostalgia” is a cultural practice of dealing with societal pressures through memories of “social balance, reciprocity” and “moral parity” (Mills, 2010:16). [61.]

For example, the condition of the suburb of Orange Grove, Johannesburg, South Africa has greatly change since the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. Once a safe, vibrant suburb, lined with shops and eateries, and surrounded by music, romance and other cultural functions, now seems to have taken on the character of a lonely transport terminal. It is no longer a dynamic cultural destination, but merely another suburb along the busy Louis

Figure 61: Ruins Of The Roman Forum. Roman Forum (27 BC - 476 AD), Rome, Italy. Photograph: (Russo, 2014)

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Botha Avenue. People seem to move through it without any intention of visiting it. Due to the social change in South Africa in the 1990’s, beloved landmarks, and old haunts in Orange Grove have slowly disappeared, leaving a large gap in the collective memory of individuals who frequented the suburb in its “prime”. This hole has lead to a deep yearning to recreate and return to the old narratives of the area. The recently published book, Road Through The Grove (2016), compiled by John Burgess, is proof of this wistful desire. This coffee table book is quite literally a collection of lost recollections from people living, working and recreating, in and around Orange Grove from the 1950’s to 1970’s. As this extract from the foreword explains: “For the compiler of this book, John Burgess, and for his friends and others growing up along Louis Botha, it was all about swapping comics, marbles, hulahoops, hitch-hiking, bunking school, the sessions and socials, midnight movies, clubbing and music – regardless of individual cultural backgrounds.” (Burgess, 2016)

This compilation of oral history is a product of nostalgia for a life that appears now, through the veil of memory, as escapist and even romantic. Perhaps this very phenomenon has, in part, lead to the creation of this research report. Either way, it is clear that “where nostalgia for a particular past becomes embodied, it transforms places” (Mills, 2010:16) and ideas. [62.]

Human memory of life strongly connects with spaces and settings. When remembering childhood, one naturally thinks of commonly visited buildings, former homes lived in, or particularly well-remembered rooms that were the stage for particular familial traditions. One constructs and houses these hidden details of life in memory complexes and landscapes (a method of remembering that will be expanded upon later in this

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Section). Similarly, the objects we place in our real homes often contain specific meanings relating to particular memories. Much like the souvenirs we collect from places we have visited. We keep these items, and locate them around us, to reinforce the memories they fasten us to, and thus, compound our emotional connection to places and their stories. This longing to recreate memories or nostalgia for past moments heightens the depth of the remembered experience and one’s connection to it. As McCarter and Pallasmaa (2012:331) states, this phenomenon enhances “the intertwining of the world and the self” as well as reinforces the link between “remembrance and identity”.

The Globalisation Of Memory In the wake of decolonisation in the 1960’s new kinds of discussions around memory developed. One could call these new discourses a result of the “globalisation of memory” (Huyssen3., 2003:13). This circumstance can be explained by looking at the fixation scholars, historians and society have with memorialising and debating the Holocaust, Apartheid and slavery. From memorials, museums, and television series to many commemorations and anniversaries to the history of Nazi Germany; the Holocaust has almost become a commodity of remembrance. This phenomenon is widely discussed by Huyssen (2003). With this globalisation, also came a paradox. Huyssen (2003) comments that the Holocaust has thus become a symbol of Western civilisation’s failure to quietly reflect, live in peace with others, and draw lessons from the organised violence and racial oppression of that time. This failure is evident in the conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia, the Middle East and the Ukraine to name a few. Paradoxically it is precisely the globalisation of Holocaust remembrance that has allowed it to function as a metaphor for all manner of traumatic histories and memories – thus allowing society to learn from them.

3.

Andreas Huyssen (1942), Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, is known for his research on international modernism, postmodernism, cultural memory and historical trauma. His book, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory, presents arguments about the role of memory in contemporary society that are very relevant to the research conveyed in this report.

Figure 62: “The Road Through The Grove” Book. John Burgess, “The Road Through The Grove” (2016). Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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Society today has become obsessed with memory. This phenomenon is evident through a boom in museum architecture, retro fashions, repro furniture, selfies, memoir writing, confessional literature, the popularity of autobiographies, memory practices in visual arts like photography and historical documentaries (Huyssen, 2003). Finally, and perhaps one of the most visible clues of a collective nostalgia was the worldwide success of the film that brought together memory and trauma – Titanic (1997). Huyssen Figure 63: The Titanic Sinking - Newspaper Clipping. The Times Dispatch (April 16 1912). (Titanic Universe, 2013)

(2003) suggests that the obsession with the sinking of this steamship either stems from a yearning for early modernity or anxiety for the future. Such obsessions, described above, with memory, have lead to what Huyssen (2003:15) describes as a “culture of memory” and is the result of the successful marketing of remembrance. This culture comes with its contrast, that of amnesia, or an inability or unwillingness to remember. It seems that with the advent of technology, society has a greater, more immediate access to memories and thus the retention of those recollections is decreasing. The mass-marketed memories we consume via technology are “imagined memories” (Huyssen, 2003:17) and thus easily forgettable. Freud (in Huyssen, 2003) reinforces this idea by suggesting that memory cannot exist without forgetting. [63.]

Perhaps a collective fear of forgetting, in society today, is what triggers the constant need to memorialise and remember life’s moments through social, and other forms of, media. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it is clear that society is so saturated with technology based forms of memory – that media cannot suffice. The pull towards memory seems motivated by a desire to anchor oneself in a world that is moving at an increasingly greater pace. Evidently, it follows from this discussion, that architecture should provide an alternate form of remembering, by creating temporal stability and sequentially unfolding narrative.

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Memory in Design It is, perhaps, easier to find a connection between recollections and ideas in works of writing. The written story form allows for self-reflection more obviously than work of architecture does. Nevertheless, both architects and writers, aim to transform their inner feelings, imaginings and recollections into physical, legible forms. Eleni Bastéa (2004:5), a Greek Architectural Professor, writes that “Memory’s voices, once recognised, command us to create, and to memorialise, what we remember”. Thus she firmly establishes a link between creation and memory. A.S. Byatt, English novelist and poet, compares the process of designing with memory to that of writing. “If you are writing a long novel there is a sense in which you do, precisely, remember all of it, including in some sense the part which is not written, which feels like a projected memoryimage or mnemonic.” (Byatt (1998) in Bastéa, 2004:6). Her view hints at the cyclical process of memory discussed in the introduction of this Section. The architect simultaneously creates and intuits space from memory when designing. At some point in this process “design acquires its own structure and personality” (Bastéa, 2004:6).

Figure 64: Wits Masters in Architecture Studio. Studio Seven Architects (1959), John Moffat Building, University Of The Witwatersrand. Photograph: (Bozzonetti, 2016)

If the design process is so closely linked with personal memories of place, one can say that all writings and designs, to some degree, are autobiographical – since we bring ourselves into our work. One walk through a design studio confirms this notion. Sixty students will approach the same design problem in sixty different ways. When considering autobiographical writing, Patricia Hampl, an American writer, remarked: “True memoir is written, like all literature, in an attempt to find not only a self but a world.” (Hampl in Bastéa, 2004:6). The role of personal memory in design is thus, to develop a deeper knowledge of self as well as bring us closer to understanding the world around us. It is clear that memories [64.]

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serve as a vital reservoir of ideas, references and creativity. Thus the past should never be dismissed, and one must revisit the role of memory in creating narrative architecture. Memory is often seen purely as a function of the mind, but the act of remembering is one that involves all parts of the human body. “Memories … are also stored in our skeletons, muscles, senses and skin.” (McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012:331). As Vidler (1992:77) explains, the human “body becomes an object of nostalgia” when prioritising temporal and sensory experiences. The human sense of smell has been found to have a significant ability to conjure emotions and memories. As confirmed by Jordan Gaines Lewis (PhD) (2015), the olfactory bulb that processes smell has a direct connection to the amygdala and hippocampus – the areas of the brain responsible for emotion and memory formation. As philosopher Edward S. Casey (2000:173) argues in his book Remembering: A Phenomenological Study, “There is no memory without body memory”. Thus, remembrance, and indeed the production of narrative architecture, is sensory and always relates the body in place and time. Huyssen (2003:12) discusses that perception, time and space are always intertwined with each other in intricate and complex ways in the manifestation of architecture. Memory discourses cross over the borders of all three concepts. “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting … the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory: the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting,” suggests Kundera (1966:39). Speed is a fundamental aspect of contemporary life and modernity, however, as confirmed by Kundera, weakens one’s ability to remember. It seems that today’s culture is based around marvelling at the speed of the present without pausing to remember it. This practice suggests that the

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manipulation of time through design (that is slowing down the speed at which we move through spaces) is vital to the production of memory in built spaces and, thus, the key also, to creating a sense of belonging to the narrative of architecture.

Conclusion This section has suggested that memory is at the heart of imagination. It is thus vital to the design of buildings and stories. While memory allows us to produce architecture, architecture is also the stage upon which we create recollections. The yearning one has to reproduce one’s memories is the result of a collective nostalgia in society today. This nostalgia is what heightens the depth of experience in architecture and one’s connection to the built environment. Space should require the user to slow down, interact with the building’s story, and thus commit the architecture to personal memory. This attribute will create a kinship between the viewer and the architecture.

Exploration Of The Conceptual

Narrative Architecture

Ordering Of The Perceptual

STYLE

MATERIALS

FORM

Memory and Nostalgia

RECIPROCITY THROUGH

Place and Time

Figure 65: Narrative Architecture: A Theoretical Summary Diagram. (Russo, 2016)

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Constructing A Memory Palace Model making has been an important part of architectural design and practice for centuries. However, such representational artworks are not the only means of constructing critical frameworks for architecture. In more recent years land art, installations and performances have redefined the way we perceive space and objects and have also doubled as architectural interventions. Sculpture in particular deals with the architectural dimension (Vidler4., 2002), in the way we move around and sense objects in spaces. These notions suggest that architecture and its experiential qualities can be understood through artwork. The following Chapter analyses artist Mike Kelley’s, The Educational Complex (1995), to understand how a work of art can deal with themes of remembrance, space, repressed memory and imagination. Anthony Vidler’s text, Deep Space/Repressed Memory (2002), aids in the understanding of Kelley’s work. With this artwork as inspiration, I next discuss and contrast my own Memory Palace (2016), with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the difference between remembered space and reality, the nature of subconscious creation and imagination, the role of forgetting and the structure of memory. In Mike Kelley’s project, The Educational Complex, he uses architectural modelmaking methods to build his memory of spaces in which he lived and worked as a child. This artwork follows his tradition of exploring the “spatial influence between art and architecture” (Vidler, 2002:158). The project is meticulously constructed and measured and relies on this architectural accuracy to relay 4.

Anthony Vidler (1941), is Dean and Professor of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, New York. His many essays and publications focus on the human experience of space, architectural abstraction and the role psychology and history play in contemporary architecture. The research he has conducted into memory and forgetting, and Vidler’s 40 plus years of career experience, is, therefore, invaluable to this report.

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its story. Nuances of Kelley’s narrative are so tightly bound with architectural features so as to possibly make it incomprehensible outside of this discourse (Vidler, 2002). That being said, Vidler (2002) also remarks that the artwork stops right before the moment of being recognised as a “real” architectural project and therefore falls exactly in the realm of ambiguity between what is


The Role Of Memory In Architecture ● The Story Exchange

possible and impossible (Fig. 66). This ambiguity gives the artwork a surreal quality one often associates with memories. The questions raised by Kelley’s work are also architectural in nature. The Educational Complex investigates domestic and institutional building typologies and their roles in the creation of human experience. An even more particularly architectural interrogation in this project is that of the interest in memory and how it can be “repressed” or “recovered” (Vidler, 2002:160) in space.

Figure 66: Mike Kelley’s “Educational Complex”. Mike Kelley, “Educational Complex” (1995), Painted foam core, fiberglass, plywood and wood. (Mathis, 2015)

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Figure 67: Close Up Of “Educational Complex”. Mike Kelley, “Educational Complex” (1995), Painted foam core, fiberglass, plywood and wood. (Van Tilburg, 2008)

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Kelley attempts to recover his memories of childhood buildings but with his “loss of memory” (Vidler, 2003:160) the poorly remembered spaces were modelled as solid blocks. These are blocked memories. Kelley (in Vidler, 2002) postulates that these forgotten spaces represent the transformation of something once “homey” into something that, via repression, becomes transformed into something possibly containing “darkness and hostile abuse” (Kelley in Vidler, 2002:163). These “inaccessible” (Kelley in Vidler, 2002:163) blocks are not necessarily a literal representation of spaces once seen and not recalled, as, like all elements of this project and like memory itself, they have the potential to be false. This falsity resulted from Kelley favouring his mind over reality, by building according to his recollections instead of facts, and at times this led to complicated, fantastical, three-dimensional forms (Vidler, 2002). In other instances, this technique resulted in fascinating impossibilities in the architecture. For example, when building the entrance to his Catholic Elementary School, Kelley retains the left sided access he remembered (while in reality the entrance was on the right aspect of the building). This choice, of memory over fact, resulted in “completely unusable” (Kelley in Vidler, 2002:163) interior spaces with classrooms too small to be usable. To gain a better understanding of Kelley’s project, Vidler (2002) contrasts his approach to memory with that of Freud’s. In Freud’s paper, Screen Memories (1899), he sees memory as a function of time and a means of constructing a timeline. In contrast, Kelley’s Educational Complex is concerned with space rather than time (Vidler, 2002). The final result of Kelley’s project, however, exposes a flaw in analysing memory solely this way. The bulk of the modelled spaces in the project are “blocked” from memory. Perhaps this is because most people are distracted as they go about everyday life and the use of spaces, resulting in the mediocre recollection of architecture. Therefore, it is evident, that Kelley’s work instead serves to enhance what is not remembered – that

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is, what is forgotten. Perhaps the best way to define memory is by that which cannot be recalled? There is also the question of interpretation in Kelley’s artwork. Spaces or experiences are remembered not as they happened but as how one understands them years later. These memories of experience are then interpreted again to produce the built project. Thus this work must be read through multiple veils of imagination. Kelley’s continuing investigation of memory in this work suggests a nostalgia for what is “homely” (Vidler, 2002:165). In Freud’s essay, “The Uncanny” (1919), he talks about the relationship between the “homely” and the “unhomely” as

Figure 68: “Educational Complex” simultaneously creates possible and impossible spaces. This phenomenon hints at the blurriness of Kelley’s memory. Mike Kelley, “Educational Complex” (1995), Painted foam core, fibreglass, plywood and wood. (Van Tilburg, 2008) [68.]

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the “uncanny”. Kelley’s representation of blocked memories is precisely the “uncanny”. Something that was once “homely” returns later in “unhomely” fragments making them “uncanny”. It is this methodology that transforms Kelley’s work from mundane recollections into something beautiful.

Figure 69: Kelley’s Stevenson middle school in foreground. Mike Kelley, “Educational Complex” (1995), Painted foam core, fiberglass, plywood and wood. (Chewday’s, 2015)

Ultimately, Kelley’s work is an exercise in reconstructing the architectural subconscious. As one moves through life, we subconsciously perceive our surroundings and create memories. Like a photograph is a tool that allows one to explore spaces previously unnoticed in a conscious manner, The Educational Complex, allowed Kelley, and us, to explore his recollections of childhood and gain a deeper understanding of the function of memory in space and in present time. [69.]

The interplay between memory and space, present in Kelley’s work, is not an original concept in architectural theory. Ancient philosophies around memory were often understood in architectural terms. Classical lecturers such as Quintillian and Giordano Bruno discussed similar devices as part of the memory arts (Vidler, 2002). In these mechanisms, names or concepts are remembered in the form of representational objects; these objects are then deliberately placed in a sequence within an already memorialised building plan or similar architectural plan. Quintillian suggested using a palace, while Bruno and other Renaissance theorists, suggested a theatre. The art of memory then becomes about the ability to construct one’s memory palace or theatre and move through it in one’s imagination with ease. [70.]

Inspired by Quintillian’s idea of memory arts, and with a better understanding of Kelley’s Educational Complex, I decided to build my own Memory Palace. The aim of this exercise was to test the limits of my memory, further, understand the difference between reality and memory, and investigate how,

Figure 70: Kelley deliberately does not model spaces he cannot remember, suggesting that repressed memories are the result of trauma. Mike Kelley, “Educational Complex” (1995), Painted foam core, fibreglass, plywood and wood. (Clocktower, 2016)

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through a manipulation of materiality and ordering, my Memory Palace could begin to tell a story about my childhood. To initiate the process of constructing the Memory Palace, I chose locations from my past that held particular emotional significance to me. These sites were: my grandparents’ house, my childhood home, my first nursery school, my second nursery school, my grandparents’ flat and my high school. Before starting this project, I knew that I remembered these places with different degrees of clarity. It was important to me that this was the case so that I could explore the consequences of various levels of remembrance. My Grandparent’s House My Childhood Home My First Nursery School My Second Nursery School My Grandparent’s Flat My High School

Figure 71: Location Map. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2016) [71.]

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After roughly mapping out these spaces with preliminary sketches, I began drawing them in plan while applying a predetermined structure and order to the memories. This structure was intended to create clarity within the drawing. I sketched the plan free hand and with a pen to allow for feelings of uncertainty, insecurity or assurance to present themselves on the page. Some spaces deliberately “bleed” into others (Fig. 72). In the case of my grandmother’s dining room connecting directly to the foyer of my childhood home, the link represents the literal movement from my second home to my third (my grandparent’s house) and also serves to connect two important locations for family gatherings. The bond between my high school hall, and the

MY GRANDFATHER’S VEGETABLE GARDEN

MY SECOND NURSERY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND

MY PARENT’S BEDROOM

MY GRANDMOTHER’S DINING ROOM

HIGH SCHOOL HALL

FOYER

THE “SUNROOM”

Figure 72: Map Of Connection Zones. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2016) [72.]

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Bathroom

Disconnected Memory Pieces

MRS. SAMUEL’S CLASSROOM

PLAY AREA

NURSERY SCHOOL HALL

Garage

MRS. EAGAR’S CLASSROOM

MY GRANDFATHER’S WORKSHOP

MY GRANDFATHER’S VEGETABLE GARDEN

Classroom

MY SECOND NURSERY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND

DRIVEWAY

Classroom

STAGE

Men’s Bath

Ladies’ Bath

Stairwell

MY BEDROOM

MY PARENT’S BEDROOM

MY GRANDMOTHER’S KITCHEN

Classroom

THE SPARE ROOM

HIGH SCHOOL HALL

MY GRANDMOTHER’S DINING ROOM

THE “SUNROOM”

Stairwell

KITCHEN

PATIO

BACK GARDEN

FOYER My Grandparent’s Bedroom

DINING ROOM

MY GRANDFATHER’S LOUNGE MRS. GILLESPIE’S CLASSROOM

MY MATHS CLASSROOM

HOME ECONOMICS CLASSROOM

CHILDHOOD LOUNGE

FRONT PORCH PLAY AREA

LOUNGE PREFECTS ROOM

MRS. TAIT’S CLASSROOM

KITCHEN

Foyer

BATHRM NAP TIME

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Figure 73: Memory Palace Plan. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2016)

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“I was a child of that house, filled with the memory of its smells, filled with the coolness of its hallways, filled with the voices that had given it life. There was even the song of the frogs in the pools; they came to be with me here.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (in McCarter & Pallasmaa, 2012:328)

Figure 74: Top View Of My Memory Palace. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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sunroom, is a deliberate physical connection between two spaces so strongly associated in my mind. Both rooms were great storytelling and learning Figure 75: The Sketching Process Of The Memory Palace. This graphic indicates the various line weights and hatches used whilst drawing. Drawing: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2016)

locations in my past (one from my childhood, the other from my adolescence). It was important for me to physically link these places as it is difficult for me to remember one without the other. As Freud (in Vidler, 2002:164) states “our childhood memories show us our early years not as they were but as they appeared at the later periods when the memories are revived” and this is evident in the sizing of the Memory Palace’s rooms. When drawing this plan, rooms were sketched instinctively with sizing that “felt right” when compared with my memory of the space. This technique leads to some rooms being abnormally large while others became impractically small. This intuitive drawing style also resulted in exaggerated room proportions and building forms vastly different from their real-life counterparts. Upon reflection, I noticed that the larger rooms were either the setting for nostalgic memories, places I spent an ample amount of time in or simply areas I remember with surprising clarity. For example:

[75.]

My grandmother’s dining room was the centre of all my childhood gatherings. It is a space I strongly associate with memories of love and have a deep yearning to return to.

My childhood lounge was an area I spent hours playing and watching television within. I associate it with memories of creativity and the foundation my imagination.

My maths classroom was the room from high school I remember to the greatest level of detail.

Figure 76: The Hierarchies Of The Memory Palace. This image indicates the various height differences of each remembered space. Note the varying elevations of the platforms as well as the differences in wall heights and materials. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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To graphically represent my different degrees of remembrance and association with each memory space, I gave the boundaries of each a different line weight or hatch (Fig. 75) The circular recollections in the top left-hand corner


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Figure 78: My Grandparent’s Flat - An Isolated Memory “Fragment”. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

of the sketch represent pieces of memory that are disconnected from an architectural setting within my memory. These are sensual elements like smells, tastes, textures and objects such as books or furniture. My nursery schools and grandparent’s flat (Fig. 78), while being well remembered, were either deliberately located further away or alienated entirely, from the centre of the Memory Palace as they as disconnected from my other childhood memories. These recollections stand alone in my mind and are thus, represented as memory “fragments”. [78.]

Before constructing the individual memory spaces, I established predetermined levels of remembrance within the model. By raising the height of different buildings over others, a clear hierarchy becomes evident (Fig. 77). An outsider may view this hierarchy as one of memory importance. However, the factors

Figure 79: Roof Trusses Over The High School Hall. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

I used in determining which memories would occur at which heights were clarity of remembrance and the extent of wistful longing associated with these recollections. To correspond with the already graphically established degrees of remembrance on the sketch plan, I began building each memory space out of different materials and with different wall heights (Fig. 76). Clay walls represent areas recalled with less “sharpness”. Thus the use of this soft, highly impressionable and malleable material was an appropriate choice to model my blurrier memories (Fig. 78). The thickness and sturdiness of foam board in contrast, however, provided the perfect material for the production of distinct recollections. Balsa wood is used to denote organic or vegetation filled areas (Fig. 85).

[79.]

Finally, I insert precise memory details inserted into the model. Where remembered, roof slopes, and in some instances, a window is added to the roof plane to allow for the observation of the interior space (Fig. 80). I have also included windows in individual rooms. In some cases, such as in my

Figure 77: Various Materials Were Used To Build The Memory Palace. This photograph shows the use of clay, triplex, foam board, balsa wood and grey board. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 80: My Grandmother’s Dining Room. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 81: Forgotten Spaces Are Modelled In Solid Blocks Of Clay. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 82: The Light Filled “Sun Room”. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [80.]

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Figure 83: Holes in the model base indicate that these spaces were on a second story. The void denotes a double volume. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 84: My Grandmother. Photograph: (Russo, 2006) Figure 85: Model Details. Windows, doors, trusses, beams and roof planes are just some of the details modelled in The Memory Palace. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 86: Stage and Stairwells. Back-of-house spaces are modelled in solid clay and stairwells are represented by glass blocks. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [83.]

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grandmother’s dining room (Fig. 80) and the sunroom (Fig. 83), windows are modelled because light was a prominent feature of my memory of both spaces. In other cases, such as the maths class, windows were inserted to indicate the clarity with which that area is remembered. Specific details, such as the exposed trusses in my high school hall (Fig. 86), were such prominent elements of my memory of that space and were remembered in such detail, that I had to add them to the model. Other built features include voids (Figure 83) (indicating that my clearest memories of high school were on the second floor) and glass blocks (representing remembered stairwell locations). Similar to Kelley’s methodology, I chose to model rooms I had never entered or spaces I could not remember as solid blocks (Fig. 81). These represent my “suppressed” memories and, in some cases, only the height of the volume is recalled and

Figure 87: Memories Of Smells, Tastes, Textures, Sounds and Objects. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

modelled. The process of designing and building one’s memory palace is a very instructive one. From this analysis of my Memory Palace, I have found that there are absolute differences between reality and memory. While I believed that I deliberately imposed structure upon my collection of memories, it now seems instead as though the structure already existed, beneath the surface of my recollections. I only needed to find that pre-existing order and bring it to the forefront of my Memory Palace, thus giving it clarity and sequence. Ultimately, meaningful and nostalgic memories subconsciously take preference in the process of transformation from remembered space to physical space. We subconsciously prioritise the recollections and experiences for which we yearn. Remembering, like designing, is an intuitive process that always has an underlying narrative structure. [87.]

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Figure 88: The Memory Carving Process. This picture documents the process of creation of The Memory Palace. Recollections and spaces are literally carved from the solid (or forgotten). Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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Reminiscing On Childhood Artworks Figure 89: Front Elevation and Detailed Section Of Vanna Venturi House. Robert Venturi, Vanna Venturi House (1962-1964), Philadelphia. (The Red List, 2016)

Memory is inextricable with personal identity. Our knowledge of self is based almost entirely upon our collection of life’s memories. As Fernyhough (2012) states, “your remembered life story is a pretty good guide to what you will do tomorrow,” and thus memory becomes not only about the past but also the creation of futures. If we lose our recollections, we lose our essential connection to who we are as people. When thinking back to a distinct memory from my past – like my first swim in a swimming pool – I do not merely conjure up locations, dates or times (the details psychologists refer to as “semantic memories”) but I reconstruct that moments’ sensory details. The coolness of the water. The smell of chlorine. The babble of other people using this public amenity. I become a time traveller when reliving memories. When storyboarding memories, one combines fragments of sensory memory with knowledge of the events and assemble them into desired narratives. One’s memories are in constant interplay with one’s knowledge of the facts. Memory, as an accurate description of the past, is, therefore, unreliable. As this research has already proposed, memory cannot be factually evaluated and is a continual process that is ongoing in one’s present. This idea is particularly evident in my analysis of The Memory Palace discussed in the previous chapter. Our present-day emotions, beliefs and knowledge influence our creation of memories. Our memories of events change if our feelings or knowledge about these developments change. How much did you know about your favourite book, or television series, before you knew every detail of the story? Can you remember your opinion of the story, before you knew it in detail? Can you picture a time in which you had no knowledge of that story? Once a compelling story or piece of knowledge influences you, it is hard to remember a time in which its message did not affect you.

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Of all the memories one holds dear, those of childhood one possibly cherishes

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the most. Memories of childhood tend, however, to be the least reliable. This unreliability may be because, the older one’s memories, the more susceptible they are to contamination by the visual images of the intervening years. It is my belief that I have based many of my childhood memories upon seeing myself in photographs and videos. One could thus say that “when we look back into the past, we are always doing so through a prism of intervening selves”

Figure 90: Font View Of Vanna Venturi House. Robert Venturi, Vanna Venturi House (1962-1964), Philadelphia. (Studio Newmeyer, 2016) Figure 91: Historic View Of Vanna Venturi House from the south-east. Robert Venturi, Vanna Venturi House (1962-1964), Philadelphia. (Frearson, 2015)

(Fernyhough, 2012). As emphasised earlier in this section, in the search for self-discovery, it is important to understand one’s recollections. While one can describe childhood memories as untrustworthy, they are often said to have a purer authenticity and connection to self, because children have a simpler outlook on life. The unstable nature of memory is not associated with the innocence of youth. [90.]

The purity of childhood thought is evident in association with Architect Robert Venturi’s (1925) design of the Vanna Venturi House (1964) (Fig. 90). This house was designed for Venturi’s mother and contains a hybridity that he so often sought in his works (Kahl, 2008:60). The design combines the influences of American tradition and European symbolism. The primary element of the building is the pitched roof (Venturi maintained this as reference to the common roof designs in United States’ houses) with a centred front entrance and chimney on top. These simplistic elements have lead some critics to describe the building as a “child’s drawing” (Venturi, in Friedman, 1998:192) (Fig. 89). Venturi explains this by stating:

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“Some have said my mother’s house looks like a child’s drawing of a house – representing the fundamental elements of shelter – gable roof, chimney, door, and windows. I like to think that is so, that it achieves another essence, that of the genre that is house and is elemental.” (Venturi, in Friedman, 1998:192)

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So, while Venturi referenced distinct traditions in this design, what became more important, was the overall shape of the building and its elements, such that they referenced the familiar architectural language stored in society’s collective memory (Friedman, 1998:192). This notion is also emphasised by César Pelli (1999:47), in his book Observations For Young Architects, who states “that we perceive buildings not only with our eyes but also with our memory”. So, there is a purity to childhood recollections that is essential to the journey of self-discovery. However, the before mentioned untrustworthiness of those memories must somehow be overcome. Therefore, to better understand childhood memories, and thus self, this chapter contains a series of childhood drawings and artworks. This analysis of childhood artworks proved useful as the pieces are a direct depiction of how I understood and Figure 92: In The Garden, Age 3. This painting illustrates the simplicity of which I saw the world at the age of three. A journey into my garden was one filled with colour, and that is translated directly onto the page. This simplicity is a result of the skill level of a child. It does not suggest that details are unimportant, rather that the overall emotional experience of playing in a garden is more paramount than those details. Tatum Russo, “In The Garden, Age 3” (1995), Paint On Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

remembered life during childhood. These pictures can give me a direct look at how I experienced childhood, as opposed to how I remember experiencing it. The veil of memory is thus somewhat removed from this analysis. [92.]

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[93.]

The above artwork is relevant to this analysis in several ways. It is interesting to note the method employed to create this painting. I first applied paint to the page and then, using my fingers, created a form by subtracting from the painting surface. The figure of the monster thus emerges from the shadow of green paint. Imagination is developing out of the paint in an intuitive manner. This subtractive method, along with the use of my hands to create the image, also means that I left my personal imprint on the artwork. Fingerprints and hand smudges tell a particular narrative, and I identify the work as mine. My signature is all over the page, making

Figure 93: Monster, Age 4. Tatum Russo, “Monster, Age 4” (1996), Paint On Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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its origin story visible to any viewer. While reminiscing over this artwork, I noticed that it was created on a scrap piece of architectural drawing given to me by my Nursery School Teacher.


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[94.]

While it had no significance at the time, it is of interest to this analysis. One side of this page contains my personal memories and imagination and on the other one can see non-descript plans for building long disposed of or forgotten. One side of this paper has been cherished and kept safe by my mother for years, whereas the other was casually discarded by a long-lost architectural patron. Adjacent to this contrast, however, is the idea that in light of my architectural education, and facilitated by this research report, the back side of this artwork takes on new meaning. It is now significant as it hints at the future career of my four-year-old self. The dualities present in this artwork make it an important object of memory and storytelling.

Figure 94: Monster, Age 4, on architectural drawings. Tatum Russo, “Monster, Age 4” (1996), Paint On Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 95: Palm Tree, Age 7. Being slightly older when I drew this picture, as opposed to the previous artworks, I had a keener eye for detail and thus produced more realistic reproductions. However, while there is more realism than before, there is still a noticeable amount of the childlike simplicity mentioned before. This simplicity led me to focus on details I felt were descriptive of a palm tree. This occurrence is evident through the emphasis placed on the four palm branches. The leaf form may not be accurate, but I drew their structure with particular attention. This detail makes the branches an obvious focal point of the picture while elements of shadow and other vegetation become secondary. Tatum Russo, “Palm Tree, Age 7” (1999), Pencil On Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [95.]

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Figure 96: A Bicycle, Age 7. While this drawing also contains more detail and is more realistic than previously discussed artworks, it also has an absolute simplicity. Particular elements, such as the wheels, seat and handlebars are drawn with greater emphasis (note the darker pencil strokes) and detail (note the crisscrossing nature of the bicycle’s spokes). My inclusion of these features hints that I had a better understanding and memory of these structures. Tatum Russo, “A Bicycle, Age 7” (1999), Pencil on Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [96.]

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Figure 97: The Zebra, Age 6. Amidst its childlike simplicity, this picture of a zebra contains small hints at accurate recollections and understanding. The upturned shape of a zebra’s ears; black and white stripes; and black hooves are details of a zebra’s appearance remembered with the greatest detail. Tatum Russo, “The Zebra, Age 6” (1998), Marker on Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 98: Tatum, Age 9. This self-portrait focusses on a form. It becomes like a caricature in the way in which I emphasised certain prominent features of my appearance (or what I understood of my appearance at the time). Tatum Russo, “Tatum, Age 9” (2001), Coloured Pencil on Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 99: Abstract, Age 5. This painting is a pure representation of the intuitive and emotive process of making art. I seem to focus on aesthetic by trying to make something that “looks cool”. Tatum Russo, “Abstract, Age 5” (1997), Paint on Paper. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [97.]

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While this Section discusses the unreliability of remembrance, it does not propose that one should stop valuing it. Memory is composed of a variety of fragments that are always moving and changing with time and consequently paint vivid, if sometimes inaccurate, pictures. As Daniel Schacter, American psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Harvard University has argued, “even when it is failing, memory is doing exactly the thing it is supposed to do” (in Fernyhough, 2012). Memory functions like imagination. It fuels creativity and is an essential element of design.

Figure 100: Recycled Necklace, Age 5. An introduction of order is evident in this artwork. It was important to me to create a pattern (polystyrene chips, followed by blue paper, then a metal pull ring and a piece of straw) that I then repeated around the necklace. Tatum Russo, “Recycled Necklace, Age 5” (1997), Polystyrene Chips, Paper, Pull rings and Straws. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [100.]

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Memory Reconstructions The connection between art, memory and narrative has been extensively discussed in previous Sections of this research report. The act of creating, be it artwork or architecture, is a powerful means of understanding one’s own experiences and memories. Works of art and design, in turn, have the potential to convey profound narrative messages with viewers, that have the ability to create change in individual’s lives and entire social groups. As this chapter has proposed, memories are not filed away in coherent order in the brain. As opposed to how memory is depicted in popular culture, one cannot extract recollections from the mind and peruse them at leisure (as Albus Dumbledore Figure 101: Albus Dumbledore Extracting and Examining His Memories in The Pensieve. (Francois, 2012) Figure 102: Reconstruction 1. Iosif Király, “Reconstruction 1” (2008). (Pietromarchi, 2005)

would in the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling) (Figure 101). Memories are more like collages of experience and are thus better depicted through the medium of art. The following section looks at the work of artist Iosif Kiraly, entitled Reconstructions, in which he uses photographs to investigate the way events, people and places are remembered. Reconstructions consist of a series of photographs that are stitched together to form whole images. Each snapshot represents a fragment of information or memory and is taken from approximately similar locations but different times. Photographs were, in some cases, taken minutes apart, in others years apart. This gives the final image a visual coherence but a temporal disruption that perfectly describes the qualities of memory. Király (in Pietromarchi, 2005:117) explains that several factors such as “context”, “emotional state” and “experiences accumulated” influenced his work. During the stitching process, individual memory fragments can be accentuated whereas others can be made to fade away or be replaced by media-produced images. In this way, the photography functions as a multi-layered device that transports one to the place, and emotional state at the time of remembering.

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Figure 103: Reconstruction 2 Iosif Király, “Reconstruction 2” (2008). (Iosif Király, 2016)

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“... we tend to think of memories as snapshots from family albums that, if stored properly, could be retrieved in precisely the same condition in which they were put away. But we now know that we do not record our experiences the way a camera records them. Our memories work differently. We extract key elements from our experiences and store them. We then recreate or reconstruct our experiences rather than retrieve copies of them. Sometimes, in the process of reconstructing we add on feelings, beliefs, or even knowledge we obtained after the experience. In other words, we bias our memories of the past by attributing to them emotions or knowledge we acquired after the event.” Schacter (2001:9) [103.]

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Conclusion This chapter has put forth that memory is at the heart of imagination. It is thus vital to the production of architecture and narratives. While memory is involved in the manufacture of architecture, architecture is also the bedrock upon which we construct our memories. The longing one has to reproduce our recollections in physical forms, is the result of a collective nostalgia in society today. This nostalgia is what heightens the depth of experience in architecture and one’s connection to the built environment. In the current fast-paced world, humanity’s fear of forgetting has triggered a constant need to memorialise. This remembrance is always sensory and the manipulation of time is thus key to creating belonging in built space. The slower we move through spaces the more we remember. The process of remembering, like designing, is intuitive and always has an underlying narrative structure. To liken memory with narrative is not to undermine its value. It merely suggests that memory is dynamic and sensory just like architecture, and therefore, is the connection between humanity and Figure 104: Reconstruction 3 Iosif Király, “Reconstruction 3” (2008). (Pietromarchi, 2005)

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the built environment. However, while narrative is structured and ordered, memory is a fragmented and layered palimpsest. The memory may be a fiction, but it is a fiction to be cherished and makes storytellers of us all.


The Role Of Memory In Architecture ● The Story Exchange

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Figure 105: Ubuntu Centre 3-Dimensional Movement Diagram. (Ubuntu Fund, 2012) [105.]

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05. STUDYING PRECEDENT

Introduction The search for identity is a huge element of human life. In his book, Elements Of Architecture (1986), Pierre von Meiss asserts that for a person to be at peace with themselves, their community and the universe, they must be able to affirm their identity and thus locate themselves within society. This identity is threefold. It is linked to one’s identity as a human being, as a member of a broader community group (that shares certain values or beliefs), and as an individual with unique attributes (von Meiss, 1986). Architecture plays a major role in strengthening (and even reducing) one’s sense of identity. It is important to note, however, that the built environment is not the only means of exploring character and creating social change, but is a powerful vehicle through which to do so. Understanding history, in all its forms, is a common way of acknowledging a shared identity. As proposed in earlier chapters, individuals’ lives are comprised of a series of memories. Similarly, broader society is made up of

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their collective history. There is a clear link here. Memories are produced from historical realities and, historical narratives are constructed from collective memories (many types of museums take on the role of gathering memories, and presenting them as narratives). This phenomenon is described by Boyer (1996) as “the museum’s paradox”. To place a series of events in a sequence, as museums do, is to put them in “narrative form” (Carr, in Embree & Moran, 2004:149). Stories, bring an order to collection of events; shape them into forms with beginnings, middles and endings; tie them to particular characters and thus lead to didactic resolutions. The following chapter analyses a variety of existing works, within and around the built environment, to further understand the link between narrative history and identity. Museums, theatres, libraries and other forms of narrative sharing Figure 106: Street Elevation Of Ubuntu Centre. Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA. (Field, 2011)

are discussed, with particular reference to how they create social change and influence community character. Themes discovered through this study are later applied to the design of The Story Exchange.

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The Ubuntu Centre Field Architecture, Zwide, Port Elizabeth, South Africa 2008-2010 The Ibhaye townships, which include Zwide, are still removed from the primary economic activity that occurs in the major metropolitan centre of Port Elizabeth. Among problems of unemployment and other social disparities in the township, there are also a large number of people suffering from AIDS and tuberculosis in the area. Due to this phenomenon, The Ubuntu Education Fund initiated the construction of The Ubuntu Centre to promote health and wellness education in the township of Zwide. These headquarters for the fund are internationally funded, locally operated and began operations in 2011. The Centre functions as a community centre for 4000 local residents and includes: a clinic that is specialised in the treatment and prevention of AIDS and tuberculosis; an education facility for children; and a large, 2 storey, multipurpose hall for theatre, dance, music and workshops. A roof garden above the administrative wing functions as a tool for nutrition education program (Berlanda et al., 2013).

Figure 107: Pedestrian Pathway In Front Of The Ubuntu Centre. Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA. (Field, 2011)

Stan Field, a Port Elizabeth local, and his son Jess, were commissioned to design this building, which aimed to become a landmark of “high-quality, sustained aid” (Berlanda et al., 2013:125) to inhabitants of the community. The Centre also needed to demonstrate the potential of medical education programs and foster enough international interest to promote the Ubuntu Foundation beyond Africa. Subsequently, the design won the internationally renowned Progressive Architecture Award in 2009 – thus gaining the international recognition desired. For the architects, the contemporary building complex, constructed from offshutter concrete with large glass facades, embodies a significant contribution [107.]

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to the development of the city. The Ubuntu Centre stands out from the surrounding, small-scale structures of the township through its materiality, form, and size. The careful decision making around these attributes, however, also simultaneously integrate the building with its context. The architects also designed the building as a communal public space for the communication and exchange of knowledge between visitors to the Centre and other locals. The building consists of three trapezoid-shaped wings that create a 2,100 square-metre complex. Stan and Jess Field examined the informal routes that pedestrians carved through the site on a daily basis and use the areas of culmination and higher density routes to dictate the design. These movement paths largely included the shortest links between the bus stop, store, school or soccer field. The architects maintained these prominent routes by allowing them to continue into the interior of the building and influence the formation of the spatial design. One could say the movement paths erode the through Figure 108: Movement Diagram Through The Ubuntu Centre. (Ubuntu Fund, 2012) Figure 109: View Of The Surrounding Township from The Rooftop Of The Ubuntu Centre. Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA. (Field Architecture, 2016)

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the building thus producing form. The large concrete structures are punctuated on two sides by large glass facades that are sheltered by horizontally hanging wooden louvres. The visual, light, and circulatory permeability of the design aim to reduce the distance between visitor and the building. This concept thus tries to cultivate visits to the centre and its clinic to create community ownership. The clinic is also placed en-route to other traditional services to allow for anonymous visits and prevent social discrimination of users. The concept of permeability has evidently reduced stigmatisation as The Ubuntu Centre receives roughly 2,000 visits on a regular basis (Berlanda et al., 2013:125), with the roof garden feeding approximately “2,245 students daily” (Field Architecture, 2011). The folded concrete forms of the building lean in towards each other and seem

Figure 110: Folded Concrete Forms Lean On Each Other In The Spirit Of Ubuntu. Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA. (Field, 2011)

meaning of Ubuntu - “I am because you are” (Field Architecture, 2011).

Figure 111: Rooftop Vegetable Garden. Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA. (Field, 2011)

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to support each other. This feature of the building is a literal reference to the

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Pedestrian Circulation

Office Space

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Figure 112: Programmatic Diagrams Of The Ubuntu Centre. (Serengreenity, 2011)

The above analysis of The Ubuntu Centre (2010), has highlighted various important elements of the architect’s design approach and manifestation that will be considered during the creation of The Story Exchange. The program of centre, while having the purpose of educating the inhabitants of Zwide, is very diverse. The inclusion of multi-purpose spaces allows for the community to interact and share stories and connection is created with the youth of

Figure 113: Form Exploration Sketches. (Architectural Record, 2016) Figure 114: Detailed View Of Facade Louvre System. Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA. (Field Architecture, 2016) Figure 115: View From Street Corner. (Riordan, 2011) Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA.

the community during the use of the building’s vegetable gardens. The use

Figure 116: Conceptual Sketch. (Field Architecture, 2016)

of locally unusual materials of concrete and glass and the large scale of the

Figure 117: Multi-purpose Hall. (Riordan, 2011) Field Architecture, The Ubuntu Centre (2010), Zwide, RSA.

building creates architecture that stands out from its surroundings, but rather than being imposing, the building becomes a visual icon for quality and health. While the building is in contrast with its context it is still sensitive to context

Figure 118: Light Floods The Interior Spaces Through The Large Concrete Forms. (Field, 2011)

and movement paths and simultaneously promotes public engagement and opportunities for anonymity. Ultimately the design conveys the message that architecture can link old townships with new technologies and thus produce social change.

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District Six Museum District Six, Cape Town, South Africa. 1994 District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867. The area was originally a vibrant community that consisted of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, immigrants and workers. The region was declared a white area in 1966, under the Group Areas Act of the Apartheid regime, and in the 1970’s, 60,000 residents, of different races, were forced to move away from the area. The District Six Foundation was later founded in 1989 and then The District Six Museum followed in 1994 as a memorial to the forced removals. Figure 119: Historical View Of Hanover Street, District 6. (Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, 2016)

The following discussion around this museum focusses on how its exhibitions

Figure 120: Exterior View Of The District 6 Museum. (South Africa Museum Guide, 2016)

district.

use various methods of storytelling to keep alive the collective memory of the

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The museum contains a display of multi-media elements that include handmade items, documentaries, digital interactions and audio devices. Stories of life in District Six before the removals are transcribed onto various surfaces in, the museum and the voices of different narrators can be heard as one moves through the exhibition – thus making storytelling the primary tool used in the museum’s quest to memorialise the forced removals. The museum suggests that the process of remembrance is of constant significance to all South Africans (District Six Museum, 2016a). The permanent exhibition, entitled Digging Deeper, seems also to not only be an attempt to strengthen society’s

Figure 121: View Of Main Exhibition Hall. (Nightjar Travel, 2016)

knowledge of the area, but to move beyond locality and make District Six a

Figure 122: Old District 6 Street Signs. (World History South Africa, 2016)

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symbol of all the lives impacted during the mass displacement. One of the ongoing research projects undertaken by District Six Museum is the Reminiscence Theatre - a performance space within the renovated Sacks Futeran building. On a daily basis the Museum functions as a platform for sharing memories. Ex-residents tell their stories there, whether planned or spontaneous; one can attend nostalgic musical performances; and through oral history interviews, recollections are documented and mapped (District Six Museum, 2016b). The Reminiscence Theatre aims to structure the stories gathered through these practices and, while still encouraging spontaneous interaction, present them to a broader range of audiences across many generations. The Reminiscence Theatre asserts that “memory is a dynamic rather than static entity” ( District Six Museum, 2016b) and with the help of various contributors translates the oral histories of the elderly, through creative interpretation, into drama, music, dance and poetry productions. The combination of gallery spaces, interactive art displays as well as live productions that require visitor engagement and participation make The District Six Museum an ideal precedent around which to base The Story Exchange.

Figure 123: District 6 Reminiscence Theatre. (District Six Mueseum, 2016) [123.]

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Demolition Nomvuyo’s Room

Book Shop

Introductory Panels

Street Signs

District Six Floor Map

Pulpit

Name Cloths Newspaper Drum

Restitution

Resistance

“Remember Dimbaza” Formation

Figure 124: Diagrammatic Layout Of Main Exhibition Layout, Ground Floor. Movement Patterns through the exhibition are indicated. Source: (District Six Museum, 2016) Diagram: (Russo, 2016) Figure 125: Floor Map Of District Six. (World History South Africa, 2016) Figure 126: “Langarm” music installation. This audio installation is part of the “Digging Deeper” Exhibition. (District Six Museum, 2016)

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The Writer’s Theatre Studio Gang, Glencoe, Illinois, United States Of America 2016 The ability of theatre and live performances to bring people together from a variety of backgrounds has made it a vital storytelling technique since ancient times (Studio Gang, 2016). The earliest form of theatre occurring in 6th century BCE, in ancient Greece (History World, 2016). The mode of live stage productions creates a sense of tension engagement between the audience an performer that is mostly missing from the two-dimensional viewing of films. This study looks at The Writer’s Theatre (2016) designed by Studio Gang Architects in order to discover how connections are created between the audience, viewers, and architecture through the use of materials, light manipulation and space-making. Writer’s Theatre is a prominent theatre company in Glencoe, Chicago. When a need to expand from their small (108 seat) performance venue, coincided with the city’s plan to develop more cultural and commercial spaces in Glencoe, the company seized the opportunity to build a new theatre centre that would act as a catalyst for the rejuvenation of the downtown area. Writer’s company requested the design maintained a level of quality and intimacy that is consistent with their style of performance art and that the theatre could accommodate its 35,000 seasonal patrons comfortably. The building also needed to improve upon their existing facilities. The resulting architecture was able to do this through transparency and flexibility that encourages public interaction and a visible shared experience (Arch Daily, 2016). The focal point of the building complex is the public gathering space that also serves as a lobby and an informal performance, rehearsal, and announcement venue. The building comprises two performance spaces: a larger 250-seat main stage, and a 99 seat black box theatre. There are also secondary feeder

Figure 127: Exterior View Of The Writer’s Theatre. The building’s form resonates with other structures in Glencoe and in the evening, the theater glows from within, drawing interest to this cultural node. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016)

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amenities like a rehearsal room, and library walkway. In an interview with Jeanne Gang (2016), founder and principal architect of Studio Gang Architects, she discusses how she has always been interested in the connection between Figure 129: Public Lobby. The lobby can be used as a secondary performance space. All the performance venues, as well as the rehearsal space and gallery walk, open onto the lobby. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016)

theatre and urban life and wanted, through this design, to bring the energy of theatre to the small suburb of Glencoe. This is done by making the theatre spaces visible from the street. The building literally opens up to the community thus providing a place for locals to gather. The Writer’s Theatre is located between two parks that are densely populated with oak trees. Thus, in Gang’s (2016) words it “made sense to use wood” as a

Figure 128: The Second Floor Gallery Walk. This roof is supported by timber Vierendeel trusses and a lattice suspending the floor. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Hall, 2016)

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building material, to connect the building and it’s user’s with the surrounding site and to improve the design’s sustainability. Large timber Vierendeel trusses are used to create a “canopy walk” (Gang, 2016) above the lobby that allows users of the building to walk among the trees.

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Figure 130: The Second Floor Gallery Walk gives the illusion of walking amongst the trees. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) [130.]

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Tapered Truss

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Fins slot into beam Figure 131: Plan and Section Diagram Of The Gallery Walk’s and fixed Timber Structure. I created this drawing to understand better upwards how the components of the structure are fixed. Ring Beam (Russo, 2016)

Tapered Truss

Figure 132: Assembling the Gallery Walk Facade. Timber arms are slotted into grooves on a supporting ring beam. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) Outer Ring Beam with slots for Figure 133: View Of The Second Floor Donorfins Lounge. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016),Column Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) Figure 134: Diagram Of The Timber Arm Assembly. Prefabricated Joist timber arms are inserted into grooves on a supporting ring beam. These facade elements are then pushed upward, Inner Ring held in place with friction, and fixed. Beam (Russo, 2016)

Fins slot into beam and fixed upwards Ring Beam Section Outer Ring Beam with slots for fins Column

Joist Inner Ring Beam

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The canopy walk’s design required a lot of material exploration to discover the possibilities of timber. As stated by Peter Heppel (2016), this project’s engineering specialist from Peter Heppel Associates, in an interview, the resultant architecture was an “elegant solution” that was “honest to materials” both through the timber’s construction and use. Heppel (2016) further explains the variety of challenges that the project team was faced with. A type of

Held HeldWith WithFriction Friction

cedar with an exceptionally straight grain was used to construct the canopy. In order to make good use of this wood various experiments were conducted to overcome the challenge of making structurally sound whilst aesthetically pleasing. The timber was tested to determine its strengths, how it bends, and how it responds to certain treatments. From this information the project team was able to determine the appropriate geometry of the timber canopy arms. According to Gang (2016) this type of design work was not done “purely on the computer” and it was necessary for architects to collaborate with engineers and craftsman Trillium Dell Timberworks.

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Figure 135: Three Dimensional View Of The Writer’s Theatre In Its Context. The Theatre is arranged as a village-like group of noticeable volumes that surround a central hub (The Gallery Walk). (Studio Gang, 2016)

Bricks from the original structure on the site were also re-used in the theatre after being hewn and cut into new geometries. This altering of the bricks allowed them to be used in a different configuration to create better acoustic inside the main theatre space. Seating in the main performance area is also clustered in smaller groups to encourage the intimacy between the actors and audience. The acting style of The Writer’s company is real and unaffected – a quality architects wanted to emulate through to the architectural style of the building. This is successfully achieved through Studio Gang’s honest use of materials. The user of the building is aware of what the materials are and they become another character in the space. [135.]

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Ultimately The Writer’s Theatre’s success comes from its manipulation and understanding of materials and how they are used to create familiarity between users and the building. Improved acoustics in the theatre space, allow performers to speak conversationally, rather than projecting their voices. Thus making the productions less affected and stimulate an honest dialogue with audiences. The building’s manipulation of transparency, via a glass lobby and an openable public space, makes the vibrancy of theatre a part of the suburb’s streetscape. This method of reinvigorating the suburb will be used similarly in The Story Exchange as a means of stimulating creative change in Orange Grove.

2. 3. 5. 7. 9. 16. 20.

Figure 136: Interior View Of The Concessions Stand. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) Figure 137: Main Performance Venue. Innovative seating configurations and staging create great intimacy between the actors and audience. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) Figure 138: Long Section 2 - Through The Gallery Walk and Black Box Theatre. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Dezeen, 2016)

Lobby Lobby Seating Concessions Library Black Box Theatre Grand Gallery Walk Green Roof

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Figure 139: Ground Floor Plan. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) Figure 140: Street View Of The Writer’s Theatre. The building engages with the community by opening up to its surroundings in good weather. Glass facades also create a visual connection. Studio Gang, The Writer’s Theatre (2016), Glencoe, USA. (Studio Gang, 2016) [140.]

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Other Story Exchanges

The Story Exchange Of Women Entrepreneurs (2011) This non-profit digital media company believes that woman are powerful economic contributors that are very often overlooked. The Story Exchange Of Women Entrepreneurs was founded to change this phenomenon by showcasing various entrepreneurial women around the world in video interviews and articles. These profiles focus on women who are contributing to their communities and making social and economic change. By sharing these women’s stories the company aims to provide female role models for other aspiring women entrepreneurs. The Story Exchange was founded in 2011, by banking executive Victoria Wang and documentary film-maker Sue Williams. The company’s managing is comprised of various female professionals with decades of experience in finance and business. Women entrepreneurs living in the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore (prominent business orientated countries) were approached initially, but the company aims to expand its community. All stories, interviews and articles are published online via their website, where they invite other entrepreneurial woman to contact them and share their story. Through social media, like Facebook and Instagram, The Story Exchange Of Women Entrepreneurs, aims to broaden their community of like-minded business women, increase their exposure and create female empowerment in the workplace (The Story Exchange, 2011).

Figure 141: The Story Exchange Logo. (The Story Exchange Of Women Entrepreneurs, 2016) [141.]

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Humans Of New York (HONY) (2010) The Humans of New York project began in 2010 as an exploration of New York City through photography. The project artist Brandon Stanton aimed to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and compile these into an extensive chronicle of the lives of the city’s residents. However the project soon expanded into a frequented story sharing blog. As explained by Stanton (2016) on his blog Humans Of New York: “somewhere along the way, I Figure 142: One of many stories contributing to the Humans Of New York Blog. (Humans Of New York, 2016)

began to interview my subjects in addition to photographing them. And alongside their portraits, I’d include quotes and short stories from their lives.” This project gradually converted into an online, narrative sharing platform. Images of New Yorkers are displayed on the website with an accompanying short moral story, descriptive anecdote, touching experience, funny encounter or favourite quotation underneath. One can spend hours perusing this collection of real-life stories, learning about the challenges and opinions of various people whilst staring at their image and trying to imagine them in the described situation. Reading these stories is a cathartic experience that gives one the feeling of having, perhaps, learned slightly more about the human condition. One shortfall of the interaction is that one cannot upload their own entry on the website.

[142.] “I wanted to be heavyweight champion. Joe Louis was my idol.

Today the HONY blog has over twenty million followers (Humans Of New

Back in the forties, it was really something for a black person to

York, 2016) on social media. These portraits and their captions now have an

have that kind of notoriety. He was the..”

international audience, and by being an online medium, people all over the

(Humans Of New York, 2016)

world can construct a narrative of life in New York.

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Steller Everyone has a story to tell. Tell yours with photos, videos, and text. (Steller, 2016)

The above is the caption that headlines the homepage of Stellar – an online social media platform designed specifically for the sharing of personal stories. As a user, one can compile one’s own storyboard of photographs, videos and text, upload it onto the website, and give that story collection a unique title. Visitors to the site can peruse the stories at their leisure, and other users can comment on particular storyboards. As opposed to other social media platforms, like Facebook or Instagram that allows you to share personal moments, opinions and ideas online, Stellar requires the user to compile their thoughts in narrative order. This requirement leads to the user being conscious of the structure of the story, the message it conveys and any conclusions it draws. This blog is a catalogue of personal stories from people around the world creating a digital library of collective memory. One can use it as a platform to share experiences, develop insight into human life or simply as a means of escaping from one’s personal story.

Figure 143: See Sea Storyboard. This is an example of a story told via the online platform: Steller (Barnes, 2016)

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StoryCorps (2013), United States of America StoryCorps is a project dedicated to the notion that everybody has a story to tell and each of those stories are important (The Iris, 2015). The StoryCorps organisation, founded in 2013, travels around The United States to record interviews with a variety of people. These meetings are structured as 40 minutes of uninterrupted discussion between two people who know each other. Meaningful questions and conversation are encouraged during the sessions. This process of audio recording conversations aims to record the stories of the average American to create an archive for future generations, and is entirely voluntary. StoryCorps often partners with museums to carry out this process and promote engagement. Interviews are then held in private venues within the museum (The Iris, 2015). At the end of the session, the participant can keep a high quality CD of the interview, and with the participant’s permission it is archived at the museum and uploaded onto the StoryCorps website. Through this process, theses stories become available to people all over the world.

Conclusion As can be concluded from the above study that storytelling is an effective means of sharing ideas, creating change and learning from one another. The precedents in this section, however, are heavily reliant on the internet and while it allows for narratives to spread quickly all over the world, the web should not be the primary means of sharing stories but merely act as a tool for gathering, storing and distributing data. From this analysis is is clear that for meaningful storytelling to take place - storytelling that strengthens Figure 144: Participants engaging in a StoryCorps interview. This image was used to advertise a StoryCorps event at the Getty Museum. (The Iris, 2015)

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connections and teaches the value of listening – it must be tactile, and bound to an architectural program, thus making The Story Exchange a viable project.


Studying Precedent ● The Story Exchange

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Figure 145: Sketch Of Global Faith Mission Ministries. This building once housed the O.K Bazaars in Orange Grove. Arup, OK Bazaars (1956), Orange Grove, Johannesburg. Sketch: Pen On Paper (Russo, 2016) [145.]

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● The Story Exchange

06. READING ORANGE GROVE

A History Of Orange Grove During the early days of Johannesburg, there was an area known as Lemoen Plaas (Afrikaans for Orange Farm), a part of the larger Klipfontein farm owned by the Viljoens (Burgess, 2016:26), that was located in the northeastern suburbs “only 3 miles from town on the main road to Pretoria”(Smith 1971: 383) – Louis Botha Avenue. An advertisement placed in The Diggers’ News in 1889 (Smith 1971: 383) presented the area as a sheltered paradise filled with fruit trees, sparkling springs and stated that the land was available for lease as a potential business site. The orange trees were planted by JC Esterhysen, one of the first claimants of the farm Zandfontein (where Sandton is located today). Esterhysen’s daughter was married to the son of a Viljoen, whose farmhouse became the original Wayside Hotel (first named the Orange Grove Hotel) (Burgess, 2016:26). This hotel was built on the corner of Louis Botha Avenue and Lloys-Ellis Avenue and was frequently visited by ZAR President Kruger when he visited Johannesburg.

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Norwich (1986: 109), notes that a waterfall (the Orange Grove Spruit) provided an abundance of water for the residences of the suburb and their gardens. This charming cascade of water emerged out of the rock face below what would later be known as Death Bend on Louis Botha Avenue. By the early 1900’s there was a swimming and recreation pool here and people could catch a tram along (what was then) Pretoria Road for a day of fun and socialising in its depths. This stream is still present and flows under Louis Botha Avenue, continues under the Houghton Golf course, through Oaklands and terminates at the Jukskei River in Sandton. Slowly, Viljoen’s estate of orange and other fruit groves was developed into a residential suburb. In 1904 the area was taken over by the African Realty Trust Ltd and surveyed. The township Orange Grove, named after the hotel, was then established (Smith 1971: 384) with Hope and Grove roads, bordering the suburb, to be the only ones to survive. [146.] Figure 146: Orange Grove Waterfall. This view of the Sandspruit Stream in the early 1900’s is not commonly known. Note the tram running along Pretoria Road above. Postcard: (Norwich, 1986:111)

Johannesburg residents that lived in the riotous centre of the city soon began to escape to Orange Grove and the area became a popular getaway destination. During this era (Figure 149 and 150) the suburb was characterised by homes with low walls, small gates, quaint gardens and safe streets (Burgess,

Figure 147: A Scene From The Orange Grove Tea Garden. Postcard: (Norwich, 1986:110)

2016:26). The second Orange Grove Hotel was built in 1908 on the corner of Louis Botha Avenue and Osborn Road. The Orange Grove Tea Garden was also established opposite the Wayside Hotel in the 1890s and was a popular weekend resort which held Sunday concerts, coach rides from the centre of town and air balloon ascents by Professor Price (Norwich 1986: 109). After being surveyed in 1902, the nearby area of Orchards was auctioned off as freehold stands. The township was advertised to include 2 500 sprouted fruit trees and plants (Smith 1971: 385). This is presumably from where the area got its name. The architect Herman Kallenbach built a small thatched house in [147.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 148: Source: Holmden’s Street Map (Dickie, 1929) Map: (Russo, 2016)

1929 - OLD TRAM NETWORK IN JOHANNESBURG 2km

0 N

LEGEND Orange Grove Tram Lines Tram Stops

[148.]

139


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

200m

0 N

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Old House, Circa 1900 Cinerama, 1914 Golden Thistle Royal Arch Freemason’s Chapter Johannesburg Hospital Convalescent Home Paterson Park 9th Streer Shul, circa 1905

4

3 5 6

2

1

ORANGE GROVE (1910) LEGEND Significant Buildings

BRT Route

Foot Path

Tram Line

Figure 149: Drawing: (Russo, 2016) [149.]

140 200m

0 N


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

200m

0 N

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Grove Kinema, circa 1920s Orange Grove Post Office Radium Beer Hall, 1929 Vangelia Court, 1937 Forrestal Centre Orange Grove Public Library Queen Alexandra Retirement Home Orange Grove Park St Augustine Church.

6 8 7 5 4 3

9

2

1

ORANGE GROVE (1930) LEGEND Significant Buildings

BRT Route

Foot Path

Tram Line

Figure 150: Drawing: (Russo, 2016) [150.]

141 200m

0 N


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 151: The Wayside Hotel (first named the Orange Grove Hotel). Established by Lloys-Ellis, one can see the original name above the entrance. Postcard: (Norwich, 1986:110)

Orchards in 1907 - called the Kraal. He lived in the house between 1908 and

Figure 152: The Second Orange Grove Hotel. This three-storey hotel became a popular recreational node in the rapidly developing neighbourhood. Postcard: (Norwich, 1986:112)

By the 1960’s (Fig. 154-155) Orange Grove had developed into a vibrant town

1909 with Mahatma Gandhi. The house was later restored and now functions as a hotel called Satyagraha House (discussed later in this report).

that was often referred to as “Little Italy”. The area was home to a variety of café’s, cinemas, restaurants and nightclubs. Over the years, a library and three primary schools were built to service residents of the surrounding suburbs including Orange Grove and have withstood the political upheaval of the 1990’s. A park in the area is frequented by residents and adds to the character of the suburb. Unfortunately, post 1994, the region declined. A lack of building maintenance led to a reduction in safety and security in the area. With this change in social atmosphere, the previously manicured suburb and vibrant Louis Botha Avenue slowly declined in popularity, leading to the closure of most cultural and social facilities. The character of Orange Grove is still apparent through the remnants of various surviving institutions, such as The Radium Beerhall (Johannesburg’s oldest surviving bar), and its newly reinvented style.

[151.]

The road, which is now called Louis Botha Avenue, predates the areas of the city through which it runs. Its construction was therefore influenced primarily by its geological context. The road was built through the natural pass in the Houghton Ridge, along the borders of existing farms and around other Witwatersrand ridges. Sections of this route were part of the original dirt track that connected Johannesburg and Pretoria. Being the main link between the capital Pretoria, and mining town Johannesburg, Louis Botha Avenue became a vital arterial in the history of Johannesburg’s development and was of strategic importance to the security of both cities during the Anglo-Boer War. [152.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

200m

0 N

1. 2.

Orange Grove Vet, 1947 Greek old Age Home, 1953

2

1

ORANGE GROVE (1950) LEGEND Significant Buildings

BRT Route

Foot Path

Figure 153: Drawing: (Russo, 2016) [153.]

143 200m

0 N


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

200m

0 N

1. 2. 3.

Pine Street Shul, 1961 Satyagraha House Greek old Age Home Extension

2 1

3

ORANGE GROVE (1970) LEGEND Significant Buildings

BRT Route

Foot Path

Figure 154: Drawing: (Russo, 2016) [154.]

144 200m

0 N


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

200m

0 N

ORANGE GROVE (2016) LEGEND Significant Buildings

BRT Route

Figure 155: Drawing: (Russo, 2016) [155.]

145 200m

0 N


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 156: Historical View Looking West Along Louis Botha. The Wayside Hotel is on the left. The distant building on the right is the changing room for people using the pool at the bottom of the Orange Grove Waterfall. Postcard: (Norwich, 1986:112) Figure 157: Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, 1935. A view looking south. (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:19)

The city of Johannesburg grew along this spine and reached as far as the suburb of Alexandra by 1912. This development is evident in Fig. 162 and draws parallels with the action of a river – collecting muddy deposits as it travels through the landscape. Early rural, suburban and urban development is evident along this road. Apartheid era town planning (that separated Alexandra Township from suburbs like Orchards with the industrial buffer zones of Wynberg) is also apparent. Louis Botha Avenue, thus, represents a real timeline of the social and physical development of Johannesburg in the northerly direction. Figure 158: Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, 2016. A photograph taken from roughly the same location as the Figure beside it. Note the ridge line seen in the background of both. (Russo, 2016) [156.]

[157.]

146

[158.]


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 159: Map showing the Randjieslaagte Triangle. Randjieslaagte was a triangular portion of unclaimed land, belonging to the state, on which Johannesburg was founded in 1886. (Johannesburg 1912, 2011) Figure 160: Map Of Farms In 1886, when gold was discovered. New suburban development and expansion around Johannesburg occurred on what was privately owned farm land. (Johannesburg 1912, 2011) Figure 161: A beacon erected in 1965 marking the Hilbrow point of the Randjieslaagte Triangle. (Johannesburg 1912, 2011)

[160.]

[159.]

[161.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

1886

1890

1892

1894

1912

1946

SUBURB EXPANSION ALONG LOUIS BOTHA

LEGEND Suburbs Randjieslaagte Louis Botha Avenue 1904

00

4km1 km

1905

6km

2 km

N

Figure 162: Diagram Of Suburb Expansion Along Louis Botha. Source: (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:12) (Russo, 2016)

148

Townships Established By: 1886 - Randjieslaagte (Farm)

1895 - Hillbrow

1890 - Yeoville, Bellevue

1896 - Rouxville, Mountain View

1892 - Parktown

1901 - Houghton

1894 - Berea

1902 - Orchards, Highlands North


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

1895

1896

1901

1902

1947

1949

1951

Present

SUBURB EXPANSION ALONG LOUIS BOTHA

1904 - Fellside, Bramley, Orange Grove

1947 - Bagleyston

1905 - Sydenham, Kew

1949 - Gresswold

1912 - Maryvale, Alexandra

1951 - Cheltondale

1946 - Wynberg, Marlboro, Savoy Estate

Present - Percelia Estate

[162.]

LEGEND Suburbs Randjieslaagte Louis Botha Avenue

0

1 km

N

2 km

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Mapping Analysis While choosing an appropriate site upon which to propose The Story Exchange a list of preconditions for the area were determined (Table 01). Throughout my childhood I heard different stories and descriptions, of the vibrancy of Orange Grove in the 1950’s 60’s and 70’s, from family friends and acquaintances. This left me with a particular interest in the area. During my years of studying architecture I would travel through Orange Grove on a daily basis and, armed with my growing knowledge of architecture and planning, I soon recognised the area as being rich with culture, architectural depth and the potential for creating social change and energy. As such, I immediately gravitated towards Orange Grove as a clear choice in which to propose The Story Exchange (it fulfilled my X-factor pre-condition). Further research and examination of the suburb merely compounded this belief. The following visual analysis looks at Orange Grove within its city and suburb context in order to expand upon its viability as the location for The Story Exchange, and how it fulfils the remaining pre-conditions for my site choice. [164.]

[163.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 163: Site Context At Multiple Scales. This Diagram locates my chosen site at country, province, city and suburb scales. (Russo, 2016)

Sheet1

Figure 164: The Chosen Site Is An Icon On The Horizon. This photograph highlights the visibility of my chosen site. It can be seen from a great distance along Louis Botha Avenue. This photograph is taken looking South towards the ridge (outlined in black) on the main road. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Table 01: Preconditions For Site Choice Heritage Value Close Proximity To JHB Medium Density Of Population Medium Density Of Built Form Multiple Land Uses Interesting History Significant Opportunities For Development High Access To A Variety Of People

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Figure 165: Aerial View Of Site Location. Photograph: (GCRO, 2016) (Russo, 2016)

[165.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

6km 5km 4km 3km 2km 1km

PROXIMITY TO JOHANNESBURG CBD 2km

0

LEGEND Orange Grove

N

[166.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

City Context As can be seen in figure 166, Orange Grove is located within five kilometers of the centre of Johannesburg. This makes it close enough to the dense city centre to be a convenient area to which residents and workers in the Central Business District (C.B.D) can escape. In order to further understand the extent to which Orange Grove is connected to the surrounding city, research into transport routes through the suburb was undertaken. As shown in Figure 167, the suburb falls along a strategic public transport network that connects Noordwyk with the Johannesburg C.B.D, and has various metro bus routes moving through it (Figure 168).

Figure 166: Map: (Russo, 2016)

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 167: Source: (City Of Joburg GIS, 2016) Map: (Russo, 2016)

To Noordwyk

To Diepsloot To Sunninghill

To Ivory Park

To Lanseria

To Westgate

To Bruma

To Katlehong To Thokoza

To Emfuleni

STRATEGIC PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK

LEGEND

2km

0 N

Orange Grove Traffic Volume (pphpd)

9 000 - 12 000 5 000 - 9 000 < 5 000

[167.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 168: Source: (City Of Joburg GIS, 2016) Map: (Russo, 2016)

JOHANNESBURG METRO BUS ROUTES 2km

0 N

LEGEND Orange Grove Bus Routes

[168.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Johannesburg is an elaborate city comprised of multiple layers. There are

Figure 169: Johannesburg Galleries. Map: (Russo, 2016)

many diverse groups of people living and navigating through the city on

Figure 170: Johannesburg Museums. Map: (Russo, 2016)

any given day. These people form various formal story sharing nodes within

Figure 171: Johannesburg Theatres. Map: (Russo, 2016)

the city (Fig. 173). These points of story sharing provide a rich cultural

Figure 172: Johannesburg Festivals. Map: (Russo, 2016)

landscape through which the people of Johannesburg navigate.

[169.] JOHANNESBURG’S GALLERIES 2km

0 N

[170.] JOHANNESBURG’S MUSEUMS

LEGEND

2km

0

Prominence

N

Orange Grove

LEGEND Prominence Orange Grove

[171.] JOHANNESBURG’S THEATRES 2km

0 N

156

LEGEND Prominence Orange Grove

[172.] JOHANNESBURG’S FESTIVALS 2km

0 N

LEGEND Prominence Orange Grove


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 173: Map: (Russo, 2016)

FORMAL POINTS OF STORY SHARING COMBINED 2km

0

LEGEND Orange Grove

N

[173.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Of all these formal and informal networks of movement and connection through the city one such very prominent network is the Louis Botha

Figure 174: Johannesburg Cinemas. Map: (Russo, 2016)

Corridor. The Louis Botha Development Corridor is a framework that is

Figure 175: Johannesburg Bookstores. Map: (Russo, 2016)

based on understanding the importance of Louis Botha Avenue as a “critical

Figure 176: Johannesburg Conferences. Map: (Russo, 2016)

spine” (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013: 6) that connects

Figure 177: Johannesburg Libraries. Map: (Russo, 2016)

users of the city and passes directly through Orange Grove (Fig. 178).

[174.] JOHANNESBURG’S CINEMAS 2km

0 N

[175.] JOHANNESBURG’S BOOKSTORES

LEGEND

2km

0

Prominence

N

Orange Grove

LEGEND Prominence Orange Grove

[176.] JOHANNESBURG’S CONFERENCE VENUES 2km

0 N

158

LEGEND Prominence Orange Grove

[177.] JOHANNESBURG’S LIBRARIES 2km

0 N

LEGEND Prominence Orange Grove


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 178: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013:9) Map: (Russo, 2016)

JOHANNESBURG EXISTING AND PROPOSED BRT ROUTES LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR 2km

0 N

LEGEND Sunninghill Connection

Orange Grove

Alex to Sandton

Existing Routes

Alex to Rosebank

Ivory Park Connection

Alex to Greenstone

New LBDC

[178.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 179: Source: (GCRO, 2016) Map: (Russo, 2016)

RIDGE FORMATIONS AROUND JOHANNESBURG > 5˚ 2km

0 N

LEGEND Orange Grove Ridges Transformed

[179.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

This research has already discussed the role the Johannesburg landscape played in forming Louis Botha Avenue and subsequently the suburb of Orange Grove. This geological narrative of the suburb is clearly visible in Figures 179 and 180 which locates the suburb as partially on the line of, and partially North of, the Houghton and Linksfield ridges.

Figure 180: Topographical Map Of Johannesburg Indicating The Location of Orange Grove. Source: (GCRO, 2008) Map: (Russo, 2016) [180.]

JOHANNESBURG TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP 2km

0

LEGEND Orange Grove

N

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

To further my understanding of the social fabric and cultural density of the suburb a quantitive analysis of Johannesburg’s population density (Fig. 181), quality of life (Fig. 182), and social isolation (Fig. 183) was undertaken. These studies indicate that while there is a higher level of population density and quality of life in Orange Grove, as opposed to other Johannesburg suburbs, there are also opportunities for increasing these through the development of public amenities and creating a greater variety of land uses.

Figure 181: Source: (GCRO, 2011) Map: (Russo, 2016)

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

POPULATION DOT DENSITY OF JOHANNESBURG (2011) 2km

0 N

LEGEND Orange Grove 1 Dot = 500

[181.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 182: Source: (GCRO, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX mean score per ward out of a maximum of 10 2km

0 N

LEGEND Orange Grove

4.56 - 5.47 5.48 - 5.99 6.00 - 6.38 6.39 - 6.80 6.81 - 7.67

[182.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 183: Source: (GCRO, 2015) Map: (Russo, 2016)

SOCIAL ISOLATION BY WARD AND GATED COMMUNITIES IN JOHANNESBURG social isolation index score out of a maximum of 6 2km

0 N

LEGEND Orange Grove

1.01 - 1.24 1.25 - 1.50 1.51 - 1.75 1.76 - 2.04

[183.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

[184.]

PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVETHAT ACCESS HAVE TOACCESS INTERNET TO AT INTERNET HOME AT HOME PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET VIA CELLPHONE

0 2km2km

00 N

N

N

2km

Orange Grove

PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET AT HOME

LEGEND

LEGEND

LEGEND

0-1% 2-7%

0-1% 2-7%

0-1% 2-7%

8 - 18 %

8 - 18 %

19 - 37 %

19 - 37 %

LEGEND 0-1% Orange 2-7%

GroveOrange Grove

8 - 18 %

2km

0

19 - 37 % Grove Orange

38 - 100 %

N

8 - 18 % 19 - 37 %

38 - 100 % 38 - 100 %

38 - 100 %

As this report proposed in Chapter Two, the sharing of stories should be done through physical means. While the internet provides a convenient way of sharing stories, it does not allow for the depth of emotive experience necessary to create change in communities. The Story Exchange aims to provide this means of tactile story sharing. Figure 184: Source: (GCRO, 2011) Map: (Russo, 2016)

166

As can be infered from the research in Figures 184 and 185 the internet in


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

[185.]

PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVETHAT ACCESS HAVE TOACCESS INTERNET TO VIA INTERNET CELLPHONE VIA CELLPHONE PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET VIA CELLPHONE

0 2km2km

00 N

N

N

2km

Orange Grove

PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET VIA CELLPHONE

LEGEND

LEGEND

LEGEND

0-1% 2-7%

0-1% 2-7%

0-1% 2-7%

8 - 18 %

8 - 18 %

19 - 37 %

19 - 37 %

LEGEND 0-1% Orange 2-7%

GroveOrange Grove

8 - 18 %

2km

0

19 - 37 % Grove Orange

38 - 100 %

N

8 - 18 % 19 - 37 %

38 - 100 % 38 - 100 %

38 - 100 %

Orange Grove is mostly accessed through home-based connections and not via cellphones. It follows, therefore, that any internet-based story sharing that occurs in the suburb, is being done at home, behind closed doors, and is thus isolating the members of the community, from one another. This compounds the notion that The Story Exchange and its tangible interactions are needed in Orange Grove.

Figure 185: Source: (GCRO, 2011) Map: (Russo, 2016)

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The Story Exchange ●

Alexandra

Lombardy East Kew

Bramley

Dunkeld Glenhazel Highlands North Rouxville Orchards Maryvale

Sydenam

Linksfield

Orange Grove Fellside Mountain View

Houghton Estate

Bellevue Parktown

Berea

Johannesburg

Yeoville

Hillbrow

[186.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 186: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

Louis Botha Development Corridor Context This report has already discussed the importance of Louis Botha Avenue as a development spine. Figures 186-188 looks at the detailed expansion of suburbs along Louis Botha Avenue. 1938 There is a significant development of suburbs north of the ridge. This growth is a result of

SUBURB EXPANSION ALONG LOUIS BOTHA 1938

movement away from the busy and dusty mining lands of the C.B.D. Louis Botha Avenue

LEGEND

is a vital north-south route and continues

Rivers

Established

to connect Johannesburg to Pretoria while

Trams

Establishing

Louis Botha Avenue

becoming the main arterial that connects local southern and northern suburbs. Suburb expansion follows the line of this significant spine and is also influenced by the existence of tram lines along Louis Botha Avenue (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013:14).

0

1 km

2 km

N

169


The Story Exchange ●

Linbro Park

Marlboro

Sandton

Wynberg

Lombardy East

Savoy Estate

Gresswold

Dunkeld Percelia Estate

Cheltondale

Bagleyston

Glenhazel

Linksfield

[187.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 187: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

SUBURB EXPANSION ALONG LOUIS BOTHA 1952

1952

LEGEND

The Johannesburg tram line was

Rivers

Established

decommissioned between 1954 and 1961

Trams

Establishing

(Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC,

Louis Botha Avenue

2013:14). Louis Botha Avenue remained the primary north-south route between Johannesburg and Pretoria, but Jan Smuts Avenue and Oxford Road begin to compete as significant northward arterials.

0

1 km

2 km

N

171


The Story Exchange ●

Wendywood

Linbro Park Strathhavon Parkmore

Bramley Park

Lyndhurst

Illovo

Waverley Glenhazel

Rosebank Cheltondale

Norwood

Saxonwold

Victoria Killarney

Linksfield Ridge Bellevue East

[188.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 188: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

SUBURB EXPANSION ALONG LOUIS BOTHA 1976

LEGEND

1976

Rivers

When the N3 and M1 highways are built in the 1970’s Louis Botha’s importance as a north-

Established

Main Roads

Establishing

Louis Botha Avenue

Highways

south arterial is diluted, and its connectivity is reduced. Conversely, east-west arterials are now strengthened, and suburbs begin to expand along Jan Smuts Avenue and Oxford Road.

0

1 km

2 km

N

173


The Story Exchange ●

MARLBORO

1

2

WYNBERG

BRAMLEY

M1

3 BALFOUR

HIGHLANDS NORTH

4

5

6

7 HILBROW

BEREA

[189.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 189: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

2016 Louis Botha avenue’s importance as a northsouth connector will be re-instated through its development as a Bus Rapid Transport (B.R.T) Corridor (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013:15). The increased development of Sandton, Rosebank and Modderfontein creates strong east-west connections that cut through Louis Botha Avenue. The creation of the Louis Botha Development Corridor will promote regional and local connectivity (Fig. 189), and thus the ability of the Orange Grove-based Story Exchange to influence the surrounding communities. The creation of the L.B.D.C, was thus a powerful motivator in the

REGIONAL AND LOCAL CONNECTIVITY ALONG LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR 1. MARLBORO DRIVE Key East-West arterial. Links Louis Botha with M1, N3 and Marlboro Gautrain Station 2. GRAYSTON DRIVE Main link to Sandton. Pedestrian link between Alexandra and Sandton 3. CORLETT DRIVE Key east-west arterial 4. ATHOL ROAD Key east-west arterial 5. DURHAM AVENUE Feeder route from Eastern Suburbs 6. FIRST AVENUE Key access route to Eastern Suburbs and CBD 7. JOE SLOVO DRIVE Key access route to Eastern Suburbs and CBD

LEGEND

decision to base this project along Louis Botha Avenue, as it will establish various critical regional connectors (Strategic Area Framework

Rivers

Zoning

National Roads

Wards

Louis Botha Avenue

Orange Grove

Suburbs

For The LBDC, 2013:21), enhance areas where connectivity already exists and explore new interventions in areas of low connectivity. This in itself will boost development opportunities along the corridor.

0

1 km

2 km

N

175


The Story Exchange ●

Marlboro

Wynberg

Balfour & Highlands North

Orange Grove

0

1 km

2 km

N

176

[190.]


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange Marlboro

Marlboro

Figure 190: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

Wynberg

Wynberg

Balfour & Highlands North

Balfour & Highlands North

Orange Grove

Orange Grove

PRIORITY BRT PRECINCTS ALONG LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR (LBC)

The Orange Grove portion of the Louis Botha Development Corridor is a priority precinct (Fig. 190) where multiple prominent routes

0

1 km

0 2 km

N

1 km

2 km

N

converge – making it an ideal location for The Story Exchange. While it may not be immediately recognised, Orange Grove is also rich in cultural and heritage resources (visible in Figure 191).

177


The Story Exchange ●

MARLBORO

WYNBERG

BRAMLEY

BALFOUR

HIGHLANDS NORTH

HILBROW

BEREA

[191.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 191: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE ALONG LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR (LBC) LEGEND

Much of the significant heritage sites within

Rivers

Suburbs

Orange Grove are there as a result of the

National Roads

Wards

suburbs early establishment as a resort for the

Louis Botha Avenue

Significant Heritage Site

Orange Grove

Declared Heritage Site

Surveyed Sites

Ridges

Proposed Heritage Survey

Potential Heritage Significance

mining village of Johannesburg. Due to this history, a vast selection of early to mid 20th-century buildings still stand in the

BRT Stations

area (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:42). The suburb’s many trees and prominent Linksfield Ridgeline enhances its natural heritage features.

0

1 km

2 km

N

179


The Story Exchange ●

[192.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 192: Source: (GCRO, 2009) Map: (Russo, 2016)

LAND USE ALONG LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR (2004)

A detailed look at the current land use along the L.B.D.C (Fig. 192), presents some key

LEGEND

opportunities and constraints. As a Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC (2013)

Rivers

Educational

Louis Botha Avenue

Commercial

Residential - Formal

Recreation

suggests, these opportunities include the

Residential - Cluster

Services

densification of activities around BRT stations

Residential - Informal

Industrial

and other public transport points (Fig 193).

Residential - High Rise

Open Space

Unknown

Park

In addition to the creation of a major cultural route along the L.B.D.C and the conversion of some residential zones into other land uses (like commercial and residential zones).

0

1 km

2 km

N

181


The Story Exchange ●

15/7

15/6

15/5

15/4B 15/4A

15/3B

15/3A

15/2B 15/2A 15/1A

[193.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 193: Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013) Map: (Russo, 2016)

Note: This map is merely a conceptual depiction of where density should be promoted. It emphasises that future development should centre density around B.R.T stations and key arterials but does not take into account other constraints.

PROMOTING DENSITY ALONG LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR

These opportunities will create a large

STATION 15/7:

Marlboro Station

STATION 15/6:

Watt Street Station

STATION 15/5:

Wynberg Station

STATION 15/4B:

Corlett Station

STATION 15/4A:

Balfour Station

STATION 15/3B:

Highlands North Station

STATION 15/3A:

Orange Grove Station

STATION 15/2B:

St Peters Road Station

STATION 15/2A:

Grafton Road Station

STATION 15/1A:

Claredon Street Station

LEGEND

potential for investment in cultural projects

Rivers

High Density

National Roads

along Louis Botha Avenue and increase the

Louis Botha Avenue

popularity of B.R.T. With these possibilities,

BRT Stations

Low Density

also come significant challenges to enhancing life along the L.B.D.C. Some residents will need to relocate to densify the area. To upgrade and maintain infrastructure, substantial amounts

0

1 km

2 km

N

of investment will need to be procured.

183


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove STR ATEGIC AREA FR AMEWORK FOR THE LOUIS BOTHA DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR

MOVEMENT & CONNECTIVITY The northern parts of this local area are characterised by a strong grid structure, with relatively high levels of Grove As A Priority Precinct Orange accessibility and connectivity. The proposed BRT Station is well located relative to current development/redevelopment Orange Grove is defined by its medium opportunities, although the lack of a second station in the southern parts of this area will limit the potential of these density, mixed use, low rise building areas to attract development and investment.

development that is centred along Louis Botha Avenue. The northern parts of this area are characterised by a strong grid structure and relatively high levels of accessibility (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013:64) (Figure 194). The proposed B.R.T Station is ideally located, however, a second station, in the southern parts of the area could boost development still further. A lack of infrastructure maintenance and a

SECTION TITLE

SOCIAL FACILITIES & POTENTIAL CLUSTERS

[194.] CLUSTER 1

decline in monetary investment in the area has caused the popularity of the suburb to drop and the density of its population to decrease.

Orange Grove Primary School, whilst constrained by its current site extents, could provide a basis for longer term augmentation of services if adjoining land holdings could be bought into this potential Social Cluster.

However, there is still a strong community HERITAGE RESOURCES

culture in the area. The Strategic Area

Although not immediately apparent and recognised the area is rich in heritage resources. These resourcesFramework date from the For The LBDC (2013) proposes areas early incarnation as a resort on the outskirts of the mining village of Johannesburg, a selection of earlysocial to mid facilities such as the Orange Grove that 20th century architecture and the homes of numerous anti apartheid activists. Park, Paterson Park, and Orange Grove Primary

CLUSTER 2 Paterson Park remains one of the most significant opportunities for enhancing social and community infrastructure in this local area, as well as in the Corridor as a whole.

The initial Heritage study has proposed that a more School comprehensive Heritage Survey be undertaken for thisare potential clusters for boosting local area to provide a more comprehensive basis for the infrastructure (Fig. 195). There are also identification of heritage resources, and the social facilitation of development and redevelopment.

several interventions planned, along with the development of the L.B.D.C, which aim to encourage activity in the precinct (Fig. 196). The Location of The Story Exchange Site is thus

Orange Grove Park, a smaller recreational facility, is envaisged as becomming a focues for densification within the Orange Grove area, and could, in the longer term, be reconfigured and upgraded to supplement exisitng functions.

perfect as it lies directly in between exisiting nodes of development. [195.]

184

HERITAGE STREETSCAPE NATUR AL HERITAGE ELEMENT DECL ARED HERITAGE SITE SIGNIFICANT HERITAGE SITES POTENTIAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE

65


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

ts – interventions 1. Transit Spine & Station Precincts 2. Orange Grove Triangle 3. Upgrade of Durham Road 4. Upgrade Of Ivy Road

3

5. Reconfiguration Of Patterson Park -New Library, swimming pool, social housing

Orange Grove

4

2

5a 5b 6

7

1

9

6

6. Upgrade Internal Streets 7. Upgrade Orange Grove Park 8. New Orchards Clinic 9. Chosen Site

Figure 194: Movement & Connectivity Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013:64) Figure 195: Social Facilities & Potential Clusters Source: (Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, 2013:65) Figure 196: Priority Precincts - Interventions. Source: (SACN Conference: Louis Botha Corridor, 2013:18) [196.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 197: (Russo, 2016)

1 2 3 30

4 5

31 6

28 29

7

12

8 13

9

26 25 24

27

10 11

14

20 19

21

23 22

18 15 16

17

[197.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

POINTS OF INTEREST (2016)

As can be seen from Figure 197, there are many buildings of interest that have survived the suburb’s change and development, such as the Radium Beer Hall, Old Cinerama, Vangelia Court and Old House. Most of these points of interest are attached to Louis Botha Avenue like deposits on a developing stream and consist mostly of educational, cultural, commercial and health facilities. Notable nearby features of the suburb include Orange Grove Park and Patterson Park – recreational facilities that are frequented by

01. - Grains For Africa Office 02. - Pine Street Shul 03. - Pick ‘n Pay Centre 04. - Boston City Campus 05. - Rainbow Hill Christian School 06. - Orange Grove Public Library 07. - Old Cinerama 08. - Forrestal Centre 09. - Wits Hospice 10. - African Literature Bookshop 11. - Spread The Word Ministries 12. - 9th Street Shul 13. - Patterson Primary School 14. - Super Sconto 15. - Old House Circa 1900’s 16. - Vetinary Hospital 17. - Victory Theatre 18. - Holy Ghost Fire & Miracle Ministries 19. - Universal Church Of The Kingdom Of God 20. - Gospal Ministries 21. - Orange Grove Post Office 22. - Old Age Home 23. - Agios Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church 24. - Radium Beer Hall 25. - Vangelia Court 26. - Global Faith Ministries 27. - Augustine Church 28. - Golden Thistle Royal Arch Freemason Chapter 29. - Orange Grove Park 30. - Queen Alexandra Retirement Home 31. - Life Linksfield Hospital

LEGEND

residents. There are multiple new spiritual establishments that have opened over the

Educational

BRT Route

Spiritual

Site

Cultural

past 25 years; that accompany the various

Commercial

commercial and cultural institutions along

Health/Wellness

Louis Botha. This is evident in Figure 197.

Other

These spiritual buildings include Global Faith Ministries, Holy Ghost Fire and Miracle Ministries and The Universal Church Of the

200m

0 N

Kingdom of God.

187


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 198: (Russo, 2016)

[198.]

188


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 199: Nolli Map Of Orange Grove Indicating Area Of Focus (Russo, 2016)

[199.]

BUILDING HEIGHTS

A deeper analysis of building use (Fig. 200) and building heights (Fig. 198) revealed that taller buildings have mainly been built along Louis

LEGEND

Botha Avenue. Buildings of a public use are also concentrated along

< 3m

Site

this development spine, with private residential houses and businesses

3 < 6m

Ridge Line

being located along the roads that branch off from Louis Botha Avenue.

6 < 9m > 9m

This pattern of development further emphasised the need for The Story Exchange site to be located along this avenue.

50m

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189


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 200: (Russo, 2016)

[200.]

190


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 201: Educational Facilities. (Russo, 2016) Figure 202: Spiritual Buildings. (Russo, 2016) Figure 203: Retail Centres. (Russo, 2016) Figure 204: Cultural Nodes. (Russo, 2016) Figure 205: Philanthropic Facilities. (Russo, 2016)

[201.]

[202.]

BUILDING USE COMBINED

[203.] LEGEND Cultural

Educational

Philanthropic

Retail

Spiritual

Ridge Line

Residential / Other

50m

0 N

[204.]

[205.]

191


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 206: (Russo, 2016)

[206.]

192


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

The energy of an area is largely determined by its levels of pedestrian activity. To further understand the ways in which Johannesburg residents and local community members move through and use Orange Grove, extensive observations were made to produce maps

DENSITY OF PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITY (WEEKDAYS) 15:30 - 17:30

that detail patterns of pedestrian movement. From Figure 206, its is evident that pedestrian

LEGEND

activity during the typical weekday is concentrated along Louis Botha Avenue. The

High Density

Low Density

majority of the people moving through the suburb during the week are commuters that are travelling to and from work, these mostly consist of people living in Alexandra Township

50m

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and working around the Johannesburg C.B.D.

193


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 207: (Russo, 2016)

[207.]

194


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

In contrast, pedestrian activity on Louis

DENSITY OF PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITY (WEEKEND) 11:30 - 14:30

Botha Avenue, over the weekend (Fig. 207), decreases slightly while activity in the surrounding suburban roads increases –

LEGEND

slightly reducing the contrast between the suburban roads and Louis Botha Avenue. This

High Density

Low Density

change is caused, primarily by an increase in local residents roaming the streets, and attending the many churches along Louis Botha by foot.

50m

0 N

195


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 208: (Russo, 2016)

[208.]

196


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

By participating as a pedestrian in Orange Grove and recording the movement paths of other pedestrians (Fig. 208) I have noted that Louis Botha Avenue lacks adequate

ALL RECORDED PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENT PATHS

pedestrian crossings along its length. This has lead to many pedestrians (who are unwilling to walk up to six blocks just to cross the

LEGEND

road) carving their own, illegal, paths over

Nodes

the busy Louis Botha Avenue. Most public

Movement Paths

walkable space in Orange Grove are sidewalks around Louis Botha Avenue. These walkable sidewalks spread into the residential suburban surroundings and become private household

50m

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pavements.

197


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 209: (Russo, 2016)

[209.]

198


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

PUBLIC WALKABLE SPACE

LEGEND

In the map entitled, “Public Walkable Space” (Fig. 209) I noted where in the suburb I could

Primary Public Walkable Paths

Roads

Secondary Public Walkable Paths

Buildings

walk unhindered. This walkable space is mostly contained to the periphery of streets (sidewalks). Some secondary walkable routes also exist, but these are not always accessible.

50m

0 N

199


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 210: (Russo, 2016)

[210.]

200


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

The vibrancy of an area is also linked the prominence of different age groups in the region. Throughout my research I noted a consistent level of youth activity around the

YOUTH ACTIVITY MAP (TYPICAL WEEKDAY)

suburb (Figure 210), with the majority of the activity being concentrated around schools

LEGEND

and creshes. I also observed a significant

1 Dot = 1-2 people

number of school-aged children migrating

Educational & Cultural Centres

through the suburb before and after school –, particularly along Louis Botha Avenue. Finally, it is common to see clusters of young adults playing sports, such as soccer, in the eastern suburban streets.

50m

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201


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 211: (Russo, 2016)

[211.]

202


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 212: Vehicle Movement and Interuptions. There are many one- way roads in the neighbourhood. These roads sometimes make navigating the suburb in a vehicle very difficult. Walking is much easier and therefore preferred. (Russo, 2016)

[212.]

As explained in previous Sections, Louis Botha

TYPICAL TRAFFIC DENSITY (WEEKDAY) 07:30

Avenue is a busy road that links Johannesburg with the northern suburbs. Thus, traffic

LEGEND

density at different times of day, and the

Fast

Increased Noise

resultant noise levels in the suburb will become important design factors. Figures 211-

Slow

218 look at traffic density on a typical weekend or weekday. Weekday 07:30

50m

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Traffic is slowest at the intersection of Louis Botha Avenue with 9th street. Traffic is fastest in surrounding residential roads.

203


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 213: (Russo, 2016)

[213.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 214: Weekday Afternoon Traffic. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

[214.]

TYPICAL TRAFFIC DENSITY (WEEKDAY) 13:00

LEGEND Fast

Weekday 13:00

Increased Noise

Slow

Traffic slowest in the Northern half of Louis Botha Avenue, heading in the northern direction. Traffic is fastest in surrounding

50m

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residential roads.

205


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 215: (Russo, 2016)

[215.]

206


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

TYPICAL TRAFFIC DENSITY (WEEKDAY) 18:00

LEGEND Fast

Weekday 18:00

Increased Noise

Slow

Traffic is slowest on 9th street in the eastern direction into Orange Grove. Traffic is fastest in surrounding residential

50m

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roads.

207


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 216: (Russo, 2016)

[216.]

208


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

TYPICAL TRAFFIC DENSITY (WEEKEND) 07:30

LEGEND Fast

Increased Noise

Slow

Weekend 07:30 Traffic moves relatively quickly throughout the suburb but is still slightly slower along Louis

50m

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Botha Avenue.

209


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 217: (Russo, 2016)

[217.]

210


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

TYPICAL TRAFFIC DENSITY (WEEKEND) 13:00

LEGEND Fast

Increased Noise

Weekend 13:00 Slow

Traffic is slowest at the intersection of 9th street and Louis Botha Avenue, and on 8th street in the western direction. Traffic is fastest in surrounding residential

50m

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roads.

211


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 218: (Russo, 2016)

[218.]

212


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

TYPICAL TRAFFIC DENSITY (WEEKEND) 18:00

LEGEND Fast

Weekend 18:00

Increased Noise

Slow

Traffic is slowest on 9th street in both eastern and western directions. Traffic is fastest in surrounding residential roads.

50m

0 N

213


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 219: (Russo, 2016)

[219.]

214


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

As part of my qualitative research of Orange Grove, the map entitled “Comfort Zones”

COMFORT ZONES

(Fig. 219) was created to display where I felt most threatened when moving through the area. My levels of comfort were ranked

LEGEND Threatened

from very comfortable to very threatened. The factors that determined these levels

Comfortable

included cleanliness, noise levels, shade or sun exposure and any encounters with intimidating individuals. All these elements were combined to create a map that describes pockets of

50m

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comfort in the suburb.

215


The Story Exchange ●

Figure 220: (Russo, 2016)

[220.]

216


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

STORY SHARING NETWORKS MAP

Finally, by gathering the information, recorded and discussed in this chapter, together

LEGEND

a diagram is created that describes the

Retail Networks

Cultural Networks

experiential narrative of Orange Grove (Fig.

Educational Networks

Philanthropic Networks

220 and 221). This graphic maps the stories

Social Networks

Spiritual Networks

that are shared along Louis Botha Avenue

Public Buildings

in the form of physical movement, social connections, cultural links, pedestrian clusters, retail functions, optical links, pockets of noise, public activity and community intersections.

50m

0 N

217


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

STORY SHARING SYNTHESIS DIAGRAM

LEGEND Retail Networks

Cultural Networks

Educational Networks

Philanthropic Networks

Social Networks

Spiritual Networks

Public Buildings

50m

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Figure 221: (Russo, 2016) [221.]

218


● The Story Exchange

219


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Character Analysis Orange Grove is in some ways a typical Johannesburg suburb. As discussed in previous sections, the suburb is comprised of a mix of land uses, is occupied by a variety of different racial groups and has a rich history of connection to the Central Business District of Johannesburg over its 102 years of existence. The following Section aims to understand the character of Orange Grove by analysing its typical architectural features and how stories are shared along Louis Botha Avenue. This report has discussed, at length, the importance of place-bound interaction. Habraken (2005) explains that to engage in authentic conversation, it must occur in a real space with others. Even though we share ideas, beliefs and thoughts when we communicate via digital networks and instant messaging, we remain separated in space. “To converse is to share real space with others and let personal chemistry, body language, spatial and ambient qualities, décor, food and drinks all contribute to this interaction” (Habraken, 2005:173). By capturing moments of discussion, informal trade and food sharing, the collection of analytical photographs contained in this section aims to document the “shared conversation space” in Orange Grove.

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

“Johannesburg has significantly changed in both structure and landscape. Many beloved landmarks in all areas and suburbs are no more. But not so here, in Orange Grove, where everything seems almost the same; a vibrant slice of Johannesburg community beautifully and naturally preserved, but inherently and dynamically changed and shaped to reflect an ever-changing and emergent South Africa. This will always be part of me and who I am; this is what shaped me; these are my roots.” ~Dr Linda Bloomberg, researcher, writer and educator now living in the USA (lived in Senderwood near Orange Grove). (in Burgess, 2016:54)

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

As The Building Use map in the previous Section indicated, the majority of buildings in the larger Orange Grove area are formal residential houses. They are generally either single-family detached dwellings, sometimes duplexes, or low-rise apartment buildings that were built before the 1970’s. The area is characterised by these small homes, with stone foundations (Figure 222), and their accompanying tree-lined streets (Figure 223) that create a peaceful, harmonious neighbourhood, that contrasts with the bustle adjacent to Louis Botha Avenue. The well-treed streets also allude to the original farm with its orchards of fruit trees – the old character of the area is maintained through this reference. The region started to decline in the 1990’s as safety and security became a problem. As such, the quaint houses’ typical low walls were soon transformed into high walls with electric fences. Many of the old night clubs, cafés and movie theatres also shut down and without the business needed to replace them, these buildings have degraded since (Figures 227 and 228).

Figure 222: Typical Grove House. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 223: Typical Tree-lined Street (Hope Road, Orange Grove). Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [222.]

222


● The Story Exchange

[223.]

223


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

[224.]

.

Figure 224: Old OK Bazaars (1956). Arup, OK Bazaars (1956), Orange Grove, Johannesburg. (Arup, 2015) Figure 225: Now Global Faith Mission Ministries (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:49) [225.]

224

Figure 85 (top le church.


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Figure 227: Degradation of typical modernist buildings. (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:44) (Russo, 2016)

This dilapidation presents opportunities for vagrancy to flourish. However, it also provides many opportunities for new, creative developments to be

Facade Not Maintained

implemented in the area. New projects in Orange Grove can build upon the strength of its original architecture to boost recreation and business in the area, which will attract further investment – thus creating a domino affect of dynamic uplifting of the suburb. As already discussed, Louis Botha Avenue has existed since the 1800’s and has always operated as a spine of sorts – with cultural, social and commercial activities attaching themselves to it. Adjacent to Louis Botha, typical architecture consists of low to medium-rise, medium density buildings. These buildings are very often mid 20th-century modernist buildings that respond in various ways to the street edge.

Graffiti [227.] Figure 226: Colonnaded front of Radium Beer Hall. The Radium Beer Hall, Orange Grove. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 228: Typical mid 20th century modernist buildings. (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:44) (Russo, 2016)

Intricate Facade Not Maintained

Colonnade: Columns support a covered sidewalk. Provides a sheltered walk up the street.

Canopy: Building Is Set Back From Street Edge At Ground Level Site Louis Botha Avenue

Graffitied Buildings

[226.]

[228.]

225


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Degradation: - 3 Storey Commercial Building - Appears to be mostly abandoned

Degradation: -Graffitied Walls

Character: Original Low Wall

Figure 229: Degradation Of Commercial Buildings. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Degradation: -Litter is common along Louis Botha Avenue and residential side streets.

[229.]

226


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Safety: The prominence of electric fencing hints at the insecurity felt by residents Degradation: High walls have been built around houses. Plaster beginning to crumble. Buildings are generally not well maintained in areas.

Degradation: Litter on the sidewalks is very common along Louis Botha Avenue and the smaller suburban side roads.

[230.]

Degradation: - Heritage facade not maintained. - Cornice elements are beginning to erode - Roof sheeting has developed holes.

Degradation: - Rudementary street signage falling off its supports.

Informal Story Sharing: - Shop owners place chairs on the sidewalk to have impromptu chats with people passing by.

Figure 230: Degradation and Safety In Suburban Streets. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 231: Degradation Along Louis Botha Avenue. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Louis Botha Avenue

[231.]

227


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

In some instances, colonnades are used to create a threshold between the building, side walk and street, and in others, a large balcony overhang or canopy delineates the side-walk from above to create a sheltered pathway for movement. Sections drawn through various street edges (Fig. 236, 239 and 242) highlight the typical ways covered walkways are created on either side of the busy Louis Botha Avenue. The elevations of these characteristic Orange Grove buildings, be they residential or commercial, will be of vital importance to the design of The Story Exchange, as the low rise, covered walkway is maintained. These styles are reminiscent of early shopping arcades of Johannesburg (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:46) and enhance the character of Orange Figure 232: The Unsheltered Sidewalk. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 233: The Canopied Sidewalk. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

228

Grove, and particularly Louis Botha, as a vibrant commercial district with many opportunities for new development.


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Canopy: - Building is set back from street on the ground floor - Creates a wider sidewalk - Shelters pedestrians - Stimulates story sharing

Informal Story Sharing: People gather on the street corners to share stories and trade gossip

Unsheltered Sidewalk: - One of the few stretches of sidewalk that is unsheltered along Louis Botha Avenue. - More exposure - Less willingness to slow down [232.]

Louis Botha Avenue

Louis Botha Avenue

[233.]

229


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Informal Story Sharing: - Clusters of pedestrians gather on street corners and under the shelter of the overhead canopy.

Informal Trade: - Small-scale retail and informal trade spills out onto the sidewalk. - These are popular conversation nodes. - Cause pedestrians to slow down.

Informal Story Sharing: - Networks of people and stories criss-cross over Louis Botha Avenue. - Visual links across the busy road. - The two opposite covered sidwalks create a symmetry in section.

Louis Botha Avenue

[234.]

Figure 234: Story Sharing Under A Canopied Sidewalk. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 235: Reference Plan. (Russo, 2016) Figure 236: Street Elevation and Cross Section Type A. Indicating the story sharing zone, networks and sheltered areas. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [235.]

230


● The Story Exchange

Story sharing zone

Story sharing zone

STREET ELEVATION - RESIDENTIAL

Story sharing zone

STREET ELEVATION - COMMERCIAL

SECTION TYPE A - CANOPY/CANOPY Exchange Networks

Shelter

Shelter

[236.]

231


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Canopy: - Created by overhanging blaconies above - Building is set back from the street line thus widening the sidewalk

Canopy: - Created by catilevered roof above - Building is set back from the street line thus widening the sidewalk

[238.]

Story Sharing Network: - Pedestrian activity criss-crosses over Louis Botha - Glass facades, signage and blaconies create visual links across the road

Louis Botha Avenue

Figure 237: View From Under The Sheltered Canopy. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 238: Reference Plan. (Russo, 2016) Figure 239: Street Elevation and Cross Section Type B. Indicating the story sharing zone, networks and sheltered areas. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [237.]

232


● The Story Exchange

Story sharing zone

Story sharing zone

STREET ELEVATION - RESIDENTIAL

STREET ELEVATION - COMMERCIAL

SECTION TYPE B - NO COVER/CANOPY Exchange Networks

Shelter created by tree

Shelter

[239.]

233


The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Colonnade: - Characteristic of older Orange Grove - Columns support overhang roof above - Building is set back from the street line thus widening the sidewalk

[241.] Informal Story Sharing: - Pedestrians interact peacefully in this sheltered space

Vagrancy: - The sheltered feeling of the colonnade makes vagrancy more prevalent here.

Colonnade: - Columns increased sheltered feeling even more - Creates another threshold between the road and sidewalk. - Feels almost tunnel like while walking through it.

Figure 240: Story Exchange Under A Colonnade. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 241: Reference Plan. (Russo, 2016) Figure 242: Street Elevation and Cross Section Type C. Indicating the story sharing zone, networks and sheltered areas. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) [240.]

234


● The Story Exchange

Story sharing zone

Story sharing zone

STREET ELEVATION - COMMERCIAL

STREET ELEVATION - COMMERCIAL

SECTION TYPE C - COLONNADE/CANOPY

Exchange Networks

Shelter

Shelter Compounded by tree line

[242.]

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 243: Orange Grove Billboards. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Orange Grove’s Narrative Spaces A story can be understood in many different ways. In her book, The Power of Place: Urban landscapes as public history, Dolores Hayden (1997:227)( in Blundell-Jones, Petrescu, & Till, 2005:190) reminds us that stories “locate us as part of something bigger than our individual existences” and make us feel less insignificant. Stories establish one as part of a community, a community as part of a city and cities as vital elements of nation building. James Holston (1999) describes towns as dynamic surfaces for the telling of stories and Orange Grove is no exception. From the bend in Louis Botha Avenue to the tree-lined streets and mid-rise buildings, these elements connect residents with the urban landscape’s history. The history of architecture provides us with innumerable examples of places which narrate a story through spatial layout and style. Flavia Sparacino (PhD) (2002), an American-based space maker and scientist, outlines the following building typologies as typical narrative spaces: the museum, the city, the house and the theatre. With these typologies in mind, the collection of images in this section documents quintessential narrative spaces that contribute to the collective memory and character of Orange Grove. The City According to Sparacino (2002), the contemporary city is always undergoing a transformation. As one traverses city centres, surrounding neighbourhoods and the open roads that connect large metropolises, billboards with printed images and LCD screens project ideas, inform us of change, and even give us entertainment insurance and eating options. These large lifestyle images have become ingrained in our visual experience of the cityscape. As can be seen from the accompanying images the “Road Through the Grove” (Burgess, 2016) is no exception to this phenomenon. Louis Botha Avenue is a popular “strip” for graphic displays because it functions as a main arterial in the city. [243.]

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Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

Sconto The ethnic diversity that characterises Johannesburg, and South Africa as a

5.

In 1909 the Italian community in Orange Grove formed

whole, is apparent in Orange Grove and has been since its establishment.

a social club. Over time, this organisation expanded and

In the 1890s miners looking to plunder deeper levels of Johannesburg’s

moved to Orchards, then Linbro Park before settling in

gold reef built a Dynamite Factory in the suburb of Modderfontein (North

Bedfordview – where it stands today. Being of Italian decent,

East of Orange Grove). Labourers experienced with explosives were then

I spent many years of my childhood frequenting the Italian

recruited from the Italian town of Avigliana. These Italian immigrants

club with my family. Up until 2006, I celebrated every New

settled in the then closest established neighbourhood to Modderfontein

Years evening was celebrating at “the club” with family and

– Orange Grove (Burgess, 2016). There was such a massive influx of Italian

friends. I grew up surrounded by friends and relatives who

workers and their families during the early 1990s that the suburb soon

either lived, worked or frequented Orange Grove; giving it

became known as “Little Italy”5.

particular personal significance to me.

There is still a substantial Italian community residing in the area as well as newly established Asian, and Black communities. Although these groups

Figure 244: A Sandwich From “Super Sconto”. Photograph: (Chea, 2016)

of people do not seem to be integrated, they live side by side – young and old – in a relatively functional neighbourhood. While some 50 percent of the original Italian community has moved away from Orange Grove (City Of Johannesburg, 2013), several businesses have remained. One such remnant is Super Sconto Food Centre. This family-owned Italian Deli is still frequented by Italians throughout Johannesburg to stock up on everything from floor polish to pasta and olive oil – most of which are imported from Italy. It is not only Italians who visit the Food Centre. The Cafe above the Deli has gained much popularity with many Johannesburg and a variety of people can be seen visiting the supermarket to eat a delicious “panino’’ (sandwich), filled with Italian meats and cheeses, alongside a foamy cappuccino. [244.]

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“In Orange Grove, the Italians ran the coffee shops and ice-cream parlours, while the Greeks ran the cafes and the Portuguese ran the vegetable shops. The Lebanese ran the shebeens as “bucket shops”, where illegal horse betting could take place without taxes imposed and also had “family clubs” where they played card games like poker and rummy, squeezing in a dice game here and there – all under the table. The Jewish people ran the bigger and better businesses like petrol stations, car dealerships, outfitters, appliance and furniture stores, and movie houses.” ~Stanley Jabour, Grove Goodfella (in Burgess, 2016:73)

“In Orange Grove, we had friends from all over the place: Italians, Lebanese, English, Irish, Jewish, African, Portuguese, Afrikaners, Poles, Greeks … Living together enriched our lives and made us citizens of the world.” ~Jimmy Georgiades, Grove Goodfella (in Burgess, 2016:73)

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“A block away from the Royal was the Radium Beer Hall, where we would all go when we were old enough (or just looked old enough) for a cold beer before the picture show. Beer made some placid but it made others aggressive, so without fail, halfway through the movie, usually during the interval, a fight would break out. There wasn’t a Saturday at the Royal that there wasn’t a brawl, in gangs or individually.” ~Stanley Jabour (in Burgess, 2016:68)

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The Royal Cinerama, Louis Botha Avenue, Orange 14 (Museum Africa). ma was refurnished and opened as the Royal Cinerama a stadium type cinema that could seat 732. It was rly 1980s and converted into a television studio e 83 show the building at present and figure 84 circa

Figure 245: The Royal Cinerama, Circa 1914. The Royal Cinerama, Orange Grove. (Burgess, 2016:64) Figure 246: The Royal Cinerama Building Today - Ethiopian Apostolic Church. (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:48)

Figure 247: The African Literature Bookshop. (Russo, 2016) coping Study | October 2013 rchitects

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Figures 83 - 84: The Royal Cinerama, Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, circa 1914 (Museum Africa). The Royal Cinema was refurnished and opened as the Royal Cinerama in 1966. It was a stadium type cinema that could seat 732. It was closed in the early 1980s and converted into a television studio


Reading Orange Grove ● The Story Exchange

The Royal Cinerama The Royal Cinerama, Orange Grove, circa 1914 (Museum Africa).

Figure 248: Beautiful Mural Painting On The Facade Of The African Literature Bookshop. (Russo, 2016)

The Royal Cinerama (previously the Royal Bioscope) opened in December 1965 with the epic war film: Battle of the Bulge as its first feature. Because of its size, it was very popular and “a place to go for comic swapping, popcorn and Ski-Hi bubblegum” (Burgess, 2016:68). The Royal was a stadium type cinema that could seat 732 people. In the early 1980s, it was closed and converted into a television studio (LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, 2013:48). Today, the building is being used as a place of worship for the Ethiopian Apostolic Church. It can be said, therefore, that it has retained its qualities as a narrative space. [247.]

African Literature Bookshop This bookshop, located in the old FNB building on Louis Botha Avenue, aims to build cultural pride and empower surrounding communities. By stocking books written in all 11 of South Africa’s official languages, the bookshop’s programme intends to develop literary skills, increase the public’s knowledge about indigenous writers and foster a wider interest in alternative cultures, artists, poets and authors (City Of Johannesburg, 2009). Interested people can also attend workshops hosted at the bookshop. The building also contains a Migrant’s Information Desk; another means of celebrating South Africa’s Heritage. When the bookshop launched in 2009, it played host to 38 young learners from Kgdisand School in Alexandra (City Of Johannesburg, 2009). These students were mesmerised while listening to stories read in Zulu, Tswana and Sotho. Today this “utopia” (Walks Of Faith, 2016) of African literature houses Social Workers from the Department of Social Development and, unfortunately, many of the bookshop’s first workshops and outreach programmes have come to an end. [248.]

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Figure 249: Iconic Vespa Outside The Radium Beer Hall. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Radium Beer Hall

Figure 250: The Interior Of The Radium Beer Hall. Note the pressed zinc ceiling. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

one of Johannesburg’s oldest surviving pubs and is “slated to be registered

Possibly the most nostalgic icon in Orange Grove, The Radium Beer Hall is as a Heritage Site” (Burgess, 2016:55). The ancient bar, which is now more than 100 years old, was rescued from the demolition of the Ferreirastown Hotel in the 1920s (Learmont, 2016). The venue, originally opened by the Lebanese Kahil family, began in 1929 as a tea room. During this time liquor was also sold out of the back door – shebeen style – to black people who were prohibited from drinking particular types of alcohol. After the tea room was sold to the Italian Monis family, it was sold to Yugoslavian Joe Barvarovich (Burgess, 2016). Under his ownership, the tea-room was officially converted into The Radium Beer Hall in 1944, after a liquor licence was approved. Under Barvarovich the Beer Hall became a men-only bar throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, complete with a large snooker table at its centre.

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This macho era ended in 1986 with the arrival of Manny Cabeleira, an animated character who added Portuguese flair to the bar and replaced the billiard room with a restaurant. The new Radium Pub & Grill awaited the new South Africa with an energetic mix of clientèle – including all races and genders – and regular Sunday performances by 19-piece jazz band, Fat Sound (Learmont, 2016). Today, people travel from all over Johannesburg

Figure 251: A Friday Night At The Radium. This bar is a popular venue over the weekend and on a Friday night Jazz music can be heard issuing from it from a kilometre up Louis Botha Avenue. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 252: Memorabilia Wall. This wall, that is located at the back of the hall, captures a collection of stories associated with the bar’s history. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

to spend an evening with friends at The Radium Beer Hall. The venue plays host to prominent musical performances, by artists such as Jesse Clegg, four times a week in super-theatre type shows that make the pressed zinc ceiling quake with appreciation. This quintessential landmark attracts “the rich and famous” and “local and international actors on film shoots”(Burgess, 2016:55) who often stay at the Bed & Breakfast behind the restaurant. A casual visit to The Radium, with its interesting memorabilia, photographs, vintage posters and press clippings plastering the walls, tells the story of Orange Grove in itself.

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The Story Exchange ● Reading Orange Grove

Figure 254: Gandhi’s Prayer Loft. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 255: The Entrance To “Satyagraha House”. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 256: Original Design Drawings For “The Kraal”. Kallenbach & Reynolds (1907) Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

Satyagraha House In 2010, a unique house stood unused in the Orchards suburb of Johannesburg, North of Orange Grove. “The Kraal” (Satyagraha House, 2016), as it has been called since its construction, was given its name due to its use of traditional African architectural elements – namely two rondavels and thatched roofing (plan & thatched photo). It was not only these architectural eccentricities that made the house memorable. It was designed by architect Herman Kallenbach, a friend of Mahatma Gandhi, and built in 1908. At that time, the house was still very much in the country and contained stables, a tennis court and a well for water (Satyagraha House, 2016). Gandhi lived in the house from 1908-1909, and it was during his stay with Kallenbach, that Gandhi began developing his philosophy Satyagraha. Together, Gandhi and Kallenbach experimented with simple living that rid one of the unnecessary luxuries

Figure 253: Museum Plaque. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

and a secular mindset. It was this fact that attracted Voyageurs du Monde, a French tour operator, to buying the house and converting it into a boutique retreat called Satyagraha House in 2010 (Matthews, 2012). “Satyagraha”, which can be roughly translated as “struggle of non-violent resistance with steadfast firmness in truth” (Satyagraha House, 2016), is the concept around which the new owners of The Kraal began its restoration and is an approach to protest that shaped much of South Africa’s history. The Satyagraha House Boutique Hotel and Museum aim to preserve Gandhi’s memory and share his philosophies. Guests at the Boutique Hotel are encouraged to live plainly, and an organic plot on the property grows produce for their vegetarian meals (Matthews, 2012). The small public museum, developed by Lauren Seagal, who also curated the Gandhi exhibition at Constitution Hill, tells the story of Gandhi’s life before

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and after his development of Satyagraha philosophies and focusses on his way of life during his time in Johannesburg. The refurbishment of the house concentrated on reducing its impact on the earth – a further tribute to Gandhi’s beliefs. The newly installed geothermal system augments the the underfloor heating thus reducing energy consumption by 70% (Matthews, 2012). Three key individuals headed the revamp: architect Rocco Bosman, museum curator Lauren Seagal and Historian Eric Itzkin. Bosman, a heritage architect, focussed on restoring the Kraal’s original features, like the canal that carried water from a natural spring to the rest of the garden (Matthews, 2012), while sensitively constructing new elements (the nine new guestrooms). As Bosman states in a video, “your renovations cannot influence the original intentions of the building” (Bosman in Matthews, 2012: 73). Itzkin, an expert on Gandhi’s history, ensured the design process corresponded with Gandhi’s philosophies. As one enters the museum complex, one is immediately aware of the serenity of its design. The naturally meandering museum path, which leads one gently from the entrance, through the gardens and into The Kraal, contrasts strongly with the busy Johannesburg streets just beyond the compound’s boundary wall. The uncomplicated landscape design, with its large trees and abundant greenery, can be likened to a little Eden within the busy Urban landscape of Johannesburg. A visit to Satyagraha House conclusively tells the story of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and beliefs. The building displays his narrative is not only in the traditionally direct way of exhibitions on walls but conveys it through an entirely immersive experience. After visiting this museum, one gains an intellectual knowledge of a man’s life along with an emotional and physical connection to the cultures, memories and places in which he is rooted

Figure 257: The Dining Area Opens Up Onto The Garden. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 258: “The Kraal” Emerges Out Of A Lush Garden. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 259: An Exhibition Of Gandhi’s Life In “The Kraal”. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016) Figure 260: View from the garden into “The Kraal”. The thick, solid walls seem to disappear as the garden is brought into visual contact with the visitor at all times. Kallenbach, Satyagraha House (1908), Orchards, Johannesburg. Photograph: (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 261: Positive and Negative River Structure. This initial diagram aimed to understand the structure of rivers, with their primary streams creating smaller secondary and tertiary streams. The water flowing in a river can be seen as the object, but it also leaves its mark on the earth. The figure the river erodes is its negative imprint. (Russo, 2016) [261.]

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07. CONCEPTUAL EXPLORATION

Solidifying Memory To better understand how memory can manifest itself in architectural forms the following series of models were constructed. In each model iteration, I have focused on a particular memory or feeling and attempted to build it in physical form. For ease of construction, and to limit the role of texture, I have restricted the material of these models to timber. This restriction forced me to focus the exploration on a shape, and if I needed to create particular textures, I did that by manipulating the given material – timber. According to American historian and theorist, Hayden White (1987:44) “no given set or sequence of real events” has intrinsically narrative features, but they acquire these features “by the imposition of structure” (White, 1987:44). The model exploration conducted in this chapter, however, has lead me to disagree, in part, with the above statement. While constructing these physical

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Figure 262: Top View Of “Solid Memory 1”. (Russo, 2016)

narratives, I subconsciously created a hierarchy within the

Figure 263: Top View Of “Solid Memory 2”. (Russo, 2016)

arrangement of elements. There is a primary form (or memory) at the base of model, and subsequent members (or feelings)

Figure 264: Top View Of “Solid Memory 3”. (Russo, 2016)

branch off of it (and this process expands infinitely). This suggests that order (or hierarchy) is an inextricable feature of storytelling

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rather than being something that is rationally imposed upon it. It

Figure 265: Memory Model Hierarchy and Structure. (Russo, 2016)

follows then, that any logical and coherent (structured) thought process has narrative qualities. This fundamental role of hierarchy

Primary plot Secondary story arcs grow out of the primary Tertiary detail elements branch off still further

in producing narrative will be applied to my design of The Story Exchange.

Primary Structuring Device

Tertiary Secondary

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary Structuring Device [264.]

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Figure 266: “Solid Memory 3” - Perspective View A (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 268: “Solid Memory 3” - Perspective View B (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 269: “Solid Memory 2” - Perspective View B (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 267: “Solid Memory 2” - Perspective View A (Russo, 2016)

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Conceptual Exploration ● The Story Exchange

Figure 272: The infinitely expanding nature of memory structures. Some branches of the models seem to be unfinished and reach outwards towards infinity. This incident suggests that the stories our lives produce do not, and perhaps should not, add up to one coherent story (Embree & Moran, 2004). (Russo, 2016)

Figure 270: “Solid Memory 1” - Perspective View A (Russo, 2016)

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[272.] Figure 273: Understanding the subconscious order applied to the process of Solidifying Memory. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 271: “Solid Memory 1” - Perspective View B (Russo, 2016)

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The Story Exchange ● Conceptual Exploration

Impressions The model series entitled “Impressions” focusses on the physical exploration of how one’s hands can shape form. In each case, elements of the model are literally depressed to create a particular effect. The outsider can visibly see the impression left on the

No Visibility. Not Memorable

model by my hands. This was specifically done to demonstrate individual narratives: It places me within the the model examination

Impressions Follow The Curve Of My Thumb

(making it of personal significance). It tells

Very Visible. Very Memorable.

the story of how the model was made (one [274.]

can reconstruct the process undergone to make the models by simple observation) thus making the creation process significant to the overall concepts explored in each case (this process tells the models’ story). It references human hands - there is human inaccuracy evident in the models’ construction – making each model relevant to a social interaction based architectural study. Finally, each model explores the different “impressions” I had of various facets of The Story Exchange project at the time. These aspects include my first impression of Orange Grove; my understanding of the storytelling process; and the effects of the physical manifestation and ordering of memories.

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Conceptual Exploration ● The Story Exchange

Figure 277: “Pinned” - Form Diagram. By applying the rules below to the creation of this model, Orange Grove begins to take on a form. This shape tells a story of how the visitor experiences the suburb at street level. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 274: “Pinned” - Explanatory Diagram. (Russo, 2016) Figure 275: “Pinned” - Perspective View. (Russo, 2016) Figure 276: “Pinned” - Top View. This early conceptual model of Orange Grove aims to document my initial impression of the area. Places I had visited, reputable institutions or prominent nodes in the suburb are indicated as black squares. Louis Botha is highlighted in red, thus indicating its importance. The heights of individual pins aim to show the extent to which areas are visible or the ease at which they committed to memory. Iconic or memorable spaces are plotted with lower pins, while active and unexplored regions are plotted with higher pins. The model takes on an organic form as the pins align to the curve of my thumb. (Russo, 2016) [276.]

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Figure 278: “Keys” - First iteration. In this model series, each “Key” is an element of a story. Each composition tells its story (the story of its creation is visible on the surface of the clay fingers). This first iteration is a coherent whole. It has a start and an end. The top line is stabilised, and the story unfolds in a direct order: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. (Russo, 2016)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

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Figure 279: “Keys” - Second iteration. This second iteration rearranges the story. Suddenly more interest is created. The middle is the beginning, and the ending is altered. The gentle top line is punctured, but the bottom line remains stable. (Russo, 2016)

D

A

C

B

F

E

G

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Figure 280: “Keys” - Third iteration. This third iteration rearranges the story again. Suddenly more interest is created. The beginning and the end swap places. The gentle top line is disturbed, but the bottom line remains stable. (Russo, 2016)

A

D

F

B

E

C

G

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Figure 281: “Keys” - Fourth iteration. This fourth iteration rearranges the story still further. The “keys” remind one of those on a piano. This similarity links this model exploration to the musical arts. Under this light, these models become a musical composition, which is an appropriate metaphor as music is a vital means through which many stories are shared in today’s society. (Russo, 2016)

D

G

A

C

F

B

E

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Figure 282: “Keys” - Sectional interpretations per iteration. Ultimately this model exercise is like producing music. Each iteration arranges notes and keys in different orders to create appealing stories - just like the music to which we can relate. A (Russo, B C D E F DG A C B F E 2016) 1st

2nd

AG

D

3rd

F

B

E

C

DG

G

4th

A

C

F

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DE

G

A

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5th

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Figure 283: “Keys” - Fifth iteration. This fifth iteration re-arranges the story again but aims to maintain the soft top line. By keeping this line, disruption is created below the level threshold. This creates voids in the resultant form and heightens its visual appeal. While interest is increased in this iteration by the imposition of this order coherence can be maintained. (Russo, 2016)

D

G

A

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Figure 284: “Protrusions” - Perspective View. (Russo, 2016) Figure 285: “Protrusions” - Top View. (Russo, 2016) Figure 286: “Protrusions” - Side View. This series of models further explores the relationship between what protrudes and what is depressed. It looks at the idea that what is “positive” above the plane is “negative” below it. A push above the cork surface translates into a pull below it. (Russo, 2016)

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Understanding Rivers The development and role of Louis Botha Avenue, in Orange Grove, has already been likened to a river in this report. The road existed long before its surrounding suburbs. Over the course of a century, suburbs began to cling to the road, just as human settlements have often developed alongside major rivers. When Louis Botha Avenue gained greater prominence, and its surrounding suburbs grew in population and density, other distributary roads began to branch off of it, much like the secondary streams that split off of the main river to erode new routes through a landscape. These secondary roads lead to the deposition of more suburbs eat and west of Louis Botha Avenue. This initial understanding of the road’s progression required me to explore deeper its comparison with a river. Rivers also have a particular significance to the history of Orange Grove. As discussed in Chapter Six: Reading Orange Grove, the Orange Grove Spruit once provided an abundance of water for residents of the suburb and its waterfall was also a popular tourist attraction (thus contributing to the areas establishment). The stream still flows north under Louis Botha Avenue, and Figure 287: “Positive” River Diagram. Water shape is stylised and drawn in this diagram. (Russo, 2016) Figure 288: “Positive” River Model. The form of a river is stylised and modelled out of cork, timber and triplex. The hierarchy found in “Memory Models” is also evident in river structure. Primary streams are modelled thicker and taller than secondary river offshoots. (Russo, 2016)

surrounding suburbs. The Witwatersrand ridge is the major watershed, with all northern water run-off draining to the Indian Ocean, and all southern water run-off flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, which has influenced the geological formation of Johannesburg as a whole. Orange Grove is located just North of this major ridge line and is therefore right at the centre of this important geographical narrative.

Figure 289: “Negative” River Diagram. Eroded land is stylised and drawn in this diagram. (Russo, 2016)

Rivers are storytellers. Their movement maps the locations of human

Figure 290: “Negative” River Model. The imprint of the river on a landscape is stylised and modelled out of cork and iso-board. The hierarchy is created by varying the levels of each piece of “landscape”. Primary “canals” are modelled wider and deeper than secondary canal offshoots. (Russo, 2016)

river also changes over time, and this evolution does not only describe the

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settlements. Their waters provide nourishment for a variety of lifeforms. A story of a changing landscape but of the river itself. The processes of erosion and deposition modify the shape and speed of the river over time (digram of


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Deposition Erosion Erosion Erosion

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river action). Thus a river’s age (and therefore its narrative) can be discerned from an analysis of its form. Even the nature of a river’s infinitely expanding branches of tributaries and distributaries can be likened to a story with multiple interwoven characters and subplots. The series of models contained in this section aim to understand these elements of rivers further. By diagramming rivers, building

Figure 291: Diagram Of The Process Of A Meandering Stream: Understanding erosion and deposition. (Russo, 2016) Figure 292: Perspective View Of Jukskei River Contour Model. Vertical Exaggeration = 10. (GCRO, 2009) (Russo, 2016) Figure 293: 3D View Of Jukskei River Contour Model. Vertical Exaggeration = 10. (GCRO, 2009) (Russo, 2016) Figure 294: A Valley Of The Jukskei River. Vertical Exaggeration = 10. (GCRO, 2009) (Russo, 2016)

the position of a river in its landscape, and exploring the contrasts between “what is eroded?” versus “what is deposited?” this Section helped me learn valuable lessons in hierarchy, deformation and positive and negative space, that I can apply to The Story Exchange. [294.]

Figure 295: Top View Of River Contour Model. The river is indicated with white string. This model, made from corrugated cardboard, is a physical manifestation of a portion of the Jukskei River, east of Orange Grove. Vertical Exaggeration = 10. (GCRO, 2009) (Russo, 2016) [295.]

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Deformation (Erosion and Deposition) According to von Meiss (1986), the relationship between gravity and the architect is of vital importance. While lateral forces between objects play a role in architectural design, they are almost negligible when compared to the strength of gravity. “The meeting of the building with the ground is inescapable” (von Meiss, 1986:83). A building can sink into the ground, float above it, or sit on top of it. With this in mind, how does the designer determine which form of expression to choose? To answer this question, and to add to my previous study of rivers, the series of models contained in this section document the effects of erosion and deposition on different materials. The trends found in this model-making exercise will be used to determine The Story Exchange’s connection to the ground, its relationship with the air and suggest diagrammatic sections.

Figure 296: Deformation Model. This piece of iso-board was eroded with acetone. As the surface of the foam eroded slowly attractive forms and patterns were created. Iso-board and Acetone. Model: (Russo, 2016) [296.]

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Figure 297: Deformation Model - Sliced. To further explore the effects of erosion on the iso-board it was then sliced into thin pieces that could be examined as cross-sections. Iso-board and Acetone. Model: (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 298: Deformation Model - Sections. Each model slice was then translated into diagrammatic sections that can be applied to my building design. It was important to note how erosion affects an object in section so that these qualities can inform my design decisions. Iso-board and Acetone. Model: (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 299: (Previous Page) Erosion Exploration. This collection of models documents the process of erosion still further. In this series acetone is applied to polystyrene cubes. The effect of the erosion is different in this series as opposed to the previous exploration because the polystyrene erodes much quicker than the iso-board. The faster erosion leads to an even greater amount of deformation. Polystyrene and Acetone. Model: (Russo, 2016)

Overhead Deformation Upward Deformation

Downward Deformation

Figure 300: Deformation Diagram. (Russo, 2016) Figure 301: Erosion Model 1. Note the large holes in the form and how the cube disintegrates entirely in some locations. Polystyrene and Acetone. Model: (Russo, 2016)

Undercut Deformation

Figure 302: Erosion Model 2. Polystyrene and Acetone. Model: (Russo, 2016) [300.]

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Figure 303: Erosion Diagram. (Russo, 2016)

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1 Sided Erosion

2 Sided Erosion

4 Sided Erosion

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[304.] Figure 304: Deposition Model 1 - Void. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 305: Deposition Model 2 - Void. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 306: Deposition Model 1 - Solid. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 307: Deposition Model 2 - Solid. (Russo, 2016) [306.]

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Figure 308: Deposition Model 3 - Void. [307.]


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Figure 311: Figure 309: Deposition Model 4 - Void. (Russo, 2016) Deposition Model 3 - Solid. Figure 312: Deposition Model 4 - Solid. (Russo, 2016) [311.]

[310.] Figure 310: Deposition Model 5 - Void. (Russo, 2016) Figure 313: Deposition Model 5 - Solid. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 314: Deposition Model 3 - Perspective. (Russo, 2016) Figure 315: Deposition Model 1 - Perspective. (Russo, 2016) Figure 316: Deposition Model 2 - Perspective. (Russo, 2016) Figure 317: Deposition Model 5 - Perspective. (Russo, 2016)

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Solid Void Relationship

The Solid

The Void

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Figure 318: Solid/Void Relationship. This model exploration, done by casting various forms out of concrete, aims to understand the “solid” (that which is deposited), by modelling what is void (that which is eroded). The concrete forms seek to represent the various types of eroded sections found in Figure 298. To produce these models their voids (the polystyrene formwork) needed to be modelled first. (Russo, 2016) [319.]

Figure 319: Deposition Model 4 - Perspective. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 320: Early 3 dimensional sketch of “The Story Exchange”. (Russo, 2016) [320.]

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08. DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Site Response After the detailed analysis of Orange Grove, conducted in previous Chapters, I identified several key factors I must respond to during my design of The Story Exchange. These factors must are implemented in my design to respect the context of Orange Grove:

The maintenance of Louis Botha Avenue’s street line and the overall streetscape is of utmost importance.

• •

A canopied or collonaded sidewalk is ideal along the Louis Botha edge. Structures must be built up to the boundary line along Louis Botha Avenue.

Density along Louis Botha Avenue should be promoted while respecting the scale of the surrounding suburban landscape.

Off-street parking lots are not ideal along Louis Botha Avenue.

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Views of the ridge line and accompanying green spaces add to the character of the region. My building’s height, while creating density must respect this visual

High Noise & Traffic Levels

connection.

Higher Mass and Density on street edge

Existing trees should be retained wherever possible, and I should also introduce new trees as part of the landscape design.

Visual Connectors

Building Opens To Louis Botha Building L

High Noise & Traffic Levels

ild Bu

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Figure 321: Site Response 1. My building should open up at street corners, on ground level, to enhance story sharing opportunities on there. Due to the high noise and traffic levels on Louis Botha Avenue, the western line of the building should be relatively hard with opportunities for perforation and transparency at ground level. The eastern side of the building should be lower to respect the scale of the surrounding residential buildings. By creating visual connections between the two wings of the building, and Louis Botha Avenue and the building’s internal spaces, a story sharing stimulus will be created. (Russo, 2016)


Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Important institutions that govern Orange Grove need to be

Activity Node

consulted throughout the design implementation and construction process. These bodies include The Orange Grove Residents Association ath nP u S

and The Louis Botha Business Association.

E

Retail Activities

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New Activity Nodes

New Tree Line

Retail & Public Activities

Figure 322: Site Response 2. Careful attention should be paid to the movement of the sun, and the prominent western facade must be shielded. At ground level, retail facilities must be provided at street level. These retail services will ensure a dynamic sidewalk and draw pedestrians into the building. There are already several prominent public nodes in the surrounding region. Boosting street corner activity at “The Story Exchange” will increase the vibrancy of the area. (Russo, 2016)

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Finding Form Following on from my response to various site conditions the process of formfinding was undertaken. This search began with an extensive sketch design process in plan which slowly progressed to elevation, section and threedimensional explorations. This process was cyclical. I moved through plan, elevation, section and perspective before producing a massing model, and repeating the process. The collection of sketches, diagrams and model photographs in this Section, documents this design process.

Figure 323: Collage Of Form Finding Sketches in Plan. (Russo, 2016) Figure 324: River Sketch Diagram. The idea of rivers was already central to my conceptual thinking at the time that I created this sketch. Of all the form-finding sketches completed on the left, four of them became central to the design of “The Story Exchange”. This river sketch diagram dictated form finding and planning elements. (Russo, 2016) [323.]

[324.]

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Figure 325: River Section Diagram. This diagram explains how the river concept is manifested in section. (Russo, 2016) Figure 326: Organisational Diagram. A diagram explaining the governing principle applied when arranging spaces in plan. All movement is concentrated towards central story sharing spaces where a large number of people gather. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 327: River Diagram. A diagram explaining the river concept and how it is applied in plan. The bulk of the building’s mass will run along the line of Louis Botha Avenue. A secondary stream meanders through this bulk and deforms it in places. This meandering stream (primary circulation path) is what provides opportunities for chance encounters and spontaneous story sharing. Along this route there are areas of pause (deposition) where stories are shared, and areas of speed (erosion) where speed of movement is emphasised. (Russo, 2016)

Fluid Fluid Deposition

Erosion Erosion

Deposition [325.]

Solid = Mass Form Erosion = Circulation Space

Gathering Space Gathering Space

Story Sharing Story Sharing

Erodes Through

Story Sharing Story Sharing

Fluid = Movement

Deposition = Slow Gathering space

Gathering Space Gathering Space

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 328: Eroded Light Slots Diagram. The concept of erosion becomes literal through this diagram. The form of the meandering river (in Figure 327) is stylised and eroded. These eroded slots not only allow the physical penetration of people but become incisions that allow light to enter the building. One can move through the spaces conscious of the sky above them thus bringing the story of the building’s architecture “to light”. (Russo, 2016) Figure 329: Eroded Light Slots Sketch Diagram. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 330: Erosion Grid Sketch Diagram. (Russo, 2016) Figure 331: Erosion Grid Diagram. This diagram expands the concept discussed in Figure 328. It begins to define a grid that I apply to the internal spaces and external form. (Russo, 2016)

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 332: “The Grove” Diagram. This diagram indicates the creation of a public grove space on the eastern side of the building. A tree line is created that references the suburbs origins and the importance of story sharing under the branches of trees. My primary concern when creating this diagram was the need to maintain a respectful edge with the surrounding residential context. A perforated facade, that creates visual links with these trees, will glow in the evening. Spaces of gathering are also indicated. (Russo, 2016) Figure 333: “The Grove” Sketch Diagram. (Russo, 2016)

Glow

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Figure 334: Western Elevation Process Sketches. The Western Elevation of “The Story Exchange” is the most vital. It is the face of the building and is required to function as an icon on the horizon of Orange Grove. The interaction between this elevation and those neighbouring it is important. The elevations of the buildings along Louis Botha Avenue is what gives Orange Grove its character. (Russo, 2016)

[334.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 335: Western Elevation - Sketch. (Russo, 2016)

[335.]

Figure 336: Western Elevation - Diagram. The building’s resolved elevation (as of the time of compiling this report) takes great care to maintain the covered canopy corridor at ground level. The scale of neighbouring buildings is also respected. Finally, the western facade of the building is either punctured with glass box protrusions or perforated entirely in some locations. This deformation is a literal manifestation of the design concept. (Russo, 2016)

[336.]

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Gallery

Audio Media and Music

Under A Tree

Light Manipulated

Anonymous

Geological

In an amphitheatre (around a fire)

In an auditorium/ theatre

Food Sharing [337.]

Figure 337: Types Of Narrative Sharing Spaces at The Story Exchange. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 338: First Massing Model. The scale of this approach was far too radical for the surrounding suburb. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 340: Second Massing Model. The entire south-eastern wing is removed in this model iteration. (Russo, 2016)

[338.]

[340.]

Figure 339: Third Massing Model. This model plays with contours to produce form. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 341: Fourth Massing Model. The deformation concept and influence of the river ordering system is evident in this iteration. (Russo, 2016)

[339.]

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Figure 342: Early Sketch Of The Debate Square. (Russo, 2016)

[342.]

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Figure 343: Early Sketch Of “The Story Exchange” from Louis Botha Avenue. (Russo, 2016)

[343.]

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Program Recreation and Food Spaces The Story Exchange Restaurant (Lower Ground Floor): This restaurant,

Figure 344: Recreation and Food Spaces. (Russo, 2016) 02_Program 2 02_Program_gallery 12 4 Figure 345: Canopy Walk. (Russo, 2016)

located on the corner of Louis Botha and 8th Street, hosts visitors to The Story Exchange as well as Orange Grove. Its location on the street corner

Figure 346: Retail Spaces. (Russo, 2016)

activates the sidewalk and pulls pedestrians into the building.

02_Program 02_Program_ADMIN

2 1

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The Food Exchange (First Floor): Mealtimes are often accompanied by the sharing of stories and experiences. The Food Exchange is a cafe where one can interact with others, read books, enjoy a beverage or simply lounge in the tiered seating while enjoying light foods. As opposed to sitting at a traditional table, the grandstand type configuration of The Food Exchange stimulates spontaneous interaction between strangers. Rev

[344.] 15 7

Description

Date

The Louis Botha Event Terrace (SecondFloor): This rooftop function venue

02_Program 5 02_Program_REC

leads directly off of the Food Exchange and can be accessed from the street. Visitors to this bar will be able to enjoy broad views of the whole of Orange Grove. One 02_Program 5 02_Program_REC 02_Program 02_Program_output 4 can emerge from the busy Louis Botha Avenue and gain

02_Program 3 02_Program_input

13 5

14 6

a better understanding of the suburb’s story from above.

[345.] 11 3

15 7

The Canopy Walk (Upper Ground Floor): Trees are of vital importance to Orange Grove due to its origins. They are also traditional meeting 02_Program 2 02_Program_gallery

02_Program 1 02_Program_canopy

12 4 and story sharing venues. The Canopy Walk aims to tell this story places CODE

SUITABILITY DESCRIPTION

by bringing visitors to The Story Exchange up among the trees. The STATUS PURPOSE OF ISSUE crisscrossing pattern of the timber facade of the canopy walk references

the dappled light filtered by trees. Thus as the visitor enters The Story 10 18

Exchange from the south, they are welcomed by this tree-like structure

02_Program 8 01_Structure_Columns

www.autodesk.com/revit

which acts as a glowing icon of sorts in the evening. PROJECT

[346.] 02_Program 6 02_Program_retail

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Retail

Figure 347: Story Output Spaces. (Russo, 2016)

Ground Floor Retail spaces are retained along Louis Botha and bring pedestrians and visitors to The Story Exchange precinct. Story Output Spaces: Anonymity Boxes (Second Floor): These small spaces were designed based on my experiences of using a confessional. The user can enter the room and relay their story to the person on the other side of the partition wall, without being seen. This story is then archived and, if permission is granted, may be shared through other mediums at The Story Exchange. Recording Studios (First Floor): These audio recording studios can be booked by visitors to The Story Exchange. Music, first person accounts, oral histories and even everyday happenings can be recorded in these studios. With permission, these recordings become accessible via the digital archive 02_Program 02_Program_ADMIN 2 1

at The Story Exchange.

11 3

02_Program 1 02_Program_canopy

Story Input Spaces The Public Debate Square (Ground Floor): This outdoor amphitheatre is the perfect venue to host larger discussions within societies or perhaps debate critical political, social and economic issues concerning Orange Grove residents and even the wider Johannesburg communities. Its central location means a visitor to The Story Exchange always has a visual link to the debate. The surrounding Canopy Walk also functions as spill-out space in which onlookers can observe discussions peacefully. 02_Program 3 02_Program_input

13 5 Auditorium (Ground Floor): This venue hosts various seminars and

[347.] 14 6

02_Program 4 02_Program_output

conferences and provides opportunities for community members to learn new skills, take courses and develop a better understanding of the role of story sharing in society today.

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The Story Exchange ● Design Development

Reading Lounge and Library (Upper Ground Floor): The reading lounge spans the gap between the northern and southern wings of The Story Exchange. A small library of books boarders this space. Users can either bring their own or borrow books from The Story Exchange and retreat to discover new stories in peace. The Narrative Hall (Lower Ground Floor): This small theatre or performance space allows for incredibly intimate plays to be produced. The stories collected by The Story Exchange are transformed into dramatic artworks that have a more physical effect on the viewer than that of television of film narratives. The audience and actors are very close together which means the players can speak conversationally with one another. The audience also sits at the same level as the main stage thus giving the actors opportunities to engage with the public on a one-on-one basis. Meeting Boxes (First Floor): These small spaces allow for small intimate meetings between members of the community. They can join in writing workshops, literature courses or perhaps use the space for study sessions. The primary function of these boxes is the archiving of collective narratives. Groups of people with a shared story to tell can, with the help of the staff at The Story Exchange, have their story fully transcribed, documented and published as part of a collective memory archive. Camera obscura (Second Floor): At the topmost level of The Story Exchange, one can visit a 3600 camera obscura. The Obscura allows one to observe Orange Grove from a unique perspective. Outdoor Cinema (Second Floor): The rooftop cinema provides a still further means in which visitors to The Story Exchange can engage in one shared narrative and experience. Outdoor Cinema screening events provide an

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

income that supports the running of The Exchange. Administration The admin facilities comprise a boardroom, offices, a manager’s suite, and kitchenette and support’s The Story Exchange’s staff. The Narrative Hall support spaces are also located here. These include a green room and

Figure 348: Story Input Spaces. (Russo, 2016) Figure 349: Administration Spaces. (Russo, 2016) Figure 350: Gallery Spaces. (Russo, 2016) 2 1

02_Program 02_Program_ADMIN

performer’s suite. Galleries & Exhibitions Narrative Exhibition (Lower Ground Floor): This gallery space is a dynamic exhibition space that is regularly changed. The curator’s aim is to house various artworks that deal with themes of storytelling, memory or experience. As it is located on the street corner, impressive artworks can attract the attention of passersby and draw them into the building. Various artistic workshops and courses will also be conducted in other spaces in the building. The talent that is honed through these seminars can then be displayed at the Narrative Exhibition. Through this process, the Narrative

[348.] 13 5

02_Program 3 02_Program_input

Exhibition will fuel and demonstrate the entire process of story creation from which others can learn. Grove House Gallery (Upper Ground Floor): If visitors to The Story Exchange were to enter the complex from the Southern side of the building they would be introduced to the narrative of Orange Grove in a house typical of its character. The restored and refurbished stone house on the site acts as an introduction to Orange Grove. It documents the suburb’s history,

[349.] 2 1

02_Program 02_Program_ADMIN

significance and houses a collection of oral histories. Miscellaneous These spaces include the enquiry desks, digital archive, storerooms, security and box offices.

16 8

02_Program 6 02_Program_retail

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Design Drawings

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Figure 351: Render Of The Canopy Walk At Night. (Russo, 2016) Figure 352: Diagram Indicating The Creation Of The Canopy Walk. (Russo, 2016) Figure 353: Diagram Of Canopy Walk. (Russo, 2016)

[352.]

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The Story Exchange ●

Figure 354: Site Plan. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 355: Lower Ground Floor Plan. (Russo, 2016)

Retail Store

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Retail

Generator Room

Kitchen

Retail

Cold Store

Story Exchange Restaurant

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Reflection Pool

Narrative Exhibition

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UP Digital Archive

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Figure 356: Upper Ground Floor Plan. (Russo, 2016) Food Exchange UP

UP

Kitchen UP

Reception

Showers

Tiered Seating

Cubicles Performer's Suite

Meeting Room

UP

Admin Block Managers Office

C

UP

C

Kitchenette

Board Room

Bay Window Seating In Meeting Room Overlooks Louis Botha Avenue

Library Wall Facade Is eroded away on eastern Edge

Reading Lounge Coffee Station

Rain Garden

Outdoor Reading Lounge

UP

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Planter Box

Waiting

Store

Public Debate Square Below

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Light Box

Canopy Walk

DN Store

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UP Lobby

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Seating Is sheltered by tree line


● The Story Exchange

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Figure 357: First Floor Plan. (Russo, 2016)

Louis Botha Terrace Bar / Venue

UP

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Donor Lounge Bay Window Overlooking Louis Botha Avenue

C

Facade Is eroded away on eastern edge

Studio 3

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UP Studio 2

Narrative Hall Below

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Spill Out Space

Studio 1 DN

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The Story Exchange ●

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Figure 358: Second Floor Plan. (Russo, 2016)

C C

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Anonymity Boxes

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Perforated Screen Wall Separates Speaker and Listener, who enter from separate areas. Allowing for complete anonymity.

Camera Obscura

UP Rooftop Cinema

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● The Story Exchange

D

Figure 359: Roof Plan. (Russo, 2016)

Frosted Glass Box Houses Staircase to lower levels

Rooftop Viewing Walk

C C

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Rooftop Vegetable Garden & Viewing Platform

Veggie Planter Boxes

Camera Obscura Mechanism & Other Services

B

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Figure 360: View Of The Story Exchange From Louis Botha. (Russo, 2016) Figure 361: Inside The Canopy Walk (Russo, 2016)

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 362: Section BB. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 363: Louis Botha Street Elevation. (Russo, 2016)

Figure 364: Section AA. (Russo, 2016)

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Figure 365: East Elevation. (Russo, 2016)

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 366: Render Of Food Exchange. (Russo, 2016)

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[367.]

Figure 367: Render Of Public Debate Square. (Russo, 2016) Figure 368: Render Of Bay Window. (Russo, 2016) Figure 369: Section DD. (Russo, 2016) Figure 370: Section CC. (Russo, 2016) [368.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

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Figure 371: Day Render Of Story Exchange. (Russo, 2016) Figure 372: Render Of The Food Exchange From Above. (Russo, 2016)

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 373: Evening Render Of Story Exchange. (Russo, 2016)

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The Story Exchange ● Design Development

[374.]

Figure 374: Context Model - View Of Canopy Walk. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) Figure 375: Context Model - View Of Story Exchange From Above. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) Figure 376: Context Model. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) [375.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

[376.]

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The Story Exchange ● Design Development

Figure 377: Context Model - View Of Admin Block. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) Figure 378: Context Model - View Of Canopy Walk From Below. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016)

[377.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 379: Context Model - View Of Grove House Gallery. Scale 1:250 (Russo, 2016) Figure 380: Context Model - View Of Southern Entrance. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) Figure 381: Context Model - Street View. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016)

[379.]

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The Story Exchange ● Design Development

[382.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Figure 382: Context Model - View From The North. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) Figure 383: Context Model - View From The South. Scale 1:250. (Russo, 2016) [383.]

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The Story Exchange ● Design Development

Construction Detailing

Figure 384: Detail Section Through Rainwater Garden. (Russo, 2016)

Sedimentation Tank

Purification Tank

220 Brick Masonry Wall

250mm Concrete Walls

Bitumen Coated

Bitumen Coated Water infiltration through

Inlet from Grove Cafe

Inlet from rainwater catchment zones in building

suspended timber floor

GROWING MEDIUM

PERFORATED PIPE

1/2 sand, 1/2 earth

Distributes Water

Water infiltration through suspended timber floor

To overflow tank and municipal NATIVE WETLAND PLANT SPECIES

system

200mm compost

PERFORATED PIPE Distributes water

1000mm deep crushed rock stores water from storms

Filter Fabric

Bitumen Coating

1700m Pebble Bed

Compacted Earth Berm

or further sanitised for use in building.

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Dirty Surface Water is cleaned and returned to subsoils

1m

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[384.]


● The Story Exchange

Typical Anonymity Box Stories are recorded by the listener, and with permission from the speaker, are stored at The Story Exchange Digital Archive.

Typical Anonymity Box

Perforated Copper Screen Shields Speaker from Listener

Timber Lined Walls create a comfortable environment LED Wall Light glows when box is occupied

Built In Foam Seating allows for the speaker to relax during the story exchange process.

Exploded View Of Anonymity Box Speaker and Listener enter from different areas of the building allowing for total anonimity.

Story Exchange

Figure 385: Detailing The Anonymity Box. (Russo, 2016) [385.]

319 Exploded View View Of OfAnonymity Anonimity Box: Box: Showing Showing Access Access Paths Paths Exploded


The Story Exchange ● Design Development

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Figure 386: Detail Section Through Canopy Walk Facade (Russo, 2016) [386.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

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Rev 15 7

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STATUS

[387.]

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P Figure 387: Column Grid. (Russo, 2016) Figure 388: Howe Truss Structural Framing. (Russo, 2016)

TITLE

[388.]

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The Story Exchange ● Design Development

Figure 389: Sectional Axonometric Model Through Canopy Walk - View 1. Scale 1:20 (Russo, 2016) Figure 390: Sectional Axonometric Model Through Canopy Walk - Side View. Scale 1:20 (Russo, 2016) Figure 391: Sectional Axonometric Model Through Canopy Walk - Elevation View. Scale 1:20 (Russo, 2016)

[389.]

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[390.]

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Design Development ● The Story Exchange

[392.]

Figure 392: Detail Model Of Canopy WalkFacade - Timber Arms slot into timber ring beam. Scale 1:5 (Russo, 2016) Figure 393: Detail Model Of Canopy Walk Facade - Aluminium Mesh Frame fixes to timber arms. Scale 1:5 (Russo, 2016) [393.]

323


THE STORYTheEXCHANGE: VIABILTY OUTCOME Story Exchange ● narrative sharing as a catalyst for creative change in Orange Grove

COMMUNITY INPUT

CHART OF FUNDING SOURCES :

• Establishment of an advisory Council to guide the design and implementation process. • Communicating with local community through newsletters and e-mail bulletins. • Open Tender contractor selection allows for local businesses to compete for project participation. • 10 hour design Charette, facilitated by the Architects, will be open to all members of the public. • Public meetings will be held by the architects with the public to explain conceptual thinking behind the project and keep the community up-to-date.

IFCD

Global Environment Fund

JHB City Council

LOUIS BOTHA AVE. JHB City Council

IMPACT ON LOCAL COMMUNITY CORRIDOR OF FREEDOM

ACCOMODATION SCHEDULE: SUPPORT

ADMIN

PARKING

LANDSCAPING COMMUNITY

Figure 394: Project Viability Poster. (Russo, 2016) [394.]

324

• Promote a dynamic and penetrable environment that serves the local community. • Provides usable public space and community-based actvities. • Allows the youth to learn through narrative sharing. • Seniors are involved through the sharing and documenting of memories. • Boosts safety and accessibilty of Orange Grove. • Provides a safe platform for freedom of speech. • People of all ethnicites and backgrounds will be able to safely contribute and retrieve stories. • Promotes creative change. • Makes Orange Grove a vibrant cultural hub.

STORY EXCHANGE AREAS

“The Story Exchange Fundraising Gala” A gala evening promoting the concept of creating change through story sharing. R300 / plate 400 tickets available

“Lost Orange Grove” A lecture series aimed at discussing the history of Johannesburg with particular refernce to Orange Grove and its Impact on surrounding suburbs. R200 / head 250 tickets available

“Translating Johannesburg” Translating the humans of Johannesburg through portraits, books, food and architecture. R250 / head 150 tickets available


Design Development ● The Story Exchange

Project Viability I propose The Story Exchange is to be designed and built for the Narrative Heritage Trust. A hypothetical Non-profit Organisation (NPO) dedicated to creating change and stimulating education through storytelling and uplifting South African suburbs through narrative exchange. The Narrative Heritage Trust is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and is thus registered as an NPO with the Department of Social Development as required by law. As the Narrative Heritage Trust is an NPO, it must raise funds through a combination of grants, donations and fundraising opportunities.6 The newly built Story Exchange will promote a dynamic and penetrable environment that serves the local community and the larger Johannesburg context. The Story Exchange will provide usable public space and communitybased activities that focus on arts, culture and the environment. This building will allow the youth to learn through focused narrative exchanges, tactile story sharing and spontaneous engagement with other community members. Seniors will also be involved in discussing and recording of memories with users of the building. This documentation will establish various oral and traditional history archives that attract people at different times of day and evening. Larger numbers of visitors to the exchange will ensure the safety of the environment and thus promote the building’s use by all types of people in Johannesburg. This building will assist in providing a safe platform for freedom of expression. By operating primarily as a not-for-profit institution people of all ethnicities and backgrounds will be able to safely contribute and retrieve stories from The Story Exchange to promote creative change in the neighbourhood and city. Ultimately the project will serve as a catalyst to halt the decay of Orange Grove and, in conjunction with the expansion of the Louis Botha Development Corridor, will uplift the precinct to a vibrant cultural hub.

6.

This Section is extracted from my unpublished Feasibility Document, “The Story Exchange: Viability Report” (2016), submitted for the course of Simulated Office Practice. Contact the author for access to the full report.

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● The Story Exchange

09. CONCLUSION

Closing Words It is my belief that The Story Exchange has successfully initiated a process of change in the floundering suburb of Orange Grove. The research undertaken in this report confirmed the importance of stories in society as a whole, maintaining a culture, boosting imaginative thought, and having overall quality of experience when living life. These principles influenced not only the theoretical position of this report but created a sound basis upon which to develop an architectural dialogue and foundation for the design of The Story Exchange. The analyses conducted, identified key elements of the suburb of Orange Grove and addressed each of these in turn. This site response resulted in an architectural expression that, while being complex, still respects notions of scale, character, threshold, movement and speed. The conceptual form, along with the perceptual experience, materiality and program of the building have combined to produce a Story Exchange that will function as a new developmental catalyst in Orange Grove. Through the veil of storytelling, a fundamental human need, this project provides something more than a mere social service, rather, it provides a platform upon which art, craft and conversation can make real, creative, change.

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10. REFERENCE LIST Books and Literary Sources 1. Bastéa, E. (ed). 2004. Memory & Architecture. New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. 2. Berlanda, T. et al. 2013. Afritecture: Building Social Change. Munich: Hatje Cantz Verlag. 3. Blundell-Jones, P., Petrescu, D. and Till, J. 2005. Architecture & Participation. Abingdon: Spon Press. 4. Bordwell, D. 1985. Narration In The Film. London: Routledge. 5. Boyer, C.M. 1996. The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 6. Burgess, J. 2016. The Road Through The Grove. Cape Town: Redsky Publishing 7. Byatt, A.S. 1998. Memory and The Making Of Fiction. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. 8. Carr, D. 1998. Phenomenology of Interculturality and life-word. Freiburg: Verlag. 9. Casey, E. S. 2000. Remembering: A Phenomenological Study. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 10. Coates, N. 2012. Narrative Architecture: Architectural Design Primers Series. Wiley 11. Conway, H. and Roenisch, R. 1994. Understanding Architecture: An Introduction to Architecture & Architectural History. New York: Routledge. 12. As cited by Dyer (2001): 13. Hammerschlag, C.A. and Silverman, H.D. 1997. Healing Ceremonies: Creating Personal Rituals for Spiritual, Emotional, Physical and Mental Health. New York: A Perigee Book. 14. Embree, L.E. and Moran, D. 2004. Phenomenology: Critical Concepts in Philosophy. Vol. 3. New York: Routledge. 15. Friedman, A. T. 1998. Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven: Yale University Press. 16. Habraken, N. J. 2005. Palladio’s Children. London: Taylor & Francis. 17. Hayden, D. 1997. The Power of Place: Urban landscapes as public history. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

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18. Hays, K. M. 1998. Architecture Theory since 1968. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 19. Holston, J. (ed). 1999. Cities and Citizenship. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. 20. Hughes, R. 1980. The Shock of the New – Art and the Century of Change. London: Thames and Hudson. 21. Huyssen, A. 2003. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. 22. Khan, L. 2003. Louis Khan: Essential Texts. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 23. Kundera, M. 1966. Slowness. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 24. McCarter, R. and Pallasmaa, J. 2012. Understanding Architecture. London: Phaidon Press Limited. 25. Mills, A. 2010. Streets of Memory: Landscape, Tolerance and National Identity In Istanbul. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. 26. Mitrovic, B. 2011. Philosophy For Architects. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 27. Muwanga, C. 1998. South Africa: A guide to recent architecture. London: Ellipsis Konemann. 28. Norberg-Schulz, C. 1979. Genius Loci : towards a phenomenology of architecture . New York: Rizzoli. 29. Pallasmaa, J. 2011. The Embodieid Image. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. 30. Pelli, C. 1999. Observations for young architects. Michigan: Monacelli Press. 31. Pietromarchi, B. 2005. The [Un]common Place: Art, Public Space and Urban Aesthetics in Europe. Rome: Fondazione Adriano Olivetti. 32. Psarra, S. 2009. Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of space and cultural meaning. Abingdon: Routledge. 33. Russo, T. 2015. A Place For Phenomenology. Unpublished theory paper. Johannesburg: University Of The Witwatersrand. 34. Schacter, D.L. 2001. The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 35. Sharr, A. 2012. Reading Architecture and Culture: Researching Buildings, Spaces and Documents. London: Routledge. 36. Smith, A.H. 1971. Johannesburg street names; a dictionary of street, suburb and other place-names. Cape Town: Juta. 37. Spiegelberg, H. 1982. The phenomenological movement. Dordrecht, the Netherlands:

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Martinus Nijhoff. 38. Tschumi, B. 1999. Architecture And Disjunction. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 39. Vidler, A. 1992. The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 40. Vidler, A. 2002. Warped Space: Art, Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 41. Von Meiss, P. 1986. Elements Of Architecture: From form to place. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold 42. White, H. 1987. The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Electronic Journal Articles 1. Bowles, N. 1995. Story telling: a search for meaning within nursing practice. Nurse Education Today, [Online]. Vol. 15. pp 365-9. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/7494532. [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 2. Cox, K. 2001. Stories as case Knowledge: Case knowledge as stories. Medical Education, [Online]. Vol. 35. pp. 862-6. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/ j.1365-2923.2001.01016.x/abstract [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 3. Eisenman, P. 1984. The End of the Classical: The End of the Beginning, The End of the End. Perspecta, [Online]. Vol. 21. pp. 154-73. Available at: https://www2.gwu.edu/~art/ Temporary_SL/177/pdfs/Eisenman_the_end_of_the_classical.pdf [Accessed 3 October 2016]. 4. Kahl, D. 2008. Robert Venturi and His Contributions to Postmodern Architecture. Oshkosh Scholar, [Online]. Vol. III, pp. 55-63. Available at: https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/ handle/1793/28244/kahl.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed 24 September 2016]. 5. Keller, M. 2013. Social Media and Interpersonal Communication. Social Work Today, [Online]. Vol. 13, p. 10. Available at: http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p10.shtml [Accessed 7 May 2016].

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6. Matthews, M. 2012. Retrofitting Part III: Something Old, Something New. Earth Works Magazine. Vol. 8, No.3, pp. 72-3. Available at: http://michellematthews.co.za/wpcontent/uploads/2014/01/Earthworks-retrofitting-heritage.pdf. [Accessed 08 May 2016]. 7. Pennebaker, J.W. and Seagal, J.A. 1999. Forming a Story: The Health Benefits of Narrative. Journal of Clinical Psychology, [Online]. Vol. 55, pp 1243-54. Available at: http:// www.novateller.com/images/Downloads/Health%20Benefits%20of%20narrative.pdf. [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 8. Sparacino, F. 2002. Narrative Spaces: bridging architecture and entertainment via interactive technology. MIT Media Lab, [Online]. Available at: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~flavia/ Papers/NarrativeSpaces.pdf [Accessed 06 May 2016]. 9. Stephens, G.J., Silbert, L.J. and Hasson, U. 2010. Speaker–listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, [Online]. Vol. 107, No. 32. Available at: http://www.pnas.org/ content/107/32/14425.full?tab=related [Accessed 8 May 2016].

Interviews 1. Gang, J. 2016. Studio Gang – Writers Theatre. [ONLINE] Available at: http://studiogang.com/ project/writers-theatre_2. [Accessed 04 October 2016] 2. Heppel, P. 2016. Studio Gang – Writers Theatre. [ONLINE] Available at: http://studiogang. com/project/writers-theatre_2. [Accessed 04 October 2016]

Lectures Or Presentations 1. Eisenman, P. 2010. Genius Loci and the Zeitgeist: Two Ideologies. Delft University of Technology. [ONLINE] Available at: http://repository.tudelft.nl/view/MMP/ uuid%3Adf158b54-9ea6-4c46-a9cb-3e5ae92b9052/ [Accessed 6 November 2015]. 2. Author Unkown. 2013. LBDC Heritage Scoping Study. Place Unknown: Mayat Hart Architects

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(presentation obtained from Mayat Hart Architects). 3. Author Unkown. 2013. Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC. Johannesburg: Iyer Urban Design Studio (presentation obtained from Mayat Hart Architects).

Museum Plaques 1. Satyagraha House. 2016. The Kraal. Orchards, Orange Grove.

Websites 1. ABIBOO. 2015. Quick Tour Through Phenomenological Thinking in Architecture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.abiboo.com/arch/quick-tour-through-phenomenologicalthinking-in-architecturequick-tour-through-phenomenological-thinking-inarchitecturequick-tour-through-phenomenological-thinking-in-architecture/. [Accessed 05 November 15]. 2. Arch Daily. 2016. Writers Theatre: Studio Gang Architects. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// www.archdaily.com/783035/writers-theatre-studio-gang-architects. [Accessed 04 October 2016]. 3. Archispeaking. 2015. Narrative: building architecture around a story. [ONLINE] Available at: https://archispeaking.net/2015/09/06/narrative-building-architecture-around-a-story/ [Accessed 6 May 2016]. 4. Boeree, C.G. 2000. Phenomenological Existentialism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://webspace. ship.edu/cgboer/phenandexist.html. [Accessed 05 November 2015]. 5. Browne Jr. W. A. 2010. Storytelling in Architecture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. planetizen.com/node/46878. [Accessed 6 May 2016]. 6. Calisti, L. 2014. Architecture As Storytelling. [ONLINE] Available at: https://thinkarchitect. wordpress.com/2014/10/09/architecture-as-storytelling/. [Accessed 8 May 2016]. 7. City Of Johannesburg. 2013. Great Shops In Joburg. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.

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joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&id=180&limitstart=4. [Accessed 08 October 2016]. 8. City Of Johannesburg. 2009. African Literature Is Promoted. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4028:africanliterature-promoted&catid=118&Itemid=199. [Accessed 08 May 2016] 9. Coulson, K. P. 2013. Transcript of Architecture & Narrative. [ONLINE] Available at: https:// prezi.com/yexehibnt0_p/architecture-narrative/. [Accessed 6 May 2016]. 10. Dyer, K. A. 2001. The Importance of Telling (and Listening) to the Story. [ONLINE] Available at: http://journeyofhearts.org/kirstimd/tellstory.htm. [Accessed 7 May 2016]. 11. District Six Museum. 2016. District Six Museum: Permanent Exhibitions. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.districtsix.co.za/Content/Exhibitions/Permanent/index.php. [Accessed 4 October 2016]. 12. District Six Museum. 2016. District Six Museum: Projects. [ONLINE] Available at:http:// www.districtsix.co.za/Content/Projects/ReminiscenceTheatre/index.php. [Accessed 4 October 2016]. 13. Fernyhough, C. 2012. The story of the self. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian. com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/13/our-memories-tell-our-story. [Accessed 25 September 2016]. 14. Field Architecture. 2011. Ubuntu Centre: Field Architecture. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntu-centre-field-architecture. [Accessed 3 October 2016]. 15. Flood, A. 2014. Readers absorb less on Kindles than on paper, study finds. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/19/readers-absorb-lesskindles-paper-study-plot-ereader-digitisation. [Accessed 7 May 2016]. 16. History World. 2016. History Of Theatre. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.historyworld. net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=cui. [Accessed 04 October 2016]. 17. Huffington Post. 2015. Drop That Kindle! 10 Reasons Print Books Are Better Than E-Books. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-national-book-review/dropthat-kindle-10-reaso_b_8234890.html. [Accessed 7 May 2016]. 18. Humans of New York. 2016. Humans of New York. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. humansofnewyork.com/about. [Accessed 05 October 2016].

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19. Juliani, A. J. 2014. The Hidden Importance of Teaching With Stories. [ONLINE] Available at: http://ajjuliani.com/hidden-importance-teaching-stories/. [Accessed 7 May 2016]. 20. Lambert, C. 2012. The Future of Theater. [ONLINE] Available at: http://harvardmagazine. com/2012/01/the-future-of-theater. [Accessed 7 May 2016]. 21. Learmont, T. 2016. A Brief History Of The Radium Beer Hall. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// www.theradium.co.za/. [Accessed 08 October 2016] 22. Lewis, J.G. 2015. Smells Ring Bells: How Smell Triggers Memories and Emotions. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-babble/201501/smells-ringbells-how-smell-triggers-memories-and-emotions. [Accessed 5 April 2016]. 23. Scheeren, O. 2016. Why great architecture should tell a story. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/ole_scheeren_why_great_architecture_should_tell_a_story/ transcript?language=en. [Accessed 6 May 2016]. 24. Stanton, B. 2016. About The Story Exchange. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// thestoryexchange.org/about-us/. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 25. Steller. 2016. Steller. [ONLINE] Available at: https://steller.co/. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 26. Studio Gang. 2016. Studio Gang: Writers Theatre. [ONLINE] Available at: http://studiogang. com/project/writers-theatre_2. [Accessed 04 October 2016] 27. The Iris. 2015. Participate in StoryCorps at the Getty. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blogs. getty.edu/iris/participate-in-storycorps-at-the-getty/. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 28. The Story Exchange. 2011. About The Story Exchange. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// thestoryexchange.org/about-us/. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 29. Rutledge, P. B. 2011. Psychology Today. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www. psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201101/the-psychological-powerstorytelling. [Accessed 7 May 2016]. 30. Walks Of Faith. 2016. Buisa Aforika, Read Afrika, Funda Afrika. [ONLINE] Available at: https://walksoffaith.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/buisa-aforika-read-afrika-funda-afrika/. [Accessed 08 October 2016] 31. Walker, S. 2012. Using Stories to Teach: How Narrative Structure Helps Students Learn. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.scilearn.com/blog/using-stories-to-teach. [Accessed 6 May 2016].

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11. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books and Literary Sources 1. Bordwell, D. 1985. Narration In The Film. London: Routledge. 2. Buchanan, P. Aug 2012. The big rethink place and aliveness: pattern, play and the planet. Architectural Review, Vol. 232, Issue 1386 3. Chipkin, Clive M. 2008. Johannesburg transition: architecture & society from 1950. Johannesburg. STE Publishers. 4. Clarke, A. 2012. Spatial Experience: Narrative and Architecture. Byera Hadley Report:[Online]. Available at: http://www.architects.nsw.gov.au/download/BHTS/ Clarke_A_Spatial_Experience_Narrative__BHTS2012.pdf. [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 5. Coetzee, C. and Nutall, S. (eds). 1998. Negotiating The Past: The making of memory in South Africa. Michigan: Oxford University Press. 6. Greig, Doreen Edith. 1971. A guide to architecture in South Africa. Cape Town. Howard Timmins. 7. Haddad, E. Apr 2010. Christian Norberg-Schulz’s Phenomenological Project In Architecture. Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p88-101. 8. Khan, L. 2003. Louis Khan: Essential Texts. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 9. Mallgrave, H.F. 2005. Modern Architectural Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10. Norberg-Schulz, C. 1979. Genius Loci : towards a phenomenology of architecture . New York: Rizzoli. 11. Oero-Palos, J. 2010. Architecture’s Historical Turn: Phenomenology and the Rise Of the Postmodern . Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press. 12. Rael, R. 2009. Earth Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 13. Zumthor, P. 2006. Atmospheres. Basel: Birkhäuser 14. Zumthor, P. 1999. Thinking Architecture. Berlin: Birkhäuser

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Journal and Magazine Articles 1. Bilek,P. 2006. Reading Prague: Narrative Domains of the Image of the city in Fiction. Style, [Online] Vol. 40, No. 3, p 255. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/ style.40.3.249. [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 2. Frenkel, R. 2013. South African Literary Cartographies: A Post-transitional Palimpsest. A Review of International English Literature, [Online] Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 25-44. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/attachments/46698914/download_file?s=regpath. [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 3. McDowell, A. 2015. Prejudicial narratives: building tomorrow’s world today. Architectural Design, [Online] Vol. 85. Issue 4. pp. 26-33. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1002/ad.1921/pdf. [Accessed 10 October 2016]. 4. Townsend, D. W. 1974. Phenomenology and the Form of the Novel: Toward an Expanded Critical Method. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, [ONLINE] Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 331– 8. Available at: http://doi.org/10.2307/2107082 [Accessed 05 November 2015] 5. Tromp, N. 2016. Reflections On A Human Rights Crisis. Architecture SA, Vol. 78, pp. 24-6. 6. Young, J. E. 1992. The Counter-Monument: Memory against itself in Germany today. Critical Inquiry, [Online] Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 267-96. Available at: http://www.janetzweig.com/ RISD_BROWN/Young_CounterMonument.pdf. [Accessed 05 May 2016]. 7. Zarzycki, A. 2006. Beyond Form-making in architecture. Rhode island School Of Design, [Online] Vol. Z. pp. 20-6. Available at: http://ftp.formz.com/jointstudy/JS2006/1%20 Light%20Materiality%20and%20Narative.pdf. [Accessed 06 May 2016].

Lectures and Presentations 1. Author Unkown. 2013. SACN Conference: Louis Botha Corridor. Johannesburg: City Of Johannesburg. 2. Bozzonetti, C. 2015. Satyagraha House. University Of The Witwatersrand. 3. Wray, C., Cotz, G., Venter, C., Badenhorst, W., Trangos, G. and Culwick, C. 2014. Mobility in the Gauteng City-Region. Place Unknown: GCRO. [Online] Available at: http://www.gcro.

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ac.za/media/reports/mobility_report_july_28_2014_medium_res_2.pdf. [Accessed 10 October 2016].

Websites 1. ArchDaily. 2016. Louis Kahn’s Yale Center for British Art Reopens After Restoration. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/787592/louis-kahns-yale-center-for-british-artreopens-after-restoration. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 2. ArchDaily. 2010. Multiplicity and Memory: Talking About Architecture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/85656/multiplicity-and-memory-talking-about-architecturewith-peter-zumthor. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 3. Archispeaking. 2015. Narrative // building architecture around a story. [ONLINE] Available at: https://archispeaking.net/2015/09/06/narrative-building-architecture-around-astory/ [Accessed 6 May 2016]. 4. Architectural Dictionary. 2015. Zeitgeist. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// architecturaldictionary.org/dictionary/zeitgeist/. [Accessed 05 November 2015]. 5. Calisti, L. 2014. Architecture As Storytelling. [ONLINE] Available at: https://thinkarchitect. wordpress.com/2014/10/09/architecture-as-storytelling/. [Accessed 8 May 2016]. 6. Dowdy, C. 2015. Memory lane: ‘Childhood ReCollections’ opens at Roca London Gallery. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/memory-lane-childhoodrecollections-opens-at-roca-london-gallery#3LB8mUPrd4ypVMYB.99. [Accessed 12 September 2016]. 7. Pert, A. 2014. Build me up: how architecture can affect emotions. [ONLINE] Available at: http://theconversation.com/build-me-up-how-architecture-can-affect-emotions22950http://theconversation.com/build-me-up-how-architecture-can-affectemotions-22950. [Accessed 8 May 2016]. 8. Seamon, D. 2000. Phenomenology, Place, Environment and Architecture: A Review Of The Literature. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/articles/2000_ phenomenology_review.htm. [Accessed 05 November 2015]. 9. Steven Holl Architects. 2016. Chapel of st. Ignatius. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.

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stevenholl.com/projects/st-ignatius-chapel. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 10. Studio Chronotype. 2016. The Sense Of Materiality. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. studiochronotope.com/sense-of-materiality.html. [Accessed 8 May 2016]. 11. Trias, E. 2015. Phenomenology and Architecture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. academia.edu/16869762/Phenomenology_in_Architecture. [Accessed 05 October 2016]. 12. Wikipedia. 2016. Orange Grove, Johannesburg. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Orange_Grove,_Gauteng. [Accessed 06 May 2016]. 13. Wikipedia. 2015. Phenomenology (architecture). [ONLINE] Available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(architecture). [Accessed 05 November 2015]. 14. Zamora, K. 2010. The Spirit Of Time. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.mtholyoke. edu/~zamor22k/classweb/zeitgeist/Zeitgeist.html. [Accessed 05 November 2015].

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12. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures 1. Russo, T., (2016),The Radium Beer Hall Photograph. 2. Russo, T., (2016), The Story Exchange Machine Digital Graphic. 3. Jsyd’s Journey, (2015), Native American Storytelling [ONLINE]. Available at:https://jsydsjourney. files.wordpress.com/2015/06/josephine_wall_theearly-years_the-storyteller1-e1435416721803. jpg?w=980&h=980&crop=1 [Accessed 11 October 2016]. 4. Wikipedia, (2016), Tassili n’Ajjer rock art [ONLINE]. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_people[Accessed 11 October 2016]. 5. Russo, T., (2016), Everyday Story – One. 6. Russo, T., (2016), Storytelling Under A Tree Sketch. 7. Stephens, G.J., Silbert, L.J. and Hasson, U. 2010. The relationship between speaker and listener. [Online] Available at: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/32/14425/F2.large. jpg [Accessed 07 April 2016]. 8. Russo, T., (2016), The Relationship Between Imagination and Narrative. 9. Duino, J. (2012), Texting At The Table [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.androidmeter.com/wp-content/ uploads/2012/12/texting-at-the-table226.jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 10. Griffin, T., (2013), Discussions Under A Tree [ONLINE]. Available at: https://agrilinks.org/blog/kindred-spirits-talkresilience-measurement [Accessed 12 October 2016] 11. Russo, T., (2016), Reading Books Engages the Senses.

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The Story Exchange ● List Of Figures And Tables

12. Stones, L., (2016), Cheers To Sarajevo [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-09-26theatre-review-cheers-to-sarajevo/#.V_5H-_l97IU[Accessed 12 October 2016]. 13. Interactive Ancients, (2013), Ancient Greek Vase Painting [ONLINE]. Available at:https://interactiveancients. wordpress.com/2013/07/09/a-story-of-vasepainting/ [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 14. Russo, T., (2016), Space-making. 15. Russo, T., (2016), Form Creation. 16. Russo, T., (2016), The Perceptual Experience.

c1.staticflickr.com/9/8048/8096794255_31d8604f07_b. jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 26. Pinterest, (2016), Sainte-Chapelle [ONLINE]. Available at: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8a/53/ 1a/8a531a1d67f67c944407c5eae88f2291.jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 27. Psarra, S. 2009. Plan Of The Parthenon. (pg 22). Abingdon: Routledge. 28. Psarra, S. 2009. Plan Of The Erectheion With Shrines. (pg 24). Abingdon: Routledge. 29. Wikimedia, (2016), The Parthenon [ONLINE]. Available

17. Russo, T., (2016), The Conceptual Narrative.

at:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/

18. Russo, T., (2016), The Cyclical Relationship Between Narrative

The_Parthenon_in_Athens.jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016].

and Form. 19. Psarra, S. 2009. Axis of Asymmetry in Barcelona Pavillion. (pg 49). Abingdon: Routledge. 20. Psarra, S. 2009. Geometric-visual Lines In Barcelona Pavillion. (pg 48). Abingdon: Routledge. 21. Psarra, S. 2009. Reflections Mapped In Plan. (pg 53). Abingdon: Routledge. 22. Archi Alternative, (2013), Reflections In The Small Water

at:http://www.freemages.fr/album/grece/acropole_ erechteion.jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 31. Russo, T., (2016), Sketch of the Approach to Cradock Heigthts (1992). 32. Luxuo, (2008), The Dubai Towers [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.luxuo.com/luxury-locations/ferragamoluxury-penthouses-dubai.html [Accessed 12 October 2016].

Basin [ONLINE]. Available at:https://archialternative.

33. Russo, T., (2015), Cradock Heights Entrance.

com/2013/04/15/nothing/ [Accessed 12 October 2016].

34. Russo, T., (2016), Diagram of Phenomenological Existence.

23. Psarra, S. 2009. The Onyx Wall. (pg 62). Abingdon: Routledge. 24. Flickr, (2016), Lake Shore Drive Apartments [ONLINE]. Available at: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3721/9227401546 _36c5414bfa_b.jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 25. Flickr, (2016), Palazzo Farnese [ONLINE]. Available at:https://

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30. Freemages, (2010), The Erechtheion [ONLINE]. Available

35. Wikipedia, (2016), Villa Capra. [ONLINE]. Available at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Capra_%22La_ Rotonda%22 [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 36. Wikipedia, (2016), Oath Of The Horatti. [ONLINE]. Available at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_the_


List Of Figures And Tables ● The Story Exchange

Horatii [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 37. 4 Gress, (2016), Rietveld Schröder House [ONLINE].

54. Russo, T., (2015), Plan Massing Diagram. 55. Times Live, (2016), The Opening Of Johannesburg’s First

Available at:http://www.4gress.com/sights/entry/100824.

Starbucks Coffee [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.

html [Accessed 12 October 2016].

timeslive.co.za/incoming/2016/04/21/20160421005352.

38. Wikipedia, (2016), Piet Mondrian [ONLINE]. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian[Accessed 12 October 2016].

jpg/BINARY/20160421005352.jpg[Accessed 12 October 2016]. 56. Office Rents, (2016), Interior View Of The Light Filled

39. Russo, T., (2016), Diagram of Typical Narrative Structure.

Atrium. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.officerents.co.za/

40. State Of Grace, (2014), New York City In The Early 20th

wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DSC01559.jpg [Accessed 12

Century [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.hungrycookie. net/fashion/state-of-grace-1920s/ [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 41. Russo, T., (2016), Cradock Heights Site Plan. 42. Russo, T., (2016), Space Frame Roof Structure Over Atrium. 43. Artefacts, (2016), Entrance Court [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes. php?bldgid=9142 [Accessed 12 October 2016]. 44. Russo, T., (2015), East Elevation.

October 2016]. 57. Russo, T (2016), A Typical Childhood Depicture of a Traditional Western Home. 58. Russo, T (2014), Inside the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. 59. Russo, T (2014) Ruins of the Forum of Augustus. 60. History Lists, (2016), The Annunciation [ONLINE]. Available at: http://historylists.org/art/10-finest-works-of-the-earlyitalian-renaissance-art.html [Accessed 12 October 2016].

45. Russo, T., (2015), Sectional Massing Sketch.

61. Russo, T (2014), Ruins of the Roman Forum.

46. Russo, T., (2015), Cradock Heights Public Plaza.

62. Russo, T (2016),“The Road through the Grove.”

47. Russo, T., (2015), North Elevation.

63. Titanic Universe, (2013), Article about the sinking of the

48. Russo, T., (2015), Ground Floor Plan.

Titanic contained within the Times Dispatch[ONLINE].

49. Russo, T., (2015), Vertical Steel Louvres.

Available at: http://www.titanicuniverse.com/wp-content/

50. Russo, T., (2015), Section AA.

uploads/2009/11/titanic-newspaper-article-3.jpg [Accessed

51. Russo, T., (2015), Section BB.

15 October 2016].

52. Russo, T., (2015), North Facade-South Wing.

64. Bozzonetti, C (2016), Wits Masters in Architecture Studio.

53. Russo, T., (2015), Fine Prefabricated Steel Fire Escape

65. Russo, T (2016), Narrative Architecture: A Theoretical

Staircases become a prominent feature of the building.

Summary Diagram.

343


The Story Exchange ● List Of Figures And Tables

66. Mathis, G., (2015), Mike Kelley’s “Educational Complex” [ONLINE]. Available at:https://mathisgasser. wordpress.com/ [Accessed 15 October 2016]. 67. Van Tilburg, M., (2008), Mike Kelley, Educational Complex, 1995 [ONLINE]. Available at:https://mirjamvantilburg. wordpress.com/2008/07/14/mike-kelley-educationalcomplex-1995/ [Accessed 16 October 2016]. 68. Van Tilburg, M., (2008), Mike Kelley, Educational Complex, 1995 [ONLINE]. Available at:https://mirjamvantilburg.

78. Russo, T (2016), My Grandparents Flat-An Isolated Memory “Fragment”. 79. Russo, T (2016), Roof Trusses over the High School Hall. 80. Russo, T (2016), My Grandmother’s Dining Room. 81. Russo, T (2016), Forgotten spaces modelled in Solid Block of Clay. 82. Russo, T (2016), The Light Filled “Sun Room”. 83. Russo, T (2016), Holes in the model base indicate that these spaces were on a second story.

wordpress.com/2008/07/14/mike-kelley-educational-

84. Russo, A., (2008), My Grandmother.

complex-1995/ [Accessed 16 October 2016].

85. Russo, T (2016), Model Details.

69. Chewday’s, (2015), Studio view of Mike Kelley, Educational Complex, 1995 with Stevenson middle school in foreground [ONLINE]. Available at: http://czudej.

86. Russo, T (2016), Stage and Stairwells. 87. Russo, T (2016), Memories of Smells, Tastes,Textures, Sounds and Objects.

co/post/117845354675/studio-view-of-mike-kelley-

88. Russo, T (2016), The Memory Carving Process.

educational-complex [Accessed 16 October 2016].

89. The Red List, (2016), Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia,

70. Clocktower, (2016), Educational Complex by Mike

USA [ONLINE]. Available at:http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-19-

Kelley [ONLINE]. Available at: http://clocktower.org/sites/

879-605-683-view-vsba-profile-vsba-vanna-venturi-house-

default/files/imagecache/bodyview_enlarged/show/13102/

philadelphia-usa.html [Accessed 17 October 2016].

node-image.jpg [Accessed 16 October 2016].

90. Studio Newmeyer, (2016), Venturi, Scott, Brown:

71. Russo, T (2016), Location Map.

Venturi’s Mother’s House [ONLINE]. Available at:http://

72. Russo, T (2016), Map of Connection Zones.

arch310allison.tumblr.com/?og=1 [Accessed 17 October

73. Russo, T (2016), Memory Palace Plan.

2016].

74. Russo, T (2016), Top View of My Memory Palace.

91. Frearson, A., (2015), Historic view from the south-

75. Russo, T (2016), The Sketching Process of The Memory Palace.

east [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.dezeen.

76. Russo, T (2016), The Hierarchies of The Memory Palace.

com/2015/08/12/postmodernism-architecture-vanna-

77. Russo, T (2016), Various Material were used to build the

venturi-house-philadelphia-robert-venturi-denise-scott-

Memory Palace.

344

brown/ [Accessed 17 October 2016].


List Of Figures And Tables ● The Story Exchange

92. Russo, T (2016), In the Garden, Age 3. 93. Russo, T (2016), Monster, Age 4.

October 2016]. 108. Ubuntu Fund, (2012), Movement Diagram Through The

94. Russo, T (2016), Monster, Age 4, on Architectural Drawings.

Ubuntu Centre. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.

95. Russo, T (2016), Palm Tree, Age 7.

ubuntufund.org/assets/images/blog-images/architectural-

96. Russo, T (2016), A Bicycle, Age 7.

record.jpeg [Accessed 17 October 2016].

97. Russo, T (2016), The Zebra, Age 7.

109. Field Architecture., (2016), View Of The Surrounding

98. Russo, T (2016), Tatum, Age 9.

Township from The Rooftop Of The Ubuntu Centre.

99. Russo, T (2016), Abstract, Age 5.

[ONLINE]. Available at: http://fieldarchitecture.com/work/

100. Russo, T (2016), Recycled Necklace, Age 5.

ubuntu/ [Accessed 17 October 2016].

101. Francois, S.R., (2012), Documentation [ONLINE]. Available

110. Field, J., (2011), Folded Concrete Forms Lean On Each Other

at:http://actjustly.blogspot.co.za/2012_06_01_archive.

In The Spirit Of Ubuntu. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://

html [Accessed 17 October 2016].

www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntu-centre-field-

102. Pietromarchi, B., (2005), Reconsruction 1. Rome: Fondazione Adriano Olivetti. 103. Király,I., (2016), Reconstructions [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.iokira.com/ [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 104. Pietromarchi, B., (2005), Reconsruction 3. Rome: Fondazione Adriano Olivetti. 105. Ubuntu Fund, (2012), Our Home, A Symbol Of Social Change [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.ubuntufund.

architecture [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 111. Field, J., (2011), Rooftop Vegetable Garden. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntucentre-field-architecture [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 112. Serengreenity, (2011), Programmatic Diagrams Of The Ubuntu Centre. [ONLINE]. Available at:https://serengreenity. wordpress.com/ [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 113. Architectural Record., (2016), Form Exploration

org/assets/images/blog-images/architectural-record.

Sketches. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.

jpeg [Accessed 17 October 2016].

architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/archives/features/

106. Field, J., (2011), Street Elevation Of Ubuntu Centre. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntucentre-field-architecture [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 107. Field, J., (2011), Pedestrian Pathway In Front Of The Ubuntu Centre. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.archdaily. com/135432/ubuntu-centre-field-architecture [Accessed 17

humanitarianDesign/Africa/images/Ubuntu-Center-5d. jpg [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 114. Field Architecture., (2016), Detailed View Of Facade Louvre System. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://fieldarchitecture.com/ work/ubuntu/ [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 115. Riordan,J., (2011), View From Street Corner. [ONLINE].

345


The Story Exchange ● List Of Figures And Tables

Available at:http://www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntucentre-field-architecture [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 116. Field Architecture., (2016), Conceptual Sketch [ONLINE]. Available at:http://fieldarchitecture.com/work/ ubuntu/ [Accessed 17 October 2016]. 117. Riordan,J., (2011), Multi-purpose Hall. [ONLINE]. Available

Theatre. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.districtsix. co.za/Content/Projects/ReminiscenceTheatre/index. php [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 124. Russo, T., (2016), Diagrammatic Layout of Main Exhibition Layout, Ground Floor. Source: District Six Museum,

at: http://www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntu-centre-field-

(2016), Exhibition Layout, Main Hall. [ONLINE]. Available

architecture [Accessed 17 October 2016].

at:http://www.districtsix.co.za/Content/Museum/

118. Field, J., (2011), Light Floods The Interior Spaces Through The Large Concrete Forms. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://

GeneralInfo/index.php [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 125. World History South Africa, (2016), Floor Map Of District

www.archdaily.com/135432/ubuntu-centre-field-

Six [ONLINE]. Available at:https://whapsouthafrica.

architecture [Accessed 17 October 2016].

wordpress.com/2016/02/15/langa-and-district-

119. Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, (2016), Historical View Of Hanover Street, District 6.[ONLINE]. Available

six/ [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 126. District Six Museum, (2016), “Langarm” music

at: http://www.ancestors.co.za/articles/general-articles/

installation. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.districtsix.

district-six/ [Accessed 18 October 2016].

co.za/Content/Exhibitions/Permanent/index.php [Accessed

120. South Africa Museum Guide, (2016), Exterior View Of The District 6 Museum. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://

18 October 2016]. 127. Studio Gang, (2016), Exterior View Of The Writer’s

www.africa.com/countries/south-africa/museum-

Theatre. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://studiogang.com/

guide/ [Accessed 18 October 2016].

project/writers-theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

121. Nightjar Travel, (2016), View Of Main Exhibition

128. Hall, S., (2016), The Second Floor Gallery Walk. [ONLINE].

Hall. [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.nightjartravel.

Available at:http://aasarchitecture.com/2016/07/writers-

com/cultural/district-six-museum [Accessed 18 October

theatre-studio-gang-architects.html [Accessed 18 October

2016].

2016].

122. World History South Africa, (2016), Old District 6 Street

129. Studio Gang, (2016), Public Lobby. [ONLINE].

Signs. [ONLINE]. Available at: https://whapsouthafrica.

Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/writers-

wordpress.com/2016/02/15/langa-and-district-

theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

six/ [Accessed 18 October 2016].

346

123. District Six Mueseum, (2016), District 6 Reminiscence

130. Studio Gang, (2016), The Second Floor Gallery Walk gives


List Of Figures And Tables ● The Story Exchange

the illusion of walking amongst the trees. [ONLINE].

Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/writers-

Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/writers-

theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 131. Russo, T., (2016), Plan and Section Diagram of the Gallery Walk’s Timber Structure. 132. Studio Gang, (2016), Assembling the Gallery Walk Facade.

140. Studio Gang, (2016), Street View Of The Writer’s Theatre. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/ writers-theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 141. The Story Exchange Of Women Entrepreneurs,

[ONLINE]. Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/

(2016), Logo [ONLINE]. Available at:http://

writers-theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

thestoryexchange.org/ [Accessed 18 October 2016].

133. Studio Gang, (2016), View Of The Second Floor Donor

142. Humans Of New York, (2016), I wanted to be a heavyweight

Lounge. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://studiogang.com/

champion. [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.

project/writers-theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

humansofnewyork.com/post/151904889151/i-wanted-to-

134. Russo, T., (2016), Diagram of the Timber Arm Assembly.

be-heavyweight-champion-joe-louis[Accessed 18 October

135. Studio Gang, (2016), Three Dimensional View Of The

2016].

Writer’s Theatre In Its Context.[ONLINE]. Available at:http:// studiogang.com/project/writers-theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

143. Barnes, A., (2016), See Sea [ONLINE]. Available at: https:// steller.co/s/6BzN9F5qFev [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 144. The Iris, (2015), Participants Engaging in a StoryCorps

136. Studio Gang, (2016), Interior View Of The Concessions Stand.

Interview [ONLINE]. Available at:http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/

[ONLINE]. Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/

participate-in-storycorps-at-the-getty/ [Accessed 18 October

writers-theatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016].

2016].

137. Studio Gang, (2016), Main Performance Venue.[ONLINE]. Available at:http://studiogang.com/project/writerstheatre_2 [Accessed 18 October 2016]. 138. Dezeen, (2016), Long Section 2 - Through The Gallery Walk and Black Box Theatre. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www. dezeen.com/2016/02/16/writers-theatre-studio-gang-arts-

145. Russo, T., (2016), Sketch of a Global Faith Mission Ministries. 146. Norwich, O,I. 1986. 245 Waterfall, Orange Grove. pg 111. Johannesburg: AD Donker. 147. Norwich, O,I. 1986. 243 Orange Grove. pg 110. Johannesburg: AD Donker. 148. Russo, T., (2016), Old Tram Network in Johannesburg.

centre-chicago-usa-wooden-battens/ [Accessed 18 October

Source: Dickie, N. C., (1929), Holmden’s 1929 Map

2016].

of Johannesburg [ONLINE]. Available at:https://

139. Studio Gang, (2016), Ground Floor Plan.[ONLINE].

johannesburg1912.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/a-rare-and-

347


The Story Exchange ● List Of Figures And Tables

detailed-street-map-of-johannesburg-from-1929/ [Accessed 19 October 2016].

raandjeslaagte/ [Accessed 19 October 2016]. 162. Russo, T., (2016), Diagram of Suburb Expansion Along

149. Russo, T., (2016), Orange Grove (1910).

Louis Botha. Source: LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, (2013),

150. Russo, T., (2016), Orange Grove (1930).

Township Establishment. pg 12. Mayat Hart Architects.

151. Norwich, O,I. 1986. 242 The Orange Grove Hotel. pg 110. Johannesburg: AD Donker. 152. Norwich, O,I. 1986. 248 Orange Grove Hotel. pg 112. Johannesburg: AD Donker.

163. Russo, T., (2016), Site Context At Multiple Scales. 164. Russo, T., (2016), The Chosen Site Is an Icon on the Horizon. 165. Russo, T., (2016), Aerial View of Site Location. 166. Russo, T., (2016), Proximity to Johannesburg CBD Map.

153. Russo, T., (2016), Orange Grove (1950).

167. Russo, T., (2016), Strategic Public Transport Network Map.

154. Russo, T., (2016), Orange Grove (1970).

168. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Metro Bus Roues.

155. Russo, T., (2016), Orange Grove (2016).

169. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Galleries.

156. Norwich, O,I. 1986. 246 Orange Grove. pg 112.

170. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Museums.

Johannesburg: AD Donker. 157. LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, (2013), Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, 1935. pg 19. Mayat Hart Architects. 158. Russo, T., (2016), Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove, 2016. 159. Johannesburg 1912, (2011), Map showing Raandjeslaagte

172. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Festivals. 173. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Formal Points of Story Sharing Combined. 174. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Cinemas.

triangle [ONLINE]. Available at:https://johannesburg1912.

175. Russo, T., (2016), Bookstores.

wordpress.com/2011/02/05/introduction-and-

176. Russo, T., (2016), Conferences.

raandjeslaagte/ [Accessed 19 October 2016].

177. Russo, T., (2016), Libraries.

160. Johannesburg 1912, (2011), Johannesburg Farms At The Time Of The Discovery Of Gold [ONLINE]. Available at: https://johannesburg1912.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/ introduction-and-raandjeslaagte/[Accessed 19 October 2016]. 161. Johannesburg 1912, (2011), Raandjeslaagte beacon 2011 [ONLINE]. Available at:https://johannesburg1912. wordpress.com/2011/02/05/introduction-and-

348

171. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Theatres.

178. Russo, T., (2016), Johannesburg Existing and Proposed BRT Routes. 179. Russo, T., (2016), Ridge Formations Around Johannesburg >5%. 180. Russo, T., (2016), Topographical Map of Johannesburg Initiating the Location of Orange Grove. 181. Russo, T., (2016), Population Dot Density of Johannesburg (2011).


List Of Figures And Tables ● The Story Exchange

182. Russo, T., (2016), Quality of Life Index. 183. Russo, T., (2016), Social Isolation by Ward and Gated Communities in Johannesburg. 184. Russo, T., (2016), Percentage of Households that have Access to Internet at Home. 185. Russo, T., (2016), Percentage of Households that have Access to Internet via Cellphone.

199. Russo, T., (2016), Nolli Map of Orange Grove Indicating Area of Focus. 200. Russo, T., (2016), Building Use Combined. 201. Russo, T., (2016), Educational Facilities. 202. Russo, T., (2016), Spiritual Buildings. 203. Russo, T., (2016), Retail Centres. 204. Russo, T., (2016), Cultural Nodes.

186. Russo, T., (2016), Suburb Expansion along Louis Botha. (1938)

205. Russo, T., (2016), Philanthropic Facilities.

187. Russo, T., (2016), Suburb Expansion along Loius Botha. (1952)

206. Russo, T., (2016), Density of Pedestrian Activity. (Weekdays)

188. Russo, T., (2016), Suburb Expansion along Loius Botha. (1976) 189. Russo, T., (2016), Regional and Local Conectivity along Louis Botha Development Corridor. 190. Russo, T., (2016), Priority BRT precincts along Louis Botha Development Corridor. 191. Russo, T., (2016), Heritage signifiance along Louis Botha Development Corridor. 192. Russo, T., (2016), Land use along Louis Botha Development Corridor.

15:30-17:30. 207. Russo, T., (2016), Density of Pedestrian Activity. (Weekend) 11:30-14:30. 208. Russo, T., (2016), All Recorded Pedestrian Movement Paths. 209. Russo, T., (2016), Public Walkable Space. 210. Russo, T., (2016), Youth Activity Map. (Typical Weekday) 211. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Traffic Density. (Weekday) 07:30. 212. Russo, T., (2016), Vehicle Movement and Interuptions. 213. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Traffic Density. (Weekday) 13:00.

193. Russo, T., (2016), Promoting Density along LBDC.

214. Russo, T., (2016), Weekday Afternoon Traffic. (Russo, 2016)

194. Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, (2013), Movement

215. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Traffic Density. (Weekday) 18:00.

& Connectivity. pg 64. Iyer Urban Design Studio.

216. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Traffic Density. (Weekend) 07:30.

195. Strategic Area Framework For The LBDC, (2013), Social

217. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Traffic Density. (Weekend) 13:00.

Facilities & Potential clusters. pg 64. Iyer Urban Design

218. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Traffic Density. (Weekend) 18:00.

Studio.

219. Russo, T., (2016), Comfort Zones.

196. SACN Conference: Louis Botha Corridor, (2013), Priority Precincts - Interventions. pg 18. City Of Johannesburg.

220. Russo, T., (2016), Story Sharing Networks Map. 221. Russo, T., (2016), Story Sharing Synthesis Diagram.

197. Russo, T., (2016), Points of Interest.

222. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Grove House.

198. Russo, T., (2016), Building Heights.

223. Russo, T., (2016), Typical Tree-Lined Street.

349


The Story Exchange ● List Of Figures And Tables

224. Arup, (2015), Old OK Bazaars [ONLINE]. Available at:http:// www.arup.com/homepage_archive/homepage_southern_ africa/southafrica_history [Accessed 19 October 2016]. 225. LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, (2013), Former OK Bazaars. pg 49. Mayat Hart Architects.

banner/2108/banner/crop_for_facebook_sandwich2. jpg?ts=1459458287 [Accessed 19 October 2016]. 245. Burgess, J. 2016. The Royal Cinerama pg 64. Cape Town: Redsky Publishing 246. LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, (2013), The Royal Cinerama

226. Russo, T., (2016), Colonnaded front of Radium Beer Hall.

Building Today - Ethiopian Apostolic Church. pg 48. Mayat

227. LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, (2013), Degradation of typical

Hart Architects.

modernist buildings. pg 44. Mayat Hart Architects. 228. LBDC Heritage Scoping Study, (2013), Typical mid 20th century modernist buildings. pg 44. Mayat Hart Architects.

247. Russo, T., (2016), African Literature Bookshop. 248. Russo, T., (2016), Beautiful Mural Painting on the Facade of the African Literature Bookshop.

229. Russo, T., (2016), Degradation of Commercial Buildings.

249. Russo, T., (2016), Iconic Vespa Outside the Radium Beer Hall.

230. Russo, T., (2016), Degradation and Safety in Suburban

250. Russo, T., (2016), The Interior of The Radium Beer Hall

Streets.

251. Russo, T., (2016), A Friday Night at the Radium.

231. Russo, T., (2016), Degradation along Louis Botha Avenue.

252. Russo, T., (2016), Memorabilia Wall.

232. Russo, T., (2016), The Unsheltered Sidewalk.

253. Russo, T., (2016), Meseum Plaque.

233. Russo, T., (2016), The Canopied Sidewalk.

254. Russo, T., (2016), Ghandi’s Prayer Loft.

234. Russo, T., (2016), Story Sharing Under a Canopied Sidewalk.

255. Russo, T., (2016), The Entrance to “Satyagraha House”.

235. Russo, T., (2016), Reference Plan.

256. Russo, T., (2016), Original Design Drawings for “The Kraal”.

236. Russo, T., (2016), Street Elevation and Cross Section Type A.

257. Russo, T., (2016), The Dining Area Opens up onto the Garden.

237. Russo, T., (2016), View from Under the Sheltered Canopy.

258. Russo, T., (2016), “The Kraal” Emerges out of a Lush Garden.

238. Russo, T., (2016), Reference Plan.

259. Russo, T., (2016), An Exhibition of Gandhi’s Life in “The Kraal”.

239. Russo, T., (2016), Street Elevation and Cross Section Type B.

260. Russo, T., (2016), View from the Garden into “The Kraal”

240. Russo, T., (2016), Story Exchange Under a Colonade.

261. Russo, T., (2016), Positive and Negative River Structure.

241. Russo, T., (2016), Reference Plan.

262. Russo, T., (2016), Top View of “Solid Memory” 1’.

242. Russo, T., (2016), Street Elevation and Cross Section Type C.

263. Russo, T., (2016), Top View of “Solid Memory” 2.

243. Russo, T., (2016), Orange Grove Billboards.

264. Russo, T., (2016), Top View of “Solid Memory” 3.

244. Chea, S., (2016), Super Sconto Sandwich [ONLINE].

265. Russo, T., (2016), Memory Model Hierachy and Structure.

Available at:http://static.savoteur.com/uploads/

350

266. Russo, T., (2016), “Solid Memory 3” - Perspective View A.


List Of Figures And Tables ● The Story Exchange

267. Russo, T., (2016), “Solid Memory 2” - Perspective View A. 268. Russo, T., (2016), “Solid Memory 3” - Perspective View B. 269. Russo, T., (2016), “Solid Memory 2” - Perspective View B.

Stream. 292. Russo, T., (2016), Perspective View of Jukskei River Contour Model.

270. Russo, T., (2016), “Solid Memory 1” - Perspective View A.

293. Russo, T., (2016), 3D View of Jukskei River Contour Model.

271. Russo, T., (2016), “Solid Memory 1” - Perspective View B.

294. Russo, T., (2016), A Valley of the Jukskei River.

272. Russo, T., (2016), The infinitely expanding nature of memory

295. Russo, T., (2016), Top View of River Contour Model.

structures. 273. Russo, T., (2016), Understanding the subconscious order applied to the process of solidifying memory,

296. Russo, T., (2016), Deformation Model. 297. Russo, T., (2016), Deformation Model - Sliced. 298. Russo, T., (2016), Deformation Model - Sections.

274. Russo, T., (2016), “Pinned” - Explanatory Diagram.

299. Russo, T., (2016), Erosion Exploration.

275. Russo, T., (2016), “Pinned” - Perspective View.

300. Russo, T., (2016), Deformation Diagram.

276. Russo, T., (2016), “Pinned” - Top View.

301. Russo, T., (2016), Erosion Model 1.

277. Russo, T., (2016), “Pinned” - Form Diagram.

302. Russo, T., (2016), Erosion Model 2.

278. Russo, T., (2016), “Keys” - First iteration.

303. Russo, T., (2016), Erosion Diagram.

279. Russo, T., (2016), “Keys” - Second iteration.

304. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 1 - Void.

280. Russo, T., (2016), “Keys” - Third iteration.

305. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 2 - Void.

281. Russo, T., (2016), “Keys” - Fourth iteration.

306. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 3 - Solid.

282. Russo, T., (2016), “Keys” - Structural Interetations per

307. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 4 - Solid.

iteration.

308. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 3 - Solid.

283. Russo, T., (2016), “Keys” - Fitth iteration.

309. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 4 - Void.

284. Russo, T., (2016), “Protrutions” - Perspective View.

310. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 5 - Void.

285. Russo, T., (2016), “Protrutions” - Top View.

311. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 3 - Solid.

286. Russo, T., (2016), “Protrutions” - Side View.

312. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 4 - Solid.

287. Russo, T., (2016), “Positive” River Diagram.

313. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 5 - Solid.

288. Russo, T., (2016), “Positive” River Model.

314. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 3 - Perspective.

289. Russo, T., (2016), “Negative”River Diagram.

315. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 1 - Perspective.

290. Russo, T., (2016), “Negative”River Model.

316. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 2 - Perspective.

291. Russo, T., (2016), Diagram of the Process of a Meandering

317. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 5 – Perspective.

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318. Russo, T., (2016), Solid / Void Relationship.

from Louis Botha Avenue”.

319. Russo, T., (2016), Deposition Model 4 – Perspective.

344. Russo, T,.(2016), Recreation and Food Spaces.

320. Russo, T,. (2016), Early 3 Dimensional Sketch of “The Story

345. Russo, T,.(2016), The Canopy Walk.

Exchange”.

346. Russo, T,.(2016), Retail Spaces.

321. Russo, T,. (2016), Site Response 1.

347. Russo, T,.(2016), Story Output Spaces.

322. Russo, T,. (2016), Site Response 2.

348. Russo, T,.(2016), Story Input Spaces.

323. Russo, T,. (2016), Collage of form finding Sketches in Plan.

349. Russo, T,.(2016), Administration Spaces.

324. Russo, T,. (2016), River Sketch Diagram.

350. Russo, T,.(2016), Gallery Spaces.

325. Russo, T,. (2016), River Section Diagram.

351. Russo, T,.(2016), Render Of Canopy Walk.

326. Russo, T,. (2016), Organisational Diagram.

352. Russo, T,.(2016), Diagram Inidcating The Creation Of The

327. Russo, T,. (2016), River Diagram.

Canopy Walk.

328. Russo, T,. (2016), Eroded Light Slots Diagram.

353. Russo, T,.(2016), Diagram Of Canopy Walk.

329. Russo, T,. (2016), Eroded Light Slots Sketch Diagram.

354. Russo, T,.(2016), Site Plan.

330. Russo, T,. (2016), Erosion and Sketch Diagram.

355. Russo, T,.(2016), Lower Ground Floor Plan.

331. Russo, T,.(2016), Erosion Grid Diagram.

356. Russo, T,.(2016), Upper Ground Floor Plan.

332. Russo, T,.(2016), “The Grove” Diagram.

357. Russo, T,.(2016), First Floor Plan.

333. Russo, T,.(2016), “The Grove”Sketch Diagram.

358. Russo, T,.(2016), Second Floor Plan.

334. Russo, T,.(2016), Western Elevation Process Sketches.

359. Russo, T,.(2016), Roof Plan.

335. Russo, T,. (2016), Elevation – Sketch.

360. Russo, T,.(2016), View Of The Story Exchange From Louis

336. Russo, T,.(2016), Western Elevation – Diagram. 337. Russo, T,. (2016), Types Of Narrative Sharing Spaces at The Story Exchange.

Botha Avenue. 361. Russo, T,.(2016), Inside The Canopy Walk. 362. Russo, T,.(2016), Section BB.

338. Russo, T,.(2016), First Massing Model.

363. Russo, T,.(2016), Louis Botha Street Elevation.

339. Russo, T,.(2016), Third Massing Model.

364. Russo, T,.(2016), Section AA.

340. Russo, T,.(2016), Second Massing Model.

365. Russo, T,.(2016), East Elevation.

341. Russo, T,.(2016), Fourth Massing Model.

366. Russo, T,.(2016), Render Of Food Exchange.

342. Russo, T,.(2016), Early Sketch of the Debate Square.

367. Russo, T,.(2016), Render Of Public Debate Square.

343. Russo, T,.(2016), Early Sketch of the “The Story Exchange

368. Russo, T,.(2016), Render Of Bay Window.

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369. Russo, T,.(2016), Section DD.

388. Russo, T,.(2016), Howe Truss Structural Framing.

370. Russo, T,.(2016), Section CC.

389. Russo, T,.(2016), Sectional Axonometric Model Through

371. Russo, T,.(2016), Day Render Of The Story Exchange. 372. Russo, T,.(2016), Render Of The Food Exchange From Above. 373. Russo, T,.(2016), Evening Render Of The Story Exchange. 374. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View Of The Canopy Walk. Scale 1:250. 375. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View Of Story Exchange From Above. Scale 1:250. 376. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model. Scale 1:250. 377. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View Of Admin Block. Scale 1:250.

Canopy Walk - View 1. Scale 1:20. 390. Russo, T,.(2016), Sectional Axonometric Model Through Canopy Walk - Side View. Scale 1:20. 391. Russo, T,.(2016), Sectional Axonometric Model Through Canopy Walk - Elevation View. Scale 1:20. 392. Russo, T,.(2016), Detail Model Of Canopy Walk Facade Timber arms slot into timber ring beam. Scale 1:5. 393. Russo, T,.(2016), Detail Model Of Canopy Walk Facade Aluminium mesh frame fixes to timber arms. Scale 1:5. 394. Russo, T,.(2016), Project Viability Poster.

378. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View Of Canopy Walk From Below. Scale 1:250. 379. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View Of Grove House Gallery. Scale 1:250. 380. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View Of Southern Entrance. Scale 1:250.

Tables 1. Russo, T., (2016), Preconditions For Site Choice.

381. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - Street View. Scale 1:250. 382. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View From The North. Scale 1:250. 383. Russo, T,.(2016), Context Model - View From The South. Scale 1:250. 384. Russo, T,.(2016), Detail Section Through Rainwater Garden. 385. Russo, T,.(2016), Detailing The Anonymity Box. 386. Russo, T,.(2016), Detail Section Through Canopy Walk Facade. 387. Russo, T,.(2016), Column Grid.

Note: All maps were compiled using a combination of google maps, Joburg GIS, and GCRO layers provided by Trangos, G. (2016)

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13. ETHICS CLEARANCE

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THE STORY EXCHANGE: Narrative sharing as a catalyst for creative change in Orange Grove

Many Thanks

....WHATS YOUR STORY?

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