THE JOURNEY DESIGN PORTFOLIO
BY TSHEPO MOKHOLO Bsc (Architecture) / BArch(Hons) University of Pretoria
/ WELCOME Within this document, I will be giving a glimpse into my journey within the field of architecture, showing you selected works that both highlight some strengths, and the growth during my architectural education. This portfolio has been created with the intention of placing the focus on the work and not the book itself, allowing the reader to access as much information as possible with no hindrance, removing the spectacle that plagues what design has become, and focusing on the substance contained within.
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/ N O R M AT I V E POSITION
Within the discourse of architecture, much has been discussed about the role of the “Architect� and his/her relevance to our current post-industrial paradigm. A once glorified profession has seemingly faded into irrelevance, moving from its origins, that of craftsmanship, and of the master designer, to what we see today, where architects have become another mechanism in the production driven mindset of post modern era. My position is that as an architect, one needs to re-engage with what makes architecture, materiality and construction. There has been a rift that has been created when discussing architecture that compartmentalizes design and construction as though they are not the same thing. Within the academic realm, design and construction are taught separately, creating the impression, that when creating architecture, one should precede the other. My belief is that good architecture lies in designed construction. The architect should always seek to fully understand materials, explore its possibilities, and craft architecture from it, rather than force materials into the architecture. This is an approach strongly used by the likes of Kengo Kuma, a designer who always works with local materials and crafts, exploring their potential and creating architecture that is contextual, and tests the limits of materials. As architects it is important that we go back to the basics, explore our materials and question construction convention to allow us to push the boundaries of design, moving us towards an honest architecture, where materiality and design act in harmony, allowing for users to not only enjoy the spaces we create, but be able to understand the construct of those spaces.
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/CURRICULUM VITAE
Tshepo Mokholo Designer Architecture/Graphic
+27 73 739 0466 tshepoduncan@gmail.com
in
Tshepo Mokholo 1696 Khumalo street, Moroka 1818 Soweto
NAME
TSHEPO DUNCAN MOKHOLO DATE OF BIRTH
16-01-1992 FROM
SOWETO, JOHANNESBURG LANGUAGE ENGLISH
EDUCATION .......................................................
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE ...................................................................................................................................... 2013
Junior Architecural Tecnologist GAPP Architects & Urban Designers 2015
Intern KH Landscape Architects & Marian Louw Landscape Architects CoT Public Open Space Framework 2015 - Present
Freelance architectural designer 2005 - 2009 High School Pinetown Boys’ High School
RECOGNITION ...............................................................
2010 - 2012 BSc Architecture University of Pretoria
Appointed the chairperson of the University of Pretoria student committee to the UIA 2014 conference.
2014 - 2015 BArch (Hons) University of Pretoria
Design Indaba Emerging Creatives class of 2016.
DESIGN SKILLS
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01 Knowledge
02 Computer
Spatial Design Draughting Construction Branding Joinery detaiiling Heritage Architecture Urban Design Model Building
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Indesign Sketch Up AutoDesk Revit Rendering (Indigo) Microsoft Office AutoCad
HOBBIES & INTERESTS .......................................................................................................
Cinema
ENGLISH /ZULU /SETSWANA Advanced
Music
Books
Theatre
REFERENCES ...............................................................
LANGUAGE SKILLS .....................................................................................
SESOTHO Mother language
Sport
Marianne De Klerk - Lecturer & Study leader @ UP email: mdeklerk@mdk-arch.com tell: +27 79 537 0724
Nico Botes - Lecturer @ UP. AFRIKAANS Basic level
email: Nico.botes@up.ac.za tell: +27 12 420 5777
Johan Smith - Director @ GAPP Architects email: johan@jhb.gapp.co.za tell: +27 11 482 1648
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THE JOURNEY - student portfolio
“Life is the show, Architecture is the backdrop” Tshepo Mokholo
01 /PLATO’S BED 1st year This project entailed the designing of a modular living unit, which, set against the backdrop of the erupting Icelandic volcano in 2010, would become a temporary place of residence, used at strategic locations such as airports, train stations, etc. with the intention of addressing accommodation shortages, by becoming a pit-stop on your travels. This is all in-light of the travel delays caused by the volcanic eruption. The unit would have to be compact and spatially efficient, enough so, that 2 units should fit into a 12m cargo container.
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To achieve the desired compactness, I created 2 identical units, that meet each other with a saw-tooth joint. What this does is define space inside the units without the use of any internal walls. The spaces created in the saw tooth then become a toilet and a shower. For lighting, I made use of skylights, which allow in natural light whilst still maintaining the privacy of the occupant. The bed provided is fitted with a mechanism that allows it to slide up and become a couch, allowing for maximum space when the unit is not being used for sleeping purposes.
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Final Model
The main design objectives for this project were the creation of a space that affords cocoon-like privacy , and a space that is compact whilst still being comfortable to stay in.
Presentation
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“The concept is an idea contextualised” Nico Botes
02 /SUNNYSIDE LIBRARY 2nd year Located in the CBD of the capital city of Pretoria, we were commissioned to design a public library that would service the community of Sunnyside. The site sits at the edge of the residential and commercial threshold .Th site was within close proximity to a primary school and the UNISA Sunnyside Campus. The building would need to fulfill multiple programs, such as an aftercare center, a study center and a lecture venue.
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My initial approach was to focus on the public aspect of the building. I positioned the building to the far side of the side of the site, freeing up the rest of the site to be become a public space framed and defined by the library, which would be occupied by the students and scholars. It is crucial for public building to have strong open space relationships, they create a symbiotic relationship that strengthens each others functions.
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The design concept is derived from the stark difference in conditions on either side of the site, with one side being the resdential area of sunnyside, and the other edge being the busy Nelson Mandla drive. To respond to the conditions a more stereotomic structure would help provide the noise reduction and privacy needed towards the busy road. In order to soften the structure, the circulation would be articulated by a light techtonic structure, facing the new open space, creating a clash between techtonic and stereotomic which is articulated by a strong wall tthat runs the length of the building.
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“The more you know, the more you have to design with” Nico Botes
03 /THE AGE OF THE SPECTACLE: OLYMPIC PAVILION 3rd year South Africa has just been awarded the 2024 Olympic Games to be hosted in the capital city of Pretoria. The site, being Bera Park, a historic sporting venue within the city, has for many years been neglected and has left it in a dilapidated state. In light of this, we were commissioned to select from a list of smaller and less noticeable Olympic sports, and design a pavilion for that sport, with the intention of increasing it’s notariaty and spectatorship, ultimately testing the existing sport pavilion archetypes and they’re appropriateness.
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“A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed, and in the end must be unmeasured� Louis I Kahn
04 /DWELLING FOR THE HOMELESS : PART 1 3rd year A situation was imagined whereby the world’s oil reserves has dried up, and as a result the world has become a place of anarchy. The oil dependent lives that we had become so accustomed to, have been turned upside down. Suburban living become illogical, and men have become nomadic in the search of a home in the cities, allowing for close proximity to places of work. For Part 1, we were instructed to design a house boat, a nomadic dwelling for a single occupant, that would not rely on fossil fuels for propulsion. This houseboat would allow the nomad to travel up and down the river, commuting between work during the week, in the city, and home on the weekends.
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“If the architecture is any good, a person who looks and listens will feels its effects without noticing Carlos Scarpa
05 /DWELLING FOR THE HOMELESS : PART 2 3rd year Part 2 builds on the conditions set in part 1 of this project. The transition in Pretoria’s socio-economic structure has reached a level of redevelopment and growth, society has begun rebuilding the city from the ashes of the past. The modernist that were once the symbols of economic power and capitalism in the city, now sit abandoned. As a response, the strategic designs interventions were to be made within these modernist buildings. The interventions were to make a commentary on modernist ideal within this new society, considering whether modernist had a place in this new world order.
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“The plan is political, the section is poetic” Rudolph van Rensburg
06 /THE LIMINAL IDENTITY 3rd year Being the final project , we were allowed a range of themes to explore, one of them being the “End Academy� , which entailed the design of a building that would facilitate the practice of euthanasia. It was up to the designer to then interpret this theme as they saw fit, and really challenge the archetypal approach to architecture, as the theme offers very little in the way of direct precedents or archetypes for one to follow. The site was a group generated framework that sat within the Pretoria CBD, and was guided by an urban framework that set the limitations and standards.
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Having a new and obscure program to respond to, created an opportunity for new spatial exploration, and the lack of programmatic precedents challenged us to define this new archetype we would be creating. The concept for my design is the interpretation of death into a spatial reality, by considering the idea of death being a threshold between two absolutes, life and death. The idea of limenality, of death being a threshold in which you possibly linger, rather than just a portal from one space to another. This is then interpreted in to space by creating spaces that celebrate and emphasize the in-between as a comment on the liminality of death.
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The building acts as a center for assisted suicide, where nomadic citizens and people on their way to death can come and assisted when reaching the end of their lives, can donate their organs to others in need. People live in the building for a short period where they prepare themselves emotionally for their own deaths. After the deaths of the residents, their organs will be harvested, and then their bodies will be cremated. Importance was placed on the ceremony of death and a funeral, so the addition of a chapel is to complete the death process, by providing a spiritual space that acts as the final frontier in the cycle. The program of the building is simple in reality leaving the expression of concept to arise in the spatial creation of the spaces, but mainly the space in-between the programmed spaces. The building includes a chapel, an administration floor, 4 living units, an operation room and its associated amenities and a crematorium.
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Ground Floor Plan
GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1:50
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Section
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Street Elevation
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“Buildings can have a beautiful silence” Steven Holl
07 /THE MEMORY FOLD Honours: Heritage Our investigations turn to the diverse set of ideas and arguments related to the Heritage and Cultural Landscapes research field. After exposure to a spectrum of new theoretical possibilities, we were tasked to identify an area of interest and to develop theoretical focus with a specific project application. The goal is to inform the design project with useful theoretical arguments and to set up guiding questions that will direct your project. Project proposals should provide clarity with regards to how the design process will be informed and in terms of what the project eventually aims to deliver as product.
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conceptual diagram
The intention of this project is guided by the idea of the “Memory Fold�, an imaginary threshold that exists in the fabric of the city that separates the tangible heritage, in the form of architecture and space, and the intangible in the form of history and narratives. Through a process of palimpsest the one is superimposed into the other to create new meaning in the Capitol Theatre, and provide a foothold for the sharing and creation of new cultural heritage, allowing the preceding layers of tangible and intangible history to manifest in the current program, harnessing what was, to define what is.
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CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
The programs are informed by the clues found within the intangible fabric of the Capitol, and the concept seeks to allow for these functions to exist within the tangible fabric of the building, adding a new layer that not only respects what is there, but allows the new programs to exist on the backdrop of the existing tangible and intangible memory.
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Ground Floor Plan
First Floor Plan
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“Don’t be obidient, create architecture” Steven Holl
08 /THE ECOLOGY OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Honours: Environmental Potential The project objective was to study the interaction and interdependency of man’s needs with the environment’s potential to accommodate such needs through applying the principles of eco-systemic thinking, researching, applying appropriate technologies, and sustainable and socially responsible development. Building on the frameworks set up in previous quarters, we were to develop an approach to sustainble architecture that would be both contextual and would question the status quo of what sustainable architecture had become.
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The exploration into the potential of sustainable systems as architectural informants, exposing the functional aspects as to create an exposed language that celebrates its intentions whilst educating its inhabitants to the sustainable functions of the architecture.
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When designing public buildings, it is important that the materiality be robust and long lasting,. In this case the building is created using a combination of concrete and facebrick, which also allows for better control over passive heating and cooling techniques. The building also seeks to create a duality of architectural elements, balustrades become bookshelves, windows become reading spaces, maximizing the fabric of the building to its full potential. The environmental systems of the building are designed so as to have them visible to the occupants, allowing them to engage with the functions, and subconsciously educating them on the systems.
Explorations
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Geo-thermal pipes become bookshelves
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h. reading/study rooms i. reading nook j. book shelves + reading space k roof gardens
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Rainwater collection system feeding into the ablutions system
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Roof Garden section
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/FIN