Pecha Kutcha Slides with Phil Astley

Below are a series of slides from a Pecha Kutcha presentation prepared during Phil Astleys visit. The idea was to present our individual projects, taking what we had learnt during the week with Phil Astley, in 3 minutes using a maximum of 10 slides. 

The captions are the notes from the verbal part. 

This project looks to interrogate the impact of spatial design, at an architectural scale, on the societal realities of a context. This is drawn from an understanding of the built environment as being a complex system ordered by the 3 principles of built form, space/ territory, as well as  the social/ culture. The context considered for this project is the historically rich, socially complex neighborhood of Fietas, west of the Johannesburg CBD. 

In close proximity to the inner-city, "Fietas" is the informal name for a small residential area made up of 2 small neighborhoods: Pageview and Vrededorp . Although having a rich history and diverse subcultures, Fietas faces various social ills related to crime and substance abuse. These conditions trace their roots back to the demolitions that took place in the area under the forced removals of the Apartheid group areas act in the 1970's.
The demolitions that took place left the neighborhood fragmented, both spatially and socially. 

With the intent to interrogate the social conditions of Fietas, I looked at immersing myself in the site as a tool to further understand the environment. As a point of entry into the sight, and to understand the community of Fietas better, the Jan Hofmeyer Community center became a way of entry into understanding the various actors in the site.
The community center provides a soup kitchen serving the local residents of "Fietas." They see their roles as being to effect change within the community. 

The community center happens to lie on 8th Street, a major route through Fietas. This also happens to be a part of  the Corridors of Freedom Development of the City of Johannesburg. Adjacent to the center are also 2 "empty" sites left over following the demolitions which took place. As traces of a part of the history of Fietas, as well as because of their relation to a nodal 8th Street intersection, the various activities around the site, as well as the proposed framework for development by the city, these 2 gaps are considered as potential sites. 

The corridors of Freedom development is a part of the spatial development vision from the City of Johannesburg looking to reconnect the inner city to various distant neighborhoods around Johannesburg (previously segregated due to apartheid planning.) The major focus is through transit oriented developments and mixed use nodes along the various routes. 

Further exploring the site and its surrounding activities. Surrounding conditions include the Briton cemetery, housing, and existing public transport & other movement activities. Opportunity exists to consider the Corridors of Freedom Development as a starting point to implementing a more contextually relevant, and socially transformative, architectural intervention.

In relation to the site and the community center, various agents and networks emerge. Through the process of engagement with the community center, and the various residents they serve, drugs and substance abuse seem to stand out as a prevalent issue within Fietas. 

At this stage, I begin to consider what exactly  "transformation" would mean, and more importantly, what it would mean relative to Fietas. At this initial phase, the idea of a transformation "matrix" begins to emerge. This is in realizing that the idea of transformation or change, though having various related meanings, has degrees of impact, from the individual, to the city. 

From what we have learnt through the week with Phil Astley, I have started to consider what the key "drivers for change" would be in Fietas. Responding to substance abuse and providing support for the community service structures are among the highest drivers.

The idea of a craft school for an initial program is with the intent to respond to the substance abuse conditions through providing an environment that can contribute towards rehabilitation as well as empowering residents/ users through education and trade. The hope is that the craft school, through its various factors, could also prevent drug use through providing an alternative.**

Reflections from the exercise

Being forced to put together the presentation in the short time really pushed me to get do get down to the core points of the project

Although it has been a great help in making progress, I would say that  in the short duration of the presentation, I didn't get across all the major points of the themes I am dealing with. 

Summing up the core themes of the  project, especially as they continue to develop, is vital as the process continues. 

I'm looking to go back to considering the Drivers for Change as well as the scenario planning exercise again. I trust that this will continue to build ones process, in light of more findings, and further refining the themes addressed. 

1 Week with visiting professor Phil Astley

This past week UJ_Unit2 got to spend the week with Phil Astley from the UK. At this relatively early stage in our thesis process (completing site analysis & generating concepts), the week spent with Phil has been very helpful in helping to focus the direction of my project and the themes I am dealing with.

Although the emphasis of Phil’s presentations had to do with health, the various methods and strategic planning approaches were practically relevant to our own various projects in the unit.

It was interesting to consider the idea of healthcare within the overall scope of the "wider determinants of health" which Phil spoke of. This considered things such as the environment, communities/the social environment, as well as the space and the connections thereof. 

What we got up to: 

Together with a few short lectures that dealt with various aspects of strategic planning in delivering healthcare infrastructure, Phil also had us engage in a few short exercises to apply what was being learnt to our specific sites.

The exercises were on

1. What are the drivers for change, at a strategic level, for our individual schemes

a.  Where do these various drivers sit in relation to each other in terms of importance and certainty/uncertainty

2. Who are our the potential users, and understanding their various criteria and needs

3. Scenario planning. Bringing in the time factor and building up the “narrative” of our individual projects.

Group exercise with Unit2 Colleagues on scenario planning

I really enjoyed these. Although, due to time ,we didn’t go into much detail with these various approaches on our individual projects, one looks forward to applying these tools to one’s current process.

Readings

Before Phil’s visit, we were tasked to go through a document on Planning Healthcare and Infrastructure (PHI).  The document provided an interesting systematic approach to planning and implementing primary and community healthcare services that are context sensitive and relevant to local communities.

Summary from reading PHI document.

This systematic approach provided a few helpful ideas that can also be applied to our own sites.

Pecha Kutcha slideshow presentation

As one of the tasks for to end off the week, and to sum up the weeks lessons, we were also tasked to prepare a 3 minute (max) PowerPoint presentation of no more than 10 slides (See slides and notes). The intention of this was to present, in a concise but clear manner, the findings from our sites, our approach and process thus far (including the week). 

Slide: Testing the tools learnt during the week on my project. 

This exercise was helpful in considering what the most crucial elements in one’s narrative/ process are thus far.

Lessons and reflections

It was interesting to see Phil applying ideas of Open Building in strategic planning. Open Building really stood out as an approach for laying out and specifying the systems of a development. Phil focused much on the higher planning level of development. The use of the terms "primary system", "secondary systems" and "tertiary systems" in referring to the different levels of planning, is what initially helped me in grasping the idea of levels. 

Together with the individual crit/ consultation received from Phil, the week spent really challenged me to focus my scheme more, as well as assisted in how to achieve a more contextually relevant response.

The idea of considering the potential users, “getting into their heads” so to say, has been very helpful to my own process. This being mostly because of one of my major themes being to respond to the shared social-spatial conditions in  Fietas.

I look forward to the scenario planning in view of the specific drivers for change relative to my site for consideration. 

Site visits & Updates:

Site visits and update 

Site visit 3-4
To gain entrance into the community and find out more about the social aspects, I got a chance to volunteer at the Jan Hofmeyer community center (Soup Kitchen). This was my tool for immersing myself into the site. 

Jan Hofmeyer Community Services Board 

A bit about the community services

• Founded in 2000 by Frances Botha and Rosaline Wallace (Residents of Fietas)
• Non-Profit Company Serving residents of Jan Hofmeyer, Vredepark and Vrededorp neighbourhoods
• Soup Kitchen Serves 350 people (ave.) daily
• From young children to elderly residents. 

Change Agents

The community center appears to serve a valuable role in the neighbourhood. In providing a daily meal for the residents, the center seeks to make a positive contribution to the neighbourhood and residents. 

The managers at the centre see themselves as agents of positive change in the Fietas. 

“Even If we can make a change in the life of one person, that goes a long way...”

-Rosaline -  Owner at the soup kitchen

Jan Hofmeyer Community Services. various initiatives serving residents

From a few of the community members spoken to at the soup kitchen, as well as from the the volunteers at the centre, I received a deeper insight into the various issues faced by the community as well as where some of the issues happen. 

Substance abuse. 

Substance abuse seems to stand out as a prevalent issue related to the various challenges in the neighborhood.

Visiting the centre a few times has been a great help in learning more about Fietas, more especially with regards to the social realities in Fietas

Opportunities for intervention

A few points/ findings that seem to stand out from the engagement with the community 

• The crime and drug condition
• Majority of young people being unemployed
• A reported sense of entitlement among a number of local residents
• Discouraging environment and public realm
• Prevalence of elderly people 

Another Opportunity: 8th Street, Active transport route and
early stages of Corridors of Freedom development. 

 From Here

From here I look to going deeper into considering these conditions, their causes and possible responses. In breaking them down I intend to consider which of them have spatial implications and opportunities to intervene. 

The Future of Open Building Conference_Reflections

Zurich West skyline

This past week I had the privilege to travel to Zurich, Switzerland with prof. Amira Osman to attend the Future of Open Buildingconference (9-11 September 2015). There were 2 main objectives to the conference in looking “at the future. Mainly:

• The clearly articulate and clarify the focus’ and principles of Open Building (OB)
•  And to explore further the possibilities of Open Building within the 21^st century.

“How can we design large projects without necessarily imposing uniformity and rigidity where variety and adaptability over time are desirable? 

- Habraken N.J. 1967. The control of complexity. Places 4 (2) 3 (Conference “theme” question)

What took place

In the 3 days of the conference, there were a number of interesting and thought provoking key note presentations, panel discussions, parallel paper presentation sessions, case studies as well as informal conversations set on the above objectives.

With the many lessons learnt and thoughts gathered, I will only consider a few highlights from the experience.

Panel discussions and Key note presentations

The panel discussions and presentations were joint sessions on a variety of topics related to open building. The various speakers gave very interesting insights and approaches to open building applied to various scenarios.

Day 3 Panel discussion: (Left to right) Prof. Yung Ho Chang, Hiromi Hosaya, Marin Denn, Prof. Renee Chow 

With the broad spectrum of speakers, many of the panelists spoke on the ideas of “openness” in various (sometimes disconnected) interpretations. I noted the slightly varying ideas around the concept of “Open Building” (verb and noun). There is however quite an opportunity in this regard though, especially looking at the second objective of the conference.

The panel discussions, in considering the idea of “openness” stimulated quite a bit of discussion outside the sessions.

Key note presentation - Frank Bijdendijk

The key note presentations gave strong insights on the relevance of OB in various applications: from economics to environmental concerns, real estate to designing for openness.

I was impressed with how OB can play a key role in not just architecture, but in the built environment as a whole. OB’s consideration of the BE as a whole brings the benefits the economic and politics into the picture. A number of the keynote presentations noted the idea of distributed control, levels and openness within defined restrictions.

“Openness without rules doesn’t work”

Parallel paper sessions

On the first day of the conference attendees split up to listen to a number of short presentations based on submitted papers showcasing various case studies, research projects and perspectives on the principles of Open Building.

The session I attended involved papers covering various projects at an urban and architectural scale. I chose it in particular because of the relevance of the various papers to my current thesis process.

I enjoyed was seeing practical applications of OB principles in various complex circumstances and contexts around the world. The presentations tied together well from themes such as Designed Self-Help, Urban Infill Spaces, to Transformations of Territorial Structures.

Paper presentation_ Comparing Levels of Urban form and culture in the city China

What I enjoy about the principles of Open Building is that they are based on the understanding of the built environment as a system with specific principles and behaviors that are present in every context. Recognizing levels and distributing control with a focus on designing for change over time is relevant in every field.

“Participation doesn’t necessarily mean consensus… Conflict can also play a generative role for creativity in design” -  Nelson Mota

Taking into consideration the 3 orders of the built environment (discussed in the Structure of the Ordinary by Habraken) brought to view the economic and social influences on the various case studies.

Informal discussions and networking sessions

Getting to meet and discuss with a number of various thinkers, academics and fellow students from around the world was among the most fruitful and informative part of the conference.

One gathered that the movement is broad yet made up of few: which I see as an opportunity. Discussing “The Future of Open Building” based on the various presentations offered very interesting ideas in advancing the ideals of a systemic approach to design.

It also became clear to me that the definition of what is OB is not necessarily fixed. Like myself, some of the attendees discussed with are also developing their own grasp on OB.

Networking and informal discussions

A number of various people met also had similar reflections form the panel discussions and key note addresses. It was quite refreshing however to gain insights from others with a similar approach to architecture.

Transformations of East Zurich tour

An interesting part of the conference included a walk around the previously industrial context of Zurich West.  It was interesting to see the urban renewal projects that took place in the area, including high end residential developments, retail and transforming old industrial space to market spaces.

Transformed brewery to new art gallery, high-end residential and commercial development. 

Zurich West remindend me a lot of the Maboneng Precinct in South Africa. There were many similarities in old industrial buildings being converted to art galleries, retail spaces and high-end residential developments with excessive rates.

Viaduct transformation_New Life in Old Viaduct Arches

Underside of Railway Bridge transformed to accommodate various mixed retail developments; generating economic opportunities within the new precinct.

Frietag Flagship Store_ The Smallest "High-rise" in town. Prime tower in the background

Prime tower_The second tallest sky scraper in Switzerland (previously the tallest from 2011-2014)

Other personal reflections

The” Open” of Open Building

From the various presentations, I found that the term “Open” can be a somewhat limited term in getting across the various principles of OB especially because of its parallel relation to the “Open design” movement. As both consider the idea of users being part of the design decision making process, Open Building considers the restrictions of various levels in the built environment. OB, as I currently understand it, recognizes the hierarchy (for lack of better words) of levels, whereas the Open design movement almost seeks to put everyone on an equal level.

I left the conference with an understanding of the term “open” in OB as referring to openness of decision making and agency within the constraints of a specific level of the built environment: the idea of flexibility and freedom within a fixed framework.  

“Perhaps one of the greatest dangers as we discuss the future of open Building is the term “openness” – Dietmar Eberle (Closing Address)

Slight disparity between old and new

Both among the presenters as well as attendees there were younger academics & practitioners as well as those older who had been involved with open building for a longer time.  To a number of us newly attending the conference, the idea of OB was relatively new. I would say this is evidence of progress.

From the various presentations and panel discussions, I saw the pattern of a somewhat “traditional” view of open building (especially among those who had seemed to be acquainted with OB for much longer) and another, perhaps more forward-thinking perspective which paid much attention to the idea of  openness.

In the various informal discussions however, I noted the similar ideas around the concepts of time based design, levels of the built environment and agency.

Communication and (mis)understanding

I would say that one of the difficulties faced in discussing the idea of OB is that it is widely misunderstood (As with the example of an empty structure).  I would say this has much to do with how the various concepts of OB are communicated.

At the conference I really I appreciated the power of language (visual and otherwise) to get across ideas. This is where I think opportunity lies for getting across the very misunderstood principles of OB. Clearly documented and represented projects, may be of great help in this regard.

Panel Presentation_Ute Schneider

Frans vd Werf presented a well-illustrated paper session on A Thematic Designed District after 35years. It gave a clear depiction of the idea of “the Urban Tissue” related to OB.

In considering “The Future of Open Building”, communication and language is where I see opportunity for growth in various OB projects and practices. Various terms seem to be understood mainly within the OB circles.

OB and its far reaching influence

OB brings to view the far reaching impacts of architecture in the built environment, and its influence on various agents. I currently see my role as an (aspiring) architect as being to contribute to the built environment as a spatial practitioner.

As much as I think architecture must take into consideration economic, political and social factors, I still believe that the role of the architect is not to try and control these fields. OB brings to my view the possibilities of influencing and contributing to the various agents of the built environment through negotiation and design.

Lessons to take into thesis

Got to share my thesis project with various people I met at the conference and I was challenged and encouraged by the discussions to take some of the lessons learnt further and push forward my ideas as they develop from the experience at the conference.

I look forward to seeing what future Open Building will hold in the architectural industry and how the lessons learnt may apply personally. 

Interesting article: Agency and changing practice

Tatjana Schneider (Co-author of Spatial Agency) being interviewed on the changing practice of architecture

Link

Questions in my mind are on the side of the globally changing practice of architecture and spatial production, and how practical some of the points raised are in the local south African context...