Frontier04_Explorative Critical Translations

"FRONTIER001 asked you to examine yourself.
FRONTIER002 looked at the other.
FRONTIER003 hoped to mark a point of origin.

FRONTIER004 tasks you to extract only the points of value and leave the [humbug] behind" 

I see Frontier004 as a reflective Frontier in which I take a critical look at the methodology, process and values that underpinned my work in the previous three frontiers. Through a process of personal analysis and filtering, the aim was to construct clarity (for myself and others) of the previous frontiers, and thus frame a starting point in questioning (my) role in practice, beyond the traditional definitions of the "architect".

Explorative Critical Translations succinctly describes the commonalities in the methodologies employed throughout each of the previous frontiers. Driven by various values, the process throughout each frontier involved an explorative process of extracting and uncovering a point of meaning, overlapped by a process of translation of the discovered meaning into various artifacts (tactile model, iconography, shelf of "trade secrets", iconographic spatial translations.)

Each panel is an ordered overview of the processes undergone through each frontier, with the last being a "summary" and a way forward in which I focus the values and process that will lead up to the last Frontier: Chronicle Station. 

Frontier001 - TRACES: Boksburg is seen as a spatial allegory of my personal architectural development, translated through a model of found objects reflecting the existent typologies of the city and myself. Iconographic explorations are extractions of the "essence" of each typology and become symbolic of different layers of the self in my architectural progression.

The process of making (tactile artifact and iconography) became an initial exploration towards plural modes of praxis. 

Frontier002- TRADE SECRETS: The systemic processes of the Migrant Spaza network  are explored as a prototype of emergent practices tapping into existent (local) norms and patterns. The complexity of the Spaza phenomenon is explored through translating, ordering and reproducing the related factors (or "trade secrets")  at play in their apparent rapid expansion. The process of investigation, together with the uncovered elements are seen as potential ingredients towards my own practice throughout the year. 

Frontier003 - JOHANNESBURG CITY DELTIOLOGY: This frontier marks a point of origin for ideas about the city and the making of architecture. The change in the identity of the city at the abolition of apartheid, post 1994, and the socio-economic shifts at the entrance of a new government, marks a point of origin to the currently understood meaning of the city.

Through a process of deltiology (collecting and analyzing postcards), as well as assembling and dismantling the layers of the city, the city is seen as being a multi-layered collection of stories that inform speculations towards the future and explorative methods in the making of architecture. 

Frontier004 - EXPLORATIVE CRITICAL TRANSLATIONS: The summing of this frontier is a rationalized extraction of the underlying process developing through the earlier frontiers. The distinct values extracted throughout the overall process frame the critical standpoint towards praxis and the process to be further explored leading up to the station.

The established process of extraction and translation through overlapping methodologies is reinforced with the intent to review traditional norms of practice and offer critical responses to complex scenarios and understandings of the city.

 

This process also intended to explore the persona of the architect. From the values extracted, and the points of insertion at this stage in the year, I locate myself in the position of a practitioner with these attributes:

• Undercover Activist
• Societal Contributor
• Spatial Practitioner
• Operating in the field of systemic complexity
• Flexible and Adaptable. 

Frontier03_Spatial Deltiology

"Wish you were here"
Collection of Johannesburg Postcards since the earliest dawn of the city over time. 

The city is considered as a multi-layered collection of interrelated stories and narratives, defining how it is perceived and identified. Deltiology, the practice of collecting & analyzing postcards, serves as a method of exploring the city and its expressed meanings over time. 

Postcards of the city, with a change in the "character" of the city, post 1994. The city is depicted with impersonal generalizations throughout the "stock standard" collection of postcards

A series of postcards made by myself of the various "everyday" experiences of the city. Johannesburg's "citiness" takes on multiple layers, reflecting the socie-economic shift at the entrance of democracy. 

The diverse layers of Johannesburg trace themselves to different historical and spatial beginnings. Through dismantling, re-ordering, translating, and imagining, the collective “everydays” that make up the city’s layers become tools for speculating and imagining the city’s future. By exploring the layers of the past and present, I explore what the city may become. 

An assembly and dismantling of the collection of Johannesburg postcards over time. The process of exploration and translation  of the different layers of the city, and thier relationships, to establish a further understood meaning of the city. 

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS:
Speculations towards the future of the city. The future identity of the city being an overlay of "chance encounters mediated by and existing within space. Iconographic translations of speculations of the city are  translated as spatial elements and questions towards the making of architecture, 

COLLECTIVE EVERYDAYS
The city is seen as a multilayered collection of stories of the various interelated users of the city. "Collective everydays" is a reference to notions of citiness and mundanity, captured and narrated through the stories and experience off the city.  

 What if architecture not only told the story of a city’s past and present, but became a means of scripting what the city could be for those who will inhabit it in the future?

Frontier02_One Step Beyond

How does one who is “an other” operate and thrive in established systems outside of himself?
The migrant owned “spaza shop” is explored as a prototype of emergent practices tapping into existent systems and norms, foreign to themselves. Through a process of observation, engagement and translation, the phenomenon of migrant owned “spaza shops”, offers clues towards an adaptive and responsive system of methodologies.
Observed principles and factors contributing to the rapid expansion of the entities are unpacked, catalogued and displayed as a directory of “trade secrets”, to be tested throughout the year, leading towards Frontier 9 – Station.

A comparative analysis of Migrant owned and locally owned spaza shops to uncover the systemic patterns that contribute to the success of the Spaza shop.

Thoughts on writing and design

The act of blogging (or writing) can play an important part in the design process. 
I consider the blog post's not only as a means of publicizing and presenting my work, but also as a tool to harmonize, clarify,express  and synthesize my thoughts...(to myself and whoever reads).

Writing as an expressive tool is similar to making a sketch, or a model, in order to see (understand) an idea better. And the same way the sketch may not always be of a complete, or "fully resolved" design, it's role is hard to get rid of. For myself it tends to be the case with writing as well. 

Spatial Explorations in Fietas.. (2015 Thesis)

In the same way a visual representation, diagram or sketch is able to express what words cannot, these also fall short, and thoughts expressed in words become relevant. These tools, together with others, working together, have been quite a help in the process of design. 

Frontier02_One Step Beyond - Thoughts...

As an intuitive start to this Frontier, the "other" that I explore is the phenomenon of Foreign owned spaza shops (Informal Micro Convenience stores) found in South-African townships and Residential neighborhoods...

"White House Spaza" shop, up the road from home. 

 What is a "Spaza"?

A Spaza shop is an informal micro-retail store, usually found in South African townships (1). This informal economy arose in townships during the apartheid era with small entrepreneurs selling every day groceries form their homes. The spatial layout of townships did not include immediate retail facilities, and the Spaza became a valuable economic solution to most township 

An interest of mine in exploring Migrant Owned spaza's in particular is due to the fact that though the spaza is historically a South African occurrence (2), the prevalence of foreign owned spaza's in some neighborhoods seems to advance that of locally owned spaza's. I am curious as to why. 

Comparing the ratio of Migrant to Locally owned Spaza shops. (Dawn Park, Boksburg)

The following statemt from the suggested readings was an interesting provocation in terms of one's "everyday" and aparently normal interactions with this "other."

“There are a you and an I, and there is no mine and yours! For without a you and an I, there is no love, and with mine and yours there is no love but "mine" and "yours" are, of course, formed from a "you" and an "I", and, as a consequence, seem obliged to be present wherever there are a you and an I. This is, indeed, the case everywhere, but not in love, which is a revolution from the ground up. The more profound the revolution, the more completely the distinction mine and yours disappears, and the more perfect is the love.” - Kierkegaard, S.!Works of Love (1847)[36].

Different Spaza in same suburb (Dawn Park, Boksburg)

I'd hope to uncover why it is that the network of foreign owned spaza's seems to me more predominant to the locally owned counterparts. What lessons can be learnt from migrant owned spaza shops around entering into "an other" (different from your own) economy (or system), and thriving in that foreign economy/system..

1. R7bn worth of untapped township potential Lessons from Spaza shop owners.

2. Migrant spaza shops: business lessons from Soweto

Frontier02_One Step Beyond - Introduction

Your task through this frontier is to (observe) acknowledge, capture and catalog vital information to (in)form fresh ingredients for y/our practice. - Extract from brief. 

Our task in frontier 2 is to engage in an obsesive study and pursuit of an "other", to uncover, observe and document outcomes/methodologies that will contribute towards developing meaningful seeds towards the design of the last Frontier (Frontier09-Station).  

How do you design for the other? Who are they? What methodologies can be used to strengthen the act of designing for others? – While undoing the constructed mythologies of them. Stranger? Fellow Citizen? 

What is the value of the other in our practice? Who is the other, and how do they relate to other others? The other is both single and many. Within the fundamental responsibility of the architectural practice is the service to the other, in the simplest sense being the creation of space for the other.  

Relationship advice: What is the relationship with space and people? Is it always better to give people space? What if you have no more space? What if peoples need for proximity far outweighs their needs for space or quality? What responsibility does the Architect have to understand their context, outside of the topography and climate, towards deeper understandings of society, economics at play, spatial politics and futures. 

This brief pushes you beyond the previous realm of the self. It is not about experience or personal. It's about other. Other kinds. Types. Things. Influences. People. Places. Uncommon and unfamiliar. A mining of information from the terrains and deposits outside of yourself, a territory one step away from you. It means you will need to go there. To consciously pursue some other in an obsessive manner. 

\

Frontier02_One Step Beyond - Preparations

In preparation for this frontier, we were tasked as the final year students (M2's) to summarize the main thoughts behind our work in 2015, and demonstrate the points that resonated with the direction of Unit13 for 2016... Having considered the relationship between these two, we can begin preparing initial statements towards our Major Design Project/Thesis for the year.

The following slides were my initial attempt at a simple summary of these thoughts in the 5 minutes given, bridging the transition from Unit2 (2015) to Unit13...

1. Recognizing complexity in the Built Envitonment

2. Considering the Built Environment as a living system

3. Appreciating the value of people and society in architecture

4. Ambitions towards innovative design responses

I place myself as the bridge between the idea explored in Unit2 and the future pursuits of Unit13

Frontier01_Iconoclast - TRACES_Boksburg 2020

Project brief 

"This first project serves as a personal primer, the layer onto which the projects and processes to come will bind onto, or come unstuck from. The aim of this exercise is for you to locate yourself within your own personal development. 

You are tasked to answer one question – Where are you now? – by representing your personal progress in the field of Architecture, projected into the future, within clear physical constraints."

TRACES_Boksburg 2020

Mama's Journal

Boksburg, my home town since the earliest stages of childhood, reflects a spatial allegory of my current position related to architecture. 

Often misunderstood by outsiders (and some insiders), the historic town leaves its impression, traced through life and architecture. I explore five predominant spatial typologies and their hybrid relationships: mining heritage (comparable to traces & history), plantation (the soil), industry (process & production), suburbs and townships (expression & perceptions), and the CBD (complexity & ambition). 

This typological investigation of Boksburg embodies different, yet synchronized, aspects of my architectural progression. 

Simon Ngubeni

Snapshot of Boksburg 2020

Presenting Frontier 1 at MOAD

UNIT13: Introductory Task

The first introductory task is to interpret and translate our understanding of the Unit13 presentation given by Eric and Claudia on the opening day of Unit System Africa 2016 in any medium. 

I understood the idea of Frontiers as referring to uncharted territory, an undiscovered field of knowledge or anything inviting exploration.

In this discussion, the Frontiers we face relate to the current and rapidly transforming environment and society that we find ourselves operating in as (aspirant) architects. 

With this frontier, come the frontiers of what the actions and roles of the architect are, or are to be, in responding and adapting to this complex setting, considering the idea of a collective intelligence as an important part a progression in praxis to be explored.

This montage is an attempt to represent these frontiers.  

These thoughts call for a critical consideration of the various Frontiers of the self, others, the performance etc... which will be explored through the various projects of the year and eventually the Major Design Project. 

Unit System Africa 2016: Introduction Week1

This year begins with a whole new set of Units at the UJ Graduate school of architecture (GSA). Day 1 has included making the decision for which top 3 (of 5) units to join for the year, as well as interviews by the unit leaders.

The new set of units are below (the bold were my top 3).
11. Politics and Poetics
12. The Eclectic Atlasses
13. Frontiers 
14. Radical negotiations/ Emergent Spatialities Johannesburg
15. Regenerative Urban Landscapes 

My first selection was Unit13: Frontiers, led by Eric Wright and Claudia Margado, and this is the unit I will be a part of for the year 2016.

"Unit 13 is interested in identifying new spaces for the ‘Architect’ through an investigation into PRAXIS; in pursuit of plural modes of practice. PRAXIS, simply put, is how theory is

implemented, which in architecture means building buildings, or however you choose ‘to do’

This studio investigates the potential for meaningful practice within this shifting context (of cities), adopting an ideological shift from genius to scenius. "Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius." (B. Eno)." Extracts from Unit13 Course outline

Part of why I chose this unit was because of what I feel it will offer my for my exit year, before entering into practice  as an architect. "We are really looking for students who are interested in relevance, passionate about purpose and hungry to do great work..." Although a bit paraphrased, but this statement (said Eric during unit presentations) sealed my decision.

I really look forward to seeing what this new year and Unit has in store, and more importantly seeing what I could bring to the table in the Units journey of exploration into new Frontiers.

.

Architectural Manifesto - Video

The systemic framework
Architecture exists as a part of the complex, dynamic and self-governing system of the built environment, a part of the built fabric of society in which every day behavior, culture and practices, are intricately related to the notion of place. Thus is defined the architect’s field of operation, which involves peoples individual and collective customs & daily rituals, staged on the platform of space. To this, we hold to these principles:

Recognizing complexity, designing simplicity
Understanding the systemic complexity of the collective users, space, and built form of a place; as well as the unique nature of relationships between these, is a driver for context sensitive spatial design responses. Familiarity with the complexity and processes is a generator for simple, meaningful responses. 

People in mind
A place is not only its material, but also its inhabitants, and their complex, layered practices. Thus the dynamic nature of users (collective and individual) in the making and sustaining of a place is to be kept in mind. 

Designing impact
Understanding the complexity of a context, it is within the reach of spatial designers to make an intentional, considered impact, through design, for the benefit of users. 
What architecture does is just as important as what it is, and more important that what it looks like: if what it looks like does not contribute to what it does (This referring to the effect and impact of architecture, rather that programmatic function).

A catalytic agent 
The complex nature of the built environment is greater than the architect. In designing impact, architecture is thus a catalyst, a means to the end of contributing to the system: spatially, aesthetically, functionally or whatever opportunity a place invites of the spatial designer. The architect is thus contributor and not as controller, and architecture is thus a valuable (yet limited) instrument.