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?

Design workshop_Part 1: Spatial Exploration

This past week Unit2 engaged in a design workshop to explore the spatial intentions behind our individual design intervention. Through various short exercises we go to explore and express the spatial possibilities within our sites.

The task(s)

Sketch Sections

The first task was to explore, in section, a key space within our interventions and explore the spatial possibilities. This involved looking at the relationships between the various spaces, the (vertical and horizontal) planes and points that define that core space. The exercises were very short to get us to make quick, intuitive decisions based on our findings from site analysis.  

Initial Sections through core spaces of intervention. 

The task was quite helpful in pushing me to intentionally consider, spatially, what my intentions are (in relation to the overall themes I am dealing with.) Although at the beginning of the task I wasn’t quite settled on what the functions should be, but I considered the exercise as a tool to assist in that direction.

Open Recreational Spaces   -   Internal workshop and "making space" -  Route and Interface between structure and outdoor workshop.

The core space I considered was a portion through what would be workshops, related to other spaces of less activity (internally), as well as a route through the intervention connecting various parts of the site, the building thus acting as a gateway through the site.

Getting this idea across in section was a slight challenge, explored the spatial intentions in perspectives, making intuitive decisions as i go. These also furhther informed the sections.

Sketch Models

From the sections, we were also tasked to explore the spatial intentions through models informed by the sketches through a core space.

Model 1

Exploration sketch model 1. Considering the intervention within its relation to the existing buildings, and the urban fabric. 

In the beginning of the exercises, I found that I was considering the models more as massing, rather than expressing the spatial experience and the intentions behind them. 

Model 2

To further explore the spatial intentions, I decided to consider the model at a larger scale. 

Personally, considering the spatial experience in perspective was a helpful tool in exploring the possibilities.
Here I consider the spatial relationship between the intervention and the public realm, and what positive spaces are created. 

The idea is that of a route through the intervention, the spatial experience being as of a gateway through the demolished sites. 

Model 3

Further explorations began getting a bit more character after sketching over the previous models.
These models better express a sense of lightness, structure, and the relationship with the street edge and the public spaces on the previously demolished sites. 

The intention is to have an increased scale in the intervention, while still being contextually relevant. With the sites location at the entrance into Fietas, the architectural intervention defines the threshold into Fietas.  

While making these models, a slight challenge was to express  the same spatial expression that I expressed in the sketches. This challenge was better resolved through Part2 of the design workshop later in the week. 

Personal reflections from the exercise

I really enjoyed the push to consider the spatial intentions of my individual projects intentions. This exercise forced me to test the abstract ideas spatially, relative to the actual site. 

I found myself going back and forth with the various exercises. Considering the intervention from various perspectives, was helpful.

Allowing oneself to make the intuitive decisions (without necessarily discarding the more rational ones) made me consider the whole intervention with more creativity. 

Although during the process I felt as though I had not settled on the spatial intentions, the exercises assisted me to consider what I really mean with some of my intentions. 

In retrospect,I find that my intentions (spatially) seem to focus on:

- The idea of filling the spatial gaps made by the demolitions

- Spatial for connectivity and legibility through the intervention and adjacent spaces

- Giving Fietas a presence spatially as a part of the city, rather than a gap within the city. 

From here 

From the exercise, I think I need to take a bit of a step back to consider what my overall urban drivers are. 
These short exercises were followed by another short exercise with Tuliza Sindi