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. 

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. 

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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

Thesis process video submission

A video submission of the current thesis process. There was a strict 4-minute restriction to summarize the overall narrative of the thesis process upto this stage of the project. 

B-tech final design project

A starting point. Levels of intervention and healing

The socio-spatial wounds of Fietas may be viewed as existing at varying scales. Thus opportunity exists to intervening at different scales. 

Intervening at varying scales may be considered as a multi-level treatment to the spatial woundedness. Through considering the built environment in terms of levels, as well noting the various agents that are active on those levels enables one to also place oneself in the relevant position to intervene. 

While the city of Johannesburg has an overall vision for the city, setting the guidelines (such as the corridors of freedom development) for the levels below, for the sake of this project, the delimitation of intervention are within the neighbourhood scale of Pageview and Vrededorp.

 A starting point

The public realm, the shared spaces of the neighborhood of Fietas is the starting point for intervention in healing the socio-spatial wounds. This refers to the shared spaces at a neighbourhood scale. 

Whilst being on major routes to and through the city, the neighbourhood is not programattically benefiting from that proximity. These are factors are all seen as opportunities in seeking to design towards a sens of spatial balance and well-being, healing the spatial wounds of the neighborhood. 

The demolished sites that remain also hold potential in being redeveloped and offer opportunities for new spatial and programmatic interventions relevant to the context. These also hold opportunities to capture and spatially represent the rich history of the neighbourhood.  

Neighborhood Framework

In considering the notion of “comprehensive” treatment, a multi-layered approach is adopted in the proposals at an urban scale.

Among these layers include the first stages of development taking place within the major routes of Fietas (8th, 14th and 17th street moving from East and West,, as well as Krause, De-la-rey and Solomon Street from North and South). These major routes frame smaller “sub-neighbourhoods” within Fietas which all bear a unique and distinct character, while also serving as linkages.

Developments meeting at an intersection provide opportunity for mixed use developments, The intersection on 8th Street and Krause street is where one finds opportunity for intervention.

Focused Design intention

After the spatial exploration exercises, I decided to take a bit of a step back to focus my overall design intention more. While I found myself responding on a number of various things things, I had not yet fixed on one overall design intent, which was making it slightly difficult to progress. 

From the exercises, I considered what was driving the various decisions being made. 

Substance abuse and it's impacts in Fietas.  

From the number of site visits and interaction with residents at the Jan Hofmeyer community center, as well as through an unscripted documentary on the neighborhood, I found that substance abuse has been a contributing factor to the various difficulties in Fietas. 

Responding to this condition has been a major driver in the intent to explore how architecture can respond to the social opportunities. 

I consider what are some of the major causes behind some issue of substance abuse in Fietas. Understanding that architecture may not necessarily be the solution to all the problems of the neighbourhood, 

I considered which of the contributing factors have spatial implications (Orange dots). This is where I see opportunity for intervention. 

One of the major cause of the substance abuse, both in Johannesburg and in Fietas in particular is largely due to what is termed "Post-apartheid Woundedness." This was supported by an article I read on the subject of Youth “Woundedness” and the substance abuse crises in South Africa. Below are a few quotes from it:

"While there are many factors contributing to this state of affairs (generally), we must apportion some of this to the “woundedness” of our nation, post – apartheid...

Substance abuse is a national crisis threatening the very fabric of our society. In responding to this crisis, we need to address our “woundedness”."

Youth “Woundedness” and the substance abuse crises in South Africa – A contribution towards understanding this “Wicked” Problem! - Jerome September, Youth Connector at the Citizens Movement

What became particularly interesting with Fietas is that the "woundedness" (caused by the demolitions under the apartheid group areas act) caused not only the social woundedness, but it is also very evident spatially.

Socio-spatial woundedness in Fietas, the scars of the apartheid demolitions of the 1970's

The "social woundedness" that exists in Fietas (substance abuse, crime etc) is very related to the what caused the "spatial woundedness" (decay, void spaces) also. The scars that remain are not only emotional scars, but also spacial.

The demolitions which took place drastically altered the condition of the previously thriving, multiracial neighborhood.

A bit of Fietas, before the demolitions of the 1970's

These considerations, in getting a better understanding of the real nature and cause of the substance abuse ni Fietas, as well as its related conditions, helped focus the design question in arriving at a relevant architectural intervention:

In considering this question, I look to address the spatial woundedness found in Fietas, in view of the fact that it is also associated with some of the social conditions found in the neighborhood.

I consider the intervention metaphorically as being a catalyst: In the same way a bandage doesn't necessarily heal a wound, but is necessary to facilitate the body's natural process of healing,

This idea is to be explored further.

Design workshop_Part 2: ANCHOR | UNSEE | COMPOSE (Tuilza Sindi)

The intention of this workshop was to guide in the process of exploring what the spatial experience is/could become with our interventions. This was through a few short, exercises that had us draw what we imagine the completed intervention would be, and draw/sketch/paint what we imagine that experience of that space would be like.  

4 Initial compositions from the exercise. 

PART 1_ANCHOR

For part 1, the aim was to sketch the anchoring elements of intervention, without looking at the page. This was under the 2 themes of "Movement and Route" and "Volume and scale.

Movement and Route

Considering the main and secondary users, how they move through the spaces, and where that movement overlaps/ connects. I considered the darker colours to be the primary users, while the feint/lighter colours would be the secondary users moving through. 

Volume and scale 

The spatial volume and the experience it creates was explored. Here I consider the volume of both the intervention as well as the existing elements around the site, and the site within the city.

PART 2_UNSEE

Using various mediums, the second task was to draw with eyes closed while facing the page. This is in continuing from the first part, but considering the other layers of spatial hierarchy and what intention we have behind the intervention as a landmark. 

Hierarchies 

Here i attempted to express the finer grain patterns found throughout the site, as carried on in the architectural intervention. Some of the spaces would feed off of the activity happening on the route throughout the site (Fietas), while the more contained activities happen deeper within the intervention. 

Landmarks and marks on the land

The idea of "landmarks" is what the intervention does as a landmark/ what statement it makes. Here I explore the idea of the intervention as being a part of its contexts and stitching the gaps made from the apartheid demolition, and also making a monumental statement of Fietas as a valuable part of the city. 

PART 3_COMPOSE (MODEL)

The third part of the task was to translate the spatial intentions put on paper, to a 3D model expressing what we want our interventions to achieve spatially. This was to be done from one of the drawings selected. 

#WorkInProgress 

Model from "Volume and scale"

From the "Volume and Scale" drawing, I considered the model as a sectional perspective through the intervention and the previously vacant site. Its layered with the linear planes for movement through the intervention, still relative to the existing and surrounding context. 

Summary of reflections 

This process was a helpful exploration of what the architectural intervention could become. I enjoyed the freedom of the process, which was very helpful. The intuitive decision making and responses helped to get out of ones comfort zone. 

From the exercises, I re-considered why I made some of the spatial gestures I did, and how the spatial ideas can be explored in reality, on the actual site. 

A major intention is to have the intervention relevant to, and also support, the valuable happenings within the context. 

Spatial exploration and contextual relevance

The next step is really to ground the various intentions into a more focused, overall approach that informs the next decisions. At this point I still think I have not clearly articulated that.