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.

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

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.

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.

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.