Thursday, June 12, 2014

written examination

Please be advised that your ARPL 2000 exam will be on the 17th June 2014. Venue is Senate House Room 3113, starting time is at 08:30.
You should be there 30 min before time, late comers will not be let into the venue. You have to bring your student card. Students not registered with the course will not be allowed to write the exam.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

previ












exam in bullet points

Exam preparation in bullet points

-        definition of ‘building type’
-        examples of residential ‘types’
-        definition of density
-        architectural options on how to densify urban areas/ examples
-        challenges of densification in SA, ref corridors of freedom, keywords: history + politics, needs + necessities, access + transport, live + work.
-        definition of ‘analysis’ of architectural buildings
-        explain: concept, context, light, size, circulation, thresholds, façade, composition, structure, material
-        analyse C Correa. previ housing, see info below
-        analyse your own row house design
-        summarize Lina Bo Bardi’s position expressed in text “Theory and Philosophy of Architecture”
-        discuss her understanding of “everyday space”, “observation and study of realities of a country”, “regionalism”, “beautiful forms”
-        questions to Teddy Cruz text, web.it/en/architecture/2009/05/13/teddy-cruz.html) re: his statement:
about the “micro-policy of intervention” aimed at transforming suburban areas into social systems that can anticipate, organise and promote social and economic exchange.” He says that the house shouldn’t be seen just as a dwelling unit, it can be more than shelter, it can be transformed into an economic engine to rethink modes of production and labour in the community and can be incorporated in a new idea of infrastructure, probably much more sustainable.”


WHAT IS PREVI?
by Tomeu Ramis
In 1965, the Peruvian Government and the United Nations invited British architect Peter Land to design a strategy for mass housing as an alternative to the massive informal settlements that were dramatically taking place in Lima during that period. In 1966, informal discussions began with the Peruvian Government about the PREVI (Proyecto experimental de vivienda, Experimental Housing Project), and its initial form consisted of four different pilot projects . For the first pilot project (PP1) Peter Land proposed the organization of an international competition to design 1,500 housing units on a deserted 40-hectare site north of Lima’s downtown. Thirteen international architects were invited to take part in the competition, and an open national competition was organized for architects in Peru to obtain the same number of competitors. The international and national sections were implemented simultaneously, and the PREVI competition for 26 selected competitors was announced in 1969.

The competition brief was based on a series of experimental principles:

1. A neighborhood and design based upon the high-density, low-rise concept, a module and model for future urban expansion.
2. A growing house concept , with integral courtyard.
3. Configurations of housing clusters within the neighborhood master plan.
4. An entirely human-scale pedestrian environment in the neighborhood.
5. Improved and new house-building methods with earthquake resistance.
6. An overall neighborhood landscape plan.

The jury met the same year in Lima and, having chosen the six winning projects (the international groups selected were Kikutake-Kurokawa-Maki, Herbert Ohl and Atelier 5), resolved to start working on the construction of the 26 proposals chosen for their very high quality and progressive design. Due to political and economic circumstances, instead of the 1,500 dwellings initially envisaged, the pilot scheme comprised 500 homes, with Peter Land's team drawing up a collage of 20 housing units per architect within a Master Plan defined by him. In a second phase, the best proposals were to develop 1,000 dwellings, but this phase was never implemented. Finally, 24 of the 26 proposals were successfully built. Two projects, by Herbert Ohl from Germany and Takahashi from Peru, were not built due to their technical and material complexities.

The PREVI was designed as a platform for expansion and the gradual adaptation to changing family needs over time. Its evolution and subsequent changes were essentially anticipated in the original design, but 40 years after its construction, the inhabitants have radically transformed the dwellings in programmatic and formal terms. The transformation of the PREVI is the reflection of a dynamic, consolidated, cohesive neighbourhood that is highly relevant today, in the context of the current crisis.


Charles Correa   (India)
Correa said that the project grew from the following four objectives:
(1)   Highest possible density commensurate with
(2) Individual landownership;
(3) Minimum road and servicing cost;
(4) Pedestrian /vehicle separation.

An arrangement of narrow row houses with access at both ends provided the logical answer both to vehicle segregation and minimization of service runs with porches and backyards acting as transition areas between pedestrian and car access and the interior of the houses along diagonal road and footpath routes so as to exploit the prevailing wind for ventilation purposes – aided by airscoopes over the central area of each house – and to achieve optimum orientation with respect to sunlight. Tree planting along pedestrian and service roadways can be employed to modulate sunlight and natural ventilation as well as traffic noise from the central thoroughfare.

The service structure of schools, shops, and church and recreation areas is strung out in a disjointed diagonal moving in the opposite direction to the footpaths and roads. They take the form of the covered shaded areas set in well ventilated clearings and can be easily reached on foot as they can be by vehicle. The shops can be serviced from cul-de-sac service roads. From individual porches one can walk along pedestrian ways until these join the central spine of patios culminating in the central church and shopping area.

There is a single underpass linking both halves of the site across the central area.
The houses themselves are designed in such a way that they can either be built by their future occupants, with the assistance of the authorities as regards prefabricated elements, subsidies, skilled labour etc.: or they can be completed by the authorities themselves and sold to individual families. The former option would allow greater flexibility and, bearing in mind the efforts have been made to minimize the number of constraints that would be necessary under the circumstances.

Narrow plots resulting in narrow frontages, in architects mind ensured that the façade to be ‘controlled’ was very small and set well back into the porch.

The short span housing offered considerable structural flexibility which could be exploited by the occupants. Further flexibility was offered by building the first stage development to be on ground floor, incorporating a front porch, living/dining area, bedroom, central patio, bathroom, kitchen and a small service patio at the rear. This was considered sufficient for a young family with one or two children. The future stages could add first floor bedrooms and bathroom.
Correa’s ‘interlaced’ scheme generated by the saw-tooth configuration of the anti- seismic outer wall is orientated along the axis that is most conducive to natural ventilation. The major changes have been made on the scale of the city block. Individual owners have now aligned their units along the street front.
z
Without malleability you can not have cultural expression-
all you can get is a top-down notion of how people should live” C.C.




Tuesday, April 8, 2014

research themes + provisional matrix

the theme leaders will specify outcomes, method and deliverables on thursday.  
be there at 8.30!!!


book references and more


strategic area framework, turffontein development corridor, draft report 2

http://www.corridorsoffreedom.co.za/cofBB/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2

In addition to that, the Urban Development Framework Wemmer Pan and Surrounding by Jakša Barbir Spatial Planning & Urbanism and others (2010) is available, as well as the planning document Rosettenville Shopping Centre by BJ Quilliam and C Daskalakos (1980s).

Rosettenville Studio has a dropbox with all material, please email to jennifer@stickysituations.org for access.

context_2_day 1: WORDS, VIEWS, WALLS


Stage 2: Site: Analysis of Context
MO 7, THU 10, MO 14, THU 17, MO 24 April

A_ Starting Off
Words, Views, Walls
First impressions of a new place.
Personal observation, unstructured interviews, perceived boundaries.

B_ Contextual Analysis_Directed Fieldwork
Themes:
1- Past, present + future of de Villiers Road
2- Public open spaces and institutions on and around de Villiers Road
3- Shops and other economies of de Villiers Road
4- Building types along de Villiers Road
5- Houses, subdivisions and renting process on de Villiers Road

context 2_rosettenville
starting off (monday, 7.4.2014)
individual
words – what YOU think
write a text of 300 words about your ideas and first impressions about rosettenville, as honest and direct as possible, 
 
part a is anonymous and will be used to create a word cloud
to be submitted as a word document 


in groups of 2 students
views -  what OTHERS say (while YOU listen...)
talk casually to 2 residents of rosettenville and find out about their lives
where they come from
how they live, with whom they live, how they move
what language they speak
what they work as, what they would like to work as
what they like, whom they like
what they fear, whom they fear
favourite spot in rosettenville
most dangerous spot in rosettenville

record those unstructured interviews in writing, take a portrait of the residents, if they permit

to be submitted submit as print out and word document

walls – what YOU see

walls are one of the defining elements of the work of an architect. they define areas, carry loads, retain, fence off, protect, exclude, open up, fortify.  walls can be material and immaterial, hard and soft, shared, portable, defensive, cultural, political, personal.
identify 5 different types of walls that you encounter on your walk down De Villiers Street, from Main Road across the Rotonda Park, record and illustrate them in the given graphic  format.

to be submitted as print out, pdf and indesign document 









Tuesday, March 11, 2014

green light turned orange


Pls remember that the light has in little to do with passing or failing in terms of approach/ quality of work,
But more with completeness and representation. So a green light does not guarantee a good mark not does
the orange one indicate a bad one. It simply shows that you were not presenting yet what is expected.
Red is however concerning in terms of quantity and most possibly quality.
The absent students have to present a valid reason for their absence to be able to continue the project.
Should you have been marked absent and were there and crited, contact me, I will double check on the crit lists.

Here is what you ALL have to look at

-          Site plan – larger context, view of roofs (this is a roofing project...)
-          Incl existing ground floor with the position of the staircase in the presentation (can be 1:100 if space problems)
-          Plan + section, elevation have to relate to each other should be they underneath each other – walls of section have to be above/ below corresponding walls in plan
-          Gutters and flows of rainwater have to be considered, planned for and this has to be shown in the drawings
-          Timber structure has to be represented in plan, section (and elevation if applicable)
-          It must be clear and obvious how your roof is constructed.
-          Your roof sits on an existing structure – you need to draw and build this structure.
-          Scale, north, drawing titles
-          Watch you backgrounds in renderings – no tropical sunsets or other effects, your design in its actual context
Is what you have to show. Start with line drawings, then add carefully any effect.

If you (kind of) finished construction (section + model, either one or best both) BRING IT ON THURSDAY!
It will be to your advantage.
If you are not (kind of) finished, you’ll bring it to the oral. It will not be to your disadvantage. 



Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Monday, February 10, 2014

architect's data, digital version

i burned a cd with the digital version of the architects data. this will be available at admin for ONE OF THE CLASSREPS to pick up today after lunch and organize who wants to make copies (cd) or copy it on a laptop. i will bring another copy to thursday's class.


size + scale, architect's data