OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Silverman, Melinda"

Browsing by Author "Silverman, Melinda"

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Open Access
Accommodating density: an alternative to Cape Town's suburban mode
(2015) Graham, Laura Dale; Silverman, Melinda
The Cape Town city border is expanding due to rapid urbanisation and further expansion is not the solution. The growth is destroying agricultural land and the provision of transport and services is becoming increasingly inefficient. The new suburbs on the edge of the city are comprised of mostly low density housing and present a dull urban environment. There is a need to find alternate ways to accommodate a growing population with efficient use of services and facilities. Denser environments present greater vibrancy. This dissertation addresses the issues around high density housing and how to change South African's negative perceptions regarding density which are based on the lack of parking space, privacy and desire for one's own garden. Perceptions can be changed through transport-orientated design, designing for privacy and the inclusion of balconies or patios. This project also looks at ways to increase a sense of community, which is often lacking in low density areas. The project is sited within the Two Rivers Urban Park, in Hazendal by the Black River. This area offers a unique opportunity for Cape Town to densify existing areas near the city and redefine how Capetonians perceive rivers, which are often viewed as the 'backyard' space of the suburb. Rivers are neglected, polluted and used as dumping grounds. This dissertation attempts to change this perception and to provide opportunity to celebrate the rivers. The outcome of this dissertation is an infill project and a catalyst for potential density development in the area. The project surrounds the Hazendal train station. It includes a social housing section with community facilities; a new train station entrance with a community hub; private plots, and market-related housing facing the Black River. The proposed design for the dissertation could set a precedent for ways in which to densify existing low density suburbs near to the city centre.
Open Access
Action and Reaction: Developing an architecture of movement
(2014) Emery, Luke; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda
This dissertation deals with the phenomenon of movement in relation to architecture. What does it entail to create an architecture of movement and what possibilities can this type of design offer us outside of 'conventional' architecture. The research behind the topic bases itself in the theory of Game Design as a tool to structure movement with meaning. Game Design proves itself to be a potent tool in encouraging interactivity, in turn handing over a certain level of control and design over to the players participating. The more control afforded to the players, the more they can affect the outcome and experience of a game. This means games are a medium with the possibility for high replay value as players go back to experience the multiple outcomes of a game. The theory of using Game Design as a tool in architecture is then tested through my own design located on the edge of the Grand Parade in Cape Town. The design aims to create an architecture of multiple outcomes including an 'Everyday' and 'Festival' narratives through the use of movement. Game Design is used as a tool of analysis in order to determine whether the movement is integral to the architecture and its intended function through spatializing the key principles identified in the theory of Game Design. The conclusion drawn is that Game Design is an effective tool in aiding design in architecture. Its value emerges through the fact that it challenges design decisions made within architecture based on how integral they are in relation to the social and programmatic rules and expectations the project attempts to deal with.
Open Access
Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
(2016) Arnold, Anees; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
With regard to low-income settlemnts in Cape Town, it has become apparent that the private relam is prioritised over the public realm. It is essential that we regard the public realm as an integral component of the lives of the people who inhabit this environment. Because of the living conditions, large portions of people's lives are conducted outside of this prioritised private realm. It is evident that public spaces within these environments become neglected due to a lack of ownership and management. The intention of this research is to find strategies of enhancing public life through encouraging shared open spaces – the urban commons. This thesis is process driven as opposed to product driven. The objective is to determine a replicable strategy that possesses generic solutions as well as providing strategies to address the specific. These strategies are explored and hypothetically tested using Delft South, Western Cape, as a site. With regard to the public spaces the present condition of the public spaces are not dissimilar to that in other areas of the same socioeconomic condition in South Africa. The public spaces have been neglected and there is limited space to provide additional public spaces within these areas. Therefore this dissertation explores the possibility of activating existing residual open spaces as well as neglected parks. It aims to use these as opportunities to provide shared public spaces nestled within neighbourhoods to meet the needs of the respective communities. Ultimately, the objective of this thesis is to develop a series of strategies which can be applied to specific conditions. This is to be to be done by interrogating my own design processes with the objective of being able to reorder it in a suitable manner. Specific to Delft South the areas positioned away from the active Main Road require attention. For the case of this thesis theses areas are referred to the backquarters and I have highlighted it as my interest of concern An introduction to my interest of adding new life to the public back quarters through enhancing the neglected open spaces. I will start off by problematising public spaces in low-income suburbs to outline the underlying issues specific to South Africa. This is followed by general principles that public spaces should embody. A large section, thereafter, will analyse the spatial structure of Delft South and how it is being inhabited. This analysis was done using various exercises to get both a quantitative and qualitative understanding. Using this as a basis, desired outcomes are explained in the chapter following this. All of these aspects are used to inform the architectural interventions.
Open Access
Adaptive Healing: Exploring therapeutic architecture and the integration of addiction rehabilitation into the Cape Flats, Mitchells Plain
(2014) Basson, Johan; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda
This dissertation explores therapeutic architecture and the integration of addiction rehabilitation into the Cape Flats, Mitchells Plain area. This project ultimately introduces the concept of an integrated community rehabilitation and wellness centre in one of the most notorious, unhealthy urban environments in the Western Cape, Mitchells Plain. This will demonstrate that a healing environment can be achieved in any context, urban or rural. A rehabilitation centre that engages with its surrounding community, fostering various levels of controlled interaction between patient and public. An integrated facility that gives back to its community through shared facilities. This investigation also unpacks the existing rehabilitation ecology and the gradual transition process in the formulation of a new hybrid system that combines the various stages of rehabilitation within a centralised facility. The project aims to deinstitutionalize the existing rehabilitation programme through the ‘simulation of a real life’ concept, where the facility will incorporate familiar elements, such as the house, neighbourhood and downtown to replicate the variety of environments in our everyday lives. The design uses ‘nature as therapy through architecture’ with the implementation of various concepts, which includes a raised therapeutic platform and a perimeter planter, serving as an urban filter that defuses the harsh urban context of Mitchells Plain. This project also explores the role of Architectural technology in therapy and ultimately introduces the concept of a highly localised adaptive façade system that allows for individual patient control and to filter the interactive visual relationship between patient and public. Our modern healing facilities have been designed to house apparatus for healing but not to be healing instruments in themselves. Architecture should be considered just as significant as the treatments that it houses.
Open Access
Architectural rubble : the manufactured landscape of Granger Bay
(2014) Philotheou, Christina; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda
Throughout the process of this dissertation I have explored an architecture that can truly represent the reality of the manufactured landscape and the complexities of such a morphology. It is with this interest that I found Granger Bay and its inherently manufactured qualities. It is a landscape that is simultaneously natural and artificial. An enquiry into the shift from the natural to the artificial was explored in terms of what it means for our reading of place as well as how architecture can encompass this new terrain. In the study of this site, like an archaeological investigation, the story of ‘unbuilding to build’ arose from the ground; discovering Granger Bay’s true genius loci, which is grounded in rubble and the stories of the buildings that make up its rubble ground. It was with these ideas that I allowed the landscape to inform and generate a unique architectural language where boundaries are blurred between nature and man-made and enclosure and opening. The key informants to this design are the various geometries and forces that act on the site: Fort Wynyard’s sight lines, the buried natural landscape, the ocean, rubble ground and the memory of the Alhambra Theatre. Through design I hope to have harnessed the sites latent energies and unleash the potential of Granger Bay’s favourable location with key infrastructure and public space.
Open Access
Bellville public transport interchange
(2014) De Klerk, Stephan; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda; Meyer, Tiaan
Public Transport has played a fundamental part in my personal life as it was the mode of transport used to get to friends, part-time work and ultimately university campus over the span of eleven years. Using the South African public railway service on a daily basis for the past six years, it has made me aware of many fundamental architectural problems within this arena, with the biggest concern lying within the public transport interchange precinct; at the coming together of the different modes of public transport. Staying in the Northern Suburbs my entire life, attending Bellville High school and later the University of Cape Town, meant that the Bellville Public Transport Interchange has had a big impact on my idea and conceptions on the functioning of a public transport interchange. Subconsciously studying the Bellville Public Transport Interchange and understanding its functioning over the past eleven years has made me aware of the absence of architectural contribution within its current operational system and has lead me to the investigation of the relationship between architecture and the Bellville public Transport Interchange. The dissertation document that follows seeks to improve the current relationship between architecture and the Bellville Public Transport Interchange through the use of vertical and horizontal architectural layering systems.
Open Access
Between nature and culture: a stone masonry school and walking path at the Strand Street Quarry
(2015) Rolando, Jean-Sebastian; Fraschini, Matteo; Silverman, Melinda; Fellingham, Kevin; Coetzer, Nic
The dissertation design seeks to make present and enhance the inherent qualities of the Stand Street Quarry in order to reintroduce its heritage narratives into the public realm. The proposed intervention aspires to, if anything, subtlety. It seeks to make the value of the histories of the site evident to the user in such a way that they are compelled to find meaning individually, to interact with the site and the landscape in a meaningful and personal manner. Minimalistic design solutions were sought out in order to produce a product scheme that embeds another layer of human intervention in the palimpsestual narrative of the Signal Hill territory.
Open Access
Bridging the divide between primary health care and community
(2016) Buys, Lüet Schraader; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly
South African cities have a complex social and physical post-Apartheid layering. The historical legacy, referring here specifically to the inadequate roll-out of public facilities in areas and uprooting as well as separating of communities, have resulted in under serviced environments that can lack social cohesion and often struggle with poverty. Public institutions play a catalytic role within a community. To this end, health care portrays the government in a legible 'provider' role and is, in some ways, an obvious way to make citizens feel valued in comparison with other public institutions. Health care institutions impact the community in a unique way due to the combination of specificity of service and the emotive way it is experienced by the individual. This dissertation aims to research, define (and ultimately) test a strategy that aims to stitch together the fissure between community and institutions, by rethinking the urban interface of generic primary health care facilities. This research is structured around themes of theory, policy, the continuum of care and physical environments; each in order to better understand what and how the 'gap' between health care institution and community is constructed. Programmatic and/or spatial ideas that inform the architectural design. This dissertation asserts that providing 'traditional' generic institutions sustains rather than improves the life of the community. The research suggests that existing health care facilities can be more effective as public spaces by introducing new programmes, disaggregating the formal interface, redefining and activating a new urban threshold and providing meaningful open space. The design ultimately aims to act as a new skin or threshold through which institutions relate to the community.
Open Access
Building the spectacle : breaking the wall : project for a civic sports precinct at Trafalgar Park, Cape Town
(2014) Moronell, Catherine; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda; Wentworth, Gemma
This design dissertation follows a narrative process of research and design speculation. The report defines the subject of the project and is the first part of the dissertation. The subject can be divided into the two major themes of: historically defensive territory and voyeurism or peoples' desire for publicness. The project is initiated through this pairing of seemingly antithetical themes. The second part and final outcome is a building proposal. Its function has been formed through my engagement with themes. The resultant programme is a civic sports precinct at Trafalgar Park and Baths in Woodstock, Cape Town. I chose this site for it concealed a hidden narrative in the city. The ruin of an 18th century Dutch defence system in the park was a catalyst for the investigation. Creating a civic recreational space in this guarded public territory (both historically and at present) became the object of my project. The narrative of keeping-out emerges as a socio-historical reading of the site. The possibility of seeing-in between sites of activity and how this informs publicness became the first spatial informant for the design project for public space.
Open Access
Building walls, breaking boundaries : a study of difference and inclusion at Deer Park, Cape Town
(2014) Jankes, Taryn; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda
‘Building Walls: Breaking Boundaries’ is based on the manner in which difference and diversity meet in the city and how architecture and the built environment can be used as a tool to either facilitate interaction or hinder it. Cape Town is a vibrant multicultural city, endowed with a monumental natural landscape that defines its edges. Despite this, the visual language of the city is one of spatial separation; a result of the enduring legacy of Cape Town’s colonial past and modernist city planning, and further perpetuated by the segregationist programme of the Apartheid regime. Cape Town is a place where a variety of natural features and diverse landscapes and persons are concentrated, but each remains isolated and segregated, resulting in the potential of this diversity being lost. My interest lies in the exclusion of both people and animals from the city. Through contradiction and confrontation, this dissertation investigates what happens when these previously excluded groups are reintroduced back into what society deems normal or acceptable. It explores what changes occur when our neatly compartmentalised lives are injected with the unfamiliar, where the boundaries we define are traversed, and where the walls we built to keep ourselves separate are broken down. In this dissertation report, I will explain how people with mental illness and nature are included through an architectural intervention that reconciles the contrasting programs of a halfway house, a sanctuary for neglected city animals and a gateway building as a public interface for Table Mountain. While I have chosen a specific site and designed a building particular to that site, several other comparable sites have been identified within the city where this concept is relevant and can be applied within site specific opportunities and constraints. However the focus of this dissertation is not an urban scaled intervention but an architectural solution to a site which allows the fullest exploration of the conceptual framework underlying this project.
Open Access
Church - Club: A study in cross programming as a means of survival for the church in the contemporary urban environment
(2014) Welz,Thomas Marcel; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda
This dissertation sets out to discover a new of mode of being for the Pentecostal church which will ensure its survival and continued existence in the contemporary urban environment of the Claremont Central Business District. It is argued that the institution of the church is under threat in the urban context. The church is in decline and urban land is in demand. The dissertation argues cross-programming the church will ensure its survival within this context by introducing new and diverse revenue streams which reduces dependence on dwindling membership contributions, opens up new dialogues between the church and its context, thus justifying its place within the context by filling gaps within and building on the existing contextual programmatic mix. Central to this programmatic problem the space of the church still needs to hold onto and express the essence of what it is that makes it a sacred space. The initial data gathering was done by site, programmatic and statistical analysis; this data was gathered on site and through various publications. In addition, theoretical and technical research was gathered through various peer reviewed texts and publications. In the process of gathering information, common themes, patterns and connections between the different analyses were made which in turn led to further research or conclusions which assisted the argument and informed the design development of the project. In conclusion, it was found that the central idea of cross-programming the urban church was workable. Here there would undoubtedly have to be some compromise as each programme presents different requirements, but ultimately the application of the key theoretical theme of verticality brought unity to the scheme. Additionally, there was also need for some unconventional construction techniques to achieve comfortable internal environments. Finally, the result of the incorporation of diverse programming proved to yield greater and more diverse interactions between the church and its context which ultimately ensures its place, role and survival in the contemporary urban context.
Open Access
The combine harvester: defining a new food retail typology
(2014) Kuiper, Sarah; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda; Beattie, Jennifer
The project developed out of a theoretical inquiry into the use of food as a design tool to facilitate urban regeneration. The need for change arises from the loss of public space due to corporate control over food and food retail taking place in privatised environments. This socio- spatial polarisation becomes visible when mapping the change from historic marketplace to supermarket. The two primary concerns which arise from this socio-spatial polarisation are that of food being viewed as a utilitarian commodity, which allows routine shopping to take place in a supermarket rather than a market, and an evacuation of the public realm with the disappearance of food from public marketplaces. Spatial and infrastructure analyses of existing food retail models within the existing food system in Cape Town identify an appropriate supermarket-market hybrid that facilitates the flows of people and produce while regenerating public space.
Open Access
The Contemporary Cape Winery: A Wine Cooperative for Jamestown, Stellenbosch
(2014) Bernard, Anthonie; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda; Beattie, Jennifer
This dissertation aims to engage critically with the commercial wine estate typology in the Stellenbosch wine region in the Western Cape. The social problems faced by farm workers in the region calls for a re-interpretation of the winery typology to ensure a more socially sustainable future for the viticultural industry in South Africa. In order to achieve this, the general state of the commercial wine estate in the region will be read in relation to aspects such as heritage, social responsibility and spatial relationship to urban areas and farm worker communities. To develop this new typology, a site with agricultural potential and a direct connection to an urban farm workers settlement will be used. The potential of the urban environment will be analysed in relation to the existing facilities in the community to determine a solution for a new typology of winery which will bridge the divide between community and the farm in such a way where it will be beneficial for both and through this create a new social structure for the wine estate. The possibility of an densified wine cooperative will be investigated. The design will consist of a large scale urban framework for the wine cooperative and a detailed design of the winery within the context of the new cooperative.
Open Access
Creating Connections in the City: From road to street; and buffer zone to landscape: Residual highway space as a tool in stitching segregated neighbourhoods into the urban fabric
(2015) de Beer, Christine Caryl; Fellingham, Kevin; Fraschini, Matteo; Silverman, Melinda
The fractured form of the post-apartheid South African city, created by city planning laws based on racial segregation, sustains inequality. Under apartheid, neighbourhoods were designed to exist in isolation. This isolation was created and reinforced by infrastructure and large areas of open space. This project recognises that residual space created by the highway could be an opportunity to stitch together the urban fabric. The project aims to address these spaces by using program to create connections. It finds its program in a sports centre on the border between Bonteheuwel and Langa. By understanding how our cities came to be fragmented globally, and its impact in South Africa, this project unpacks case studies that have created connections, extracting strategies that are useful and can be adapted in the South African context. It reviews literature that highlights new thinking about the city and the shift in the planning agenda from separation to integration. The project aims to address the separation between the two neighbourhoods of Bonteheuwel and Langa. It does this by transforming a road that divides, into a connective street; and by inhabiting the buffer zone with program in order to create an active landscape. The strategic choice of site is at an intersection of a new connection made into Langa, and presents the opportunity to address both these conditions of road and buffer zone. By creating an active street edge, the urban fabric becomes continuous between Bonteheuwel and Langa. The precinct has been designed so that the landscape offers the potential of connection by being programmed with urban agriculture, sports facilities and recreational space. These two predominant ideas prompted the conceptual understanding that the building becomes the transition between urban edge and landscape. A ramp is used as a mediating device to negotiate level changes both from inside to outside, as well as navigating the internal topography of the building. By recognising the opportunity of these residual spaces alongside the highway, these sites can be used to stitch together the isolated neighbourhoods in our city.
Open Access
Delft Campus Of Schools - A Network Of Educational Offerings
(2019) Meyer, Sean; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly
With a personal interest in youth, it became my primary point of departure, which acknowledges the fact that youth development within local income areas is hindered due to the lack and inadequate resources and spaces. The focus on youth is imperative to address social transformation and release them from the grip of poverty. Following on from my Honour year investigations of the youth as active agents in the urban environment, this Masters dissertation looks at youth development through an educational lens.
Open Access
Embodying the intangible at Princess Vlei : Capturing memory, history and imaginings in landscape and architecture
(2015) Thompson, Ekin; Silverman, Melinda
This dissertation is site driven, emerging from an interest in the controversy and resultant inspired community input surrounding the Princess Vlei wetland. It explores the approaches of designing for a natural open space that a community is strongly connected to by uncovering distinct meanings in the vast natural landscape of Princess Vlei and embodying them in an architectural and landscape intervention. This dissertation proposes enhancing site experience through the use of poetic landscape and built strategies, while simultaneously supporting and diversifying current activities by means of pragmatic considerations of program. An exploration into the history, legend, memory and imaginings associated with Princess Vlei illustrate that landscape is not simply made up of physical attributes, but holds intangible values. The variety of human expression and activity that take place at the vlei define it as a cultural space whereby the practices and relationship of the community with the site are what form its unique character and provide a strong basis for it to be conserved and enhanced. The increasing pressure of urbanisation and commercialism have led to contestation over the use of land on the eastern bank of the wetland. The proposal of the City to sell the land to private developers for the construction of a mall on the wetland's banks inspired counter-proposals by environmental organisations. These have in turn inspired this dissertation project which puts forward a more meaningful approach to green spaces in the city. The project is built upon community driven imaginings and embodying intangible qualities of landscape through an evocative intervention that captures memories that run the risk of being lost through inappropriate development.
Open Access
Extending sites of education: patterns for adaptable shared facilities to upgrade existing schools
(2015) Harrison, Juliet Anne; Silverman, Melinda; Low, Iain; Isaacs, Fadly
Extending sites of education is an architectural design-research project that takes a typological approach to the upgrade of existing old-stock public schools in Cape Town. The focus is on parallel linear-block type schools built in neighbourhoods in the 1960s-80s. The defining decision was to extend existing schools, both spatially and programmatically, through a set of patterns that have relevance at multiple sites of similar condition. Rather than design a model, which may compound the problem of a-contextual school buildings, the project explores an architectural strategy that balances between the generic and the particular. Thus, although the design elements may be replicable, the architectural intervention helps to ground the school in its urban context. The new programme is intended to support and broaden the existing schools to enrich their role as places of learning and create opportunity for the campus to be shared with the community. Montagu's Gift Primary School in Grassy Park was selected as a case study to exemplify this approach.
Open Access
Fertile ground: enhancing local food production in Delft, South Africa
(2016) Pieters, Frans; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
This dissertation, situated in Delft, on the eastern edge of Cape Town, aims to improve livelihoods by establishing a productive urban agricultural operation that will create jobs, supply healthy food and reestablish farming as a lucrative business in an impoverished community. It is intended to inspire people to transform the landscape of local food production and sustainable agricultural practice. Most impoverished communities tend to feel the effects of a formal food system that is set up to deliver to more established urban areas. This forces low-income communities to rely on informal retail to supply healthy foods, often at a premium, both for user and supplier. Food supply chains are dispersed resulting in high food costs and over-reliance on an extensive transportation sector. My project aims to decrease this footprint allowing nutritious foods to be grown and sold locally, benefitting both the consumer and the producer. By investigating the leading NGOs promoting urban agriculture and food security in the Western Cape, I have been able to extract valuable spatial lessons from these organizations. I have then applied them to create a model of urban agriculture and local food production that can work in these demanding landscapes. I explored the natural and urban conditions at various scales to determine the number of inputs required for a successful operation. I also investigated selected technologies to enhance land productivity and food production as well as selected systems to establish a sustainable operation in a landscape where resources are valuable and scarce. With high unemployment a regular statistic in impoverished communities, there will always be labor available and when given the opportunity, local residents can take advantage of the many benefits that such a project can deliver. I hope to develop a model that can be implemented around communities all over South Africa and the world, where common challenges of food insecurity faced by millions of people everyday can be addressed through local food production and in the process, establish a new type of agricultural model that can supply both the formal and the informal food sectors. My project is about celebrating a new agricultural model, one that is integrated into the urban landscape with a particular focus on local production within an impoverished community. It consists of a production farm with educational, research and retail components and a large-scale greenhouse that is intended to change the landscape of Delft. The farm will run various agricultural operations in a sustainable manner where are resources and waste is recycled and reused allowing for a closed loop operation. Growing, processing, packaging and distributing of produce will take place from this centralized hub. The greenhouse will be the celebratory moment of my project and I envision it to transform the landscape of Delft and the way in which the farming is perceived from a local perspective. The building will showcase all kinds of food growing technologies and will become a landmark in the area as a place of education and production. Specialized crops and seeds will be cultivated, stored and displayed for visitors from around the world, a one of a kind building that fuses food production, education and public interaction.
Open Access
Finding the place of the artisan in developing Woodstock
(2015) Simos, Christos; Fraschini, Matteo; Silverman, Melinda; Fellingham, Kevin
Argument - The relationship between Cape Town and its socio-economic change has resulted in developments often disassociated with immediate context ,but rather following capitalist ideals with very little to no variation. This results in social alienation of existing communities with the new developments. These new developments are internalized enclave models with no engagement to their edge conditions but in the case of Woodstock, are selected solely for their proximity to the city center and their low start-up cost. These developments are also restricted to the measures of the urban scale and take a place in the morphology of the city by creating a new dialogue and place. However they do add value to the city and initiate a flurry of similar developments around them using the basic model of the enclave. In this dissertation I propose the existence of a hybrid model that lies between syntactic values learnt from enclaves of malls and the armatures of the main street/s. By engaging with examples like the biscuit mill and Woodstock exchange and looking into their syntactic structure in comparison to the structure of dedicated malls (such as canal walk), I will be able to construct a set of design characteristics from which I can propose a new spatial model. This together with a critical look at the two main roads (Victoria road and Albert road) that run through Woodstock there will be enough local research into the overall form of the two contrasting models. Question - Dealing with an existing urban fabric which has undergone many infrastructural changes over the past 40 years, the new model of the enclave takes on a new form in Woodstock yet is bound by the spatial parameters of the existing morphology. The question of how much how much can we change something without losing its original value whilst working within its limitations? Locating the design intervention - Based on the theoretical research into enclaves and armatures, I isolate "anchors" which facilitate the function of an enclave and act as the main attractors of people. Naturally spaces form around these "anchors" and a series of linear paths leading up to them. In the case of Woodstock I have chosen the Woodstock station, and its adjacent site. The main intervention is this site and its structures climaxing at the stations entrance. The initial diagrams are a series of models and sketches which explore the path/ sand structures supporting this movement. The programme itself builds off the tradition of artisans and craftsmen of the area which manufacture, market and sell in the same space. Tectonics are derived from the typology of the buildings found on site and are tailored related to the artisans who will use these spaces. The existing structure contributes to the overall expression and is explored as an adaptable spatial model. Conclusion - Describing a new model is context dependant and the theory serves as a guiding set of rules which are used to establish the argument. Breaking of these rules creates the new but must be critically analysed for is values or its shortcomings.
Open Access
Fluidity and time-based architecture : a community centre in Hout Bay harbour
(2014) Pilzweger, Sven; Coetzer, Nic; Silverman, Melinda; Meyer, Tiaan
The focus of this dissertation study is Hout Bay harbour and the fluidity thereof - dealing with how the space changes over time. There is an apparent disconnection between space within the harbour, the land and sea, the people frequenting the space, as well as between the harbour and the broader Hout Bay community. The reestablishment of a Hout Bay historical activity route and a new community centre serving as the base for this route seeks to address these issues. In addition, the proposed design will seek to capitalise and improve on the existing fluidity of the harbour's spatial experience.