Connective Tectonics: The Kunye Cultural Community Centre - Weaving people, space, and time

Govender, Adeeshtra

Connective Tectonics: The Kunye Cultural Community Centre - Weaving people, space, and time

Thesis / Dissertation

2023

Abstract

Fragments of apartheid spatial planning still linger in our South African cities. These modernist separationist elements take form as highways or green buffer zones. At neighbourhood scales, these elements create separation and spatial injustice from the lack of access to resources and amenities. The open green space between Imizamo Yethu and the Helgrada Kronenzicht Estate sub-districts are a clear indication of these elements in Hout Bay, South Africa. Strife and urban sprawl permeate Imizamo Yethu and there is a desire for nearby civic amenities. To soothe the spatial injustice, I propose to transform this green buffer zone into a public civic space with a cultural community centre that will benefit Hout Bay through gathering, better spatial connection, and cultural substance. The current climate crisis acted as a primary design driver into the study of timber practice in South Africa for the architectural response. However, it is not common construction practice despite us having a timber practice heritage. An analysis of South African timber practice was undertaken in this dissertation to unpack architectural links to reconnect us to our timber heritage. A reinterpretation of past timber practice acted as an informant for the design's construction logic. It evokes links of our memories of craft and shared cultural heritage. From this, I derived an architectural material attitude of permeation, honesty and connection and brought principles of the roof and tectonic as design drivers for my project. Prototyping and digital modelling helped in reinterpreting the past through contemporary innovations of digital structural analysis, steam bending, and lamination. This informed the tectonic language of the architecture through the links of time, culture, technology, and space. The project connects communities and cultural construction systems through time and space via the design of a cultural community centre in Hout Bay. It does this by reconnecting us to our past timber heritage by reinterpreting the ontological readings of historical timber systems for a better climate future. The design employs reinterpreted timber tectonic and tests the possibility of permeability and connection against the common practice of exclusionary, hard edged civic forms that causes spatial injustice. The result is an architectural design that gathers people under one roof to create art, learn, connect in a weave of space, time, and culture.

Keywords

Architecture

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