Project 01 - TOPOGRAPHY|TOPOLOGY

Project 01 February 2014

TOPOGRAPHY|TOPOLOGY                                     

GROWN FROM THE EARTH, HUNG FROM THE SKY

INTRODUCTION

“For Johannesburg was still busy growing out of a mining camp, like it will to the end of all time still be growing out of a mining camp (Bosman 1986:87).

What kind of city is brought into being though the rapid acquisition of immense, speculative prospects? Johannesburg, whose raison d’etre (reason for being) was propelled out of the discovery of gold in 1886 and whose zeitgeist was shaped out of a mining imperative, is arguably a city still immersed in the powers and cultures of highly hierarchical, ‘corporatised’, and institutionalised accumulations of capital. “Glamour”, “danger”, “volatility”, “exploitation”, and, “armed”, “migratory”, “unbridled”, “undisciplined” ...” (excerpt. 2012. Antipode Foundation LTD.)

Johannesburg now can be read as a resultant palimpsest of early forces of formation and development - traces of a city - a library of stories, an archive of artifacts, individuals and events that begin to narrate the makings of our city, the origins of our society. The ongoing sprawl of comme
rcial and residential expansion blankets this landscape of origin and belonging, in many instances covering and disconnecting urban association.

Left in the wake of the outward pulse of a growing city we find outcrops of emptiness. These testaments emerge as remnants of an earlier landscape. This interplay of man-made and left-over suggests a number of clues to our history and beginnings with stories of triumph, struggle, diversity, growth and change woven into an elaborate visual palimpsest that in some way captures the delightful and fearsome evolution of Johannesburg.

As true to history as these frozen stories might be, there exists a disconnected resolution, a drop off point that falls short of engaging with the immediacy of now - a re-stitching of covered-up and untouched. Your task is to design a space that reconnects the unravelling of a Johannesburg connection – a space that allows for visual connection (metaphysical) and contemplation – an architecture that embraces this duality; before and beyond, earth and sky, the physical and the intangible.

(Standing on the cast-iron shore, Chris Dove)

PROJECT BRIEF

The theme for this project TOPOGRAPHY|TOPOLOGY calls for you to engage with the notion of duality. Topography; a reference to the earth, landscape and the physical, Topology – the science and expression of space, meaning and the intangible. Your architecture should communicate this understanding, an expression of origin (moments and happenings) and gestures of bearing (direction).

Your scheme must emerge through intensive engagement with the site. A relevant and contextual response to real concerns and constraints while simultaneously including more poetic spatial and philosophic aspects – a critical inquiry to architectural languages – an architecture that is “grown from the earth” (much like our city) and a tectonic poetry that is “hung from the sky” (a reference to the intangible).

The scheme must respond to the internal and external realms of the site and provide a space for contemplation, view, dwell, comfort and shelter (this could be a series of spaces with a variety of experiences) additional specific programmatic requirements will be a product of your architectural inquiry, what are the needs on site, where is the potential for intervention.

This project aims to integrate ATD (design), ATS (Studio work), ALS (Landscape and survey) and ATC (construction), serving as an introduction to methods and processes in each of the courses (requirements and outcomes outlined below). Additional subjects may link into the brief and will be confirmed by the particular lecturer at that time.

SITE

The site for this project is the Melville Koppies West. This outcrop exists as one of the few original conditions of pre-gold Johannesburg.

Melville Koppies West is public open space. It is criss-crossed with paths because it is a convenient shortcut between the adjacent suburbs …(the koppies) also burn every winter, which means that grassland predominates, and its ecology is very different from that of MK Central…

…conservation challenge was the shooting range - this was bulldozed. In the mid 1970s would provide facilities for police wives to learn to fire handguns… another landmark on (the) Koppies is the high quartzite cliff at the north-eastern boundary… at its foot is a small cave… Important users of Melville Koppies West are the African Independent Churches who worship there on Sunday afternoons… Pentecostal, Charismatic, and consist of small groups of worshippers bound to a single inspirational leader. About 30 groups use the Koppies, and there are probably more than 400 worshippers, clad in traditional white, and green or blue robes… Each Church has a numbered circle…

(excerpts from mk.org.za/mkwest)

PROJECT SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

ATD

- Select a site

- Investigate and demonstrate the physical relationship or

   disconnection between interior and exterior

- Document observations of the site from approach

   (surrounds) to contact (within) and beyond (intangible)

- From a thorough understanding of the site begin

   conceptual design

- Programme must be a product of architectural inquiry

- Explore heavy and light architectural languages and

  tectonics

- The design must respond to the user in terms of scale,

   experience and privacy

- Demonstrate an understanding of the physical notion of

   topography

- Communicate an engagement with the intangible +

   metaphysical aspects of spatial articulation (topology)

 ATS
-  Demonstrate an analysis of your chosen site from a micro-climatic    
   and solar access perspective

- Use this analysis to conceptually organize your design and
   develop a method of communicating site information and

   design development (diagrams)

-  Communicate an understanding of levels and contours both in  
   plan and section, and how your design manipulates or exploits the
   slope

- Communicate a realistic 3D impression of the design

- Understand and communicate the build-ability and structure

   of your scheme

 ATC  

-  Establish a palette of applications (materials etc) through

   research

-  Communicate the fine grain technical aspects of the project

-  Source and analyze relevant precedent studies 

   demonstrating structural and technical understanding

-  Thoroughly explain the process of building/making scheme

-  Demonstrate a unique approach to detailing (concept-linked)

-  It is critical that your scheme must be REAL, reasonably

   BUILD-ABLE, DETAIL-ABLE and DOCUMENTABLE

 ALS

-  Identify spatial defining characteristics of natural elements

-  Identify planting types (5 trees and 5 shrubs)

-  Identify ground surface treatment .i.e. paving , ground

   covering etc for various purposes

-  Document treatment of edges, street furniture (benches, lamp

   posts, bins etc) boundaries

-  Explore through precedents spiritual, contemplation spaces

   and record the elements.

DESIGN TOOLKIT

Grown from the earth/context | Relationship to city/land/sky Image in the sky

Sanctuary/retreat/escape/celebration

Personal - Universal | intimate - spiritual

Connecting views

Visual navigation

Meditation

Connection to land, meaning, journey

Idea of escape connected to landscape

A memory

A story

Duality                                                                                                    (Tower diagram, Collin Cobia)          

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

ATD

- Site selection, record and analysis (hand drawings, photo-collage, video)

- Demonstration of topographical and topological complexity (large scale sections)

- Precedents and extraction of principles (poetic and applied)

- Process (mapping, drawings and models)

- Final rendered drawings and presentation model:

            Site plan (City 1:5000. Context 1:500. Site 1:200)

            Plans of all levels 1:50/1:100

            Elevations (all, 1:100)

            Sections ( context scale to suit, site 1:200, building 1:100)

            Models 1:200 working model to final model including site contours

ATS

- Plans and sections showing how your design re-shapes the contours

- Site analysis from a climate and solar aspect

- Sequential diagrams showing the response to the site analysis scale to suit. A2/A1

- Hand drawn perspectives

- Hand rendered detail 1:10 (must communicate concept and design intent)

- Exploded axo showing structure, material and envelope. scale to suit

- Photographic composite drawing clearly communicating the 'spirit of the ‘place+space’ of the resolved design

  proposal. Nothing smaller than an A3 format

ATC(further details to be prescribed by lecturer)
- Build-ability drawing (projected/exploded axo to scale)

- Material selection report (motivation, specification, properties, application, referenced to details)

- Written specification
- Bill of quantities
- Construction Programme
- FULL SCALE BUILT DETAIL   

ALS

- Emotive collage showing precedent sense of space

- Site analysis- indicating site potential and problems

- Design concept plan

- Site plan of area focus (City 1:5000. Context 1:500. Site 1:200) showing

- Planting and hard and soft landscaping

- Cross Sections showing chosen site in context of building (context scale to suit, site 1;50, 1:100) - Models 1:200 working model to final model including site contours

                                                                                               

(photos: PopSkiet)

OUTCOMES

- To develop an understanding of site in terms of context, landscape, access and topography

- Introduce urban scale projects and begin to develop an approach to urban design and

   architecture in the context of cities

- Introduction to architectural and urban theory - site, space and place

- Initiate an engagement with a contemporary design methodology and approach related to a

   specific context

- Introduce mixed programmes and multi-level integrated spatial arrangements

- Develop an understanding of hierarchy within spatial arrangement; public to private

- Generate an integrated (holistic and considered) approach to the making of architecture from

   conception to construction

EVALUATION CRITERIA

- Integration of programmatic requirements arranged and related vertically

- Relationship of site and architecture

- Implementation of urban linkages – axes, vistas, views, pathways and connections

- Hierarchies of experience/use – public, semi-public, private, personal

- Response to access/circulation

- Physical representation (models & drawings) of site and building complexity

PROGRAMME

RECOMMENDED READING
Bremner. Writing the City into Being: Essays on Johannesburg 1998-2008

Martin J. Murray, City of Extremes: The Spatial Politics of Johannesburg. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. Juhani Pallassmaa. Eyes of the skin: Architecture and the Senses. 2005

Jimenez Lai. Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel. 2012