HISTORY|MEANING
SIGNIFIER. SIGNIFIED expression, concept
INTRODUCTION
The 3rd project of this series extends
directly from project 2. This brief intends to open investigation into ‘urban
semiotics’; Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols and their use or
interpretation in the making and expression of meaning. In an urban fabric -
The study of ‘meaning’ in urban form as generated (framed/invented) by
architecture, images and society. (…where ‘signifier’ is the expression and ‘signified’
the concept.)
“Not only is the city an object which is perceived (and perhaps enjoyed) by millions of people of widely diverse class and character, but it is the product of many builders who are constantly modifying the structure for reasons of their own. While it may be stable in general outlines for some time, it is ever changing in detail. Only partial control can be exercised over its growth and form. There is no final result, only a continuous succession of phases.”
“We must consider not just the city as a thing in itself, but the city being perceived by its inhabitants.”
“The observer himself should play an active role in perceiving the world and have a creative part in developing his image.”
“The observer—with great adaptability and in the light of his own purposes—selects, organises, and endows with meaning what he sees.” (Kevin Lynch 1960)
“Not only is the city an object which is perceived (and perhaps enjoyed) by millions of people of widely diverse class and character, but it is the product of many builders who are constantly modifying the structure for reasons of their own. While it may be stable in general outlines for some time, it is ever changing in detail. Only partial control can be exercised over its growth and form. There is no final result, only a continuous succession of phases.”
“We must consider not just the city as a thing in itself, but the city being perceived by its inhabitants.”
“The observer himself should play an active role in perceiving the world and have a creative part in developing his image.”
“The observer—with great adaptability and in the light of his own purposes—selects, organises, and endows with meaning what he sees.” (Kevin Lynch 1960)
This brief adopts these ideas as
experimental, observational and representational processes toward generating an
understanding and expression of a particular history (or story). And further to translate visual reflections,
signs and concepts to a resultant architectural response. A building as;
surface and space, skin and void, sign
and museum.
The
Louis Botha arterial unravels multiple ‘Johannesburgs’ distending along its
trajectory, this linear interface allows for interesting and unexpected
observations – unique and sometimes contradictory characteristics – urban
fringe, suburb, residence, industry, development, decay, thoroughfare,
informal, permanence, transience, belonging and disillusion are all realities
that can be observed. These conflicting scars of reality begin to tell the
story of city and people, a clashing consequence of
Johannesburg as a city of invention&industry, struggle&segregation,
wealth&wasteland, re-invention&reality. These historical, current and
ongoing conditions - complex architectural, urban, historical and
socio-political clues and undertones - are what you are called to investigate,
unpack and challenge in this project.
PROJECT BRIEF
Supporting this brief as an
extension of project 2 a series SITES OF
SIGNIFICANCE have been identified in each ‘local area’ on the Louis Botha
Corridor of Freedom. These buildings have been selected as ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERS (protagonist figures) for each of the
‘local areas’. Throughout the process of this project these sites should be
considered as beacons/testimonies of the urban character and social identity of
the ‘local area’. The individual sites are specified further on in this brief.
Each student will work within the same ‘local area’ as allocated in the previous
project. Although this is not a group work exercise students are encouraged to
work within the ‘studio offices’ and support and collegial development is
expected.
Students’ approaches must
incorporate the previous design drivers (topography. topology, networks. Connections) as influences to observation and
design, engaging with the complex nature of the selected site with an end focus
to uncover and communicate history and meaning to (and through) the social and historical
conditions of your allocated context.
Having already conducted urban
analysis in groups and individual focused mapping and investigations your
process begins rapidly - consolidate and communicate the embodied meaning and
memory of the neighborhood, through its development and reinvention.
task one
DRAWING: The
following list must be explored and executed as a literal list of drawings. You
are required to produce a piece of work for each component described. For the
purpose of this brief your understanding of ‘drawing’ must be expanded.
Consider each drawing (and the process of image making) as an experimental
investigation into achieving the expression/representation required.
- 1 - The site
+ building as beacon/testimony situated in a matrix of; perceptions, realities,
data, expressions, reactions. (A drawing
and a montage.)
- 2 - The
site + building as an expression of a suggested key characteristic:
Parktown Hillbrow ‘A gray area’
Yeoville Berea ‘A vibrant edge’
Orange grove ‘A latent landscape’
Highlands ‘A conflictual zone’
Balfour ‘A forgotten tapestry’
Bramley ‘A disjunctive relationship’
Wynberg ‘An industrial inbetween’
(A drawing.)
Parktown Hillbrow ‘A gray area’
Yeoville Berea ‘A vibrant edge’
Orange grove ‘A latent landscape’
Highlands ‘A conflictual zone’
Balfour ‘A forgotten tapestry’
Bramley ‘A disjunctive relationship’
Wynberg ‘An industrial inbetween’
(A drawing.)
- 3 - The
site/building as a spatial expression of your
archispeak term. (A drawing and a model.)
- 4 - The building
as:
- context
- person
- community/ies
- conflict
- opportunity
- history
- meaning
- skin + void
- place
- landscape (vertical)
(A collection of drawings and explorations.)
- context
- person
- community/ies
- conflict
- opportunity
- history
- meaning
- skin + void
- place
- landscape (vertical)
(A collection of drawings and explorations.)
task
two
REPRESENTATION and DESIGN: Your design challenge is to
re-imagine the building and the site - a museum
and sign, a symbolic surface and kiosk
of collected information. The re-imagining of the building will call for you to
transform the street façade of the building as an interwoven expression of the
area, the signifier. Simultaneously you must deal with the ground floor volume
of the building and the invisible volume bound by pavement edge and building
envelope. In this space you are tasked to design a site specific museum, the signified. This architecture
should emerge from the re-reading, analysis, extraction and synthesis of
spatial and tectonic concepts evolving in the series of drawings.
Your
building and surrounding components should respond to the socio-political
reality in the area as well as the incongruencies and
dormant informers of the surrounding fabric. The architecture should
communicate the complex and diverse nature of this in some legible way
(expressed spatially, tectonically or through information). Your building and
site extent should become a place and space that communicates through its
experience at varying scales – person, people, neighbourhood, spine, city.
Likewise your building programme can range from diverse to singular - refining
the programmatic requirements to a more relevant and contextual response.
The
outputs for this task are limited to the following artefacts:
- Ground floor plan - showing context, street, edges, existing and new architectural and urban landscape.
- Cross section - showing ground floor space and place, street connection, re-imagined skin.
- Street elevation – showing the re-imagined beacon imbedded in the immediate context.
- Axo – a semiotic expression contextually anchored - a composite layered representation of skin, space,
content, context, threshold, tectonic… ALL CONSIDERATIONS IN PROCESS
- Process model - tracking explorations, analysis, representation, struggles, discoveries.
- Ground floor plan - showing context, street, edges, existing and new architectural and urban landscape.
- Cross section - showing ground floor space and place, street connection, re-imagined skin.
- Street elevation – showing the re-imagined beacon imbedded in the immediate context.
- Axo – a semiotic expression contextually anchored - a composite layered representation of skin, space,
content, context, threshold, tectonic… ALL CONSIDERATIONS IN PROCESS
- Process model - tracking explorations, analysis, representation, struggles, discoveries.
design requirements
Your
design scheme must deal with the site and building as a considered extent – addressing
the ideas of edges and separation, connectivity, sub/urban amenity, etc. The
architectural programme should incorporate;
A
museum and archive (information
point)
A
gathering space
A
NEW PUBLIC function/service/opportunity
A
parcel on a route
The
programmatic ‘footprint’ must include only spaces within the existing envelope
and the portion of street and sidewalk as a spatial and surface extension of
the building.
CONTEXT and SITEThe following SITES OF SIGNIFICANCE have been identified as ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERS (protagonist figures) for each of the ‘local areas’. All students in each group must engage the selected site.
PROJECT SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
- Investigate the social-political
history and meaning of the site through intensive, visually driven
architecturally
focused mapping.
A focus on DRAWING as a thinking tool for exploration and representation.
- Document observations and distill data into visual communication of findings.
A focus on DRAWING as a thinking tool for exploration and representation.
- Document observations and distill data into visual communication of findings.
- Translate observations into workable concepts and
tools for design.
- Develop a consistent visual language (brand/identity) through
experimentation with drawing, montage,
collage, photography, film et.al.
- Design a building – an expression of history, meaning and comment.
A conversation with context, community and user – cultural, infrastructural, social, public and personal.
collage, photography, film et.al.
- Design a building – an expression of history, meaning and comment.
A conversation with context, community and user – cultural, infrastructural, social, public and personal.
- Synthesise concepts dealing with the ‘signifier’ and
‘signified’.
DESIGN TOOLKIT
Your design toolkit will emerge
through the development of drawing outputs as processes of analysis, discovery
and experimentation as outlined in task
1’ above.
Image: Perry Kulper; Fast twitch
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
- Consolidated context mapping and
analysis (from project 2) showing the allocated site as a conceptual
nexus of ‘actors’, ‘forces’ and narratives within the larger local area. Scaled to suit.
- Precedents (self-sourced) and extraction of principles from these case studies.
- Process (extensive explorations and collections of ‘drawings’)
- Final rendered drawings and presentation model:
nexus of ‘actors’, ‘forces’ and narratives within the larger local area. Scaled to suit.
- Precedents (self-sourced) and extraction of principles from these case studies.
- Process (extensive explorations and collections of ‘drawings’)
- Final rendered drawings and presentation model:
Composite
site/GF plan @ 1:100
Street
elevation @ 1:100
Cross section @ 1:50
Layered/exploded Axo @ 1:100
Process/study model @1:200 (generated through the duration of the project. Process as product)
Cross section @ 1:50
Layered/exploded Axo @ 1:100
Process/study model @1:200 (generated through the duration of the project. Process as product)
OUTCOMES
- To develop the ability to access
historical and socio-political information of architectural sites at varying
scales and
focus; urban, sub-urban, cultural, infrastructural, spatial, human.
- Develop the skill of conceptualizing designs and
architectural schemes at a sub-urban scale with a
response to
adjacent urban context.
- Initiate an engagement with a contemporary design
methodology and approach related to a specific
context.
- Resolve multi-scaled programmes and integrated spatial
arrangements focusing on a community/user
- Generate an architectural response through a process driven methodology with a focus on drawing
- Develop a critical and theoretical premise to be explored and resolved in the architectural design
Image: Chora; Main Plan of the Hoje Tasstrup new suburb
city
- Generate an architectural response through a process driven methodology with a focus on drawing
- Develop a critical and theoretical premise to be explored and resolved in the architectural design
EVALUATION
CRITERIA
- Understanding of urban complexity. Mapping and urban
response.
- Understanding and demonstration of heritage and the
impact on building design and content.
- Communication of narrative in design process
(drawings) and final scheme.
- Critical analysis and extraction of principles and
tools.
- Architectural resolution. Tectonic, scale, usability,
build-a-bility.
- Visual and physical representation.
RECOMMENDED READING
http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2012/03/12/from-line-to-hyperreality.html
http://archinect.com/news/article/54767042/drawing-architecture-conversation-with-perry-kulper
http://archinect.com/news/article/54767042/drawing-architecture-conversation-with-perry-kulper
Lynch K. The Image of the City. Harvard-MIT. 1960
Bremner. Writing the City into Being: Essays on Johannesburg 1998-2008
Bremner. Writing the City into Being: Essays on Johannesburg 1998-2008
Jimenez Lai. Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel. 2012
Bacon
E. Design of Cities. Penguin. 1976
Jacobs J. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House. 1993 [1961]
Jacobs J. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House. 1993 [1961]
PROGRAMME
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