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JOURNAL OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

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CIMPORVISEImagine it. Build it.

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IT’S ALMOST EXACTLY 100 YEARS since Le Corbusier had the idea of the Domino house diagram. It was an extraordinarily clear statement of the opportunity offered by reinforced concrete, which was rounded out into a manifesto for ‘the new architecture’ by the five points, about 10 years later. It is difficult to escape the fact that it remains a paradigmatic diagram because the possibilities of plan and façade, of the roof as garden, of the tectonic language, surely have not been exhausted. It is strange, therefore, that the opportunities and disciplines inherent in the diagram seldom occupy the minds of architects these days.

Of course, the diagram spawned what was caustically described by Roger Scruton as the ‘horizontal style’ – the morass of environmentally destruc-tive buildings and the 20th century concrete jungle. The technology in it dominated the human possibilities. Architects became obsessed with representing the industrial age and for developers it provided the route to profitable commercial buildings. But it’s inappropriate to blame the diagram – architects backed off into other concerns.

Neo-conservative post modernism was needed to shake up the discourse in the dry, technistic days of post-war empiricism, and much was learnt from it. But, in the end, it was a cul-de-sac of relativism. Where could you go after Piazza d’Italia? And the other, sharper edged, more critical post-modernism, deconstructivism in the global IT age of the big idea seems to have collapsed or exploded into pluralistic formalism, a merry-go-round pursuit of the new.

As human beings we are bound to seek new and different solutions. The issue is the scale at which they are sought. In Vicenza you can see, within an easy walking radius, five or six buildings by Palladio, each so different from the next that it’s hard to believe one architect designed them all. But none of them differs from the other as a whole and as a type. They are all three storeys – rectangular with courts behind facades right on the street – of the same materials and roughly the same dimensions. It was enough for Palladio, perhaps the most influential architect of history, to merely explore further what giants like Alberti, Bramante, Peruzzi, Michelangelo and Romano had explored since the Palazzo Rucellai 100 years before, and others, from Borromini to Lutyens, would explore for another 300 years.

Why this desperate search for things entirely new? Technology has changed exponentially over the last century, but not building technology; most buildings more than two storeys high are still concrete frames. Human needs are very little changed – wants and desires, perhaps, but not needs. So the freedom and discipline of space, structure, form and expression posited by the Domino diagram, remain appropriate challenges – especially now within the ethos of energy conservation.

This issue shows a number of architects working with the challenges of the diagram – exploring its capacity for a sense of lightness, for spatial openness and connection, for making a garden of the roof – and also working with concrete itself as a material with the capacity to be made in lightweight prefabricated parts and to be marked and textured in a myriad of ways.

FIRST CONCRETE CENTURY

Head of Editorial and ProductionAlexis Knipe

[email protected]

EditorJulian Cooke

[email protected]

Cover PictureSea house, from sea to mountain

by Sarah Calburn

Editorial Advisory CommitteeWalter Peters Roger FisherIlze Wolff Paul Kotze

Copy EditorFikiswa Majikela

Head of Design StudioRashied Rahbeeni

DesignersDalicia du Plessis

Mfundo Ndzo

Content Co-ordinatorHanifa Swartz

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DISTRIBUTION

Shihaam Adams E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: 021 469 2400

Copyright: Picasso Headline and Architecture South Africa. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publishers. The publishers are not responsible for unsolicited material. Architecture South Africa is published every second month by Picasso Headline Reg: 59/01754/07. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Picasso Headline. All advertisements/advertorials and promotions have been paid for and therefore do not carry any endorsement by the publishers.

PUBLISHERS:Picasso Headline (Pty) Ltd 105–107 Hatfield Street,Gardens, Cape Town, 8001,South AfricaTel: +27 21 469 2400Fax: +27 21 462 1124

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CONTENTS EDITOR’S NOTES01 FIRST CONCRETE CENTURY Julian Cooke

NOTES AND NEWS05 AZA BIENNIAL FESTIVAL

THEME: NEW USES OF CONCRETE08 FINISHING CONCRETE Daniel van der Merwe – Cement and Concrete Institute

14 LEARNING FROM DIEPSLOOT: TAXI RANK NO 2 Architect: 26’10 south Architects Alex Opper

20 HOUSE HARRIS: ARTFULLY SCULPTURED IN CONCRETE

Architect: Greg Wright Architects Mary Anne Constable

27 KEUS HOUSE: A SOARING BOX Architect: Gregory Katz Georgina Guedes

32 HOUSE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS Architect: Sarah Calburn Julian Cooke

36 PRISTINE PAVILION: KELVIN GROVE CLUBHOUSE Architect: Luke Scott Jean Carey Nuttall

40 AL STRATFORD – INVENTOR IN CONCRETE Julian Cooke/Al Stratford

HISTORICAL46 CHANDIGARH – THE BIGGER PICTURE

Gerald Steyn

PERSPECTIVE53 THE 1% ZEITGEIST Nic Coetzer

END PIECE55 THE ARCHITECTURAL PERSONALITY AND THE EMPLOYEES Albert van Jaarsveld

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AZA BIENNIAL FESTIVAL

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE The AZA2012 Biennial Festival, presented by SAIA, in partnership with the Cape Institute and Architecture ZA will take place at the Cape Town City Hall from Thursday 13 until Sunday 16 September. This follows on the first and hugely successful AZA2010 Biennial Festival, which was held in 2010, Newtown, Johannesburg.

The 2010 event was Africa’s largest ur-ban culture festival and brought together leading-edge thinkers and multi-discipli-nary practitioners in the built environ-ment from around the globe.

Participating international speakers in this year’s event will include David Adjaye (United Kingdom), Atelier Bow-Wow (Tokyo), Tatiana Bilbao (Mexico), Teddy Cruz (United States), Rahul Mehrotra (India) and Kibwe Tavares (United Kingdom).

Local speakers will include Ora Joubert, Andrew Makin and Thorsten Deckler.

The festival will comprise talks by the speakers regarding their interpretations of ‘re-scripting architecture’, design mas-ter classes, exhibitions, a film festival and architectural tours of the city.

More information and the festival pro-gramme can be found on their website: http://www.architectureza.org/aza2012

ON THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL, SAIA PRESIDENT FANUEL MOTSEPE SAYS:‘As the current President of SAIA, I seek to ignite what I hope will be a debate that challenges our professional world view and the socio-cultural and economic values entrenched within this view. I dare not pre-empt the topics that might emanate from the debate and would rather allow the subject matter to germinate naturally through the responses that

BY DAVID ADJAYE

develop out of the decisions taken by the panel of judges.’

Motsepe added, ‘In not pre-empting the topics, hopefully we’ll all, myself in-cluded, be enlightened about where our hearts and minds are as practitioners who create spaces and structures that are the interface between people and the natural environment. All I dare ask is: As archi-tects in Africa and South Africa, to what extent are we responsible agents for the relationship between the people, the built and the natural environments?’

He continued to say, ‘Why I ask this question to architects on this conti-nent and in this country, is because I believe it alone spawns a range of other questions about for example cultural adequacy versus globalisation; develop-ment versus sustainability, modernity versus tradition, local versus global and so forth.’ ‘Hopefully these questions and their answers will present more

questions and answers with which we can strategically navigate a path towards a better equitable future for all Africans and South Africans,’ he concluded.

BACKSTAGE ARCHITECTURE AWARD26’10 south Architects has been chosen as the Best Emerging Practice from South Africa in the bi-annual roundup of top emerging practices from around the world. It is one of three awards from Africa. The Award ceremony takes place in August at the Venice Biennale.

Backstage Architecture is a collection of projects that represents an original pano-rama of architecture on a global level across a network of professionals. Architects un-der 40 from 45 countries, one from each, are selected by a referee and presented in the book Worldwide Architecture.

Visit www.backstage-architecture.org

David Adjaye

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ORA JOUBERTSouth Africa

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C&CI ARCHITECTURE MASTERCLASS2.0 CPD Points Cat 1

INFO & BOOKING www.architectureza.org

CONSTITUTION HILLJohannesburg, South AfricaOMM Design Workshop2004

STABLES & STUDIOPretoria, South AfricaOra Joubert1890; 1995

SANTA CATERINA MARKETBarcelona, SpainEnric Miralles / EMBT1997-2004

FUNERAL HOUSESan Luis Potosi, MexicoTatiana Bilbao2007

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FINISHING CONCRETEConcrete is the most commonly used construction material for load-bearing and non-load-bearing elements. Its ability to be moulded and coloured, to reflect the surface qualities of its formwork and surface treatments in the hardened state, enables it to provide a wide range of architectural finishes which eliminate the need for additional applied finishes. By utilising concrete’s aesthetic potential and its structural properties, cost-effective building solutions are achieved

BY DANIEL VAN DER MERWE – CEMENT AND CONCRETE INSTITUTE

FAIR-FACED OR architectural concrete is a special type of concrete that is sub-ject to specific requirements regarding the quality and standard of smoothness or flawlessness, to create a surface intend-ed to remain on view after completion. But high-quality off-shutter architec-tural finishes require special attention. They demand formwork of high quality, extreme care in the choice and produc-tion of the concrete mix and a high level of workmanship and care by all contrac-tors involved. Client, architect, structural engineer, building contractor, formwork and concrete suppliers must all form part of a coordinated team in order to achieve what is planned.

Decisions must be made throughout all the project stages, which will impact on the end product. Some important con-siderations are highlighted below.

DESIGN AND SPECIFICATIONS• Designers must be aware of detailing

issues that will impact on the place-ment of the concrete; items such as minimum wall thickness to avoid scor-

ing the form surface during compac-tion, and spacing of reinforcing bars to facilitate concrete placement and avoid honeycombing.

• The principal South African national standard in which acceptance criteria for concrete are defined is SANS 2001-CCI: 2007, Construction Works Part CC 1: Concrete Works. It is recom-mended that the designer is especially aware of Table 1 of Clause 4.3.1.8. This, however, deals only with issues of accuracy of concrete work.

When designing and specifying archi-tectural or fair-faced concrete finishes, the following should be considered:• Visual standard of fair-faced concrete;• Formwork and formwork panel sys-

tem;• Surface texture (formwork panels or

subsequent surface treatment);• Formation of joints between formwork

elements;• Formwork ties and tie holes (position,

formation and making good);• Subdivision of the surface (dimensions

of formwork elements, formwork tex-tures, pattern of joints, arrangement of formwork tie holes and so on);

• Joints (position, direction, width and details);

• Detailing of corners and edges (exam-ple, keen, chamfered);

• Colouring (selected cements, aggre-gates, pigments, glazing, paints); and

• Surface finish of areas not cast against formwork.

IN-SITU CONCRETE VERSUS PRECAST CONCRETE While the most appropriate approach will vary from project to project, precast con-crete has some advantages over in-situ work in terms of the range and quality of off-shutter finishes. The main advantage of precast is that elements are generally manufactured under factory-controlled conditions. The finish and quality, there-fore, are generally of a higher standard than concrete elements constructed on site. Other advantages are that vertical elements such as columns and wall panels are cast as horizontal elements, providing

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ease of manufacture, and enabling work to be inspected prior to delivery to site.

The main disadvantages of precast concrete are limitations on the size of the elements that can be manufactured, transported to site and erected by crane, and the inevitability of joints between the panels or column/beam junctions.

OFF-SHUTTER FINISHES Off-shutter finishes can either be smooth or textured. Smooth finishes are typically achieved by using smooth form-face materials such as steel or plywood with a phenolic film on the surface. Textured finishes are created by either attaching materials to the formwork such as form liners or other materials, or by using pro-filed form-face materials. Subsequent treatments such as tooling, bush ham-mering and abrasive blasting can also produce textured finishes.

A new-generation concrete, which is well worth considering is SCC (Self-Com-pacting Concrete), which allows for supe-rior finishes without the need for compac-tion and with reduced segregation.

SMOOTH CONCRETE FINISHES The smoothness of the surface will be determined by the surface quality of the formwork against which it is placed. SANS 2001-CC1: 2007 describes a smooth sur-face finish, which could be referred to.

IN-SITU TEXTURED CONCRETE FINISHESFormliners are materials placed against the form-face to provide a negative mould against which the concrete is cast.

Almost any texture or pattern can be reproduced from rope and board-marked finishes to various stone or rock patterns. The materials commonly used include styrene foam, rigid plastics and fibreglass, profiled steel sheet, and elastomeric materials such as polyurethane and sili-cone rubbers.

The use of formliners may be a more economical way to achieve a heavily tex-tured finish over large areas, especially if a number of reuses are possible to offset the initial cost. Formliners can generally be reused many times, considerably re-ducing the cost per square metre. Some

formliners can consist of different mate-rials that become a permanent feature of the finish such as various bricks and stone facings.

Textured finishes can also be pro-duced from moulds. Similar to formlin-ers, moulds are mainly used in precast factories for the repeated provision of a pattern. If a pattern or texture is re-quired on both faces, the top surface can be stamped. The pattern can also be designed to create a recurring, yet seem-ingly continuous pattern over a number of elements.

Set retarders can also be used to pro-vide texture and colour; they are applied to the form-face to retard the set of the concrete surface. Once the formwork is stripped, the cement paste on the sur-face is removed to reveal the aggregates, changing the colour and the texture of the surface. Photo-engraved finishes are typical of this method, where an image is revealed by altering the depth of ex-posure of the coloured aggregate using varying amounts of set retarder.

Water washing is used to expose the

1 Beach House, Yucatan, Mexico, Munoz Architects, 2010: Using recast concrete wall panels ensured for a 35 % building cost reduction over convention building methods.

2 Cultural Centre, Hackney, London, David Adjaye Architects, 2009: Pre cast black pigmented structural wall panels.

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aggregates by removing the cement paste prior to the hardening of the concrete sur-face. While it is usually used for precast concrete elements, it may be used for in-situ work in conjunction with set retarders applied to the formwork surface prior to concrete placement.

POST-SHUTTER TOOLED FINISHES Tooled finishes involve mechanically tool-ing or hammering the off-shutter finish to produce a rough texture. Common meth-ods include bush hammering, point tool-ing, abrasive blasting and hammered nib.

Bush-hammered finishes range from re-moval of the surface cement paste (expos-ing the aggregates) to extensive removal of the matrix and possible fracturing of the stone. The depth of hammering must be specified (typically 1mm to 8mm) and the appearance verified by a test panel. Note that as the removal of the surface will tend to highlight any imperfections, a good-quality off-shutter finish is required. Also to avoid chipping the edges or corners, un-

treated borders some 25mm to 40mm in width should be specified and provided.

Point tooling provides a very coarse texture about 15mm in depth. The coarse texture is suitable for larger elements and will generally remove or conceal any surface imperfections. A large aggregate should be used.

Abrasive blasting can also be used to remove the surface paste or matrix around the stone to expose the coarse aggregate. The depth of removal should be specified, but in no case should more than one third of the aggregate particle become exposed to ensure adequate bond into the concrete. Acid etching is an alternative method of exposing the aggregate. Its use is generally limited to precast elements.

The coarse texture of tooled surfaces generally provides colour via the exposed coarse aggregate and a surface that is less likely to be affected by staining from atmospheric contamination and weathering.


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COLOURED CONCRETEThere are a number of ways that can pro-vide coloured off-shutter concrete finishes; using white cement, adding a colour pig-ment to the concrete, applying a coating to the form face that becomes an integral part of the surface finish, and even applying a surface stain or coating after the concrete has cured. If the surface is tooled to expose the aggregates, then the use of coloured ag-gregates is also an option.

The colour of hardened concrete de-pends on the colours of the fine particles (cement, sand and pigments) used in the mix. As the sand colour has a significant influence on that of the concrete, the col-our of sand to be used for coloured concrete work should be carefully selected. This is particularly important in the case of very light-coloured concretes and this includes colours such as yellow and blue.

Uniformity of colour is an important aspect of off-shutter concrete. Slight variations in the colour of cement from different factories may occur as a result of differences in the raw materials, and for this reason cement supplies for any project in which colour is important should be obtained from the same factory.

JOINTSThe location and method by which joints (expansion, control or construction) are incorporated into the concrete structure/element can have a significant influence on the final appearance.

The joints between adjoining panels, shapes and plywood sheets are difficult to disguise and, as with other materials, they are best accentuated by making a feature of them. Typically, a rebate or recess that creates a shadow line within the surface is used. Rebates range in size and shape depending on how prominent a feature is desired, and whether it is part of a sur-face pattern that may be used to break up large areas and provide a sense of scale to the surface.

The precise position of joints should be specified if the surface finish is criti-cal. The design of the structure will often determine appropriate locations

for joints. For column and beam construc-tion, the junction between individual ele-ments is a logical place to locate joints). Visually, beams are expected to span from column to column and columns from floor to floor.

ASSESSMENTAllowing for test panels reduces costs and allows a better assessment to be made of the contractor’s ability to produce the specified finish. With proper consideration of the factors necessary to produce the desired as-specified finish, the initial test panel or concrete placement should achieve the required result. Note that it is not possible to assess the colour consistency from a single test panel, so only the physical characteristics and initial colour of the surface can be assessed and used as a control for the remainder of the project.

If some aspects of the finish need to be improved, the contractor then has the opportunity to refine or adjust the ma-terials or procedures in order to achieve the required outcome. The ability to use more than one concrete placement as a test panel is often beneficial if minor adjust-ments need to be made. Colour consistency can also be assessed with subsequent place-ments in non-critical sections of the project.

Off-shutter concrete finishes can be as-sessed objectively only if the project docu-mentation stipulates what is expected. This is usually achieved by nominating specific items (type of finish, colour and so on) di-rectly, and the general matters (example, tolerances) by reference to other documents (like standards).

Once a mutual understanding of what is expected has been established, the assessment of what has been provided is relatively straightforward. On a typical project, the following aspects of surface quality would be looked at and any need for rectification of physical defects established.

For a more detailed version of the above, see Architectural Concrete A Guide to Achieving High Quality Finishes by Daniel van der Merwe.For further information call Cement and Concrete Institute (C&CI) on 011 315 0300 or visit www.cnci.org.za

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3 Foodpark, Milan, Italo Rota Architects, 2010: Detailed attention to formwork was integral to the design realisation

4 Presidential Office, Tenerife, 2006, Fernando Menis Architects: Off-shutter timber board and post-shutter tooled facades

5 In situ cast concrete using timber board formwork to create surface texture illuminated by natural sun light

6 Residential apartments, 27 Ave Reforma, Mexico City, Alberto Kalach Architects, 2011: In situ pigmented concrete was used to create a maintenance free facade.

7 Totem, Merida Zoo, Munoz Architects, 2010: Precast concrete panels coloured with a chemical stain

8 Cemex headquarters, Augustine Landa Architects, 2010. The use of ‘SCC’ (self compacting concrete) allowed for a superior surface finish without the need for compaction.

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LEARNING FROM DIEPSLOOT: TAXI RANK NO 2

Adding an optimistic face, an address, to the generic notion of reception.

ARCHITECTS: 26’10 SOUTH ARCHITECTS

BY ALEX OPPER

TAXI RANKS MAKE for rich typo-logical contradictions. A commission of ‘design me a taxi rank!’ would have had early Johannesburg modernists scratch-ing their heads, trying to imagine the perfect translation of the ostensibly sim-ple function into form. As a typology, however, these buildings for cars and people are pluralistic by nature. They are so complexly contradictory that they have delivered a range of manifestations to the cityscape of Johannesburg over the last decade or so. The Metro Mall and Bara taxi ranks, brought to us by Urban Solutions, are distinct responses to very specific and different urban conditions. 26’10 south Architects’ recent addition to this lineage of site-specific responses, Taxi No. 2 in Diepsloot – the post-1994 informal settlement to the north of

Johannesburg – is noteworthy for its ro-bustly sensitive and sensible translation of context into form.

Although the minibus taxi, that ubiquitous and hyper-efficient South African – and indeed African – mode of transport, serves as the catalytic raison d’être for the retrofit of an existing rank and the multi-layered lived context of Diepsloot undermines the notion of a simplistic mono-functional brief. Taxis and markets are radically synonymous: the rank allows the taxi vehicle to con-tinually link a captive audience to an opportunity for trade and consumption. If one scratches at the surface of the de-ceptively basic description of taxi rank, for these potentially intelligent pieces of infrastructure, one quickly discovers AbdouMaliq Simone’s succinct notion of ‘People as Infrastructure’. People and an understanding of how they transact, negotiate and produce space, moulding their everyday into something which not

only facilitates survival but also yields profit, are key to the success of the rework of the existing rank. What the architects have managed to do here, preceded by a much longer engagement of critically looking at, listening to and working with Diepsloot, is to translate the physical and more importantly lived traces of the site into a framework for the realisation of relevant possibilities. The scaffold-like approach honours the client’s brief for a multimodal transport interchange, but simultaneously thickens it by recognis-ing and respecting a given set of on-site relations, effectively weaving these to-gether without constricting them through over-formalisation.

That fashionably abused and blanket-ing term of sustainability is environmen-tally, socially and commercially consid-ered as part of the broader infrastructural intelligence of this project. The term’s various facets are held together by the stoep/concourse hybrid, the publicly

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porous face of the scheme. Through a series of anticipatory moves the archi-tects have set up possibilities for para-sitic shrinkage and growth fostered by an accommodating lattice of concrete and steel. The modestly made sign for Taxi No. 2 reminds us of Robert Venturi’s Fire Station No. 4 (1967, Columbus) in the sense that it uses a simple typo-graphic sign to convey the rank’s civic importance. The architectural language of the Diepsloot building’s reverse-paint-ed polycarbonate pediment achieves two things. Firstly, it marks and names the rank. Secondly, the billboard-like proportions of this scalar jump of the building’s horizon line – the only place where it deviates from the contextu-ally relevant scale of primarily one storey to two – hints at the programmed potential of the building to evolve into an advertising scaffold, a clever way of using airspace to generate future in-come for the maintenance of the rank.

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1 Public porch2 Site section A - A3 Site section B - B4 Site section C - C5 Ablution block

The concrete bases of the fireplaces – a sensible plan B to work around regular power outages – belonging to the food stalls along the trading edge, are engineered to handle the wind-loads which future billboards would cause. Aside from this notion of commercial sustainability, the mono-pitch roofing of the large taxi-terminus is angled so as to allow for the installation of solar panels at a later stage.

At an organisational level, the circular corner condition of the reworked toilet block tilts its hat at the oncoming taxi traffic and convincingly negotiates the knuckle between the south-facing mar-ket edge and the west-facing entrance to the rank proper. On the market prom-enade the architects employ the mono-lithic concrete super-stoep as a mediator between the rank and the street, via the market function. The use of the stoep/concourse fusion (a device explored in an earlier project by the practice for an unbuilt school) demonstrates the value of revisiting the germination of older ideas and productively transplanting these into relevant new contexts. Almost benignly, the no-nonsense aesthetic of Taxi No. 2 reminds one of the sober, fac-tory-like rhythmic composition of the Smithson’s ground-breaking Hunstan-

ton School (1954, Hunstanton), a project that questioned the modernist main-stream of the day. From a contemporary perspective, the rank’s architectural ready-made-meets-adaptive re-use aesthetic conveys the undeniably strong influence of the French firm of Lacaton & Vassal on the work of 26’10 south Architects. The project’s material palette and restrained, yet bold use of colour speaks of an inherent understanding of the make-shift vernacular of informal settlements.

This groundscraper, the largest built project by the young practice so far, dem-onstrates the value of viewing Urban Design not so much as a discipline but as a practice, exhibiting massive potential for fluidly linking the fields of Architec-ture and Planning. (For an enlightening

unpacking of this notion, see the in-terview between Edgar Pieterse and Rahul Mehrotra in the second issue of the African Centre for Cities’s recently launched Cityscapes journal).

From an urban perspective, Diepsloot is typical of the multiplicity of patchy ad-jacencies that make up the overall frag-mented condition of ‘Johannesburgness’, to borrow Leon van Schaik’s term. In this vein the project under scrutiny employs the logic of routes and connections as a promising way of stitching together an ongoing phenomenon of the socially and physically severed scapes, which define Johannesburg into something resem-bling a more cohesive, and hopefully one day, coherent cityscape. Cartographi-cally and physically, this project interro-

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gates the simplistic binary of margin and centre: Diepsloot is well-known as an entry point for many into the possibility of making it in Johannesburg. The fact that an existing sub-portal into Diepsloot life, as a threshold to Joburg at large, is called Reception Area reinforces the opportunistic, yet tenuous potential of this place. What Taxi No. 2 does is to add an optimistic face, an address, to the generic notion of reception. This piece of architecture is the manifesta-tion of a warm greeting: ‘Welcome to Our Diepsloot!’

26’10 SOUTH ARCHITECTS & URBAN DESIGNERSProject Team: Thorsten Deckler (principal, registered architect); Anne Graupner (principal, registered architect);

Nkululeko Bhengu (candidate architectural technologist); Stephen Reid (registered architect); Carl Jacobsz (registered architect); Guy Trangoš (registered architect); Lara Wilson (registered architect); Nzinga Biegueng Mboup (architectural assistant); Alexandra Howell (architectural assistant); Thulani Rachia (architectural assistant); Shameemah Davids (architectural assistant) and Mtembekhi Ngema (architectural technologist)

Structural Engineers: Hlanganani Consulting Engineers & Project Managers;Electrical Engineers: Selanya Consulting Engineers;Environmental: Envirolution Consulting (incl. community liaison);Quantity Surveyor: PCQS – Paresh Chiba Quantity Surveyor;Contractor: Dryden Construction, Moseme Construction (admin & ablution buildings only); andProject management: Triviron Project Management.

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6 Public seating7 Taxi No. 2 entrance8 View of taxi queueing aisles & stalls9 View of closed stalls from informal

residential area310 Site section D - D11 Administration block axonometric12 Ablution block axonometric

The material to build the future

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ARTFULLY SCULPTURED IN CONCRETE

SITUATED IN CAMPS BAY, House Harris faces the sea views to the west and is surrounded on all sides by Cape Town’s natural mountain ranges. Yet the building turns itself inwards, contribut-ing to a sense of solitude one feels when inside. Architect Greg Wright explains that a common thread running through his work is the pursuit of the new. ‘We try to reinvent ourselves within a broad framework of the contemporary – break-ing the mould, trying to redefine what is important.’ This building is indeed that. It is an exploration of concrete as a con-cept that inspires all spatial and sensual


One might expect the street approach to a house, made primarily of concrete, to be an impressive one. However, the building seems somewhat reserved as it steps back from the boundary wall, partially masked by a tree. On this day, it is framed by a grey overcast sky that imitates the tonal qualities of the concrete. It has a solemn presence – almost ephemeral and yet entirely conscious at the same time.

BY MARY ANNE CONSTABLE

ARCHITECT: GREG WRIGHT ARCHITECTS

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aspects of the building. The materiality is three-dimensional.

When used structurally, concrete is often hidden behind cladding or plaster, below carpets and screed, and above sus-pended ceilings. It is inanimate – useful but not aesthetic. In House Harris, the structural concrete in the floor and roof slabs is exposed – the skeleton of the building is revealed and also becomes the finish. Wright explores ‘honesty’ in his designs. While at university, he studied the experiments of, for exam-ple, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Kahn and Roelof Uytenbogaardt with minimal-ist forms and impressive geometrical gestures. The influence of these ‘great heroic architects’, as Wright refers to them, is clear and ‘truth to materials’ is an obvious concept that runs throughout this building.

The building comes together as an assembly of rectilinear spaces in both section and plan that intersect to form rooms, circulation and interstitial spaces. The rooms are organised around a central courtyard, in which a lone tree and two rocks form the centrepiece. The courtyard is intended as more of a ceremonial visual experience than an actual functional courtyard. One cannot help finding parallels with the form of the Japanese Zen garden. Although Wright denies a specific influence, it is evident that the logic, clarity and simplicity of this design is underpinned by a similar attitude to the composure of spaces and the deliberate imposition of order on the natural landscape. The main functional aspect of the courtyard, is to allow large volumes of light into the main space of the building, without compromising the privacy of the inhabitants. The site deals with a variety of disparate edge conditions and the addition of the guest bedrooms and bathrooms on the western edge of the courtyard, gives the rooms a private outlook onto the courtyard, whilst also shielding the views of the neighbours’ houses in front from the main living areas. This creates the sense that the building exists within its


own space and accentuates the sense of solitude that one feels within the building.

In section, the rectilinear volumes are accentuated by glass box skylights, which puncture the concrete skin of the building, and frame the mountain views on all sides whilst bringing in light from above. This is reiterated in the detailing, most of which is meticulously designed so as to make the junctions between forms look effortless. The precast concrete stair treads protrude out of the side supporting wall, defying their mass. Concrete becomes a floating object in space.

Another characteristic of concrete is its malleability when in liquid form. This means that it can be sculpted and moulded. Thus there is freedom to create

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details during the process of casting. Fico, the project architect on the job, explains that the major problem with using exposed concrete as a material is that the electrical points must be confirmed before the walls are cast in situ. Other problems can arise if the walls or floors become cracked or damaged – it is difficult to fix problems without them being conspicuous. This however, contributes to the sense of imperfection that the rough concrete creates, and enhances the contrast to the clean lines of the mirrors and tinted grey glass in the bathrooms, and the stainless steel kitchen.

The architects have also experimented with different ways to reveal the stone aggregate in the material. The wall adjoining the staircase has been sand-

blasted and bush hammered to form a pattern of textures – smoothness contrast-ing with roughness. The ceiling has also been bush hammered to contrast with the smooth finish of the floor. The floor in the bath enclosure is a ‘quartz carpet’ which further develops the aggregate concept. The basins and bath have been moulded out of crystallite. Like concrete, this is a malleable substance that can be moulded to form any custom shape or surface.

An obvious climatic challenge is the large west-facing glass facade that opens onto to the pool terrace looking over the sea. The architects had originally de-signed large steel screens to shield the glass, but due to budgetary reasons they were omitted. The client has installed air conditioning and curtains to counter the

strong summer heat, which Wright ad-mits is far from ideal.

In order to optimise the sea views, the main living spaces are on the first floor. Unfortunately, however, there is a no access to the ground floor garden at the back of the house from the first floor level. For lack of funds, some rooms were omitted from the plan after the concrete structure had been erected. This has left some static outside spaces at the back of the house. There is clearly some future potential of creating a functional out-side space, however, the only access is through the laundry room. Whilst the rest of the building responds appropriately to its edge conditions, this one is not dealt with well. It is, however, a clear reflection of the realities of dealing with unplanned and last-minute changes.

The house brings together a complex amalgamation of intersecting geometri-cal forms and planar surfaces that are un-derpinned by logic and clarity. The result is an artfully sculpted building in which the characteristics of concrete have been subtly explored and exploited. One can-not help but get the feeling that the pres-ence of humans in this building might somehow spoil the ethereal tension cre-ated by the unity of texture, colour and light. It seems appropriate that the own-ers are away, yet in their absence the little grey cat happily claims ownership over the empty house – like a paintbrush on this concrete canvas.

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KEUS HOUSE: A SOARING BOXThe first storey – roof slab and exterior columns combine to form a giant Vierendeel beam, making the cantilever possible.

BY GEORGINA GUEDES

ARCHITECT: GREGORY KATZ

IN 2006, ARCHITECT Gregory Katz was approached by a young professional couple to build a house on a tennis court of a subdivided property in Melrose, Johannesburg. At the time, the budget was limited so he was tasked with design-ing a small home that could ultimately be expanded. In fact, in the years from conceptualisation up to construction and completion, the Keus’ family and budget grew. The original plan was for them to occupy only the ground floor, and move

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into the first storey when they needed to, but by the time the house was being built, occupation of the complete space in the house was necessary.

The architect was already experienced in the creation of concrete houses from the construction of three identical two-storey houses built almost entirely of the material in Norwood. One of the houses is now his home. He proposed a two-storey concrete house built on a column grid with non-load-bearing walls inside, which can be repositioned to reconfigure the interior in future for a ‘cozier or more utilitarian feel’. The first storey – roof slab and exterior columns combine to form a giant Vierendeel beam, making the can-tilever possible. The cantilever is a ma-jor theme of the design. It is expressed vigorously outside in the symmetrical double cantilever box structure; the first floor windows are long, horizontal bands, and the ground floor doors fold away completely. Smaller elements, such as the kitchen counter and the hearth/seat have cantilever ends. Its use at different scales both enables and creates the sense of wide, free, horizontal spaces, reinforced by the expression of external walls on the upper floor as infill panels.

The cantilever and the use of con-crete also have environmental functions. The north-facing 2.4m overhang shades the dining and lounge area from sun in

the summer, but allows the winter rays to penetrate when the sun is lower in the sky. The concrete floors have a high thermal mass and retain the sun’s heat during the winter, and warm the spaces at night.

A central staircase carries one up to the first floor where the stairwell is bounded by a white, airbrick grille. The landing flows into an open-plan office, where the fold-away windows give the feeling that the occupant is on a balcony in the canopy of the surrounding verdant urban forest.

MATERIALSA raw concrete structure is a very unfor-giving medium, and it is vital to organise the planning of the plumbing and wiring accurately before casting, because con-duits can’t be chased in after the fact. In the house, with the help of the electrical engineer owner, this has been achieved admirably. The concrete is rich with all the variations of the natural materials used in the mix and the different weather on each day of casting, and bears ruts and crenella-tions that tell the story of its creation. ‘We banned buffing or touching up as part of the builders’ specs,’ says Katz. ‘I’d rather see the mistakes – they’re the poetry marks of the building process.’

The fulsome use of the material creates a calm and a unified ambience while it also provides a versatile foil for oth-er materials. The brick infill panels on the

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facades bear a slick, trowelled-on coating in a dark, black-coffee colour, which sets up a powerful, velvety contrast with the pale, nubbly surrounding concrete. Internally, the house’s structures of wood, face-brick skirtings, laminate veneers and smooth white walls and cabinets all contrast with the concrete. Their interactions create warmth and visual cohesion, but never competition. The furnishings, in which the architect was involved, also create an interesting, and at times unexpected, interplay between minimalist modern surfaces, carved wooden antiques and boldly-painted salvaged objects.

The Keus house is clearly a descend-ent of its great predecessor, the Villa Savoie, but a unique one with its own character. The design, though distinctive and forceful, with a highly specialised construction, is surprisingly versatile in utilisation. Concrete, as a medium with the contradictory elements of starkness and warmth, provides a perfect tabula rasa for the manifestation of all future uses of the structure.

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4 Pyjama lounge in the Melrose canopy5 Entrance with cantilever floating the

second storey6 Living room with the spill of winter sunlight7 Outdoor detail with cactus8 Contrasting white kitchen with dining

area fireplace9 First floor10 Ground floor

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All through the house is a kind of enfilade that invites you to look along the contours of the coast, experiencing its shape and texture.

BY JULIAN COOKE

ARCHITECT: SARAH CALBURN

SEA HOUSE – what a good name! It perches on a ledge overlooking the sea and, approaching it, I see, first of all, the sea over the scrub of fynbos on the roof, and then, surprisingly, I see it below the fynbos too. It’s below the bridge of roof that is made at the edge of a steep descent that arches across the sea view.

HOUSE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS


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horizon, echoing the horizontal arch, is ever-present; above and below it, it’s always at the level of my eye, locking me to it.

On the other hand, turning around, I experience the earth. As I approached, the contours of the land were made tan-gible in a series of low-curving terraces outlining, in association with the curve of

the roof, an open court, a cradle for this nest poised over the sea. Entering below the arch of fynbos, I felt as if a piece of earth had been lifted up to enable me to inhabit what is left below. And turn-ing round, looking back, I am looking into the belly of the rough mountain behind. I am in the earth. I go down to this house – into the earth. Centripetal.

Wherever I am in the house, the sea is fully present. I am right on the edge – or not quite, for there is a further edge some steps below, with the glass balustrade almost out of sight, where I can sit protected over the precipice. It’s not so much that I have wonderful views; however, it feels more as if I am in the view – an integral part of it. And the

As when going down into a tomb in Egypt, a church in Lalibela, or into the lower floor of the Berber house, I sense the secret and intimate, the sheltered and hidden, and the mysterious and the sacred. It shelters me in the embracing curve of the roof. But once inside, I am on the outside of a curve. The space is centrifugal. It billows outwards. Rather than being held, I have boundless free-dom. I am up looking down over the great plane of the sea. I’m presiding in a temple on the Peloponnese and at the Villa Rotonda.

POISED ON THE EDGE BETWEEN UP AND DOWN. Inside, along one side, the sea pre-dominates and the planes of glass, now faceting slowly round the contour, mul-tiple around the transparent pool, create soft mutual reflections, glisten and shift in a way that connects me to the nature of the water itself. Along the other side, the earth predominates – I look into the rippling terraces and the mountain beyond, and I can retire into back corners: in the library/lounge, the kitchen and the bathrooms.

It is a building of the flowing landscape. Its shape curves with the land’s shape. The roof replaces the landscape removed for habitation. The terraces that step down to it are the landscape’s contours. Through the house I can see that their form reflects that of the swathes of bush on the seaside.The silky terrazzo floor reflects the plane of the sea, and the long horizontals of the roof speak to the horizon. The court, with its flat-boarded floor plane is like the sea touching the curving outline of the coast in microcosm; the terraces as cliffs – a miniature landscape. All through the house is a kind of enfilade that invites you to look along the contours of the coast, experiencing its shape and texture. The house is an organism shaped by the landscape and its colours inside harmonise with its grey-green, grey-stone tones.

On the other hand it has a certain classical precision. Crisp floor and roof planes, transparent or opaque planes


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as walls, regular rhythm of steel columns, set back from the edge, marking out the rational structural grid and enabling the free plan and fenêtres en longueur (all door openings are from the floor to the ceiling), smooth painted and modular fittings. There is no romantic naturalism here.

The house, to adapt Cezanne’s idea of a work of art, reverberates with personal perceptions in a particular environment, which are embodied in profound sensa-tions and organised by understanding into a place of considerable refinement.

Two qualms. First, there is, on the

landside, a small building, which looks like something pre-existing adapted into a cottage. It needs money to be spent on making it add to, instead of detract-ing from, the poetry of the place. Second, the underside, on the seaside, is a lesser experience than the approach and in-side.

TRAVELLING ALONG Camp Ground Road, having passed Western Province Cricket Club and the entrance to the Kelvin Grove Club, one is stopped short by the sight of a glazed white pavilion lifting up from the ground plane of bowl-ing greens and croquet lawns. With an upper floor raised elegantly on pilotis, light-filled and transparent, the structure appears to float. I succumb to a subjective view: this building is beautiful.

In 1779, land rights were granted in the area and the farm Questenberg was established. By 1881 a new owner had named the property Kelvin Grove after his birthplace, Kelvinside in Scotland, and in 1896 with a further change in own-

ership, Sir Herbert Baker was briefed to design a manor house.

A small group of people realised the potential of the building and its grounds and negotiations began in 1924 to establish the Western Province Sports Club. These were the beginnings of Kelvin Grove, which today offers over 7 000 members a wide variety of sporting and social activities. The building fabric, considerably extended over time, has followed the language of Baker’s gabled manor house and with the grounds has been declared a national monument.

It is in this context, although at some distance from the traditional buildings, that Luke Scott Architects was required

to design a clubhouse for bowls and croquet players and to include an enter-tainment facility. The architect offered a design response quite different from the existing yet contextually informed and responsive to the historical complex and tree-lined axes. It is to be applauded that the board members of Kelvin Grove have supported this contemporary and fresh approach.

It is important to enumerate the con-textual concerns that constitute the raison d’être and have driven the design. The enviable site is edged by mature oak and plane trees and in particular by a line of plane trees along its north-west edge, which offer shelter and a filtered view to

PRISTINE PAVILION:KELVIN GROVE CLUBHOUSE‘A commendably direct and legible structure free of extraneous elements characterises the entire building and, together with the carefully considered dimensions, results in an harmonious whole,’ writes Jean Carey Nuttall.

BY JEAN CAREY NUTTALL

ARCHITECT: LUKE SCOTT


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Devil’s Peak. Previously it was occupied by a timber-framed and clad clubhouse in need of replacement. At ground level the new building follows the footprint of the former clubhouse, its long axis running roughly east-west. All the trees have been kept. The upper level, in a sense a piano nobile, widens slightly in a cantilevered frame which shelters the seating area below.

The prevailing rectilinearity of the im-mediate surrounds, the bowling greens and croquet lawns, the more distant ten-nis courts, and the level approach to the site from the entrance driveway and the forecourt of the manor house beyond, are reflected in the horizontal lines of

the pavilion. This building form enables a generous covered area of seating, which takes account of summer and winter sun angles and faces the croquet lawns. From the seating a route opens through the ground floor to the north-west edge passing the locker room and leading to the toilets. This link achieves a pleasing

permeability. On windy days, however, funnelled draughts may require the op-tion of a fold-away screen. The green-keeper’s office and the maintenance workshop are housed at the east end.

These ground floor utility spaces have lightweight walls, clad with shiplap boarding referring back to the timber

clad original structure and headed by high level windows. The walls are read as non-load bearing. A commendably direct and legible structure free of extraneous elements characterises the entire build-ing and, together with the carefully con-sidered dimensions, results in an harmo-nious whole.

A well-proportioned timber-clad boxed bench runs along the south-east edge of the building and beyond it at each end. While offering a seating surface it reads as a further horizontal emphasis, tying the building into the landscape. Rising through this bench six pilotis carry the first floor slab with its cantilevered frame and create the five 4.8m structural modules, derived from the 2.4m modules of the original timber-framed clubhouse. The pilotis along the north-west edge reinforce the linear rhythm of the tree trunks.

On the upper level and extending slightly beyond, the central three modules at each end is the clubroom enclosed on three sides by full height glazing. In both south-east and north-west elevations doors in the central module open to narrow 80cm wide balconies carrying railing. The aspects enjoyed from the clubroom over the greens and lawns, through the foliage, up to the mountain and generally into the distance, are exceptional and enhanced by reflections of tree and cloud movements. The pilotis lift the roof slab of the central three modules to add a further horizontal layer and create a clerestory which increases light levels. Every visual axis is exploited.


At the south and north ends of the club-room the building is held by what the archi-tect terms ‘bookends’, solid wall elevations which refer to the wall architecture of the tra-ditional Kelvin Grove buildings. The south elevation of the frame with its strategically placed vertical window and overhanging a diagonal, gently inclined external stair with wide treads, is well resolved. Entry is ini-tially into a covered reception gallery with a built-in braai facility, and leads on to the clubroom proper.

The flexibility of the clubroom is evident in various seating configura-tions sketched out by the architect for occasions ranging from celebratory events to lectures.

At the north end of the clubroom beyond the built-in bar counter, the ‘bookend’ contains a kitchen, storage space and toilets and an external service stair that leads to the ground floor, an attractive diagonal feature. The clubroom may be hired adding to the financial viability of the clubhouse.

In drawing selectively from the de-sign vocabulary of the Modern Move-ment to meet functional requirements and respond to context, the architect has designed a unique building which asserts its presence as a pivotal point within a parterre-like arrangement of de-fined greens, movement axes and well- maintained park-like garden expanses.

PROFESSIONAL TEAMArchitect and principal agent: Luke Scott ArchitectsStructural Engineer: Kantey & TemplerContractor: Naumann ConstructionCost consultant: Jill HoggHealth and Safety consultant: Trans4m

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AL STRAFORD – INVENTOR IN CONCRETEAl Stratford has been designing innovations in concrete for some time; however, he does not want to be typecast as obsessional about the material. He has worked with it because opportunities and the needs of practice have stimulated innovative thinking.

INTERVIEW BY: JULIAN COOKE

Julian Cooke: How long have you been designing concrete products?Al Stratford: I remember when I was 21 years old becoming fascinated with the pre-cast concrete culverts. I designed a whole system of stacking these to build houses and presented the idea to a Scot-tish engineer I was working with. He stared at my model for a long time and then said, rolling his r’s. ‘Laddie, you canie beat burrrnt brrrick!’

JC: Why did you choose to work with concrete?AS: Put it another way. Concrete chose to work with me, because I recognised that concrete, if it was allowed to be true to itself, would go a long way towards build-ing holes in brick walls. That it would support the brickwork above, face the re-veals, waterproof the sills and as an extra bonus, receive glazing or other ventilating inserts or panels. Also, the relatively low cost of concrete, easy repetitive, low-tech production methods and low but incre-

mental capital costs, coupled to durabil-ity, made concrete a material of choice.

JC: What is the background of your first ventures in designing concrete products?AS: At the end of 1979, I left Durban where I had been working in a multi-disciplinary practice crossing over from engineering to architecture as a draughts-man, also with Paul Mikula and the Ur-ban Foundation. During this period we designed a number of buildings where the west-facing windows needed sun screening; we built fired clay-grilled walls about a metre away from the windows thereby shading the facade. I returned to East London, my hometown, bought a pan-handle site and set about designing our home. I owner-built it before open-ing an office for the Urban Foundation in East London.

In designing our home, I realised that the windows would be a major cost com-ponent of the whole house; this got me going on trying to find a cost-effective solution. In one weekend, I designed the cross section of the embryonic ‘Window Block’, with 12mm chipboard, built a 2m-long piece of this section, then mi-tre-sawed it into four 500cm long pieces, panel-pinned it together at the corners and hey presto! I had the first chipboard mock-up. The next step was to water-proof this male component, take it to a pre-cast yard where the guy that made moulds for garden gnomes quickly cast

concrete female moulds around the male form. The capital investment was R100 for 10 moulds and R1.50 each for 250 “Window Blocks”. I suppose the clay grille blocks of Durban had somehow brought about a lateral connection... in-tegrating window, wall and screen into one load bearing building system.

JC: What is the impetus for the start of a new invention? Are you solving a design problem you have in a building or do you systematically plan to tackle a range of components? AS: I suppose the old adage ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ still holds true.

JC: How do you work? What process do you follow?AS: For me, design is the process we em-ploy, perhaps, after we have first defined the necessity and had a ‘light bulb’ lat-eral idea or invention, which then needs to be expressed through a design solu-tion. From a product design perspective, I have been led by the business need to offer products, which are not just novel for their own sake, but rather, based on an elegant design solution to an identifi-able need.

JC: Does it follow a design, testing, improving process? AS: I like Le Corb’s diagram where two converging vectors, interlinked by a zig-zag line, depict the convergence of the general and the specific vectors through an iterative


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process between the two. This illustrates, to me, how the general concept needs to be informed by the specific constraints. In other words, the design concepts may only be completed once the specific con-straints have been adequately researched and addressed. The constraints become a discipline that underpins a good design solution. The corollary is that if one does not identify the constraints adequately, the design may be inherently flawed. The constraints are not only technical, but are even more subtle in understanding the context and human interface that the product engenders.

JC: Do you get the input of other de-signers / engineers / scientists?AS: When I came up with the Winblok concept in East London, I went back to the engineer for whom I had worked before I went to Durban; he said that I needed to reinforce the Winblok as ‘...concrete and steel go together like egg and bacon.’ Wrong advice! To reinforce I would have had to thicken the section to provide adequate cover to the steel, this in turn would have made the prod-uct too heavy for manual handling.

In the nineties, when I developed Winstep and Windeck, I was fortunate to engage two brother-in-law engineers, Hamish Scott and Alan Jones, both of Ove Arup. Their cooperation, and may I say constraint, has been a constant de-light to me as we have worked through issues that have not been covered

by standard engineering codes of prac-tice, many times requiring controlled experimental tests to provide rational design solutions.

Scientific understanding – for exam-ple, the work of Helmut Juan on Diago-nal Street in Johannesburg and 320 West in Durban pioneered, in South Africa, the use of structural silicone for glazing; I took this to the next level by using these materials to bond aluminium and glass to concrete back in 1984

JC: Are there designers or inventors whose work inspires you?AS: Yes, in short. I suppose one may say that my inspiration came firstly from both of my parents. My father went farming just before I was born and throughout my school years he designed and built all the structures on the farm, pouring mass concrete between two nine-inch scaffold planks. My mother sewed dresses, cutting her own patterns in the most creative way. Necessity and invention were the order of the day.

I found design in a more conscious sense by discovering a treasure of books on architecture, art and design at the East London public library when I first started to work as a draughtsman in structural steel. There I read about the heroes of the modern movement, their writings, and their work and design philosophy.

JC: What components have you put out into the market?AS: The Winblok window system with Winvent the opening ventilation sub frames including top hung, central pivot windows, louvers, and burglar bars.

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1 The first Winbloks as used in the design of our home in East London in 1980 – now the Head Office of Wintec Innovation (Pty) Ltd

2 My youngest son Andrew – who is now a Director in the company in one of the early Winbloks as used in our house.

3 Winblok4 Winstep5 Winstep Winder6 Windeck7 Winslot

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Edenvale, Johannesburg in 1982. The next major work was my own project, Stratfords Guesthouse and Conference Centre in East London. It was completed in 2000. The most recent work of mine has been the new Teaching Facility for the University of Fort Hare with NOA architects and my erstwhile practice Native Architecture. This building is mainly built using high-strength slender pre-cast concrete elements to address sustaina-bility constraints resulting in 41% less concrete in the structure.

JC: Each project or product surely creates a learning curve? Tell me about that.AS: In a general sense, the steepest learning curves for me are those realities that challenge my presumptions. I find it amaz-ing how we as humans are able, through imagination, to conjure up the most fantastic mental images of what we would like to make, do or be. The learning curves become curbs that channel the ideas into reality. Besides the techno/scientific surprises that demonstrate my naivety, I have had to increasingly realise that the human interface is perhaps where we have the most learn-ing curves to negotiate.

JC: What products are you currently working on now?AS: I am working on a number of products simultaneously. However, to bring a focus on concrete, I am currently refining a concept, which was patented about ten years ago. The Winslot System is defined by a series of horizontal pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete ‘blades’ which are 400mm wide in section, designed almost as a sill but having rebates above and below to receive glazing or opening Winvents. These elements are split at the glazing rebate and bonded together with a thermal barrier to insulate the inside from the outside. They are built into brick walls interspaced by a chosen number of brick courses to cre-ate horizontal slots, which are then either directly glazed or fit-ted with a new opening window system comprising of double glazed units and aluminium extrusions also separated with ther-mal barriers.

JC: What are you doing about the fact that you are designing products that use a very ungreen material?AS: I view cement and concrete as precious material. I recently watched a movie on Sir Norman Foster and his work. The ti-tle of the movie, taken from a question asked by Buckminster Fuller was ‘How much does your building weigh, Mr Foster?’ In designing the New Teaching Facility at the University of Fort Hare, one of the earliest exercises was to calculate the comparative cost and weight of my proposed floor system.

JC: Do you think there are new opportunities for the use of concrete in line with the focus on sustainability and green building methods?AS: One of the major generators of CO2 in construction is the transport to and from site (on demolition) of all the materials.

The Winstep Stair Ramp and Walkway system, the Winstep Winder, Windeck precast concrete lightweight suspended floor system; and Winslot, a new rollout of a window system for creating horizontal sun shielding, bounced light slots in building facades.

JC: How have you explored the use of concrete in the build-ings you have designed?AS: The first building I designed was a church. I used a framed off-shutter concrete structure and Winblok. It was built in

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If one designs in such a manner as to reduce the weight of mate-rial in the first place and to be able to recycle the components or at least the building, concrete, as a precious material becomes more green than presupposed. In a general sense, the major constituents of concrete are always mined relatively close to the centres of medium to high rise conglomeration in our cities.

JC: What are your plans for the future?AS: I am very excited about going back to some of my early design explorations. Chairs have always fascinated me. I would like to be a chairman in the tangible sense. That they are not of concrete shows that I have no particular obsession for the ma-terial but have worked with it because the demands of practice and the opportunities presented themselves.

I have recently devised and patented a method of fabrication which allows for strategic flexible bending of flat sheet material such as plywood, in such a way as to be able to produce three-dimensional forms that may be flat-packed for easy distribution, and then assembled by the purchaser to produce sculptural seating solutions. We are calling this technology ‘StratFlex’ and are currently prototyping chairs and gearing up for production through my company Wintec Innovation (Pty) Ltd.

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8 The first building I designed using a, using a framed off the shutter concrete structure and Winblok was a church in Edenvale, Johannesburg in 1982.

9 My most recent work – showing the pre-cast concrete Ventilated Access Floor which I invented and patented resulting in 41% less concrete in the structure.

10 The University of Fort Hare Law and Nursing Facility© ESP Photography 2012

11 A private residence and art studio in Cape Town as designed by Paul Elliot (Elliot Ngxola Architects), using the first generation of the Winslot System.

12 A rendering of the Ventilated Access Floor, which was used in the University of Fort Hare project.

13 Poster for Norman Foster movie.14 The first prototype of a single seater chair using the new patented

StratFlex technology.

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CHANDIGARH – THE BIGGER PICTUREBY GERALD STEYN

CONSIDERING THAT Le Corbusier (1889-1965) remains celebrated as per-haps the most influential architect of the 20th century, he is widely ignored and often vilified as a town planner. He designed a large number of cities, but only Chandigarh – often referred to as ‘Corbu’s city’ – was built. Chandigarh is located north of Delhi, just south of the Shivalik Mountains, the foothills of the Himalayas. The Indian province of Punjab needed a new capitol after the Partition in 1947, when India was divid-ed into mostly Hindu India and almost entirely Muslim Pakistan. Matthew No-wicki and Albert Mayer created the ini-tial masterplan, but after Nowicki died in a plane crash in 1950 Le Corbusier was appointed to replace him. His collabora-tors were Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew and Le Corbusier’s cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, as well as a number of young Indian architects and planners.

It is true that Le Corbusier retained some key aspects of the Mayer-Nowicki leaf-shaped plan, especially the spatial relationships between the key elements (government, city centre, university and industries) and the superblock principle, but fundamentally his town planning was based on an unbuilt proposal for

Bogota which he had designed in the previous year.

The Indian government wanted a modern and efficient city, with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister, speaking of ‘clean open spaces liberating Indians from the tyranny of the overcrowded and filthy cities, and from the confines of agricultural village life’. It has been widely criticised by outsiders for not being ‘Indian’, but these critics are perhaps not aware of the tremendous pride its citizenry takes in the place, and are certainly not realising that it seems to be coping better than most with rapid growth. It is in fact slowly, incrementally and organically being moulded into an Indian city. Today it serves as the capital of both the state of Punjab and of the adjacent Haryana.

Most architects are familiar with the buildings and artefacts of the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh: The Secretariat, Legislative Assembly and High Court, and the Open Hand Monument that became the symbol of the city. I will, therefore, focus on the city plan, the layout of the first residential quarter known as Sector 22, and conclude with a cursory review of a number of buildings not widely published.

THE CITY PLANChandigarh currently occupies an area of 114 square kilometres and has a pop-ulation of nearly one million. The gap between rich and poor is wide, and although Chandigarh enjoys the high-est per capita income in India, 30% of its population is nevertheless poor and living in slums.

Le Corbusier and his team designed Phase 1 (edges hatched in the map) for 150 000 people and envisaged that Phase 2 would accommodate about 350 000 more people. The city has since expanded way beyond those phases by in-crementally adding modular ‘sectors’. Pan-chkula has also been developed to the east, following the Mayer-Nowicki street and block pattern. Because of tight controls, development – even of slum settlement – tends to occur within the periphery and there is very little spread into the sur-rounding countryside.

The original city plan has become icon-ic and drawings and models are displayed in many localities throughout Chandi-garh. The focus for this brief analysis is Le Corbusier’s Phase 1, which arguably demonstrated his intentions with great-est clarity. The most pertinent feature is the supergrid. Three more urban charac-teristics stand out: the classified road sys-tem, the parks and green strips, and the bazaar streets and commercial corridors. The main vehicular grid certainly looks sterile and simplistic, but the roads are actually configured for different types of traffic, as indicated by explaining Sector 22 further on.

Since Chandigarh is a provincial capital that bustles with energy and activity and is not a sllpy town, peak-hour traffic is still busy, but far less congested than, say, in Delhi. Whatever the reason, the street system seems to function well. There are certainly weaknesses: motorists take shortcuts along shopping streets through sectors, which they are not supposed to do. Similarly, rickshaws constantly obstruct fast-moving vehicular traffic along main motorways. Generally, however, the wide sidewalks along major streets, and the various types of streets and lanes inside


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the sectors, ensure safe and pleasant walking.Close scrutiny of the city plan revealed the three layers consti-

tuting (1) primary vehicular roads, (2) commercial strips and local market streets, and (3) footpaths, parks and connecting greens, clearly demonstrates Le Corbusier’s intentions. It is clear that each sector could in fact be shaped as a relatively self-contained urban village defined by a 1 200m x 800m superblock, consist-ing of four neighbourhood-sized quarters (24ha) each bordering on a green strip with pedestrian paths running north-south, and a market street east-west. It offers the potential of accommo-dating different architectural and urban morphologies within a compact framework, with all the diversity and neighbourhood interaction, overlap and connectivity considered desirable today. Approximately 30% of the city is allocated to parks and recrea-tional areas.

SECTOR 22Sector 22 is mostly a residential area. The diagrams show how the sector evolved from Le Corbusier’s urban framework into its current fully developed state. In this city, fast-moving traffic is restricted to the surrounding areas of V1, V2 and V3 roads. V4 is an internal bazaar street, V5 a rather narrow looped internal neighbourhood street providing access to a finer grain of wards, quarters and estates by means of V6 lanes. V7 paths are for pedestrian along green strips and parks. V8 lanes were added later. They are lanes for bicycles and bicycle taxis (rickshaws). It is interesting that the public of Chandigarh is fully familiar with the city’s terminology!

Many of the 13 categories of dwellings designed by Le Cor-busier’s team are to be seen here, always as clusters and row houses, many of which surround public squares. Along the edges of the superblock are shops, 12 hotels, taxi ranks, public service facilities, filling stations, and a fruit and vegetable market. Inside the sector there are no less than five schools, a nursery school, a veterinary hospital, a chest clinic, a poly clinic, four places of worship and a cinema.

There are 48 parks and greens spread throughout the sec-tor. They occupy 19ha or 20% of the sector’s area. The smallest is just 570m2, the largest nearly four hectares while the average is 4 000m2. I expected the bazaar streets to resemble those in Delhi, but they make adequate provision for cars and parking,

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1 Ghandi Bhawan memorial2 Chandigarh Sector 22 bazaar street3 Chandigarh vicinity map4 Planning framework of Sector 225 Chandigarh Phase 16 Le Corbusier’s façade rules 6

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although the winding V4 street is intend-ed to discourage speeding through traffic. The shops, however, are indeed bustling. When Le Corbusier conceptualised the bazaar street India was poor, recently independent and recovering from the calamity and bloodshed of partitioning. The proportion of people who owned cars was very low. He nonetheless clearly anticipated India evolving into a major power and all the material accruements, such as private cars, that are associated with increased affluence.

Although Le Corbusier dictated the basic principles, mainly sunscreens, cross-ventilation, threshold areas and generous outdoor and rooftop living areas, he did not design a single house type in Chandi-garh, and Jane Drew, Maxwell Frey and Pierre Jeanneret apparently produced most of the designs.

ARCHITECTURE A host of seminal buildings are also to be found outside Sector 22. Many are rarely discussed in the literature, but are all un-mistakably ‘Corbusian’, although most were not designed by him. Considering his influence on the town planning and architectural codes, this is of course not surprising. There are so many distinc-tive projects and an article simply does not allow a comprehensive review. Only a few selected examples are mentioned below.

Moving from the Capitol Complex to the City Centre one notices that all buildings lining the squares and many along main streets have exactly the same concrete façade pattern as that regulat-ing the elevations of the Secretariat. Shops, financial institutions, government departments, even hotels – they all look the same! The use of four-storey con-crete-frame buildings with a prescribed configuration and form was codified by Le Corbusier and is still compulsory for certain building types and certain plots. Some modulation is evident and what he clearly hoped to achieve was harmony or coherence, but also diversity. The re-sult in Chandigarh is not unpleasant, but

somewhat disorientating at first. Having laid down the broad principles for hous-ing and the exact codes for large build-ings, Le Corbusier then proceeded to claim the design of some prominent buildings and elements for himself.

The Art Gallery at the Government Museum is derived from his earlier (1931) design of the Museum of Un-limited Growth. Designing it in 1952, he essentially replicated the model for art museums in Ahmedabad (1956) and Tokyo (1957).

The Chandigarh Architecture Mu-seum, facing the Art Gallery across a large plaza, later became the proto-type for the design of the Heidi Weber Pavilion in Zürich in 1964, constructed not in concrete, but in dry construction of steel, aluminium and glass.

The College of Architecture and the College of Art were both designed in 1959 and are almost identical. The con-cept of verandahs and enclosed spaces around courtyards allows for modular expansion. While concrete brise-soleil feature prominently on the entrance side, the materiality is dominated by the use of rough brickwork. Details such as bold rainwater spouts and a large variety of skylights; window configurations and clerestories result in tectonic richness.

Le Corbusier entrusted all the build-ings for the campus of the University of Punjab to Pierre Jeanneret and other collaborators. Since Jeanneret had always been the subservient member of the Le Corbusier-Jeanneret partnership, respon-sible for actually getting commissions erected, the competence of his design on the campus was a revelation. Most of the big buildings adhere to the Corbusian’s use of concrete and brise-soleil, but less restrained elements, such as the entrance canopy to the Administration Building are delightfully exuberant.

The Gandhi Bhawan, described as the ‘pride of Punjab University’ in tour-ist leaflets, uses the lotus flower as the inspiration for its free form, while its reflection in the surrounding pond was allegedly deliberately conceived to

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enhance the visual experience of the viewer. The building is dedicated to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and accom-modates a library, reading room, lecture hall and seminar rooms.

A building that remains unmistak-ably Corbusian, although designed as an unusual cylindrical form, is the Student Centre. It is a simple layered four-storey construction articulated by an encircling spiral ramp representing a promenade architectural in the way different views of the campus, city, the Capitol Complex and the mountains beyond are experi-enced as one moves along, up and into the overhanging top floor.

CONCLUSION On trips such as this one, a good architecture-orientated guidebook like Deborah Gans’ ‘The Le Corbusier guide (2006)’ proves indispensible. It covers his built projects throughout the world, and although Chandigarh is described in just one chapter it nevertheless con-textualises and describes the most impor-tant buildings. The site and floor plans are, regrettably, infuriatingly small and difficult to follow. The answer, of course, is to travel with Volumes 5 and 6 of ‘Oeuvre Complete’.

Chandigarh is a delightfully verdant city with an abundance of water – there are a number of lakes and streams, and ponds that often feature in landscap-ing. The city is clean, with little littering, and only non-polluting industries are allowed. Buildings are uniformly low-rise with most being between four and six storeys high. The Secretariat is, at 254m long and 42m high, by far the biggest and tallest building. With all buildings shaped by Le Corbusier’s morphological patterns – many featuring brise-soleil and ramps, and with colour

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7 A recently-completed commercial building

8 A V7 footpath9 Administration Building at the University10 Chandigarh museum11 Looped V512 Palace of Ministries13 Palace of Assembly14 Palace of Justice15 Shopping arcade

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and texture unified through the exclu-sive use of exposed concrete and rough ochre-coloured unplastered brickwork, sparsely punctuated with uncoursed rubble stonework – walking through the city is a strange and surrealistic experi-ence. This is like being in Le Corbusi-er’s dream world. Chandigarh’s architec-tural fraternity seems to experience no difficulty with the pervasiveness of the Corbusian idiom. As one prominent architect told me, ‘We are, quite frankly obsessed with Corbu – we don’t want glass

boxes.’ The movement from Le Corbus-ier’s slick, taut, white machine aesthetic that culminated in Villa Savoye (1929) to the rough honest robustness, symbol-ism and monumentality of Chandigarh only twenty years later – so unlike the International Style then pursued by his peers – represented a giant creative and philosophical leap. But the result is an architecture that saves energy (narrow sections, natural light, sunbreaks and cross ventilation), that uses economi-cal and readily available materials that require little maintenance, and that can be built by small contractors. There are no cranes in Chandigarh – buildings are constructed mostly by semi- and unskilled men and women working on bamboo scaffolding.

Le Corbusier’s town planning theo-ries evolved equally dramatically from the Baroque-type grid and uncompro-mising symmetry of streets, and fabric in the hypothetical Contemporary City (1922) to the complexity and flexibility of the alternating net of Chandigarh with its pedestrian-friendly environments and diversity of building typologies. However, it is ironical that, whereas his buildings are being subjected to continu-ous rigorous assessment, commentary on his urban projects is rare and mostly highly subjective. Much of the negative criticism is based on a blanket condem-nation of the modernist city in general, rather than on analyses of his designs and the social, economic and physical con-texts for which they were envisaged.

Chandigarh is in all aspects outside mainstream town planning theory, with

contemporary cities everywhere still being developed in the post-World War II mode which is car-dependent, mono-functional and spread-out. It has revealed a number of positive attributes and offers many ideas, especially for the Third World with its explosive urbanisa-tion, lack of resources and low levels of car ownership. I believe Le Corbusier’s writings and urban projects in general, and Chandigarh in particular, are becom-ing increasingly relevant – and just as more and more authors are referring to his architecture as an unfinished project, so should his urban concepts and plans be considered an unfinished project.

REFERENCESLe Corbusier, Modulor 2 (1958). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.William Curtis (1986), Le Corbusier: Ideas and form. Oxford: Phaidon. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret (1995), Oeuvre complète Volumes 5-6. Edited by Willy Boesiger. Basel: Birkhäuser.Deborah Gans (2006), The Le Corbusier guide. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.Gerald Steyn is a research professor in the Department of Architecture at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, and a registered professional architect. He recently addressed the Chandigarh Chapter of the In-dian Institute of Architects and is particularly grateful to Ms Archana Chaudery from the Haryana Housing Authority who arranged his schedule and provided guides. All the photographs in this article were taken by the author, who also prepared the drawings.

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16 Monument of the Open Hand17 Top-of-the-range townhouses18 Traditional informality19 Student centre

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I WAS REMINDED of the plight of the 1% the other day. It was in the shape and form of a new Range Rover, ‘Evoque’, I believe it is called. Now, I am not one to pay much attention to cars, but this one demanded it as it loomed instantly in my rear-view and swayed its SUV ‘stability’ around me. It reminded me of a slew of cars that seemed to have dominated my psyche in my time in London. These were all, in a word, boxy. Or brutish. Here I’m talking about the Aston Martin Lag-onda, whose massive fl at and blocky nose protrudes at an astounding length in front of a receding hairline. Let me correct that: the Aston Martin’s nose protrudes like a weapon, a massive bludgeoning ram-rod, accelerated to maximum speed in the short streets of London. These cars stood out – and there seemed to be so many of them – because they had seem-ingly regressed to a boxy time called ‘the eighties’ before computer simulation and production techniques could stream-line a car to maximise its effi ciency and minimise the drag coeffi cient. That would really happen in a now distant and happy time called ‘the nineties’. How is it that car design has regressed to such ineffi cient forms?

It is not that tricky to read the Lagonda as an emphatic 1% car. It’s a car that just doesn’t care. It doesn’t care about effi ciency, being streamlined and saving fuel and the planet through sleekness. The 1% doesn’t care about such things, in fact, the point of the car seems precisely to show the world that they don’t care about such things. The Lagonda’s engine is so big it can overwhelm the ineffi ciencies of form by brute force. It can forcibly ram its way down any wind tunnel. It also wants you to know that your concerns with effi ciency are pathetic – this is money to burn, fuel to burn, the planet to burn, and waddyagonnadoaboutit?

It seems all too easy to reference the glass-box resource-heavy buildings of the contemporary city as equivalent versions of these monsters. But, we shouldn’t real-ly compare cars and buildings through the rationality of engineering and effi ciency. Cars are a-contextual, mass-produced replicable products – engineering should dominate the logic of the design. Build-ings are one-off, context-specifi c, individ-uated objects where engineering operates in support of the design. The motor-car is a type, a repeatable iterative entity that lends itself to 100 years of refi nement and infi nitely fi ner calibration. Buildings, on the other hand, are mostly the very fi rst version of itself to be realised. One can’t expect too much engineering refi nement in each building proposal. No, the archi-tectural equivalent of the Lagonda isn’t the ineffi cient deranged grin of Dubai – it’s the blank precast concrete wall of a shopping mall, the brutalist architecture that gives no life back to the street, the keep-out barbed wire crown of a gated

community, the careless and thought-less architecture that doesn’t maximise the extraordinariness of each site, brief, client and context. The architectural equivalent of the Lagonda is an architec-ture that just doesn’t care.

A more generous way to read the Lagonda is through the lens of ancient Greece. Here I am thinking of the Hellenic period – that maligned end of a cultural world marked-out by excess and exaggeration where the Greeks had nothing new to say. A world just before the collapse of Greece’s domi-nance – Greece’s fi rst demise so clearly read in its overly-fussy architecture and sculpture. Is the Lagonda evidence of the death throes of a culture unable to produce an ongoing originality? Is it evi-dence of the end of modernity? Suddenly it all makes sense. The Lagonda is a return to ‘80s style. That ugly BMW carriage-dip is a return to 1930s saloon cars with their runner rails. The Chrysler PT Cruiser a return to Bugsy Malone and popguns. Are these the exaggerated forms of a culture at the end of its vitality, recycling and self-referencing its earlier ill-formed versions when cars themselves started out referencing horse-drawn carriages? If a souped-up reference to the Model-T hits the road soon, we will know the answer to that question. Thank-fully modern architecture already had its revival style. It was called postmodernism. Or more disparagingly, ‘Po-Mo’. Unfortu-nately, if the zeitgeist theory is anything to go by, we are about due for a revival of the revival style soon. Architects! – sharpen your pencil crayons. Drivers! – feed your horses.

THE 1% ZEITGEISTThe Aston Martin Lagonda’s engine is so big it can overwhelm the ineffi ciencies of form by brute force. It can forcibly ram its way down any wind tunnel.

BY NIC COETZER

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THE ARCHITECTURAL PERSONALITY AND THE EMPLOYEESAt a recent architectural debate on the topic of the teaching and practice of architecture and urban design at the Barbican, Sean Griffiths, principal of FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste), highlighted a polemic not often addressed by architectural practices. How can we as architects and designers tackle the problems of the world – poverty, unemployment and lack of housing – if we cannot keep our own house in order?

BY ALBERT VAN JAARSVELD

‘ARE YOUR employees enthusiastic, motivated financially and emotionally rewarded and treated with the utmost respect?’ He challenged speakers to name those individuals who had generated the architectural imagery and the wealth of ideas their practice had produced to help solve the problems of the developing world. This was a moment in time, at the brink of global financial meltdown, where the culture of excessive individuality, development and marketing talk was eloquently exposed. He laid the cards on the table. As architects, we cannot present ourselves as problem solvers or harbingers of humane values if we cannot maintain a healthy ‘family in practice’ based on caring, respect and nurture.

The sleek, curvaceous urban design solutions for projects based in China, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Bilbao that followed the lecture, managed only to leave a bitter aftertaste. Urban proposals for real estate investors, rather than for inhabitants, and willful academic experimentation in social housing – all became a tasteless, hollow,

marketing talk. Not a single employer of the prominent offices whose pres-entations, about humanist ethical prac-tices, followed, could name an individual employee who had contributed to them.

Architecture that is produced by and with unethical means cannot contribute to a sustainable healthy community or environment.

The architect, as necessarily part of the capital economy and in his/her role as potential author of an improved environment, is mostly powerless to effect how and where resources for development are spent. We pride ourselves on offering a skilled service to our customers, adding value by the gift of our intention. In ‘The Gift’ the philosopher Lewis Hyde states a case that creative work has lasting value in society when the intention in its creation is not for personal gain. If the architect’s intention is for pure profit, the buildings will show it. They will lack community, poetry, life, imagination and art. By adding imagination – the invention of narrative and materials that speak of place, symbols

and signs that tap into the wealth of the collective unconscious of the place and the region – that will give us some influence in building healthy, sustainable urban and rural environments, which encourage human creativity and diversity the cornerstones of culture building.

With reference to culture building, Herman Herzberger writes in his book ‘Lessons For Students In Architecture’, ‘When you discuss your own work you have to ask yourself what you acquired from whom, because everything you find comes from somewhere. The source was not your own mind, but was supplied by the culture you belong to. That is why the work of others is so manifestly present here by way of a context.’

At this point we need to ask: In which context is the architecture of aspiration and exclusivity symptomatic of unsus-tainable divisions between rich and poor born? The blame lies not so much with ar-chitects as much as with the dualistic val-ues and perception of the culture within which they trade.

This is the age of the all consuming self. The promotion of the individual and the control of society by the commercial world’s psychological manipulation have affected society’s attitude to architecture, changing the need for shelter to desire-driven aspiration. A gap has opened for the world of the estate agent in the pro-curement of architecture. This social and economic change has effectively altered the general public’s perception of the role of the architect to one as manipulative puppet master constructing a platform for desire, subtly forcing his/her own house style on the clients in order to sell a brand identity. Increasingly, architects play into the hands of such perceptions and exploit it as a method of procuring work.

HOW DO ARCHITECTS SELL THEMSELVES?The personality cult of the superstar ar-chitect has become one of the principal means: the company grows, more and more architects are employed; a tipping

point is reached, partners and associates are appointed to police the style in the workplace of the architect, who relies increasingly on his/her name as a form of invented familiarity to sell the ‘style rule book’ rather than the skill. The prod-uct becomes safe, watered down and for-mulaic, while the employees are terrorised and manipulated in its production. Their creativity and problem-solving skills are deliberately limited to strategies which increase profit and facile production.

The power of self-promotion/market-ing is evident in the history of architec-ture. In many ways the founding father of branding, in the architectural world, is Charles Edward Jeanneret. Through clever self-promotion and marketing he re-invented himself as Le Corbusier. What is alarming about the personality cult as a means of selling architecture to the intellectual classes and academia is that the resulting veneration is some-times blatantly exploited to obtain free labour, free publicity and free endorse-

ment. In fashion, this invented identity proliferates as a means of unlocking self-identifying desires. How many garments does Gianni Versace the individual really design? How different is the individual Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel from Coco the brand caricature? A lot of successful contemporary architects have blatantly, with sweatshop labour, reduced their product to ‘label’ in order to win value and profit by gaining brand identity and, as a result have reduced their crea-tive intent to caricature. There are some notable exceptions in large practices such as Herzog and de Meuron who have consciously steered clear of a branded or house style, each project being wholly re-identified.

How can we, as a community, influ-ence urban design legislation to ensure that sustainable development is really enforced and/or encouraged by our local councils and by government? Part of the solution is to increase the relevance and influence of architects and urban plan-ners by regaining public trust. We cannot use manipulative marketing tactics to gain trust such as label or brand to appeal to people’s innermost desires and fears. We gain trust by setting an example.

The age of the personality cult is wan-ing, yet we need to change the public per-ception of what we do. The current desire driven perception only furthers to under-mine our role. How do we regain cred-ibility? How can we as architects create a blueprint for a new ethical topography?

We start, personally, on a small scale by accepting responsibility of care in our own practice. We treat our immediate family of architect employees with respect by keeping them enthusiastic, motivated and financially and emotionally rewarded. We get our own house in order, and then we scale up to the community of archi-tects and urban designers to the city and the country.

Le Corbusier, Ville Radieuse, 1929

ARCHITECTURE | SA 56|

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Documents

diagram architects

domino diagram

paradigmatic diagram

minds of architects

domino house diagram

new architecture

human possibilities

human needs