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NAME AND SURNAME: NATALIE MDONGA

STUDENT NUMBER: 209028025

COURSE: MAJOR INTERGRATED PROJECT (STW AND CTD)

TITLE OF PROJECT: INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC DESIGN-BUILD PROJECTS

HAND OUT DATE: 12 AUGUST 2011

DUE DATE: 26 SEPTEMBER 2011

LECTURERS: JOLANDA DE VILLIERS AND HERMIE VOULGERELIS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to thank the following people and organizations for their support, help and information with regards to this project.

The two dedicated librarians at the Central Library in Cape Town. These men, not well informed about architecture, were extremely eager to assist and did it well. Thank you.

Great appreciation to my lecturers Jolanda and Hermie for their knowledge and expertise which they have so willing passed on to us. Also that they are always learning to the point of researching and posting links on Facebook and on the group page for us to learn more from. Thank you.

Natalie MdongaCape Town, September 2011.

SUMMARY:

This academic paper attempts to identify, show, explain analysis and learn the proceedings of stages of an academic design- build project. It pays much attention to the background of the projects, organizational aspects, the students, the design and construction, pedagogic rationale and success of the projects.

This paper is based on student observation by means of academic researching and reading on various international projects.

It is a basic observation of the design process to final product sequence from a students point of view with the assistance of varies information gathered. Giving internet information and personal knowledge with regards to design process to be more informed of the projects.

CONTENT PAGE:CONTENTS: PAGE NUMBER:Acknowledgements 2Summary 3Content Page 41. Declaration 52. Terms of Reference 63. Methodology/ Procedures 74. Introduction 85. Croatia design/build program: community and social building 2010 9 - 12 - Background of the project - Organizational Aspects - Students perceptions and participation - The pedagogic rationale - The building design and construction - How successful the project was 6. Field chapel in Boedigheim 13 - 15 - Background of the project - Organizational Aspects - Students perceptions and participation - The pedagogic rationale - The building design and construction - How successful the project was 7. Conclusion 168. Reference 17DECLARATION:

I declare that this academic paper is the original work of the author (Natalie Mdonga). All information directly or obtained from other sources has been fully acknowledged.

SIGNATURE: N.N. Mdonga

DATE: 26 September 2011

TERMS OF REFERENCE:

This is a design-build MIP project for 2011 for the construction and detailing 2 and Studio work 2 courses in Architectural Technology. The project was headed out on the 12th of August 2011 with opportunities of draft hand ins at any time until the final submission on Monday 26 September 2011.

The task at hand requires identifying international academic design-build projects and undertaking continuous analysis of each project in an academic manner. These analyses will in the end, by means of recording and writing down, address the design processes and aspects of project construction sequences to get to the final product.

The report should contain explanatory writing, drawings/sketches and details. The inclusion of photographs is optional and adds visual information of the project. One needs to include personal observations and entice comments. The report needs to address the 6 aspects specified in the brief.

METHODOLOGY/PROCEDURES:

Information has been mainly gathered by means of internet researching of academic design-build projects on Google scholar.

Other means include reading up on international students blogs and different organizations with focus on awarding such students involved in uplifting projects. Also reading up on further links provided by lecturers has been of immense assistance.

INTRODUCTION:

The main function of this MIP is to introduce us students to the professional practice of architecture and the built environment through a process called Design-Build or also known as Social Architecture.Design-build is a method of project delivery where engineering design and construction are combined into one salutation and a team (in this case, students) work together to deliver the project. Design-built is also a project delivery system used in the construction industry. It is a method to deliver a project in which the design and construction services are contracted by a single entity and in this case it is students under the supervision of professionals such as lecturers, engineers, contractors, architects and quantity surveyors. Design-build relies on a single point of responsibility contract and is used to minimize risk for the project owner and reduce the delivery schedule by overlapping the design stages and construction stages of a project. This is indeed a great, yet educational experience for students to gain skills in a practical manner, hands on, and learning from their own mistakes and successes.This method of learning teaches the effective integration of design, construction and project management services to ensure success for owners, design and construction sectors, to promote best practices in design-build.Such project deliveries bring students together and work right at the intersection between various professions.It provides students with valuable hard and soft skills for their professional future, to faster synergies between the different fields encompassed by the built environment and forge a common culture/design.

CROATIA DESIGN/BUILD PROGRAM: COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL BUILDING:

Community design builds, Rijeka, Croatia. Dormitory Ucenicki Dom Podmurnce provides housing for high school and college students from different regions of Croatia. The building formerly a monastery contained a church and community gardens with patches of open spaces.

The department of landscape architecture at the University of Washington in collaboration with the City of Croatia started the design and build program for the Dormitory Ucenicki Dom Podmurnce in 2010. This high school is located in Rijeka, Croatia, close to the capital Zagreb which serves at risk youth from all over the country. This program aims to utilize design and construction to create a safe, therapeutic and educational environment as the main focus for the students.

At arriving in Croatia, the program included several trips for students to explore various regions of the country and learn about the diverse cultures, social justices issues and unique ecological systems. The trip gave insight on possible design proposals and be more informed about the project at hand. The project came about to provide healing for the youth of Croatia who were grappled with guilt, confusion and hopelessness in the debilitating aftermath of the countrys corrosive war. Clients include the students of the Ucenicki Dom Dormitory, staff and residents of the surrounding community who will also use the new green spaces.

The project was handled by 16 landscape architectural students from the University of Washington in collaboration with Croatian students; Marina Butorac a landscape architect from Croatia assisted the students with the help of volunteers and building professionals from around the community.Organization of the project was mainly headed by students. This aspect played a role with regards to the pedagogic rationale. Lecturers allowed students to be more hands on, lead the process and thus learn from their own experiences. By exposing students to various design and construction disciplines, they gain skills in design and construction as well as have opportunities to pursue studies in other relevant areas of interest.The architecture students, after viewing the city and taking photographs of significant structures, meet with the dormitory students for a photo preference study. By means of similar meetings between students a selection of favourite images were chosen to inform the designs. For the duration of the programs students had common occurrence site to observe and participate in the design process on a day to day schedule. The students presented their designs to a panel that included the staff, faculty and students who would habit the spaces. Architecture students underwent numerous discussions of techniques with local ecological designer Bruno Motik on local construction techniques and worked closely with dormitory students.

The students lead construction workshops such as rain garden and straw bale construction, before final construction. Yet at times would be given workshops by local professionals. The process of design incorporated input from the dormitory students, staff and faculty to inform the design and programming decisions. Throughout the program large and small groups of students would discuss and have problem solving exercises as criteria of informal learning and exchanging of skills and knowledge. This project could not have been done without the strong partnership between the design build team (architecture students), dormitory students, staff, faculty and local experts.The project included four parts: a community gathering space, reconciliation garden, and reflexology path and cultivation garden. The gardens offer four distinct therapeutic interactions with nature and as a whole address the need for social interactions, understanding, acceptance and increased spiritual and ecological health. The main goal creates spaces which relieves stress through aesthetic stimulation and distraction. Local construction techniques played a major role in the designs and local building experts such as stone masons lead workshops such as Dalmatian, which is a style stone walls. Vernacular designing was fundamental; converting of an old wine barrel into a rain barrel was just one of the innovative designs that was implemented. The community gathering space is based on an extensive iterative process that focused on a collaborative design development process.Green building was an important factor of construction, example in this design: green roof, straw bale seating, rain barrels and an infiltration trench. The community gathering space is a timber framed construction shelter with, wood and stone paving and wood screening which provides protection and is a place of meeting and relaxation on the benches with either are stable or swinging.The reconciliation garden is used by the dormitory residents to share experience of prejudice and ethnic bigotry. An intimate area intended for reflection, as the plants mature the sense of privacy and reflection will be heightened. Garden of cultivation shows a traditional courtyard space that has inward views from the church and each floor of the surrounding dorm. The focus on bringing in programmatic elements such as gardening: offer education opportunities for growing food for the dormitory. Stone wall and herb spiral provides an elevation change as a counterpoint to the flat site. Red bricks outline each of the cultivation plots. The lanterns display the students handmade tiles, greeting those who enter with a sense stewardship. Students placed local river rocks into the reflexology path rock and tree stumps provide the textural and visual interest within the pathway.

Through design and construction, friendships were built; cultures were shared, drawing out the essence of service learning. The project is successful in improving the quality of life for the community to reconcile and be strengthened through ecological stewardship and social change. The project reflects innovation, determination and the ethic service at its most intense level. It demonstrates a service ethic that can and should be at the core of our architectural education.

FIELD CHAPEL IN BOEDIGHEIM

In January of 2008, the Reverend of the Protestant Church in Boedigheim contacted Dea Ecker an architect from Ecker Architekten with the interest to build a chapel. The problems which were at hand were that the Reverend had no funds, no property and had no support from fellow congregation. Yet he had a specific idea about what this chapel should be and where it should be located. After discussing a design-build project with the Reverend, Dea Ecker contacted his former school colleague, Frank Flury, a professor at Illinois Institute of Technology and the architecture students now had an opportunity to have a positive social impact and be exposed to an international project.This project was headed up by the students of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago under Professor Frank Flury, with the assist on a pro bono basis by a local architect: Dea Ecker. The client of the project was the Protestant Church of Bodigheim in Boedigheim, Germany and the project started construction in the year 2009. Further assistance came from local craftsmen, volunteer workers and townspeople of the Odenwald/Bauland, a rural region in northern Baden- Wurremberg.

There were twelve students involved, who came from different cultures and parts of the world. The task of the design was to create a place of spirituality which was defined as an interdenominational chapel, a space for people who are in a search for God- a place for quiet reflection, yet also one that welcomes hikers and cyclists who appreciate a rest stop that has a sense of beauty.The 12 students developed three design alternatives which were presented to the governing municipality of Buchen and the citizens of Boedigheim. Two projects were chosen for further development and Professor Flury was responsible for the feasibility of a final proposal. The students and Professor thus took it upon themselves to organize donations, volunteers of building skills for the project and even the land on which to build- given by a farmer in Boedigheim.

Professor Flury developed the design with his students and constant contact with Ecker Architekten by means of e-mail, AutoCAD and Skype teleconferencing were the tools used to translate a student project design into a set of working documents that met German construction standards. Dea Ecker finalized the drawings to obtain permits in time, with the Reverend and community responsible for the acquisition of accommodations for the students during the construction phase. The student group arrived in Germany in the first week of June and the chapel was constructed in 8 weeks.

The chapel stands on a hill between the villages of Boedigheim, Seckach and Grobeicholzheim. The structure is visible from afar but can only be reached by foot or by bicycle via a steep country lane. The students developed outdoor facilities and spaces as a logical consequence of interaction: when arriving at the site, a narrow footpath leads between an existing hedge and blank tower faade to a small gravel forecourt, which is bounded on two sides with massive benched made of local limestone. The forecourt represents the secular realm. A brick platform rises from this forecourt, upon which visitors enter a closed patio and ultimately the sanctuary. The platform traversed the profane to the divine.Surrounded by four closed walls, views are limited to the sky and the tower, which encloses the chapel sanctuary. The courtyard and chapel are situated in a sea of faith. From the onset of the project development, assembly details were designed to ensure the chapel could be completed by students without construction skills. The entire wooden structure was cut on CNC machine according to the students drawings. The receiving slots in the four main columns of the tower for the louvers were subsequently hand routed. Not a single plank was sawn on site. The students developed the drawings in various CAD programs and produced the individual components with hand tools and computer assisted machinery.The project is of the word sustainable: the chapel design was based upon utilizing donated, renewable and local materials. The wood came from the municipal forests in Buchen and in Boedigheim and was dried and cut at the sawmill less than 2km from the chapel site. Bricks used in paving the tower platform were left over from a nearby building site and donated to the project. The gravel used for the forecourt was dredged from the Main River, the limestone blocks were quarried within walking distance from the chapel. All the components were either fabricated by the students in the carpenters shop or made by local craftsmen. With the exception of the steel used in the fastening screws and column anchors, all materials come from locations with 40km from the building site.The pedagogical approach of the Illinois Institute of Technology advanced design/build studio attempts to connect the head and hand. The confrontation with the entire architecture process, from the design sketch to the finish structure, provides students with a practical experience that both parallels and contrasts their acquired academic knowledge.The project has found positive resonance of the participating components. It has also achieved all desired goals. Diverse groups have collaborated to create something not possible separately. Cultural and religious differences were bridged, new friendships were forged and a chapel was built.

CONCLUSION:

The rise of design-build projects has threatened the traditional hierarchies and silos of the design and construction industry. Yet this new career if I may say- saves time and money, allows opportunities to achieve innovation in the delivery facility. This manner is many cases proves to be a faster and efficient than design-bid-build.These two international design-build projects have successful implement design-build practices such as: early integration of key team members from proposal process through to final product. They display close coordination between design and construction team members from the design development stage through field construction.One factor I greatly appreciate about such methods is that students from across are brought together, get to know each other, learn to appreciate how different backgrounds can provide different solutions to the same problem, students exchange knowledge and is a valuable eye-opening experience.Active participation of the students is key to the success of design-build projects. Factors that one would view as important in such projects, is clear scheduling, plan, organization, fundraising and team work. It is critical to be innovative in a sensible manner in keeping with the environment and the people who will habit the structure. With regards to sensible and sustainable thinking, I see innovation as a strong link as with innovation, one sees many functions for ordinary, or should I say local material and resources- great thinking for future architects. Basically to achieve a successful design build project, I have realized from the two international projects, that a constant interaction and workmanship with the community and local skills men with students is greatly important. One other fact that I see necessary, is the acknowledgement of the existing environment, to allow the site to influence the design and be linked together.

REFERENCES:University of Washington(2011) Croatia: community and social building, design/building program [ online ]

Available at: http://larch.be.washington.edu/features/design_build/croatia/croatia.php#

[Accessed on: 2011-09-22]

Wikipedia (2011) pedagogy [online]

Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy[Accessed on: 2011-09-26]

Education Africa (2011) Social Architecture [online]

Available at: http://www.educationafrica.com/social_architecture.htm [Accessed on: 2011-09-24]

Arch Daily (2009) Field Chapel in Boedigheim/students of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology [online]

Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/37921/field-chapel-in-boedigheim-students-of-the-college-of-architecture-at-the-illinois-institute-of-technology-ecker-architekten/[Accessed on: 2011-09-24]