is the sky the limit? we were asking us, could we somewaysomehow get our superheroines to sri lanka? – and we managed to get funding for both teams to go to present their work at this conference. and off they went

[model of »bringing water to new heights« by: nicky duncan, teegan isola, julia masureik; photo: js]

absolutely magic moments
the world wide open, all ours, the sky reaching out and the sun smiling back at us

part of that happyness just was covered by the
university of cape town news to be checked-out here

[design/drawing: mxolisi sibusiso moyo]

constructing space
largely neglected, maudit, home of acquired disgust, stigmatized olfactoric rollercoaster, bluebottles, dim, agony, accoustic embarassements, filth, slippery at times. let’s go for that: let’s unbigottedly construct overloo ks, spaces to let some three of our musculii sphincterii dignifiedly relax in an environment of splendid constructive detail and elaborate requirement-profileresponsive materiality.

location
chapman’s nek, wc/za
[photos: js]

requirements
two toilets one sink
life span: 10 a

didactic approach
subject
questioning the (ab)use of scarce drinking water to turn potent natural fertilizer into sewage. questioning habituated un-ergonomic positions and situations. questioning instilled demands for privacy and unlearned desires for visual control. questioning the permanence of architecture.
content
non-generic buidling typology/location/requirement-profile to demand for superspecific responsive design-development instead of antetype-klones/derrivates
format
individual design, development with teamwork-based analytical foreplay + a site-expedition.

outcome
some selected approaches
a representative compilation trying to capture some of the wide scope of 87 great contributions. unfortunately not all concepts could be included in this li’l documentation [3,7 mb]

an integrated 1st year architecture studio + tech project
q4 s2 y1 2017 uct ebe soapg jan schabert

a one day exercise with first year students of architecture at the school of architecture, planning and geomatics at kwiYunivesithi yaseKapa / university of cape town

after a more prescriptive very 1st quarter of studio design the second quarter was about un-choreographed/-directed concept development in full supportive integration with the technology course

week -05
participants to publicly state their intrests on a unitag to be posted on the universe

week -04
participants to start creating teams based on pinboard-position

week -01
contracts are signed from both sides

week 00
off we go…

+ + + + + + + + +

the brief

01 carteblanche
permission to do something in any* way you choose to do it. *ok, almost any.
02 carteblanche
we‘re on the road to nowhere/come on inside
[road to nowhere, talking heads/david byrne] 03 carteblanche
so burn all your bridges/leave your whole life behind
you can do what you want to do/‘cause your strong in your mind
[home is where you’re happy, charles manson] 04 carteblanche
freedom of choice/is what you got
freedom from choice/is what you want
[freedom of choice, devo/mark mothersbaugh, david casale] 05 carteblanche
integrated studio & tech q2 project with contracted selfdefined and -developed subjects and outcomes.
06 intent
to decolonise what we are taught and the way we are taught. (…) [lekgotla] 07 intent
allow for a broad diversity of personal spatial projects and inputs to provoke involvement, request questions and exchange and discuss diverse social/cultural/technical knowledge.
08 content
bold and radical social, ecological non-anthropocentric spatial utopian concepts are as strongly encouraged as perverted dystopiae. all their brave construction attempts & sexy but risky material inventions are warmly welcomed to fail with grace.
09 method
the spoon stays in the canteen, that vampiristic straw becomes tool of the quarter: staff is available at all designated studio & tech timeslots to provide feeds requested by you.
10 teams
teams of two, three or four students.

it goes without saying, that mirrored team-ups are approvable as well. fullboardteams on special request.
11 contract
produce a contract of the proposed subject, its scale of operation, expected outcomes, motivation and intention as well as its teammembers and presentation format. discuss draft(s) of contract with selected staff. submit signed contract before deadline.
12 outcomes
all subject to discussion except for a non-negotiable documentation of not less than 2 (two) doublepages. layout according to .indd template.
13 assessment
based on the contracted proposed targets in the disciplines studio and technology.
14 forward, forward!
instantaneous response to a particular problem is too slow. architecture must concern itself continually with the socially beneficial distortion of the environment.
like medicine it must move from the curative to the preventive. architecture should have little to do with problem solving – rather it should create desirable conditions and opportunities hitherto thought impossible.
[cedric price, the square book, academy press 2003]

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

stay tuned for the superamazing results… coming soon

i made one&ahalf walls at our uct’s 1st year studio become dynamic, made the wall inviting to do something with it, an analogue snitchbook or facechat, where you post your stuff and see how others are doing.

16 softwoodfibreboards 841x2100mm to be randomly shared by six students,

a raffle giving you a coordinate, giving you neighbours, giving you a position, a team, a place to start from.

bleu ciel
[stephanie kirsten, leah michaels, cornelus van der nest, sisonke mgwebi, alexandra le sueur]brun rouge
[mpho sephelane, rutendo chemere, tarryn allies, mbali cobotwana, jessica huang]terre d‘ombre naturelle foncée
[tuwilika shaimemanya, lilianne kiame,patricia bandora,lerato honde, leni li]brique clair
[raadiyah jacobs, michael liebrich, luba nkiwane, treasa mcmillan, freda esterhuyse] ]]> https://www.architekturusw.de/lehre-teaching/uct-04-communal-cuboid.html Mon, 15 Aug 2016 15:43:32 +0000 http://www.architekturusw.de/?p=4093 Read More...]]>

1
when i am by myself it’s the best way to be [circle, edie brickell; cover by j mascis

our house it has a crowd / there’s always something happening / and it’s usually quite loud [our house, madness]

together and/or alone?

2
our current economic model makes mass ownership impossible in the long run – sharing can be a luxury, not a compromise – when we combine our resources, the result is more than the sum of the parts. (…) functionalist space is designed around ergonomically optimised actions that determine precise social relations. when cultural norms change, these spaces can quickly become impractical or redundant. [excerpts from: HOME ECONOMICS, british pavillon, venice architecture biennale, curated by shumi bose, jack self, finn williams, 2016]

3
a cuboid, of 27.60 meters width, 5 meters depth, that rises 21.50 meters above, and 5 meters into the ground a shared home to 15 (m)i-spaces

4
from this block of black solid-coloured insulative reinforced concrete you substracted/excavated six elegantly allocated, orientated, arranged and connected (primary) volumes, [in] [up] [eat] [wet] [heat] [move], allowing them to live up to their individual characters whilst even more having their com-position on their passage between public and private in mind.

5
you used less than 99 concrete mixer trucks (@ 7 m3)

[in]

[up] stairway to heaven (led zeppelin, 1971)
metropolis (fritz lang, 1927)
vertigo (alfred hitchcock, 1958)
psycho (alfred hitchcock, 1960

[eat]
the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover (peter greenaway, 1989)
cannibal holocaust (ruggero deodato, 1980)
american diner (barry levinson, 1982)
themroc (claude faraldo, 1973)
kitchen (andy warhol, 1965)

wet
eaux d’artifice (kenneth anger, 1953)
zero patience (john greyson, 1993)
26 bathrooms (peter greenaway, 1985)
waterworld (kevin costner, 1995)
chinatown (roman polanski, 1974)

[heat] in the first bar/folks were drinking sips/but in this bar/they could shake their hips
»i was dancing in a lesbian bar«, jonathan richman, 1992
heat (paul morrissey, 1972)
barton fink (joel & ethan coen, 1991)

[move]
crash (david cronenberg, 1996)
girl on a motorcycle (jack cardiff, 1968)
mad max (george miller, 1979, 1981, 1985, 2015)
two lane blacktop (monte hellman, 1971)
scorpio rising (kenneth anger, 1964)

download the brochure [8mb] here:

an integrated design studio&technology project for 1st year students:
the (m)i-spaces, 5 x 5 x 5m measuring cubes purposed for individual living [a project by alta steenkamp] are supported with a set of courseworks from the tech side:
_the deck
_the stair
_the façade
and in support of the consecutive follow-up communal cuboid also finding out strategies how to suspend/support/glue/attach them (m)i-spaces from their motherships, the communal cuboids:
_outrigger:

[thanks for the incomensurable engineering contribution of kenny mudenda]

and from there into the (not alone) structural beauty of non-flat-soffits
_monocoque

stay tuned

this is hands on!

with first year students of architecture at the school of architecture, planning and geomatics at university of cape town, we aplied william mcdonough’s »how do we love all children of all species for all time?« to squirrels:
develop a ramp/chute to allow our befriended species to transfer macademias across our staircases with a 90–100% hit rate whilst also giving the nut airtime to allow the catcher to show off.

not being distracted with an overwhelming amount of published precedents in this field, we were able to unprejudicetly develop and transfer construction principles that fulfilled the requested material efficiency, recylability and flexibility as well as the desired effect of the macademia’s airtime. the constructive task was, in teams of 3-4 students, trifoldedly approached:
_lightweight material,
_lightweight structures and
_lightweight systems

feel free to enjoy the superfantastic outcomes of this project compiled in a lil [6.4mb] brochure here:

this project wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of

Mpact smarter, sustainable solutions

abaninzi, sibulelwe ezininzi!

AAFF is organised by the architects collective of south africa
the7th edition subject was
»voices |in|visible : revealing temporal interactions with place«

watch daeguhanok here