UNIVERSITY
OF THE WITWATERSRAND
SCHOOL
OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING
ARPL 3003
Contemporary Issues within Architecture 2013
Task 2
PlaceMaking +
Conventions 1/9: all nine: 85% of the research report
Hillbrow Façade_017 1998
©Solam Mkhabela
Open City:
the standard for the site envelope will make it possible to plan a city that
can be developed quickly and cheaply using the advantages of mass production
while eliminating its dangers. The
transformation of the standardized architectural project from a design for a
building module to the design for an urban block creates a city that is
adequate to the capitalist reality of developing economies. Only the block offers its inhabitants a
secure place to live while offering maximum of possibilities for integrating
public programs. Instead of the closed
city of gated, free-standing buildings there will be an open city of blocks
designed to incorporate private and public interests.
State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009 - Harmonious Cities, UN Habitat
Scale
The term
‘scale’ is commonly used in two ways.
One is differentiate between differently sized parts of a city or
settlement (regional, metropolitan, sub-metropolitan, local representative
scales and so on). The second refers to
the judgement about appropriate size, measured in terms of a ‘human
scale’: the achievement of a comfort
fit. It is this latter meaning which is
by far the most important. A central
concern in place-making is creating settlements which are humanly-scaled
(scaled so that human beings feel comfortable, and can function comfortably,
within them). This is a quality which
should be present in the most modest, as well as the most bold, interventions.
Creating Vibrant Urban Places to Live: A Primer, D
Dewar and R S Uytenbogaardt, Cape Town 1995
Your role this semester will be to focus and zoom
in into the block. You will unpack its
architecture + typology – whilst recognizing its morphological footprint within
the greater Johannesburg city area – and expose its anatomy.
1.
Methodology_week2
The project
will collect, collate and map accurate, relevant and site-specific
information. Therefore you required to
measure + map your block to detail. Use
photography to capture its 3 dimensionality.
Conduct interviews with the actors + agents who use and permeate the
site. Uncover what the architecture is
used for? Its historical evolution and
if necessary, its future projection.
Things to consider, but not limited to, are:
§ circulation networks and
hierarchies, patterns of transport and movement: motorized and non-motorized
ð horizontal + vertical uses of the block
ð horizontal diversity: units, entrances + frames
ð inside-outside connections: permeable frontages
ð vertical diversity: mix of functions and uses from road reserve, to
sidewalk, to floor to floor to roof
ð public and private, pedestrian and vehicular, and any other forms
§ infrastructural networks
§ edge conditions
§ vegetation distribution and green
spaces
§ building scale, densities and
typologies
§ open space system
§ land use
§ gateways and entrances
§ formal, informal structures and
networks
§ management and ownership in the area
§ social patterns and networks
§ economical patterns and networks
§ height
§ courtyards
§ programme
§ the grid
You are
expected to collect data regarding the bold text above.
The course outline stated:
The studio asks students to understand and unfold the complexity of
urban Johannesburg through the understanding of the anatomy of a city block in
the CBD. This includes physical form and thresholds as well as historical
development, social and economic layers, urban politics and the larger and
closer context of the site, its edge conditions, the relation of solid and
void, existing programmes and movement patterns. The block is considered as the
intersection of architecture (building) and urban design. Each team of three
students will be responsible for a different block. The chosen blocks are
connected via the existing open space network. Various ways of mapping will be
introduced and applied. Comparative analysis will introduce to a variety of
block-dimensions (for example Cape Town, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam).
Projected visions of the future of each individual block and its closer and
larger context should be developed individually. The work will be presented in
form of a comparative matrix/ catalogue in a specified format.
What
others think
Cities
are perhaps one of humanity’s most complex creations, never finished, never
definitive. They are like a journey that never ends. Their evolution is
determined by their ascent into greatness or their descent into decline. They
are the past, the present and the future.
State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009 - Harmonious Cities, UN Habitat
Urban
Design is the art of creating and shaping
cities and towns
Urban design involves the arrangement and design of buildings, public spaces, transport
systems, services, and amenities. Urban
design is the process of giving form, shape, and character to groups of
buildings, to whole neighborhoods, and the city.
It is a framework that orders the elements into a network of streets, squares,
and blocks. Urban design blends architecture, landscape architecture,
and city planning together to make urban areas functional and attractive.
Urban design
is about making connections between people and places, movement and urban form,
nature and the built fabric. Urban design draws together the many strands of
place-making, environmental stewardship, social equity and economic viability
into the creation of places with distinct beauty and identity.
Urban design is derived from but
transcends planning and transportation policy, architectural design,
development economics, engineering and landscape. It draws these and other
strands together creating a vision for an area and then deploying the resources
and skills needed to bring the vision to life. Urban
design involves place-making - the creation of a setting that imparts a
sense of place to an area. This process is achieved by establishing
identifiable neighborhoods, unique architecture, aesthetically pleasing public
places and vistas, identifiable landmarks and focal points, and a human element
established by compatible scales of development and ongoing public stewardship.
Other key elements of placemaking include: lively commercial centers, mixed-use
development with ground-floor retail uses, human-scale and context-sensitive
design; safe and attractive public areas; image-making; and decorative elements
in the public realm.
Urban
design practice areas range in scale from small public spaces or streets to
neighborhoods, city-wide systems, or whole regions.
"Urban Design and city building are surely among the most auspicious
endeavors of this or any age, giving rise to a vision of life, art, artifact
and culture that outlives its authors. It is the gift of its designers and
makers to the future. Urban design is essentially an ethical endeavor, inspired
by the vision of public art and architecture and reified by the science of
construction." - Donald Watson
Urban design operates at 3 scales:
|
the region
city and town
|
the neighborhood
district and corridor
|
the block
street and building
|
Urban
design includes infrastructure, architecture, public spaces:
Scale, Urban Design + Architecture
In short, the codes shape the built form of the city,
if not the architectural style of the individual buildings.
Building a narrative about an individual’s style and his ability to shape the city
accordingly is enticing, but the more important forces are legal ones. Now,
whether those codes are shaping the city as intended or not is another
question.
The other question is if bold architecture is wanted. Every city needs
the kind of urban fabric that provides the bulk of the buildings but tends to
blend into the surrounding context (more often, it is the
surrounding context). Jahn Gehl has repeatedly noted how Dubai’s emphasis on
monumental architecture with no surrounding context (“birdshit architecture“) fails to create a sense of
place. If every building tries to be unique, then none of them are.
