Masters Dissertation
Author(s): Jhono Bennett
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Abstract:
The South African population has been experiencing an unprecedented rate of urbanization that has left government bodies struggling to meet the qualitative and the infrastructural demands of the emergent sector in undeveloped areas.
This dissertation aims to focus on the intensive networks found in these developing areas of vulnerability that display strong cohesion due to activities surrounding the production process. The premise presented is that in order to intervene architecturally with these networks, designers should critically engage these networks through participative processes of research, design and ideally construction.
Through the author’s process of engagement, several key Architectural principles for an intervention emerge. Primarily the concept that a built intervention in a vulnerable settlement should first seek to associate itself with a network for its initial survival, and then aim to exist in a symbiotic relationship with this network through a mutually beneficial relationship.
Key words: staged development, incremental growth,infratecture, infrastructure, community participation, engagement, developing areas, vulnerable networks, fluxual growth, flexible architecture
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Research Paper(s) & Presentations
Publisher/Conference: Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Extra Urban Studies
Abstract:
This article maintains the importance of a contextual and humanist understanding for the design of public space through the incorporation of concrete and changing realities in the analysis of the urban environment. In an attempt to reach a greater understanding of the construction of space through social networks, qualitative fieldwork methods are used to document the flows of social process and physical matter in the immediate context of the two chosen sites for intervention. The importance of these networks for the design of built form and space are determined for each scenario.
The research underpins the design relevance in architecture (and contemporary urban life) of social activity, movement, temporality versus permanence (in form), and mobility versus fixity (in location). It places in question the traditional role and definition of architecture and their present relevance in the developing world. The result is an alternative set of considerations that define the architectural brief assuring: integration with the public realm; inclusion of emergent functions; and awareness of the importance of temporality and flexibility (with regard spatial structure and appropriation). The first case study is an urban industrial area and the second a peripheral, informal urban area. Both examples are situated in the city of Pretoria within the greater Tshwane Metropolitan Area.
Key words: Architecture; Urban Space; Emergence; Qualitative; Networks; Developing.
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NATIONAL
Title:
Title:
The Design of Urban Form and Space as a response to transient and Elusive Patterns & Networks
Author(s): Ida Breed, Mias Claasens and Jhono Bennett
This article maintains the importance of a contextual and humanist understanding for the design of public space through the incorporation of concrete and changing realities in the analysis of the urban environment. In an attempt to reach a greater understanding of the construction of space through social networks, qualitative fieldwork methods are used to document the flows of social process and physical matter in the immediate context of a chosen site for intervention. The importance of these networks for the design of built form and space is determined by a critical process of engagement. The research underpins the design relevance in architecture (and contemporary urban life) of social activity, movement, temporality versus permanence (in form), and mobility versus fixity (in location). It places in question the traditional role and definition of architecture and its present relevance in the developing world. The result is an alternative set of considerations that define the architectural brief assuring: integration with the public realm; inclusion of emergent functions; and awareness of the importance of temporality and flexibility (with regard to spatial structure and appropriation).
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| CAPE TOWN 2012 |
Abstract:
This article maintains the importance of a contextual and humanist understanding for the design of public space through the incorporation of concrete and changing realities in the analysis of the urban environment. In an attempt to reach a greater understanding of the construction of space through social networks, qualitative fieldwork methods are used to document the flows of social process and physical matter in the immediate context of a chosen site for intervention. The importance of these networks for the design of built form and space is determined by a critical process of engagement. The research underpins the design relevance in architecture (and contemporary urban life) of social activity, movement, temporality versus permanence (in form), and mobility versus fixity (in location). It places in question the traditional role and definition of architecture and its present relevance in the developing world. The result is an alternative set of considerations that define the architectural brief assuring: integration with the public realm; inclusion of emergent functions; and awareness of the importance of temporality and flexibility (with regard to spatial structure and appropriation).
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Title:
Architectural Design in Response to Vulnerable Networks
Publisher/Conference: Sustainable Human(e) Settlments: The Urban Challenge - ISBN: 978-0-620-54069-8
Abstract:
This article maintains the importance of a contextual and humanist understanding for the design of public space through the incorporation of concrete and changing realities in the analysis of the urban environment. In an attempt to reach a greater understanding of the construction of space through social networks, qualitative fieldwork methods are used to document the flows of social process and physical matter in the immediate context of the two chosen sites for intervention. The importance of these networks for the design of built form and space are determined for each scenario. The research underpins the design relevance in architecture (and contemporary urban life) of social activity, movement, temporality versus permanence (in form), and mobility versus fixity (in location). It places in question the traditional role and definition of architecture and their present relevance in the developing world. The result is an alternative set of considerations that define the architectural brief assuring: integration with the public realm; inclusion of emergent functions; and awareness of the importance of temporality and flexibility (with regard spatial structure and appropriation). The first case study is an urban industrial area and the second a peripheral, informal urban area. Both examples are situated in the city of Pretoria within the greater Tshwane Metropolitan Area.
Key words: Architecture; Urban Space; Emergence; Qualitative; Networks; Developing.
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Title:
Critical Lessons in Informal Engagement
Abstract:
This paper aims to present an approach to design thinking and teaching that takes the students and lecturers outside the university campus and traditional built landscapes into contexts of deep complexity – informal settlements. This approach is deemed necessary, as it brings a critical perspective on current Architectural design processes and products and exposes their limited relevance in the current social and spatial paradigm of South Africa.
These fluid and dynamic contexts offer critical lessons in adaptive re-use, mixed use, intricate thresholds of mediatory public and private space, shared communal areas and pedestrian-scale articulation. As students and lectures engage with these contexts through structured mapping exercises, deeper understanding is achieved, allowing for better design-decision making for future interventions. By understanding the existing energies, activities and quality of routes, nodes and thresholds within these contexts, the students are better equipped to propose context-sensitive and sustainable solutions.
Through developing the skills needed to navigate these complex systems and the ability to identify possible catalyst interventions, as well as testing this understanding through an active build project, students and lecturers will be better prepared to engage in non-conventional professional practice
Key words: Social Framework, Incremental Design, Co-Operative Design Process
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