PART TWO
1.2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The research in Part One has denoted a particular approach to architecture, not necessarily a particular building type. It should endeavour to create a more responsive dialectic, or a positive balance, of both a machine made and hand crafted architectural paradigms within which we live today. Therefore, the building type chosen was to act as a metaphor for the time society finds itself in, which appears to be somewhat content with mediocrity, mass production and substandard quality. A collaborative skills development facility was chosen as it would be able to encourage collaboration, as the process of making, learning and appreciating quality driven design, craft, art, industrial design, graphics, branding, and hotdesking could be directly celebrated. It will function as an urban art centre, where teaching, making, and collaborative spaces are the core of its program.
1.3.1 The Clients Organisation
Fig_ii. 1 : The Creative Exchange : Where Design brews.
The Creative Exchange is a forward thinking Durban-based Company that seeks premises for a new business venture. Their aim is to promote quality, local skills, and handcrafted design in the built environment by creating a public facility for making and selling. The facility intends to unite public place and working studio spaces together in order for designers to respond and engage with the general public. In order to support collaboration, exchange of ideas, and skills development programmes, The Creative Exchange will act as a type of making gallery, whereby process and product are engaged and showcased at every stage of design. They are adamant that this type of arrangement is important if Durban wants to develop into a key source of creative design, instead of requiring import trade to exploit the marketplace with low costs, low value, and low quality manufacturing.
The company’s ethos is to engage in a design dialogue geared towards improving the quality, as opposed to quantity, of the built environment. Their mantra endeavours to keep collaboration at its core by administering a transparent business approach by bringing about a sense of inclusivity. Bottom up “both / and” rather than an exclusionary Top down “either / or” situation. At the Creative Exchange one can buy quality product, watch a craftsman deliver his trade, and even partake in designing future projects.
1.3.2 The Clients Requirements
The main focus for the collaborative skills development facility is to accommodate two elements, namely, rentable work-spaces for creative’s to occupy studio space, and to create a new form of public-space building in Durban. By joining these attributes, the Creative Exchange aims to focus on collaboration and responsive-trade, where designers can engage both with each other and the general public. The Creative exchange endeavours to accommodate both large-scale artists to one-man-bands and freelancers by means of rentable studio spaces, hot-desking, meeting rooms, and function spaces. Their objective is to acquire a site nestled in a light industrial area, preferably in the vicinity of good public transport links, existing infrastructure, and in an area that could benefit from a more public interface. Whilst adding a new form of public space in Durban, they have also specified that a catalytic urban design proposal should also be considered.
Their aims are to:
» Showcase quality driven design work and skills to a wider audience, as opposed to quantity driven mass-produced ‘design’.
» Make a creative-conscious society by placing apprentice-based workshops, studio/display space, and trade space alongside with spaces for public gathering.
» Promote and cater for a range of artists, craftsmen, and designers to work in the facility by accommodating studios of varying sizes, which can accommodate growth from a one man-band to an entire workforce.
» Support live-in residencies, for creative’s, in the form of loft arrangements.
» Activate and enhance the built environment by creating pedestrian connections and liveable public environments.
» Promote a democratic urban environment, where, instead of focussing on gathering motor vehicles, rather focussing on an opportunity to gather people.
» Engage and benefit from an existing light industrial mode of manufacture.
» Act as a financial catalyst for further investment into the city.
Fig_ii. 2 : The Creative Exchange’s mantra
1.3.3 The Clients Brief
The Creative Exchange will need an open office, which promotes collaboration and will include rentable workstations and meeting rooms; a kitchenette, administrative rooms, and an event space will be needed for functions. Workspaces are needed for artists, craftsmen, and industrial designers shall be designed for manufacturing and making processes, therefore greater volumes than typical office requirements are needed. The design shall provide for various studio spaces to be allocated throughout the project, as well as the ground floor to stimulate street level activities. Loft style accommodation in the form of rentable one bedroom units and bedsits for resident artists. Exhibition spaces for showcasing various industrial design, art, and craft.
Fig_ii. 3 : The visual interpretation of the clients schedule of accommodation.
1.3.4 Schedule of Accommodation
Site Extent = 3300 sqm.
Total Building Extent : approximately 8000sqm
Studios : 8 x Klein (10-30sqm), 6 x Medium (30-150sqm), 3 x Groot (200+sqm) and 2 x Anchor (188sqm) . Figures based on : Gregor Jenkin studio = 220sqm. Also, Main Street Life studios start from 33sqm and Arts on Main Double volume start from 80sqm (Maboneng Precinct).
Creative Exchange Office space : 491sqm(1st floor) + 479sqm (2nd Floor) = 970 (Total open plan rentable hot desking space) Figures based on : Open co working space = 1000sqm.
Main change = @ R75/sqm for rent or R7500/sqm to buy (Maboneng Precinct).
Parking requirements : 1 per 200 sqm (under 5000sqm) as per zoning.
Visitors : Hard surface off Street Parking on Florence Nzama, Morrison, and John Milnes Road. (60 parking’s and 3 loading zones)
Basement : Residents & Staff (79 parking’s – 10 disabled to comply with SABS 0400 regulations)
F l o o r b y F l o o r A c c o m m o d a t i o n : Floor 0.0
Public / Retail
» Makers exhibition : @ 474 sqm including 2 artists spaces @ 30 & 42 sqm, and a teaching venue @ 75sqm.
» Design Emporium : @ 542sqm – catering for 7 flexible shops @ 20-50sqm per shop.
» Vending space : @ 250sqm – including 12 x 12sqm vending spaces & 70sqm dining hall.
» Bakery / coffee-shop : @ 50sqm
» Administration / Office / Security / Management Space : @ 50sqm
» Services (ducts etc)
Floor 1.0 & 2.0