CHAPTER 4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 104
4.4. RESPONSIVE DESIGN GUIDELINES
Whilst a dialectic architecture needs to be more focused on the process, or the means of architecture, the notions of upskilling, teaching, growing, and crafting should form part of this in the final product. By adapting what Roke (2009) suggests as a bricoleur type methodology whereby materials found/obtained in and around the site could be a potential generator for a responsive and tectonic architecture. For instance, in Durban, the port offers many opportunities to salvage unused materials; parts of ships, containers, dolloses etc. tectonic type architecture, where the process of making comes to the forefront. The process of making influences the design, not the other way around. This is the craft mentality that is picked up in Chapter 2.2. The notion of craft is similar to that of a machine type process, as the product is thought of first, and the means in which one goes around getting to that point comes second. One can then identify that there is a vital, untapped link between machine and crafted processes as both are concerned with Product first. As both machine and craft processes are dealing with a product, it should be reflected in the process of architecture, by means of allowing the products to form part of the process of architecture.
Architecture should endeavour to create a dialogue between machine and craft-based processes. The machine should be used as a positive attribute for economic factors, and the input of craft used as an inspiration for an ‘existential ground’ (Pallasmaa, 2009) as an accentuation of the role of the human within the context of design and construction. This dissertation has endeavoured to create a mediation of these two opposing forces; to create a sense of a modern handcrafted architecture that remains grounded by both product and process.
RESPONSIVE DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR A
MODERN HANDCRAFTED DIALECTIC ARCHITECTURE
The following section is a set of responsive design guidelines which, based on the research, could provide one with a foundation for a modern handcrafted dialectic architecture.
Support Locality. Design, think and create for People.
Respond to Site.
Considered mass Production.
Utilize light as a free material
Fig_4. 1 : A locally sourced craftsman developing skills by working on locally sourced timber, on site. Dalton Reserve local, Durban.
» Support Locality : By marking the architectural narrative of time and place that searches for honesty and relevance in today’s ‘universal civilisation’, architecture can express its local context and climate. Linking industrial processes with crafted processes through articulation of locally found processes, materials, and workforce to form an honest working relationship. Fundamentally, architects, builders, contractors, and clients need to take cognisance of, and support, local constructs. Magnify local craftsmanship and skills, by deploying an subtle method of crafting mass-produced, prefabricated, off-the-shelf materials to produce high quality, bespoke architecture. Materials that exude the characteristics that are inherent when first obtained, enforces architecture to accept and expresses its location by standing for where it is placed. Importing materials from international sources, let alone from other provinces, dilutes the respect of natural and organic materiality found in the local vicinity. Refer to Fig_4.1.
Fig_4. 2 : A true reflection of design which relates to the human body. Casa Batlo fireplace, Barcelona, Spain.
» Think, Design, and Create, for and with people in mind: A process that both creates and utilizes local skills and materials available can create an awareness that the processes of craft-based practices only exist through human input. The intervention can only become richer, more relevant, tactile and humanitarian through a process of upskilling and allowing creative freedom to those outside of a specific design profession (trades/builders etc) within the built environment. This can aid in the creation of place, and a connection to an existential ground by engaging a considerably more human interface with its users. Refer to Fig_4.2.
Fig_4. 3 : The architects carefully wrapped the roof slabs around the existing trees. A direct response to the peculiarities of the site. Electric Ladyland roof detail, Kloof, Durban.
» Respond to site : Architecture also has the opportunity to respond and engage with particulars of a specific site. Topography, light, and, context should influence the intervention and relate in a peculiar way, to be relative to that exact site and responsive to that place. The flattening of the site to a standardised platform, the refusal to allow natural light inside by erecting mirrored glass buildings with standard fluorescent lighting, are factors that cause a sense of placelessness as they could easily be achieved and replicated on any site, anywhere in the world. The richness of an architectural solution is expressed in its reaction and responsiveness towards its context. Refer to Fig_4.3.
Fig_4. 4 : Handcrafted mass production. Spanish Pavilion cladding. China.
» Considered Mass production: This should be a considered process, whereby an insertion of a more considerate touch could render an experience of a handcrafted sensibility.
Materials can be mass-produced, as to respond to economic motives, however, this can be designed and/or recycled to become a uniquely manufactured entity. This is the type of sensibility that is needed in architecture today, conscientious and responsive decision making processes. Refer to Fig_4.4.
Fig_4. 5 : Peter Zumthor uses light as an architectural approach, a fundamental design generator for his experiential architecture, which is rooted in the notion of carving out caverns of darkness to create atmospheric space. This creates a dynamic ephemeral experience within a static environment. Light detail at Brother Klaus Field Chapel. Germany.
» Utilize Light as a (free) material : The concept of light is essential for the perception of both the built and unbuilt environment as well as giving one the ability to both look and see (Jahangeer, 2008). What light also does, is allow one to see darkness, architecturally speaking, the glimpse of lights, or candles, glistening also informs one that there is life beyond and people are living there (Jahangeer, 2008). In other words, light indicates life, and utilizing this as a free material can aid in the creation of life driven architecture. Refer to Fig_4.5.
Therefore, the intervention should:
» Utilize considered machine-built and hand-made processes within its built fabric.
» Ensure an honest tectonic which is integrated into the design, by promoting materials as a generator for spatial quality, scale, and differentiation of functions.
» Promote a sense of place by creating a safe environment for the people to exchange goods, services and emotion.
» Facilitate positive and sustainable growth for local industries by offering a variety of rentable design/work-spaces of various scales.
» Respond directly to site peculiarities (topography, morphology, history, climate, scale etc).
» Allow for adaptive reuse by utilizing existing infrastructure and materials to form part of the project.
» Enhance the public realm through an injection of a more human interface.
» Support local economy by introducing a variety of functions not found in its vicinity.
» Allow materials to become fully integrated into the projects tectonic.
» Exhibit human qualities of tectonic and scale.
» Integrate with its context.
A POSSIBLE INTERVENTION
“How does one determine a balance between the Taylorist efficiencies of mass production that digital procedures excel at and the idea of uniqueness, or covetable one-off products?” Walter Benjamin sited in Roke (2009:13).
Due to the rapacity in which the world is developing, there is a constantly shifting platform for architecture to place itself, where the balance between specific type buildings and hybridized all-in-one buildings, is blurring. The progressive nature of our world is moving at such a rate that one-type only architecture is almost redundant. However, interventions on the other side of the same spectrum attempt to incorporate too many functions in one building and little of what it was initially set out to resolve is achieved. Throughout the research, an inclination towards a collaborative workspace and skills development facility has been suggested, particularly through a dialectical method of engagement. This has set up the premise for the possible intervention and has established principles in which to do this. The design of a collaborative skills development facility will endeavour to provide a link between quality driven design and the general public. The celebration of industry and craft within the same
building fabric forms the argument throughout this dissertation and therefore aims toward an architecture that revels in the notions of captured (raw) and manufactured (built) processes that exude a responsiveness and honesty to its context. Furthermore, this dissertation has endeavoured to form a manifesto for creating a responsive and tectonic architecture that fundamentally depends on its context.
Within an Urban environment, the intervention could be in the form of a skills development facility that lends skills not found (or scarce) in the city. Possibly in the form of a post- industrial, pre-modern bespoke manufacturing facility, whereby the manufacturing of bespoke handcrafted items in an urban fabric through trade skills and building industry skills could be woven into the fabric of the city. Much like the artistry components that make up parts of the Midlands Meander in Kwa-Zulu Natal, or the Design District in Cape-Town, or 44 Stanley Avenue in Johannesburg. Durban is need of a collective district, which incorporates creative programmes into one intervention that is focussed on maintaining a high quality of product.
This would form an open ended collaborative process, where artisans can communicate and become aware of each other because of their proximity.
Exploring the collaboration between machine-built and hand-made processes could possibly render a more cost effective, yet considerably more humane built environment. As discussed, the intervention should become a space for manufacturing and learning through apprentice- based practices. However, it is through making that a socially interactive dialogue should be promoted, as it is through making that a sense of community is created, place therefore becomes a by-product of this process. The potential for one’s connection to an existential ground also increases. By creating a facility for both designers and the general public to interact and collaborate, it endeavours to create awareness about a more considered quality driven, rather than quantity driven, marketplace and built environment. By combining apprentice based workshops in the ‘post-digital age’ (Roke, 2009), the facility will support designers, craftsmen and makers in a living / working society. A place that people are proud to be a part of. To create such a place, people need the opportunity to exchange goods, services, and emotion – a collective realm that stands against the domination of privatisation and “Non-place” (Augè, 2008). The facility will encourage the integration of creative’s and the general public, whose interaction could then create a sense of togetherness, an enrichment of their surroundings as well as their own existential being.
L I S T O F F I G U R E S CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Fig_1.0 : Authors Mindmap. Author, 2012.
Fig_1.1 : Typical Factory environments in the 19th century. Source:
http://paulbooker.blogspot.com/2010/08/no-copyright-law-real-reason-for.html, Online (accessed March 2012)
Fig_1.2 : Typical Factory environments in the 19th century. Source:
http://www.cmog.org/article/jobs-19th-century-glass-factory, Online (accessed March 2012)
Fig_1.3 : Process of Natural Materials becoming Manufactured Materials. Source: Author, 2012.
Fig_1.4 : Nature-inspired fabrics. Source:
http://www.blog.designsquish.com/index.php?/site/2009/03, Online (accessed March2012)
Fig_1.5 : Nature-inspired fabrics. Source:
www.blog.designsquish.com/index.php?/site/2009/03, Online (accessed March 2012) Fig_1.6 : The Arts and Crafts movement. Source: http://www.artsandcraftstoronto.com/, Online
(accessed March 2012).
Fig_1.7 : Mercedes Benz Advert. Source: http://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/1.jpg, Online (accessed March 2012)
Fig_1.8 : 88 Field street, Durban. Source: Author. 2012
Fig_1.9 : Machine built architecture, Los Angeles. Source: http://www.you-are- here.com/los_angeles/paul_hastings.html, Online (accessed April 2012) Fig_1.10 : Machine built architecture, Durban. Source: Author, 2012.
Fig_1.11 : Hand crafted Architecture, Carabanchel housing. Source:
http://www.archdaily.com/1580/caranbachel-housing-foreign-office-architects/, Online (accessed March 2012)
Fig_1.12 : Project Outline. Author, 2012.
CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW