CHAPTER 4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 104
3.2. URBAN : CONSTITUTIONAL COURT : HILLBROW,
3.2.2 INTEGRATION OF THE MADE / BUILT FABRIC
3.2.2.3. THE SUNSCREENS
Fig_3. 9 : Glistening in the sun, the screens display etched stories from the community.
Fig_3. 10 : Western Sunscreens. A highly modern yet tactile façade.
The sunscreens (part of the artists competition) were conceived as a mode of solar protection for the infill of the greater part of the western façade (Refer to Fig_3.9). The commission was awarded to the designers Patrick Rorke and Lewis Levin for their design of small square sunscreens. These were to be positioned alongside the Great African steps, which formed part of an existing pedestrian route where human traffic and the opportunity for social integration played the most important roles (Refer to Fig_3.10). Individually, the screens are one of the smaller interventions that were commissioned but once placed together, they also formed the largest. Conceived as parts of a greater whole, acting not only as solar protectors for the fierce western light, the sunscreens that resemble art in the form of wirework and beadwork, where each screen is different to the next (Refer to Fig_3.12).
Placed at seemingly random intervals, these similar yet individual screens are etched with memories of the surrounding community and together they, much like beads, tell a story. As the western light activates the screens, shimmering in an assortment of colours, they
continue to remind one of the historical and political happenings of the site (Refer to Fig_3.11).
Fig_3. 11 & Fig_3. 12: The design of the sun screens echo that of the formulation of the handcrafted artwork found inside the gallery. The building suggests an awareness of where elements are, and will be, placed within it.
3.2.3 MATERIALITY
Fig_3. 13 : A view of the foyer, showing the various use of primary, exposed materials; concrete, in the form of tree stump columns and roof canopy, and reclaimed brick from the awaiting trial block.
According to Justice Albie Sachs (2005), the Constitutional Court is a supreme example of a true South African Architecture because of its relevance to place. The architects achieved this by responding to and investigating “site-specific, climate-specific, light-specific solutions and to use materials that were local, indigenous, connected to the site. They did not look for high-tech, abstract, formalised solutions. They went for the organic rather than the formal.”
Justice Albie-Sachs cited by Law-Viljoen (2005:27). (Refer to Fig_3.13)
Fig_3. 14 : Bricks from the existing trial block of the prison used to re-enforce the notion of history and meaning
Materials are the essence in which architecture can speak as they enhance emotive and physical engagement with people. Concrete plays a major role in the project, and as Makin (2005) suggests, in the context of South Africa, it is reasonably inexpensive, simple to construct and ensures job opportunities for a wide range of skilled practitioners (Makin (2005) cited by Law-Viljoen, 2005). The essence of untreated cast concrete was utilized for both its “primal rawness” and the ability for it to be of “precise refinedness” (Makin cited by Law-Viljoen, 2005:59) much like a meticulous machined quality (Refer to Fig_3.13). Materials become physical analogies of formal and informal, light and heavy by weaving the concrete, once the material of choice for many Modernist architects, as if it were manipulated by the hand, forming a dialect of hand and machine formed materials and spaces.
The materiality of the Court is dealt with in a distinctly mature yet playful manner and is the crux within which the manner and disposition of the project overlap; where the built fabric comes alive. Materials are often contrasted against one another, to highlight distinguishing characteristics embedded within the various materials used. Rough and smooth, colourful and plain. Often left in their rawest state highlighted by the treatment, or non-treatment of the concrete and the use of the Awaiting Trial block bricks, untreated and dry-stacked, as an interlaced composition of old and new. The exposed and untreated condition gives the sense of a South African locality, the notion of a hand made environment of raw buildings made from harnessing material from the earth. This is reminiscent of the primal tone which rammed earth walls possess and the tectonic similar to that of the making of wattle and daub panels.
The architects, with the utmost respect, exhibited an understanding, awareness, and progression of materials, as it is their distinct characteristics that constitute atmospheric and existential qualities were left untouched.
A key material exhibited throughout the entire project was that of Light. The use of light as an element is not a new concept, Le Corbusier (1920) included light and shade, walls and space as the four key elements of architecture. Light as a free natural resource has been utilized in the Court to enrich the experience of space. Light-specific decisions were encompassed from the very early stages of the design. Often filtered from the North, which resulted in a building that truly encompasses its context, not only as a physical presence, but also as a responsive transient experience for people both inside and outside its walls.
Fig_3. 15 : The play with light in the foyer reflects the intention to blur the relationship between inside and outside.