Architecture portfolio

My architecture work is centred around anthropological questions. How does our history or our culture whether social or material influence how we relate to space? What symbols and social practices go unrecognised in our individual cultures? What is neglected so that we may embrace the universal?

I embrace my positionality, defined by the zeitgeist, my heritage and culture but also by the experiences I have accumulated.

NAME

SURNAME

DATE OF BIRTH

AGE

NATIONALITY

PHONE NUMBER

EMAIL ADDRESS

Luba Nomhlekazi

Nkiwane 11/12/1997

25 years

Zimbabwean

+393311258078

lubanomhle@gmail.com

WHO AM I

Tomba Brion, Photo taken by Iva Popovska (Altivole: 2022)

Education/Qualifications

Competitions and Awards

2010-2015

Girls’ College Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)

Studied Maths, Physics and Art for A level

2016-2018 University of Cape Town (South Africa)

Bachelor in Architectural studies

2020-present Università IUAV di venezia (Italy) Master in Architecture

Work Experience

2017 Muhle Architects, Johannesburg (South Africa) Interned for 2 weeks in my 2nd year of Bachelor’s studies

2019 Professional Design Studio, Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)

Designing and drawing residential and small scale commercial projects

2020 ASA Design Ltd. Kigali (Rwanda)

Various research on biodigestors and designing for pandemics

https://www.activesocialarchitecture.com/research

Participated in various social architecture projects: drawings, renders, site visits

2021 Venice Biennale 2021 installation titled Liquid Geographies, Liquid Borders with Mpho Matsipa and Olalekan Jeyifous (Italy) Assisted with installation

2022

Kungsthaus Bregenz in Venice (Italy) Visitors Service for the exhibition

Leadership Positions

2015 Secretary at Girls’ College Toastmasters’ Society

2017 Engineering Head Tutor at Glendower Residence, University of Cape Town (UCT)

2017 Mentor at Glendower Residence, UCT

2018 Mentor at Archifemme for junior female students

2018 Committee member facilitating a student lead academic week for undergraduate architecture

2019 Visual Artists’ Association of Bulawayo Committee

2020 Founder of Bandiwhilila

2022 Kungsthaus Bregenz in Venice (Italy) Visitors Service for the exhibition

2018 Nominated as UCT candidate for Norman Foster travelling scholarship

2018 Dean’s merit list for grades

2018 Academic award at Liesbeek Gardens Residence, UCT

Volunteering Experience

2010 Participated as a case study in Soroptimists’ projects focused on the Zimbabwean girl child

2019 Volunteer at “Do it for the kids” (DIFTK) (Zimbabwe)

Other Skills

Strong research and writing skills

Musically literate, ABRSM certificate in Piano

Excellent communication skills

Hand Drafting

Languages

Fluent in English

Native language is Ndebele

A2 in Italian

Computer Skills

Adobe photoshop

Adobe Indesign

Adobe Illustrator

Microsoft Office Suite

Autocad Archicad Rhino Revit

Website

https://bandiwhilila.wixsite.com/website

FOR THE LOCAL FOR THE IMMIGRANT

Development project in Wynberg, 2018

Cape Town, South Africa

The main road was one of the first dominant routes established towards the inner mainland stretching from the city of Cape Town to Simon’s town by European settlers. Wynberg naturally developed as an independent settlement after functioning initially as a commercial strip.

Currently, post-apartheid Cape Town is marketed as a “world class city” attracting foreign attention and investment from transnational monopolies. There has been a growing restlessness amongst many Cape Town communities who feel politically and socio-economically neglected.

Unlike many neighbourhoods fighting gentrification, Wynberg’s variety of rhythms clash in dissonance with the singular perspective. Wynberg is a cultural kaleidoscope with a vibrant main road occupied by African immigrant enterpreneurs. My intention in this project was to celebrate the human scale, spatial practices in the community.

Wynberg is rapidly increasing in population and its urban fabric, along the main road is densfying due to urban redevelopment projects. My design proposal pays attention to the human scale by first gently drawing pedestrians in. My building is fragmented unlike many monolithic buildings along the road, it mimics the fragmentation of the city, with multiple interventions coexisting.

I imagined this to be a place that interrogates functions that are opposite (civic and commercial) and similar (indoor vs independent small shops) to create a space fused with an organic interactions of different dialectic entities. Functional variety contributes positively to the overall

The functions I chose for the ground floor

Commercial:

-A restaurant

-An array of shops, from single stalls

indoor and outdoor and an indoor market

Civic:

-A pediatric hospital

-A pharmacy

-Proposed nursery school (beyond the site)

Social green space of convergence

Pre-existing residential buildings of maximum 2 storey height

Multifunctional, multistory buildings; public function on ground floor and accommodation on the other floors

My design proposal

SOCIAL GREEN SPACE

Previously a car park, reclaiming the city for people, parking is now underground

SURROUNDING BUILDINGS

Suburban development surrounding the site

PROPOSAL

HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT

public ground floor with accommodation on floors above

The red line marks the boundary of my site

NURSERY Proposed nursery to foster a sense of community

LIMINAL SPACES

Creating pockets of spaces for social interactions and linking them with other pockets/courtyards

DROP OFF

For proposed nursery

URBAN FRONT

To maximize commerce along the mainroad but with courtyards for social interactions

I conducted an analysis of spatial occupation.

Along the mainroad one can identify a kaleidoscope of activities. I studied how these victorian street fronts are occupied by independent and mostly foreign vendors. Their occupation of these shops does not follow any spatial regularity. I have tried to document how the body relates to these spaces and how people interact between the shops and the streets.

Wynberg Intervention, Sectional Elevation AA, (Scale 1:250)

Wynberg Intervention, Sectional Elevation BB, (Scale 1:250)

Wynberg Intervention, South Elevation, (Scale 1:250)

Wynberg Intervention, Ground Floor Plan, (Scale 1:250)

Wynberg Intervention, Basement Plan, (Scale 1:750)

Wynberg Intervention, First Floor Plan, (Scale 1:750)

Wynberg Intervention, Second Floor Plan, (Scale 1:750)

Wynberg Intervention, Third Floor Plan, (Scale 1:750)

FOR THE AESTHETE

A project in Alhambra, 2021

Granada, Spain

In collaboration with Iva Popovska

The Blackbox, Interior Render

In Julie Mehretu’s painting you look and try to comprehend the intermingling of shapes that are not quite shapes and spaces that are not quite spaces. It is in this palimpsest of the political, cultural, the fervour and the agitation that you find yourself adrift. The circumstances that define this piece happen across a sea (the Mediterranean) from Alhambra, and centuries after its conception but boundaries and time are known to be deceptive. The lens of space and time shows us connections, overlaps, intersections that immerge once you squint at these projections. A feeling of unease might creep onto your conscious, those swooping coloured lines and those harsh charcoal scribbles coax you, and attempt to seduce you, to perhaps think in between and beyond them. Regardless the aesthete gazes lazily and proceeds to the next canvas. To him art is the real wonder. Stillness becomes movement and space is no longer a projection, it is literal in the water temple precedent by Tadao Ando.

Julie Mehretu, A Painting in Four Parts: Part 2, “Mogamma”, (Egypt: 2012)

Precedent

Contrarily to Mehretu, Ando’s project has an agenda in its undeniable symbolism and bold geometry. There is an axis, there is a path and there is no ambiguity. He has guilefully drawn a space for sensory gluttony. The aesthete is consumed, pulled, and tugged by vices of light, materiality, and colours whilst the Buddha statue observes. This project seeks to recognize the context in its depth and its nuances. The site is regarded as a series of processes and ritualistic practices and meditations, but it is the aesthete we are particularly motivated to entice. It is the end result that is important to him. He looks upon the undulating hills and the wash of red contrasting with the forest green of Alhambra but in the distance, there is a faint chanting, if one concentrated they might almost dare to say they can hear a cante chico tune as well.

Tadao Ando, Water Temple, (Higashiura: 2012)

Alhambra site, Plan, “The project consists of 3 interventions”, (Scale 1:5000)

Generalife Viewpoint, Axonometric, (Scale 1:1000)

Meersman accommodation, Axonometric, (Scale 1:750)

The Blackbox, Axonometric, (Scale 1:750)

Generalife Gardens-Viewpoint 2, Ground floor and third floor plan, (Scale 1:400)

Generalife Gardens-Viewpoint 1, Ground floor and third floor plan, (Scale 1:400)

Generalife Gardens-Viewpoint 2, Section AA, (Scale 1:250)

Generalife Gardens-View point, Render

Meersman Accommodation, Ground floor and First floor plan, (Scale 1:1000)

Meersman Accommodation, North Elevation, (Scale 1:400)

Meersman Accommodation, South Elevation, (Scale 1:400)

Meersman Accommodation, West Elevation, (Scale 1:400)

Cement 25cm

Charcoal 15cm

Earth

Vertical timber cladding

Cavity

Wooden batten

Heraklith-Wood

Heraklith-

Wooden batten

Damp Prove Membrane

Vertical Timber cladding

Existing brick wall

Meerman Accommodation, Detail, (Scale 1:50)

2- Floor Filling

Horizontal Wooden Planks

Damp Prove Membrane

Heraklith- Wood wool insulation 10mm

1-Wall filling

wool insulation (2.5mm) x 2

Wood wool insulation 10mm

The Blackbox, Second floor plan, (Scale 1:400)

The Blackbox, Ground floor plan, (Scale 1:400)

The Blackbox, Section CC, (Scale 1:400)

30mm timber roof deck

125mm cellulose insulation

20mm timber fly deck fastened with steel L clips

100x100mm hanging timber joints fastened with steel brackets

75x225mm timber purlins

300x500mm HSS steel purlins

2- Floor

Horizontal timber plank flooring pipe encased with builder’s stone

550mm concrete mold with sealer waterproofing compacted earth fill

300x500mm HSS steel beams

75x150mm timber purlins

The Blackbox, Detail, (Scale 1:75)

1- Roof

WORK EXPERIENCE PROJECTS

Professional Design Studio, Zimbabwe 2019

ASA Studio, Rwanda, 2020

ASA Studio, RLS Library, “Render”,(Rwanda: 2020)

ASA Studio, Umubano Extension, “Render”,(Rwanda: 2020)

ASA Studio, Umubano Extension, “Working drawings”, (Rwanda: 2020)

FIXED-DOME BIODIGESTER Design Conditions

1. The slurry overflow outlet must be higher than the slurry bed/slurry distribution channel (to prevent backwash into the digester)

2. The digester inlet must be at least 0.3m higher than the slurry overflow outlet

3. The gas outlet must be situated as close to the top of the gas holder as possible and at least 0.1m higher than the slurry overflow outlet (to prevent clogging with scum)

4. The generator should be located away from trees (where roots can interfere with the structure) and 30m from water supplies (to avoid possible contamination)

5. The generator should not be built ontop of or be situated beneath a throughway for heavy machinery

6. The outlet pipe/channel of the digester is fully accessible from the manhole of the displacement tank to enable unblocking

inlet chamber

bio-digester

compensation tank/ expansion chamber

manhole

(Design, construction and maintenance of a biogas generator, 2020) (Public toilet with biogas plant and water kiosk Naivasha, Kenya, 2020)

ASA Studio, Biodigestor Research, (Rwanda: 2020)

BIOGAS DEMAND VS ANTICIPATION BIOGAS YIELD

If primary reason for construction is based on biogas demand then the gas holder must be designed to cover the peak consumption rate (VG1)

If the primary reason for construction is safe excreta treatment/disposal then the gas holder must be designed to cover the longest period of zero consumption (VG2)

Anticipated biogas yield (YB) from the digestion of human manure is about 40 litres per head per day. Hence, estimated biogas yield from all 100 people is:

YB (biogas yield) = 40 litres x 100 people = 4000l/d

SCALING OF GASHOLDER

– If the gasholder capacity is insufficient, part of the gas produced will be lost

The gasholder must therefore be made large enough to [4]:

cover the peak consumption rate (VG1)

hold the gas produced during the longest zeroconsumption period (VG2), – furthermore, the gasholder must be able to compensate for daily fluctuations in gas production. These fluctuations range from 75 % to 125 % of calculated gas production.

Daily gas yield is ca. 2,700 liter, therefore mean hourly biogas production (YM) is:

YM (mean hourly biogas production) = 4000/24 = 167 l/h

The mean biogas flow required for one oven burner is 200 l/h

(Mateescu, 2017) for 2 oven burners it is 400l/h

400 - 167 = 233

The longest period of biogas consumption is 3 hours

VG1 = 233 x 3 = 699l

The longest interval between periods of consumption

VG2 = 167 x 9 = 1503 l

The primary reason for construction is safe excreta treatment/disposal thus this gas holder must be designed to cover the longest period of zero consumption (VG2). There must be a safety margin of 25%, the gasholder volume (VG) is thus:

VG (gas holder volume) = 1503 x 1.25 = 1878.75 = 1880 l

SCALING OF DIGESTOR

Largely depends on waste added

– The detention volume (VD), is determined by the product of the chosen detention time and the daily substrate input quantity

The retention time (HRT) indicates the period spent by the feed material in the digester

– unheated biogas plant temperature is assumed to be 1-2K in the digestor

– The retention time (HRT) is usually 60 - 80 days

Daily amount of toilet water (Q) produced by 100 people (at a specific toiletwater production of 5 liters per person per day) is:

Q= 100 x 5 = 500 l/d

The chosen HRT is 60 days

VD = 500 x 60 = 30000

(Training Material on Biogas Sanitation, 2020)

ASA Studio, Biodigestor Research, (Rwanda: 2020)

Professional Design Studio, Clinic, “Working Drawings”, (Zimbabwe: 2019)

Professional

Design Studio, Wilsgroove Canteen, “Working Drawings” (Zimbabwe: 2019)