Theatrical Tactics_Matthew Robson_Master's Thesis Portfolio

Theatrical Tactics

Urban Praxis and The Spectacle City

By Matthew Robson

Matthew Robson Theatrical Tactics

Urban Praxis and The Spectacle City

i

Abstract

As technology advances exponentially, the ways in which humans

interact socially have become faster, less physical and less “authentic“ - in that authentic exchange is a physical experience and

one that can be remembered. We have become somewhat oblivious to how we interact in our city, as previous moments of social exchange have been reduced to a digital interface or synthetic-

surface experience. The ways in which we document and broadcast

our city are translated through digital media representations like that of Instagram or Snapchat - an unique mobile app that allows

you to send photos and videos, both of which only last for a brief moment of time, before they disappear forever. In this technological

age, experience, memory and intimacy continuously challenge our understandings of space. Humans already possess the ability to

inhabit multiple realities and project their social identities into a virtual realm where the true physical-self in no longer present .

ii

ii. Preface: Major Design Project Statement

My Major Design Project, Theatrical Tactics: Urban Praxis and The Spectacle City,

antagonizes the physical built environment as we move towards an increasingly nonphysical age. My project is a satirical narrative on the chaotic nature of social media

representation in the city and introduces time as a medium of architecture practice in this digitized consciousness where the presence of the physical body is non-existent.

My project attempts to reconnect the authenticity that has previously been undermined in this digital dialogue through a three-part methodology I have developed this year.

Through an analysis of the city and the contemporary methods of social exchange

that contribute to the Spectacle, like that of Snapchat, my project has identified three predominant elements of practice: Actors, Prosthetics and Terrain.

•

Actors - after Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, are the individuals that

begin to channel cultural conditions in the city based on how emerging trends

•

Prosthetics - can broadly be understood as technology, or the physical or digital

•

Terrain - can be understood here as a digital landscape. A context informed

scales of social interaction.

might perpetuate over time.

extension of the actor to its terrain; body-to-architecture.

by physical and cultural conditions of the city and its actors at the various time

My station is a 150-year vision or momentary assemblage of social interactions, relative to finite time scales of progressive, physical and digital technologies, informed by

vacuous and over-whelming media representation in the city. Johannesburg is a rapidly, urbanizing, technological place of actors, prosthetics and terrain and it is through this

methodology that I provide moments of memory or ‘authentic-exchange’, that spatially consider a city that is continously re-invented by the spectacle and observed at multidimensional, digital realities simultaneously.

iii

Document Rationale

Theatrical Tactics Initial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

F004

Chapter 1

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

The Station

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP Chapter 3

A 150-year vision

NOTE

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

iv

iii. Declaration I, Matthew Robson, declare that the major dissertation submitted for the degree of MTech (Prof) Architecture to the University of Johannesburg, apart from the help acknowledged, is my own work and has not been previously submitted to another university or institution of higher education for any other degree.

Signed: _______________________________________________________ Date: October 21, 2016

v

CONTENTS i ii iii iv v vi

Abstract

Preface: Major Design Project Statement Document Rationale Declaration Contents Taxonomy

13

Chapter 1: Theatrical Tactics: Initial Experimentations

61

Chapter 2: The Spectacle City: Actors, Prosthetics and Terrain

A: Actors

B: Prosthetics

65 95

124

C:

Terrain

167

Chapter 3: The Station: A 150-year Vision

223

Appendices:

225

225

277 305

305 333

337

A:

History & Theory Minor Dissertation:

Scape X: The mediator between the Surface and Below.

B:

Design Realisation Portfolio

C:

Professional Practice:

D:

Business Plan Manifesto (Alternative Practice) Secret Agents Catalogue

375

E: Competitions

375

IHEID Geneva Challenge Competition 2016

vi

Taxonomy Actors - after Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, are the individuals that begin to channel cultural conditions in the city based on how emerging trends might perpetuate over time.

Bed Communities - a.k.a ‘satellite communities‘. Urban realms that indicate an introvert lifestyle. Individuals are not absent from reality, they just choose to operate within the confines of their physical and metaphysical ‘room‘.

Celebrity - an ‘idol‘ of worship. With continuous praise, comes nothing of glory, but the excretion of fake lavished lifestyles and cheap, “Bruma-rip-offs” that cast growing illusion of the spectacle within society.

Cappuccino - history is, but a legacy and awaits its refashioning by the spectacle into a general stylized decor.

Detournement - to ‘over-turn‘ or ‘de-rail’. It is a tool or technique

popularized by Guy Debord, author of Society of the Spectacle.

Detournement appropriates and alters an existing media artifact, one that the audience is familiar with, in order to give it a new subversive meaning - meaning through ridicule.

God father - not Al Pacino, but his second-cousin, twice removed. A power figure that operates out of sight and controls a system that constitutes informal privatization. He is the ‘great-white’ at the top of the food chain.

Hipster - the bearded-dragon is an understatement. For Johannesburg, a cult of young adults who flock towards the latest trends and fashions, specifically those that fall out of the mainstream, but ironically fall under society’s spectacle, which is ultimately mainstream. Its a good time to point out that Eric Wright is not a hipster.

Interactors - a interchangeable moment that simultaneously dances between reality and the imaginary world. The astronaut that ventures to the dark side of the moon and still returns with his sanity.

Matrix - “The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” - Morpheus, The Matrix. 2 Meaning - authenticity/truth.

Metaphysical ‘room‘ - sanity as status - status as security - security as personal assets and commodities.

Mirage - An illusion technique used by the mass spectacle which provokes society’s fetish for quantified commodities.

Motel - a fixed unit of space which is equivalent to that of a 1-night-stand social exchange. It informs a social exchange which is maintained for a brief moment in time after which it disappears.

MRI - a personal diagnostic chart that investigates and unpacks urban social and spatial conditions subject to spectacle blight.

Murder weapon - a sophisticated and strategic spectacle ‘warmachine‘ that carries out a passive debilitation and ultimately the collapse of existing social systems.

Office - a fixed unit of space which is equivalent to that of a 40-hour-work-week which informs a pre-existing inetraction that is repeated routinely in order to become a habitual environment.

Performance - a.k.a ‘act’. The performance is a live; experiment directed by the pre-script.

Practice - a static discipline that needs to re-establish value through praxis.

Praxis - the architectural language my work seeks , that constantly attempts to challenge traditional modes of practice.

Pre-Script - a tactical statement of intent for the project at hand.

Post-Script - generates representations and realizations of the process.

Prosthetics - can be broadly understood as technology, or the physical or digital extension of the actor to its terrain; body to architecture.

Reactors - the space, place or phenomenon in which the actor operates and performs in. The reactions generated through such experiences separate fact from fiction.

Selfie - the point of no return...Just don’t.

Semiotics - “...is the study of meaning-making, the study of sign processes and meaningful communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically.” 1

Separation - the island in which the spectacle beast imprisons its victims in its wake. The spectacle is kind though, he leaves them with a box of wet matches and a bottle of SPF50.

Smart Phone - a.k.a a smoke-machine. This so-called communication device is merely a product of mass production and expresses society’s paralysis to separate reality from fantasy and fiction.

Snapchat - is categorized within a group of popular social media platforms today, others of which include, Facebook, Instagram and Tinder. Snapchat is more unique than the latter in that it is a mobile-app that allows you to send photos and videos, both of which only last for a brief moment in time before they disappear forever.

Spectacle - an idea initially conceived by Guy Debord and The Society of the Spectacle, which described a capitalist device used to control the masses through media representation.

However in contemporary times, the Spectacle is so far removed from the powers that be, that it is now fueled by its own momentum and the performers/actors who buy in to it.

It becomes perpetual and self-fulfilling.

Spectacle Cloud - the spectacle as a paradigm that shifts and moves relentlessly. An umbrella of ignorance which houses a mundane existence of spectacles and curtains off the actors associated with it from the real world.

Suit - a mobile unit of space immediate to the body or actor.

It becomes a hyper-mobile prosthetic of the city. It spatial increment is relative to that of a 10-second social exchange, which is the definition to the posting of a photo on a digitalsocial media platform to other users around the world.

Syntax - A set of rules, principles and processes that start to inform an architectural language in my work. This taxonomy is a product of my syntax.

Terrain - a digital landscape. A context informed by physical and cultural conditions of the city and its actors at the various time scales of social interaction.

Theatrical tactics - An emergent methodology defined as a process and not a space or formal product. This process involves the ‘prototyping’ of fictionalized and hyper-real scenarios of social and political conditions that are seen to influence the current human condition and urban zeitgeist.

The methodology is broken down into three predominant sentiments: pre-script, performance and post-script.

Train - a physical mobile capsule of time equivalent to that of a 15-minute train ride while contained within a train coach with actors who share no relation to each other and cease to form any new relationships with each other. Actors travel is this fixed unit of space and to other internet domains all over the world via social media simultaneously.

Urbanism - “...is the mode of appropriation of the natural and human environment by capitalism, which, true to its logical development toward absolute domination, can (and now must) refashion the totality of space into its own peculiar decor.” 3 1. Wikipedia. (2016). Semiotics. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Semiotics [Accessed 19 May 2016].

2. Wachowski, L. (1999). The Matrix. [film]. United States: Warner Bros 3. Debord, G. (1994) [1967]. The Society Of The Spectacle. Translation by Donald Nicholson-Smit. New York: Zone Books, p.50.

15

1

CHAPTER

Theatrical Tactics: Initial Experiments

16

A

B

C

D

E

NEW TERRA

URBAN SYNTAX

Actors

1

HOST

Semiotics

metaphysical statement

Cyborg

ACTORS shared over social platforms Subversive tools Society

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics PROCESS Stage Prescript Preformance Post-Script

SPECTACLE Linguistics

001

003

Other

002

A system-diagram examining the annual breakdown, focusing specifically on the work produced in Quarter 1 and its significance to the methodology developed in Quarter 2.

004

Fictions

005

17

E

F

G

O

P

Q

X

U

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure Capsule

REACTORS

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

AIN

007

The Spectacle city Actors Prosthetics

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

NEW ORIGIN

Terrain Roland Barthes The Death of the Author

SPECTACLE CITY

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

Noam Chomsky

INTERACTORS

Constituent Analysis

Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

Technology

mass production

Artificial

Filters xy1

...

Syntactical Theatrics

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors

Digital 3Connectivity

Terrain

Separation

RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0 xy2

...

xy3

...

xy4

xy.y4 Digital HYBRID

...

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

006

Station

007

008

009

18

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

O

P

Q

X

U

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure Capsule

F001| Theatrical Landscape

REACTORS

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

NEW TERRAIN

Actors

1

HOST

NEW ORIGIN

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

PROCESS

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage Prescript Preformance Post-Script

Noam Chomsky Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

SPECTACLE

003

Technology

mass production

Linguistics 001

Artificial

004

Filters Other

002

Fictions

005

xy1

...

Syntactical Theatrics

INTERACTORS

Constituent Analysis

shared over social platforms

Society

Terrain Roland Barthes The Death of the Author

SPECTACLE CITY

metaphysical statement

ACTORS Subversive tools

The Spectacle city Actors

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Semiotics

Cyborg

007

Prosthetics

URBAN SYNTAX

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors

Digital 3Connectivity

Terrain

Separation

RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0 xy2

...

xy3

...

xy4

...

xy5

xy.y4

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

006

Station

007

008

009

Digital HYBRID

A conscious process I apply to each Frontier throughout the year

Subversive tools Society Methodology: Theatrical Tactics PROCESS Stage Prescript Preformance Post-Script 001

SPECTACLE

19

20

Iconoclast

Theatrical Landscape F001| Iconoclast

The Theatrical Landscape is a re-enactment of a specific moment in time. A deconstruction of the experience in the form of a performance between actors, reactors and interactors. My work stands against the mundane existence of the ‘built environment’. The design of buildings for humans to inhabit and experience, should place experience at the forefront of all spatial consideration. Above: A cross-section of a memory. We remember a space based on the physical experience it holds. Time and place are irrelevant. Experience - eternal.

Right: Prescript in the form of an aerial plan.

‘Self’ is subject to climate change, noise, motion, light and darkness. The moment becomes a spatial reaction and performance between personal experience and the chain of sensory events which take place.

e ours

tc fligh

reactors

audience (applause)

interactors

cooling tower

self

actors

pigeon prop

22

Iconoclast

F001| FILM V001

• The moment of experience is deconstructed in the form of a pre-script.

• It is then re-assembled in a stage and set design.

• Finally, it is resurrected as a spatial performance through film.

Duration: 02:14 min

PLAY FILM

FILM V001

24

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

O

P

Q

X

U

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure Capsule

F002| Spheres of Detournement

REACTORS

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

NEW TERRAIN

Actors

1

HOST

NEW ORIGIN

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

PROCESS

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage Prescript Preformance Post-Script

Noam Chomsky Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

SPECTACLE

003

Technology

mass production

Linguistics 001

Artificial

004

Filters Fictions

Other

002

xy1

005

...

Syntactical Theatrics

INTERACTORS

Constituent Analysis

shared over social platforms

Society

Terrain Roland Barthes The Death of the Author

SPECTACLE CITY

metaphysical statement

ACTORS Subversive tools

The Spectacle city Actors

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Semiotics

Cyborg

007

Prosthetics

URBAN SYNTAX

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors

Digital 3Connectivity

Terrain

Separation

RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0 xy2

...

xy3

...

xy4

xy.y4

...

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

Station

006

007

008

009

Digital HYBRID

A

B

Individuals influenced by the spectacle

URBAN SYNTA

Actors

1

HOST

Semio meta

Cyborg

ACTORS shared over social platforms Subversive tools Society

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Linguistics 003

Other

002

004

25

An investigation of 5 conditions of the city

C

D

E

F

G

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure Capsule

REACTORS

Parametrics - formation of a sy Parametric

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

NEW TERRAIN

Rhetorical Spac Self-fullfil

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

NEW ORIGIN SPECTACLE CITY

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Gr

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

INTERAC

Constituent Analysis

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Emerging tr

Technology

mass production

Artificial

Filters Fictions

005

xy1

...

xy2

...

xy3

...

xy4

xy.y4 Digital HYBRID

...

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognit

006

27

Spheres of Detournement F002| One Step Beyond

In a conscious pursuit I push my process one step beyond the previous realm of self - and through architectural theatrics, Spheres of Détournement begin to subvert and animate cultural shifts relevant to the current ‘youth of today’ and speculate new others that attempt to liberate the Johannesburg city from stifling norms.

28

One Step Beyond

F002| Spectacle Mapping: Secret Agents Catalogue Book

In a process of learning from specific others, a field study was cast in which Johannesburg’s spectators were to interpret words associated with their city through photography. My process hijacks this content to extract honest opinions from the existing media artifacts. From this information (emotion) I aim to derive and rebuild a new stage or set design that disrupts the flow of the media spectacle and Johannesburg’s spatial otherness.

29

In order to view the entire Catalogue Book please refer to Appendix D: Secret Agents Catalogue Book, at the back of this document.

30

One Step Beyond

F002| Spectacle Mapping: Maboneng

“Love your-selfie“

32

One Step Beyond

F002| Spectacle Mapping: Soweto

“Cast Away“

34

One Step Beyond

F002| Spectacle Mapping: Hillbrow

“Friends with Benefits“

36

One Step Beyond

F002| Spectacle Mapping: Newtown

“Bold & Beyonce“

38

One Step Beyond

F002| Spectacle Mapping: Braamfontein

“Sunrise Slots“

41

“The spectacle divides the world into two parts, one of which is held up as a self-representation to the world, and is superior to the world. The spectacle is simply the common language that bridges this division. The spectacle thus unites what is separate, but it unites it only in its separateness.� 1

1. Debord, G. (1994) [1967]. The Society Of The Spectacle. Translation by Donald Nicholson-Smit. New York: Zone Books, p.10.

42

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

O

P

Q

X

U

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure Capsule

REACTORS

F003| Origins of no place

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

007

NEW TERRAIN

Actors

1

NEW ORIGIN

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

Society

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage Prescript Preformance Post-Script

Noam Chomsky Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

3

SPECTACLE

003

Technology

mass production

Linguistics 001

Technology vs the ‘host’ Artificial Intelligence prosthetics

004

Filters Other

002

Fictions

xy1

...

Syntactical Theatrics

INTERACTORS

Constituent Analysis

shared over social platforms Subversive tools

Terrain Roland Barthes The Death of the Author

SPECTACLE CITY

metaphysical statement

ACTORS PROCESS

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Semiotics

Cyborg

The Spectacle city Actors Prosthetics

URBAN SYNTAX

HOST

Interactors

Digital Terrain

Connectivity Separation

RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0 xy2

...

xy3

005

...

xy4

xy.y4

...

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

Station

006

007

008

009

Digital HYBRID

URBAN SYNTAX

Actors

1

HOST

Semiotics

metaphysical state

Cyborg

ACTORS shared over social platforms Subversive tools Society

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Linguistics 003

Other

002

A fictional site based on memory

004

REACTORS

43

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

W TERRAIN

NEW ORIGIN SPECTACLE CITY A digital site informed by the spectacle

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sl

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

05

Noam C

INTERACTOR

Constituent Analysis

cle Killer

tions

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Emerging trends constitute b

Technology

mass production

Artificial

Filters xy1

...

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Suit human

NUVO 3 xy2

...

xy3

...

xy4

xy.y4 Digital HYBRID

...

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

006

Origins of no place F003| El’Dorado

45

F003| Origins separated by Spectacle In a process of re-locating and re-tracing, bearing in mind the theme of separation, I locate three misplaced artifacts from the future that begin to re-tell an urban narrative, significant to Memory, Life and Death.

46

El’ Dorado

F003| Chapter 1: Memory Separation by Legacy

An artifact traced back to a more present age of our social existence.

An accumulation of isolated spectacles derived from stubborn mindsets and represented as fortified centers fueled by savage warfare.

A more recent, dystopian urbanrealm starved by separation and hence forward predicts its own demise.

48

El’ Dorado

F003| Chapter 2: Life Separation by Sanctuary

Based on migration and alienation, this artifact portrays a desired life outside previous fortified centers. A life that locates itself on the peripheries, in a distant future.

A Utopian state devalued by mass production, privatization and technological advancements.

Ironically, this reality is somewhat of a fantasy and inevitably without its center core it too, submits to a dehydrated end.

50

El’ Dorado

F003| Chapter 3: Death Separation by Reconciliation

An artifact located in an unimaginable future. A postnuclear age destroyed by the spectacle as an atomic expression.

There are no boundaries nor centers and reality can no longer be placed, as it exists only in spirit. But death is temporary and nature prevails as a New Topia.

Sown from the seeds of separation and memory, invasive species eventually give life to an unrecognizable landscape.

A landscape defamiliarized by separation, but unified by its separateness.

52

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

O

P

Q

X

U

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure Capsule

F004| Syntax

REACTORS

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

Reactors

CASE STUDIES

NEW TERRAIN

Actors

1

HOST

NEW ORIGIN

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Gropius, “a real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme by repetition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

PROCESS

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage Prescript Preformance Post-Script

Noam Chomsky Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

SPECTACLE

003

Technology

mass production

Linguistics 001

Artificial

004

Filters Fictions

Other

002

005

xy1

...

Syntactical Theatrics

INTERACTORS

Constituent Analysis

shared over social platforms

Society

Terrain Roland Barthes The Death of the Author

SPECTACLE CITY

metaphysical statement

ACTORS Subversive tools

The Spectacle city Actors

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Semiotics

Cyborg

007

Prosthetics

URBAN SYNTAX

Interactors

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Digital 3Connectivity

Terrain

Separation

RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0 xy2

...

xy3

...

xy4

xy.y4

...

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

006

Station

007

008

009

Digital HYBRID

C

D

E

F

G

Moments of memory

REACTORS CASE STUDIES

NEW TERRAIN

URBAN SYNTAX

Braamfontein | Hillbro

Semiotics

SPECTACLE CITY

metaphysical statement

Gropi forma

latforms Seperation alienation

RIGIN

of Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Linguistics 003

004

Filters Fictions

005

xy1

...

xy2

53

O

P

Q

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

psule

Introduction to a new praxis for practice Fragmented make Parametrics - formation of a moments system ofthat parts up a whole Parametric State

Reactors

007

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

neng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

NEW ORIGIN

Roland Barthes The Death of the Author

Antagonizing Traditional

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

ity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the petition of its integral properties in all parts of the whole.”

Noam Chomsky

INTERACTORS

Analysis

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

Technology

roduction

y3

Syntactical Theatrics

Artificial

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0 ...

xy4

xy.y4

tal HYBRID

...

xy5

Terra Nullius Et Incognita

006

Digital 3Connectivity

Separation

Terrain

Syntax

F004|Lies Lies Lies

Through Semiotics and Deconstructivism, I have constructed a personal Syntax for my architectural discourse that critically reviews the first three Frontiers. A set of rules, principles and processes that start to inform an architectural language in my work. While pursuing notions of moment, space and experience, the syntax, is broken down into a metaphysical statement that uses both text and images to construct meaning through memory.

With the aid of this syntax, I continue to question and antagonize architecture’s traditional modes of practice, while investigating new associations between space and the moments that take place within in it.

55

F004| Metaphysical Statement: Moment Extraction based on Memory

56

Lies Lies Lies

F004| Metaphysical Statement: Spatial Monologue

Without taking my left hand off the steering-wheel, I tilt my head to see the time on my watch. In that instance, I think about the sun, and the time and intensity it would take the sun to pierce through the third-floor. I think about earth’s orbit around the sun, and how many years I have sacrificed to this dieing practice. I have seen it all, I am an expert at what I do, but I am replaceable, my position, temporary like the time of day. The sky is filled with a slow gradient of blue to black, dimensioned by Ponte Tower, in my rear-view-mirror. The twilight period, a moment neither darker nor lighter, a moment which is mine and mine alone. The wind is still, the engine rhythmic. Clouds of stock-brick and artificial light engulf me with every mouthful I take - Its difficult to see you now.

(Frustration) “Fuck, I’m tired of this,” I sigh to myself. “Seen one, seen them all. It was always difficult to see you. Punched out, prefabricated, products of expiry; you all fall under the same conventional roof. And what do you have to say for yourself?”

(Pause) “Nothing?” Nothing, but, (confidence)the beauty in architecture is driven by practicality.

This is the core of architecture: to provide a space for human beings - (Peter Zumthor).

“Stop! Please stop, your savage dialect is a form of censorship and oppression!” Alienated, architecture is externalized and we begin to see our own creations as if they were things independent of us and to which we must submit. An allusive notion that has resulted in modern society producing autonomous architecture objects placed in time to meet basic human necessity. Architecture is a commodity of production and the production of commodities is an end to itself; and production by the way of survival.

(Fear) Suddenly, a paralyzing jolt vibrates through my hydraulic arm and what appears like a blanket of near death, a piece of concrete shrapnel, no bigger than a minibus, suspends mid-air between me and my master piece. Shaken, I slowly exit the vehicle and approach the foreign object with caution.

(Curiosity) “What is this?” I ask myself, “Who are you? Where have you come from? Why are you here?” While examining the artifact, it hits me. (A defining moment of realization) “I know you!” I have been here before, not recently , but years ago, before I had any understanding of what demolition was. I remembered a game we used to play when we were still lighties.

We used to sneak into those abandoned To-Let­buildings, and act as if we owned the place. (confidence) American-gangsters, Nigerian-drug-lords, Zulu-kings and you, you were my castle, my ship, my bed. I feel a connection to you, my memory manifests itself in your strong lines, elegant curves and tattered edges.

(Freedom) Perhaps you’re not like the rest of them. Perhaps it is not about your spatial ergonomics and practicality, but the experience of space that gives meaning to self, identity and body, that begins to re-evaluate value in architecture. Perhaps it is architecture’s role not to express an existing social structure or reiterate previously established aesthetic or symbolic conditions of design, but function as a tool for questioning those structures and re-framing it. Perhaps its not about just building buildings, but integrating architecture as a superimposed system through space, moment and performance. Perhaps it is less about the spectacle as a product, but the spectacle as a product of process mediated by social interaction.

(Certainty) Content, I step away from the suspended platform and climb back into my vehicle. The sun comes up. The moment passes. And I continue.

58

Lies Lies Lies

Syntax - is a set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, especially word order. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such principles and processes.

Syntax

(N)oun

(P)lace

(V)erb

(A)ctors

(R)eactors

(I)nteractors

(M)oment

(S)pace

(E)xperience

closed-loop

Meaning through Memory

1. Wikipedia. (2016). Syntax. [online] Avaliable at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax [Accessed 20 Apr. 2016].

61

2

CHAPTER

The Spectacle City: Actors, Prosthetics & Terrain

Up until now the work that has been produced this year makes up the Spectacle City. In practice, The Spectacle City depicts an analogical way of thinking. The Spectacle City grapples with the visual rhetoric as much as it engages with social exchange.

The station, or praxis is a system of theoretical intent visually embedded by practice or The Spectacle City.

Through the analysis of the city and the contemporary methods of social exchange that contribute to the Spectacle - like that of Snapchat - my project has informed three predominant elements of practice which also distill the entirety of the city and its many conditions. The dynamic relationship of these elements: Actors, Prosthetics and Terrain, represented in the maps provided, have informed a spatial device I use in my work in order to generate representations that introduce authentic moments of social exchange as a memory within the city and at the scale of everyday technology.

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Time as a m

HOST

URBAN SYNTAX

Cyborg M1

Person

1 Individuals

metaphysical statement

Semiotics

ACTORS

W4

shared over social platforms Subversive tools Society Methodology: Theatrical Tactics PROCESS Stage

SPECTACLE

The Spectacle City| Actors, Prosthetics & Terrain

Detournement Commodity fetiism

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Seperation alienation

Spe Crime-scenes

63

TIME SCALES 10

3

15

1ns

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

40

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERRAIN

medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

new precedent

SPECTACLE CITY

NEW ORIGIN

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment Form-making

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Syntactical Theatrics

Noam Chomsky

ectacle Killer s

M1 Constituent Analysis

mass production

PROSTHETICS Technology

Artificial

...

...

Extension Separation

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0

...

Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

...

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

64

A

ACTORS -after Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, are the individuals that begin to channel cultural conditions in the city based on how emerging trends might perpetuate over time.

65

66

TIME SCALES 10

3

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

F005| The Spectacle Killer

15

1ns

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

40

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERRAIN

Time as a medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

new precedent

SPECTACLE CITY

HOST

URBAN SYNTAX

Cyborg

NEW ORIGIN

M1

Person

1 Individuals

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment Form-making

metaphysical statement

Semiotics

ACTORS

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

W4

Noam Chomsky

shared over social platforms Detournement

Subversive tools Society

PROCESS

Commodity fetiism

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage

Syntactical Theatrics

Seperation alienation Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

M1 Constituent Analysis

Potential Spatial Implications

PROSTHETICS

Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Extension Separation

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

SPECTACLE mass production

Technology

Artificial

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0

...

...

...

...

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

TIME SCALES 10

5 conditions of the city manipulated by the Spectacle

MDP 1 connection

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

3

15

1

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERR

Time as a medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

HOST

URBAN SYNTAX

Cyborg M1

Person 1 Individuals

metaphysical statement

Semiotics

ACTORS

W4

shared over social platforms Detournement Commodity fetiism

ORIGIN

Seperation alienation

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

A Spectacle Narrative Storey telling as a tool

n

67

68

69

Major Design Project One

MDP 1

Illegal Miners

Above

MDP 2

The Spectacle

(seen)

F004

Physical Man-made Landscape

publically exposed on social media platforms

Invisible Community

Below

Chapter 1

Non-physical Digital Landscape

Chapter 2

m

(unseen)

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

Above & Below

Major Design Project One

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

Both Major Design Projects, locate people at their point of departure. Year 1, focused specifically on ‘people as infrastructure’ relevant to Main Reef Road. In year 2, this morphed in to something that still looked at people, but with a bigger emphasis on technology introduced by the ‘Society of Spectacle.’

The Major Design Projects (MDP), this year and last, are informed by notions of the Above & Below. In MDP 1, the project dealt with a subterranean condition, translated in a very literal sense through its physical landscape. In MDP 2, the project investigates a metaphorical surface condition represented as image.

However, both user groups share similar characteristics as illustrated above.

It is important to note, that at no point in my work, am I forming comparisons and conclusions between the Zama-Zama and the individuals investigated in this year’s project.

Virtual Disembodied Presence

F004

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

LONGITUDINAL SECTION B-B cut through the cliff to expose a subterranean mining condition.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

71

Major Design Project One

72

F004

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

BELOW LEVEL PLAN All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

-revealing the underground operations of the Zama-Zama and their intergrated network.

73

Beginnings of proposing spatial cavities into the existing cliff edge

74

Theatrical Tactics Initial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

F004

Chapter 1

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP

The Station

Chapter 3 A 150-year vision

NOTE

Right: Given the sensitivity of this user group, pertaining to that of the news, these concept models and drawings depict the subterranean condition at which this proposal allows the actor to operate ‘out of sight and out of mind.’

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

75

Major Design Project One

“Most among the thousands who follow a mole-like existence, spending weeks and sometimes months beneath the earth’s surface, operate in shallower, long abandoned workings.”

-Terry Bell, 2014. Fin24.

Bell, T. (2014). Inside Labour: Zama zama illegals or entrepreneurs?. [online] Fin24. Available at: http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Inside-Labour-Zama-zamaillegals-or-entrepreneurs-20140220 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

“The most potent weapon of the oppressor

is the mind of the oppressed�. 1 - Lauren Beukes, Zoo City.

Photo by Matthew Robson, Bedroom Communities, 2016

77

Actors

The Spectacle Killer F005| Fictions

This frontier attempts to play out a narrative based on the 1940s retrospective film genre, “Film Noir” or black film, in literal translation. A fictionalized crimedrama which describes an investigation conducted by Detective M. Charming around the speculation of the notorious serial killer and personified protagonist, the ‘Spectacle’.

Through this process, a series of MRIs are produced and illustrate current cultural and social conditions of five deceased victims located in the city of Johannesburg.

The victims: Maboneng, Newtown, Wemmer Pan, Hillbrow and Braamfontein all possess significant social qualities that fuel and ultimately anticipate their own demise.

It was through a closer analysis of the killer’s murder weapon that I have learnt that in contemporary times, the spectacle is no longer an external factor that influences the individual, but rather a shifting paradigm in which the spectacle becomes a self-perpetuating system that desensitizes digital technologies through mass-media and constructs the obsessive virtual identity.

Beukes, L. (2011). Zoo city. Nottingham, UK: Angry Robot.

78

Actors

FILM V005

In an act of setting the scene, Matthew Robson stars in a short ‘film noir’, as Detective M Charming, head lieutenant and executive of the CSS tactical unit of South Africa. Charming has been assigned the case of “The Spectacle Killer“. This is his story.

Duration: 01:19 min

PLAY FILM

FILM V005

80

Actors

82

Actors

84

Actors

Theatrical Tactics Initial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

F004

Chapter 1

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP

The Station

Chapter 3 A 150-year vision

NOTE

The Zama-Zama is also an actor influenced by the spectacle that continously adapts his/her extraction methods as a means of survival.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

86

Actors

88

Actors

90

History Refashioning Chamber

Decor Excretion Gland

The “Pacifier“

Social Status Chamber

Mass Spectacle Ingredients

Previous Origins

F005| The Murder Weapon

Commodity Mirage

Is ultimately a ‘war-machine’ that operates at simultaneous scales. This section becomes the process in which the mass spectacle devourers his prey and can be read in linear fashion from rear-end to mouth.

The murder weapon is a mechanism derived and characterized by its testicular glands which hold predominant spectacle ingredients extracted from the five victim corpses (see MRIs). These ingredients strip away authenticity and replace it with mundanity.

Mass Production

Introversion

Neoliberal Forces

Quality>

Conform

mity

91

Actors

Surplus Surge Conductor

Shifting Paradigm

“Selfie“

92

F005| Spectacle Killer Detailed Events

MIRAGE

PHASE 1: PREVIOUS ORIGINS Spectacle locates and erases:

•Previous origins

•Historical legacy

•Traditional systems

...and refashions spectacle decor.

PHASE 2: COMMODITY MIRAGE

Spectacle creates illusions through commodity fetishism.

Social status determined by material wealth and extraversion.

PHASE 3: MASS PRODUCTION

• Quantity over quality • More is less

...neighbours adapt to changes.

93

Actors

PHASE 4: NEW NEOLIBERAL FORCES Adapt in order to survive...

Age of the entrepeneur & oppotunist.

PHASE 5: QUALITY>

• Quality over quantity

• Dog eat dog world

• Increased competition • Birth of the specialist

• Further separation & alienation

PHASE 6: “THE TWIST”

The spectacle lays dormant in current culture and society.

Hence forward the spectacle is now self-fulfilling and no longer needs the control or guidance from the local powers that be.

B

95

PROSTHETICS - can be broadly understood as technology, or the physical or digital extension of the actor to its terrain; body to architecture.

96

TIME SCALES 10

F006| Syntactical Theatrics & Nuvo 3.0

IN

15

1ns

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

40

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERRAIN

Time as a medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

new precedent

SPECTACLE CITY

HOST

URBAN SYNTAX

Cyborg

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

NEW ORIGIN

M1

Person

1 Individuals

Form-making

metaphysical statement

Semiotics

ACTORS

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

W4

Society

Commodity fetiism

ORIGIN

Syntactical Theatrics

Noam Chomsky

shared over social platforms Detournement

Subversive tools

PROCESS

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

0

3

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Seperation alienation

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage

M1 Constituent Analysis

Potential Spatial Implications

PROSTHETICS

Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Extension Separation

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

SPECTACLE mass production

Technology

Artificial

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0

...

...

...

...

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

dent

An assemblage of fragmented moments

CLE CITY

NEW ORIGIN

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Syntactical Theatrics

Noam Chomsky

M1 Constituent Analysis

mass production

PROSTHETICS

Extension Separation

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

Technology

Technology vs the ‘host’ Artificial Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0

MDP 1 connection

...

...

...

...

ontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

A non-physical digital site that questions authenticity

97

Theatrical Tactics

nitial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

F004

Chapter 1

99

Major Design Project One

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

The Station

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP Chapter 3

A 150-year vision

NOTE

Site

Major Design Project One

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

Site as Architecture...

Both Major Design Projects have very different interpretations of site.

In year 1, the project was located in a physical context and on a physical mine dump that was continuously transformed due to formal/informal mining activity. I saw the site as a body which had been exploited and scarred by various mining processes. The architecture proposed on site is an informal Zama-Zama settlement which directly responds to the sensitivity of site through the concepts of bone, body and skin.

Architect as Site...

This year, my Major Design Project 2, focuses on a non-physical site located within the 5 conditions of the city (F005 - The Spectacle Killer) reinterpreted by the spectacle. It is not a landscape informed by notions of the body, but instead it is the body or ‘being‘ that informs and determines the landscape. The site is rather an extension of the body based on the digital prosthetics of social media technologies.

100

Theatrical Tactics Initial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

F004

Chapter 1

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP

The Station

Chapter 3 A 150-year vision

A series of charcoal and ink drawings produced on site that became a part of an architectural form-making process. The drawings begin to express the above, below and ‘scape x‘ (HTD) in the form of skin, body and bone, not at human scale, but at the scale of the site.

NOTE

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

101

Major Design Project One

102

F004

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

m

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

Right: An x-ray accompanied by drawings which represent site as body.

Moments of absence, void and time are revealed.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

103

Major Design Project One

104 102

Major Design Project One

F004

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

m

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

Perspective of exo-skeleton that puppeteers the site and space below.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

105

“...folds in plane surface, reveal perforated flesh. Bones, fuse together.“ - Matthew Robson, Haiku, 2015.

106

F004

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

m

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

Above: The bone-like lattice that extends the cliff face becoming a skeletal hybrid of both natural and man-made terrain.

Right: A profile section of the Zama-Zama vertical settlement informed by Skin, Body and Bone.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

107

Major Design Project One

The city wears the Spectacle, the Spectacle wears the city.

Photo by Malika Walele, 2016

109

Prosthetics

Syntactical Theatrics & Nuvo 3.0 F006| Terra Nullius et Incognita

“...Colourless green ideas sleep furiously”

This phrase, derived from Noam Chomsky’s idea of Generative Grammer, informs my choice of site gathered from a constituent analysis of the Spectacle. Although grammatically correct, this meaningless statement begins to describe the space in which artificial collides with intelligence to spawn a new advanced place of origin. An assemblage of fragments that produce a whole.

...My site, or Nuvo 3.0 is located within the broader narative of the spectacle. More specifically moments that have been culturally shocked to the extent that they have become crime scenes. ...The site is a non-physical, mental space that people carry with them through the city at the scale of everyday technology. The city wears the spectacle, the spectacle wears the city.

...Architecturally, Nuvo 3.0 gives rise to a new landscape, a digital-terrain, that transforms exponentially through technology. It is a place where the physical body no longer exists - only the virtual self.

F006| Suit Design: Initial Sketches

The suit is a physical assemblage of the digital and physical accessories that influence the spectacle within the 5 predominant conditions of the city (Maboneng, Newtown, Hillbrow, Wemmer-pan and Braamfontein) and together manifest the concept of ‘connection‘.

111

Prosthetics

F006| Suit Design: Digital Model Outputs

113

Prosthetics

114

Prosthetics

F006| Filming Prescript: Storyboard

115

116

117

F006| Series of photos locating the site within its various urban conditions

119

Prosthetics

Photos by: Malika Walele, 2016.

120

FILM V006-01

F006| Mine Dumps, Nasrec

Duration: 00:46 min

FILM V006-02

F006| Ponte Tower, Hillbrow

Duration: 01:00 min

FILM V006-03

F006| Maboneng Precinct, Maboneng

Duration: 00:26 min

121

Prosthetics

PLAY FILM

FILM V006-01

PLAY FILM

FILM V006-02

PLAY FILM

FILM V006-03

F006| Relationship between Actors & Prosthetics

In a digital environment, prosthetics enable the actor to continuously transform, augment and re-invent themselves within a perpetuating paradigm of self-fulfillment.

Memory of the previous self is lost in this translation - in that it does not convey its true or complete meaning.

123

Prosthetics

124

C

TERRAIN - a digital landscape. A context informed by physical and cultural conditions of the city and its actors at the various time scales of social interaction.

126

TIME SCALES 10

3

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

F008-1| Terrains of Time

15

1ns

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

40

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERRAIN

Time as a medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

new precedent

SPECTACLE CITY

HOST

URBAN SYNTAX

Cyborg

NEW ORIGIN

M1

Person

1 Individuals

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment Form-making

metaphysical statement

Semiotics

ACTORS

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

W4

Noam Chomsky

shared over social platforms Subversive tools Society

PROCESS

Detournement Commodity fetiism

Syntactical Theatrics

Seperation alienation

ORIGIN

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics Stage

M1 Constituent Analysis

Potential Spatial Implications

PROSTHETICS

Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

Extension Separation

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

SPECTACLE mass production

Technology

Artificial

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0

...

...

...

...

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Value capturing device MDP 1 connection DRP

TIME SCALES 10

15

1ns

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

40

snapchat

e

3

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERRAIN

Time as a medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a sys Parametric State

new precedent

SPECTACLE CITY

NEW ORIGIN

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sle

Noam Ch Authenticity in memory

PROSTHETIC

A frozen moment depicted in the future

Spectacle Killer Crime-scenes

M1 Constituent Analysis

mass production

Emerging trends constitute be

Technology

Artificial

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Suit human+

NUVO 3.0

127

m

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

Memory

Major Design Project One

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

Both Major Design Projects are speculations determined by memory.

In year 1, the project looked at the transformation of a physical site informed by past and current events that surfaced in the news concerning the illicit activities of the Zama-Zama. The site becomes a physical artifact of memory.

In year 2, the project proposes a non-physical, digital site based on exponential time scales of technology. MDP 2, speculates on the physicalities and spatial conditions of this digital place in order to anticipate and capture authentic moments of time in the form of a memory.

PLATEAU LEVEL PLAN

129

Major Design Project One

130

F004

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

DRP Chapter 3

NOTE

The Zama-Zama settlement appears like a fossil; a physical artifact of memory informed by the physical transformation of site and the process of drawing as a narrative.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

NORTH ELEVATION

131

132

Theatrical Tactics Initial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

Chapter 1

F004

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP

The Station

Chapter 3 A 150-year vision

NOTE

Right: Speculative transformation of Zama-Zama settlement and site based on memory.

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

133

Major Design Project One

“They operate in treacherous conditions. They expose themselves and their communities to mercury and other poisonous gases in their amalgamation and extraction of gold.”

-Janet Love, 2015. The M&G Online.

20% Vulnerability

90% Mercury Toxicity

2% Zama-Population

2090

2090...

• Toxic cesspit • Exo-skeleton marks and transforms the site • No. Of settlements: 8 (left) • Human access to site is strictly prohibited & limited to toxicity testing • Surrounding communities suffer from widespread of mercury-poisoning related diseases • Mercury-poisoned soils open the door for new alien plant species to continuously re-invent the site Janet Love, A. (2015). Violent threat, real opportunity in zama zama gold rush. [online] The M&G Online. Available at: http://mg.co.za/article/2015-08-29-violent-threat-realopportunity-in-zama-zama-gold-rush [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

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Theatrical Tactics Initial Experiments

F001

F002

F003

Chapter 1

F004

The Spectacle Contextual Settings

Maboneng

NewTown

Hillbrow

Braamfontein

Wemmer-pan

The Spectacle City

Chapter 2

Actors

Prosthetics

Terrain

Time as a medium Methodology

Technology

00:00:10 00:15:00

Theoretical Influences Guy Debord ‘Society of the Spectacle’

F005 Spectacle as self-perpetuating paradigm

SITE

Extension of Actor to Terrain

F006

02:30:00 40:00:00

DRP

The Station

Chapter 3 A 150-year vision

Right: A 100 year drawing narrative of the projected transformation of a Zama-Zama settlement with reference to the past and current events witnessed in the media and daily operations pertaining to the illicit user group.

NOTE

All references to Major Design Project 1 2015 signified by this icon

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Major Design Project One

2016

2024

2036

2040

2090

2116

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Terrain

02:30:00

Terrains of Time

Terrains of time introduces the medium of time as scale for architectural practice informed by spectacle means of social interaction. These time scales are broken down into an exponential order of:

- 10-second exchange| Origin: Actors engaging on social media platforms in Maboneng.

- 15-minutes of fame| Origin: Actors engaged directly or indirectly (social media) while travelling through Newtown via train.

- 1-night-stand| Origin: An intimate moment shared between two actors in a motel located in Hillbrow.

- 40-hour work week| Origin: Actors physically engaged routinely in an office-type environment found in Braamfontein.

These times scales spatially comprehend life spans for the various levels of social exchange within a non-physical, digital environment where the presence of the physical body is non-existent.

40:00:00

00:15:00 00:00:10

15 m

in

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00:00:10

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Terrain

value value

00:00:10

time time

1:10s A 10 Second Exchange

A scale immediate to the individual or ‘suit‘ engaged on a social media platform with other users around the world. It is a digital terrain that demonstrates the exponential hype of a moment after which no valued exchange is captured.

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00:15:00

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Terrain

value

00:15:00

time

1:15m 15 Minutes of Fame

A scale equivalent to a collection of actors traveling within a coach of a train, operating at interval moments. The coach is a common or independent space which allows actors to extend to multiple realities simultaneously (digital/non-digital worlds), but always connected or dependent on the constant variable of space.

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...8659 Tuesday night, 6pm?

...5677 Great.

02:30:00

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Terrain

value

02:30:00

time

1:1n/s 1-Night-Stand

A scale equivalent to that of an intimate moment shared at a motel, in which a social exchange is maintained for a brief amount of time after which it disappears. But with every occurrence, traces or memory of valued exchange are left with the individual to either progress or digress on.

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40:00:00

145

Terrain

value

40:00:00

time

1:40hr 40-Hour Work Week

A scale equivalent to a weeks work within an office-type environment. An existing interaction that is repeated routinely in order to become a habit. With every occurrence the memory we are left with only improves bad habits in order to preform better on the next social interaction. But with every iteration of this interaction, the memory is suppressed to a mundane existence and something unfamiliar to the first acquaintance.

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FILM V008-01

The moment of assemblage of a balustrade detail - a moment of architecture - deconstructed and reassembled within the various time frames of digital terrain. As a value capturing device, authentic moments of maintained memory are translated through these simulations of time.

This section forms part of my DRP which can be viewed in Appendix B at the back of this document.

Duration: 01:33 min

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Terrain

PLAY FILM

FILM V008-01

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Terrain

00:00:10| 10- Second Exchange Simulation

This simulation demonstrates the exponential build-up of a moment coming together, i.e. the broadcasting of a snapchat image online, after which the moment disappears, leaving with it, no memory or recollection of the curatorial process.

00:00:10

151

Terrain

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Terrain

00:15:00| 15-Minutes of Fame Simulation

This simulation demonstrates an intentional assembly of parts within extended interval moments of exchange, i.e. traveling within a train coach for a period of 15-minutes. Like the previous time scale (00:00:10), at the end of each interval cycle, no memory of the previous assemblage is retained.

00:15:00

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Terrain

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Terrain

02:30:00| 1-Night-Stand Simulation

This simulation demonstrates an intentional assemblage of a moment after which it is maintained for a brief amount of time, long enough so that we retain somewhat of a fragmented memory of the moment of exchange. It is the first instance whereby memory begins to take on a form.

00

02:30:

159

Terrain

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Terrain

04:00:00| 40-hour-work-week Simulation

This simulation demonstrates a lasting moment that has been habitually repeated on an involuntary basis, to the extent at which the memory no longer holds value from its first inception.

0:00

40:0

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Terrain

164

Antagonizing Traditional modes of Practice

Time as a m

HOST

URBAN SYNTAX

Cyborg M1

Person

1 Individuals

metaphysical statement

Semiotics

ACTORS

W4

shared over social platforms Subversive tools Society

Detournement Commodity fetiism

ORIGIN

Seperation alienation

Spectacle based on a culture of consumerism

Methodology: Theatrical Tactics PROCESS Stage

SPECTACLE

Actors, Prosthetics & Terrain Methodology

Johannesburg is a rapidly, urbanizing, technological place of actors, prosthetics and terrain and it is through this methodology that I provide moments of memory or ‘authentic-exchange’, that spatially consider a city that is continuously re-invented by the spectacle and observed at multi-dimensional, digital realities simultaneously.

The station or 150-year vision in the next chapter, shows the relationship shared between actors, prosthetics and terrain that allows us to experience a non-physical, digital world informed by the Spectacle, in a more comprehensible state, through the behavior and consciousness of space. It is through these elements that I introduce a speculative narrative of a memory through the introduction of Terminal 2. The work produced thus far informs the Spectacle City, which I see as a social construct of Johannesburg and it is through the lens of Terminal 2, that we are given access to the spatial possibilities that the city holds.

Spe Crime-scenes

165

TIME SCALES 10

3

15

1ns

Refashioned origins into the “Spectacle City” Origin of Departure

40

Digital Terrain Terrains of Time

TERRAIN

medium for architecture

NARRATIVE

Reactors M1

Parametrics - formation of a system of parts Parametric State

new precedent

SPECTACLE CITY

NEW ORIGIN

Rhetorical Space Self-fullfillment Form-making

Value Extraction Generative Grammar

“Colourless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously”

Syntactical Theatrics

Noam Chomsky

ectacle Killer s

M1 Constituent Analysis

mass production

PROSTHETICS Technology

Artificial

...

...

Extension Separation

Emerging trends constitute behaviour

Technology vs the ‘host’ Intelligence prosthetics

Interactors RECEPTOR Suit human+prosthetics

NUVO 3.0

...

Potential Spatial Implications Prototyping of fictionalised and hyper-real scenarios of social conditions

...

Braamfontein | Hillbrow | Maboneng | Wemmer-Pan | Newtown

Chapter 3| Visual Glossary

Actors

“The Conductor“

Actors - after Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, are the individuals that begin to channel cultural conditions in the city based on how emerging trends might perpetuate over time.

Prosthetics Prosthetics simulates the digital relationship between actor and terrain. Prosthetics extends, connects and augments the actor to his terrain - body-to-architecture.

Terrain 00:00:10 10-Second-Exchange

00:15:00 15-Minutes-of-Fame

02:30:00 1-Night-Stand

40:00:00 40-Hour-Work-Week

Scaffolding

Archway

Space-frame

Staircase

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3

CHAPTER

The Station: A 150-year vision The 150-vision is translated through a fictional narrative that follows one individual as he makes his way up to the Spectacle City - a social construct of Johannesburg. However, his journey is not so straight forward and he must first pass through Terminal 2 in order to reach his final destination. The individual finds himself within a digitised consciousness, where he exists entirely removed from our physical reality.

Terminal 2 is in no way a physical place and cannot be accessed in real time. It is located in a distant future where new digital technologies have progressed passed a point at which organic life no longer exists and physical touch is meaningless. What’s left is a synthetic landscape that holds spatial moments curated by the individuals that exist beyond the ‘screen‘ and perpetuate themselves based on emerging social trends prominent at the time.

Terminal 2 is a virtual reality continuously transcending through hyper-digital time.

Terminal 2 is not a public entity and can only be accessed by those that wear the ‘suit’ Actors (see definition). The suit enables the actor and enhances his ability to conduct and manipulate spatial configurations within a digital terrain.

168 Back again I see, with your yankies cap and narcissistic self. It feels like more than a decade ago since your last visit. A distant memory, maybe somewhat 150-years ago. I can assure you though, its nothing like you may have remembered...

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170 I suspected you would be back again, so I decided to make a few upgrades to the Terminal that I’m sure you will appreciate. I hope your visit will be longer this time and not so absent like the last.

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172

I have taken care in the assemblage of the Terminal in order to give you a tailored experience. You now have free reign in the curation chamber. The steeple is more magnificent than ever and I have personally provided a smoking section to foster your addictive habits for your comfort.

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174 All the necessary modifications to the Terminal have already been encoded into the suit.

All that is required is your patience and participation.

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176

Terminal 2 can only be accessed by those that wear the ‘suit’.

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179

A dream. A memory.

It will never be the same...

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181

From the underside of the Terminal, a lift emerges.

182

Commence ascension.

183

The Terminal draws actors of the spectacle with compelling pull. They are connected digitally while separated physically - unified through separation.

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A 10-second experience contained within a linear moment of travel - 15-minutes of fame time scale

185 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

The actor travels up to the interchange space, located at the underside of the Terminal.

The lift in its own right is a mobile unit of space where even in the physical world, without social media we struggle to engage with one another physically. A paused space where no words are shared, but still, a space that connects us to two different destinations.

There is only one access point into the Terminal and it is through the Interchange space.

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187

Interchange

In a moment of anti-climax, the actor arrives at an intermediate place, one that is situated between the real world and the digital. The Interchange simply provides a space for changing lifts in order to access the Terminal above. The value is not represented through its spatial dimensions, but rather enabled through decision making. We are presented with a choice to either submit ourselves to the spectacle or reject it in its entirety and with it reject any forms of contemporary means of social exchange. This is the last moment we will experience the physical world before we enter this digitized terrain informed by the Spectacle City.

188

Welcome. Terminal 2...

Curation Chamber

189

Steeple

Smoking Section

Interchange

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Curation Chamber

Upon entering the Terminal, the actor finds himself within the Curation Chamber. Based on the social experience, that Snapchat and other relevant social platforms hold, the Curation Chamber allows the Actor to curate his environment the way he sees fit. Like Snapchat, one is able to augment, transform and re-invent a “selfie“ into a provocative or animated ‘work of art’. The image is not necessarily true, but there is a truth behind the image and this truth is based on social expectations within the Spectacle City.

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192

193 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

Curation Chamber

The ‘Selfie-stick’ had been a revolutionary break-through for the Spectacle and the art of taking selfies. Not only did this device change the means of taking a picture of oneself without the assistance of another - the authentic experience we so often undermined -, but it extended the spatial limitations that existed between the camera and the individual.

Like prosthetics it became a physical extension of ourselves.

The selfie-stick experience has been introduced to the Curation Chamber. This image simulates the extension of a flying buttress, recognized here as a moment of architecture. The buttress extends off the space frame giving it new support and time to breathe.

The intention to extend the time in which we experience this moment is represented here through the buttress transformation.

194 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

Curation Chamber

The Actor conducts the extension of this moment through the extension of his arm. The various time scales represented here simulate the transformation of the buttress. The 10-second scaffolding highlights the moment of architecture that requires attention while providing temporary support. The 40-hour staircase implements a rigorous and reiterated process of construction/curation of this moment, after which the 15-minute archway extends and creates a contained passage-way to be inhabited.

Based on the initial starting point of the temporary scaffolding, this moment is produced within in 10-seconds - a hyper mutation that extends this moment into a new composition that can be experienced and remembered through a physical interaction.

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

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196

Intermission

Care to step into the smoking section for a 5-minute respite?

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189

The Smoking Section

The smoking section simulates the transformation of Terminal 2 conducted within the a time period of a ‘5-minute-smoke-break’. From ignition of the flame, the 10-second scaffolding provides direction and an intention to construct a social moment of exchange. The 15-minute arch-way provides a more ordered and scheduled response to the exchange. The 1-night-stand spaceframe allows the moment to be maintained long enough so that it begins to take on a distinct form. And the 40-hour-work-week staircase, reiterates the process of exchange allowing it to become habitual. Whats left is a cigarette bud or ‘artifact‘ that contains a significant memory of exchange.

199 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

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201

202 Now that you’ve satisfied your need, ascend up the 8-week staircase in order to reach the steeple in the hope that you might find some sanctuary in your journey to the Spectacle City.

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205 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

The Steeple

The actor ascends up the 8-week staircase , where he will reach the Steeple - a virtual doorway into the Spectacle City. Snapchat has provided a feature which allows you to broadcast your ‘story‘ to your followers. A video journal of brief fragmented moments or ‘snaps’ that provide a narrative of your day -to-day activities. The steeple acts like a satellite and broadcasts a time line of fragmented moments of contemporary social exchange which are experienced visually and physically within our Spectacle City.

206

The Steeple

Upon reaching the steeple, the actor experiences transcendence of it blooming in its magnificence, to reveal the staircase to the Spectacle City. The spectacle is dependent on the variable of technology. As technology advances exponentially it gives new meaning to social exchange through contemporary methods of interaction. Like the actors within the Spectacle City, digital platforms of technology will never be completely satisfied and will keep upgrading, extending and re-inventing perpetually. The travel up the Spectacle City staircase encapsulates these qualities.

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208

209

210

In determination the actor ascends up the staircase in his continued journey to the Spectacle City. Along the way up, flakes of spectacle debris fall from the spectacle city as fragments of my process this year.

The 1-night-stand spaceframe is non-existent in this journey up, as there is no time to pause, and one must make haste before another transformation occurs. The way up is unpredictable with brief sparks of realisation along the way, like the journey throughtout this year has been.

211 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

212

213 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

Here, a detailed moment of transcendence along the way. The various time frames that exist in this moment shift and shape into a temporary structure based on repetition, movement and monotony informed by the notion of travel.

214

The moment realised is a space of virtual travel. Virtual travel allows one to visit multiple digital-locations and domains around the world simultaneously while being in a physical location all at once.

215 00:00:10 00:00:10

00:15:00 00:15:00

02:30:00 02:30:00

40:00:00 40:00:00

216

The moment passes. Ascension continues.

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218

Sigh.

A moment that I thought would last forever, has now come to an abrupt end. Perhaps the next time you pass through the Terminal the memory of you, will exist as something entirely new.

- The Spectacle.

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220

FILM V010

The station or the 150-vision is a speculative narrative that follows one individual as he makes his way up to the Spectacle City, however, his journey is not so straight forward and he must first pass through Terminal 2 in order to reach his final destination. The individual experiences transcendence as he finds himself within a digitized consciousness where the real world is blurred with a non-physical one.

Duration: 05:00 min

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PLAY FILM

FILM V010

Appendices

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225

Appendix A History & Theory Minor Dissertation

Scape X: The mediator between the Surface and Below

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



 





  





  





  

 

232







  





 

   





  





  





  





  





  





16



 





 





 



233









   





   





  





  





234

235

 





















 





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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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 



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

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 

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 

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

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

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 

   

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 

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 

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

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                                 

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 

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  

        

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 

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 

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



















































                      

      

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









 













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







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

 

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



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

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





















 























          

   

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 

 

 

















 







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





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 

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

 





































 



















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



 

























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

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  

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







































 

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          

  

          

  

            

  

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  

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

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

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





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

 

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                                   

  

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



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



















 





























 



































 





































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  

  

  

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

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











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



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



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





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 

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



















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           

   

           

   

           

   

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            

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     

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

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

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 

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 



 



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

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

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

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



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





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

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 

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

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



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













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

 

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

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































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











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

 

























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



























       

    

          

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





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





























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

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

 

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





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 

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

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   

   

   

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Appendix B Design Realisation Portfolio

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DRP| The Scale of Time

The DRP is a scientific and technical realisation of the project. It focuses on the science of time as a medium for practice within an exponentially expanding technological landscape. I look at various time scales informed by contemporary social interaction or exchange and the ‘Spectacle‘ in the city, and simulate the behaviors of space relevant to these time scales. These time scales are: • • • •

10-second exchange 15-minutes of fame 1-night-stand (2.5 hrs) 40-hour-work week

Within this non-physical digital age, the retention of authenticity within these moments of social exchange becomes increasing challenging to maintain. We hold onto authenticity through memory of the physical. Through these findings it can be said that memorability is associated with either a short term impactful or a long term habitual experience. Future spatial moments of social exchange relevant to a digital landscape, should include both to ensure durable authenticity.

FILM V008-01

The moment of asseblage of a balustrade detail - a moment of architecture - deconstructed and reassembled within the various time frames of digital terrain. Authentic value and memory is translated through these simulations of time.

Duration: 01:33 min

279 DRP

PLAY FILM

FILM V008-01

280

V008-01| 00:00:10 Still Frame

00:00:10| 10- Second Exchange Simulation

This simulation demonstrates the exponential build-up of a moment coming together, i.e. the broadcasting of a snapchat image online, after which the moment disappears, leaving with it, no memory or recollection of the curatorial process.

281

value

DRP

The ratio of the rate of change of the quantity to its current size remains constant over time.

The value is not able to be fulfilled and mantained resulting in an eradication and a subsequent repeat of the exponential growth.

time

00:00:10| Memory Capturing Analysis

282

T10s-B

00:00:10

283 DRP

T10s-A

T10s-C

284

T10s-A

T10s-B

T10s-C

285 DRP

virtual connection

MOMENTARY PEAK image post

exponential growth 1:2 2:4 subjective assembly

EXPONENTIAL SURGE curation of image

DATA DISINTERGRATION no value collected

286

V008-01| 00:15:00 Still Frame

00:15:00| 15-Minutes of Fame Simulation

This simulation demonstrates an intentional assembly of parts within extended interval moments of exchange, i.e. traveling within a train coach for a period of 15-minutes. Like the previous time scale (00:00:10), at the end of each interval cycle, no memory of the previous assemblage is retained.

287

value

DRP

The independent variable is time and the dependent variable is value. As time increases, so does value, at a constant rate.

The value is still not able to be fulfilled and mantained resulting in an eradication and a subsequent repeat of the constant linear growth.

time

00:15:00| Memory Capturing Analysis

288

00:15:00

T15m-C

289 DRP

T15m-A

T15m-B

290

T15m-A

T15m-B

T15m-C

291 DRP

‘train coach’

limited moment = limited value INDEPENDENT VARIABLE OF TIME common space

tectonic connection

objective assembly

CLEAR INTENTION structured exchange

virtual time

constant linear growth 1:1 2:2

real time

DEPENDENT VARIABLE OF VALUE elastic actors

292

V008-01| 02:30:00 Still Frame

02:30:00| 1-Night-Stand Simulation

This simulation demonstrates an intentional assemblage of a moment after which it is maintained for a brief amount of time, long enough so that we retain somewhat of a fragmented memory of the moment of exchange. It is the first instance whereby memory begins to take on a form.

293

value

DRP

The variables of time and value continue to increase directly proportionally to one another.

Brief moments of stability are experienced.

The value of the stability progressively increases.

The value is still not able to be fulfilled and mantained resulting in an eradication and a subsequent repeat of the constant linear growth with brief moments of stability.

time

02:30:00| Memory Capturing Analysis

294

00

02:30:

295 DRP

T1ns-B T1ns-A

T1ns-C

296

T1ns-A

T1ns-B

T1ns-C

297 DRP

initimate form brief composite whole

progressive assembly

MAINTAINED MOMENT pause space

MEMORY DEBRIS valued leftovers as traces

objective assembly

EXPONENTIAL SURGE connecting with intention

298

V008-01| 40:00:00 Still Frame

04:00:00| 40-hour-work-week Simulation

This simulation demonstrates a lasting moment that has been habitually repeated on an involuntary basis, to the extent at which the memory no longer holds value from its first inception.

299

value

DRP

Long periods of stability can now be attained.

These moments continue to increase in value.

Increase in value becomes habitual and takes place involuntarily.

time

04:00:00| Memory Capturing Analysis

300

T40h-A

0:00

40:0

T40h-C

301 DRP

T40h-B

302

T40h-A

T40h-B

T40h-C

303 DRP

1

2

34

5

FOREIGN MOMENT reiterations lead to habitual existence

PRE-EXISTING MOMENT traditionally practiced on routine basis

fragment of a stair detail

VALUED ALTERATIONS to increase productive interactions

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Appendix C Professional Practice

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307

Business Plan

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                  

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OFFICE PRACTICE MTECH 1 – ASSIGNMENT 2 BUSINESS STRATEGY AND PLAN Lecturer: C. Vosloo Student: Matthew Robson 200905741

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ECONIC architects Business Plan

PART A: BUSINESS STRATEGY DEFINED “There is no sensible management at any level of any organization without purpose. An organization’s purpose is the primary and basic reasoning for its existence. Ultimately, a basic purpose for being in existence is founded on belief. People need to believe that the organization serves a useful purpose.”- Rudy Giuliani, ex-mayor of New York City, points out in his book Leadership (Giuliani and Kurson, 2002), that purpose is fundamental to how a leader manages an organization.

In this there are 4 core strategic-dimensions that are important to how an organization needs to manage itself as a collective entity and meet its fundamental purpose. They are: 1. Vision – the ‘Big Dream’ or a view of some desired future state or ideal for the organization.

2. Mission – a unique statement of an organization’s present main activities that serve to support ‘the Big Dream’.

3. Goals – a broad aim you establish to start the business planning process.

4. Objectives – a break-down of specific outcomes (both short and long-term) that an organization must achieve in order to meet the overall goal.

Below, the Vision & Mission statements and Goals & Objectives are further explained. i.

VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS

Vision Statement When a vision statement is drawn up in a document to serve as a statement of purpose, it typically represents a statement of intent to move to an improved condition or to a desired state of being. In this state it provides everybody with a sense of purpose in terms of the direction the organization is heading and how it is going to make the organization a better one [versus competing/rival organizations].

One definition of a strategic Vision Statement comes from Burt Nanus, a well-known expert on leadership and the author of many books on the subject including Visionary Leadership, defines a strategic vision as a “realistic, credible, attractive future for [an] organization (Nanus, 1992).” Elaborating on this, the Vision statement can be detailed as:   



A typically short and to-the-point statement.

It should be ambitious, but not exaggerated. The vision must always be based in reality to be meaningful for the organization, as opposed to an ordinary ‘vision.’

“A vision statement must be believable to be relevant, but more importantly must be credible to the employees and all the members of the organization (Nanus, 1992).” If members of the organization do not find the vision strategically credible, it will not be able to create and harvest energy, or serve a useful and meaningful purpose and strategic direction.

The vision should strategically inspire and motivate those in the organization.

Matthew Robson

200905741

1

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ECONIC architects Business Plan



Simply put, it is the ‘Big Dream’ a business may strive towards, to achieve an ambition. The paradox lies in a strategic vision statement, which is not where you are now, but where you want to be strategically in the future.

Mission Statement A Mission statement explains why an organization exists. This is normally a short and concise paragraph consisting of a few sentences. It contains no time limit or measurement, but provides a basis for decisions on, resource allocation and appropriate goals & objectives.

The Mission statement remains generally longer than the vision statement in that it should explain the scope of what the organization does now, with a rationale that explains how its adds value for is main investors. It is important to note that the Mission statement is a separate entity to the Vision statement, according to Business Dictionary.com, the Mission statement differs from the Vision statement, in that “…the former is the cause and the latter is the effect; a mission is something to be accomplished whereas a vision is something to be pursued for that accomplishment” (BusinessDictionary.com, 2015).

The style and form of the Mission statement varies considerably in practice since organizations use them in different ways. It may be used for “…public relations to influence important publics, or for marketing to include claims, or aspirations to provide a quality service that is distinctive, and sets what the organization does uniquely apart from its competitors.” (Chau and Witcher, 2014). It is important that the organization is able to live up to its claims outlined in the mission statement, as failure to deliver, may result on the organization’s reputation to suffer.

ECONIC architects’ vision: To become the leading architectural firm in Sustainable Design throughout Africa by the year 2030 ECONIC architects’ Mission: We as ECONIC architects are passionate about design in the most sustainable manner – we strive to create spaces which not only look and feel fantastic, but which function efficiently and economically and respond well to the client’s aims and requirements. In all our projects, locally and internationally, we seek to identify sustainable opportunities for design excellence.

ii.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Organizations often use terms like ‘goals’, ‘targets’, ‘aims’ and ‘objectives’ interchangeably when discussing strategic management (Small Business - Chron.com, 2015). However, it is important to carefully note that these terms differ according to the particular context in which they are being used that defines what they exactly mean.

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Goals A Goal, generally in abstract terms, describes ideal states to be achieved at some unidentified future time. The goal list is drawn up (written or voiced), and is defined consistent with and related directly to vision and mission. It differs from an objective in that it identifies a specific trajectory for a business, but does not deal with measurable specifics and results. According to Strategic Management: Principles and Practice (Chau and Witcher, 2014), “When a goal is discussed, there is no criteria established to measure progress or to determine whether the goal has been achieved or not…” A goal is something that can be used at the basis of an internal conversation, when discussing the activities that can help improve your organization, as too can it be a method of ongoing motivation used to inspire individuals of an organization through strategic planning.

Objectives An objective describes specific activities or ‘milestones’ to be accomplished by an organization on the path to accomplishing a goal. Objectives are outlined and detailed in writing and used to develop the structure of all business areas i.e. finance, marketing, production etc. The organization can be measured on whether or not they accomplish or partly accomplish an objective, “Objectives have to be linked to realistic measures of progress and achievement so that those managing the objectives will know in enough time if it is necessary to intervene and make appropriate changes (Chau and Witcher, 2014).” This means objectives must be meaningful and clear to the people who devise them and use them, including the people who must manage the objectives.

An effective way to set up practical objectives is to follow the well-known acronym: SMART – which generally appears in management literature. According to Wikipedia (Wikipedia, 2011), the SMART acronym stands for:     

Specific – target a specific area for improvement.

Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.

Assignable – specify who will do it.

Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.

Time-bound – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

Although this a is useful method in the setting up of an objective list, management of objectives should be flexible and based on the changes that can be made at each objective milestone to help improve the company’s performance in the effort to achieve the defined results of the objective (Chau and Witcher, 2014).

ECONIC architects’ Goals: 1. To promote the company’s reputation in the architectural service market above other competing firms by continuing to focus and improve creativity, quality and responsiveness on every project.

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2. To continuously implement and explore sustainable ‘green’ initiatives through design, materiality and eco-friendly systems that benefit the client in money-saving strategies. Establishing a collective model that guarantees synergy between Architecture, Economy and the physical and social Environment.

3. To ultimately become a practice distinctly orientated by a niche for example: Healthcare, while simultaneously upgrading and improving social independence, economy/utility and environmental effectiveness.

ECONIC architects’ Objectives: 

To design and complete our first commercial building with a “lift” within 2 years of starting the company.



To design and complete at least 2 commercially/residential 3-star rated ‘Green Building’ within 2 years of starting the company.

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To design and complete our first commercially orientated 5-star rated ‘Green Building’ within 4 years of starting the company, that generates renewable energy and is completely independent from the grid.

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Expand ECONIC architects by providing a depth of comprehensive services, to the African market, promoting the growth of ECONIC architects with a more selective and greater share of international design and construction market.

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Provide jobs in the local and international community surrounding ‘green’ projects – from laborers, trades and suppliers and manufacturers.

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To establish ECONIC architects by the year 2040 as a tri-lateral group – ECONIC Group - that promotes and cross-markets sustainable practice through 1) Architectural Consultation 2) Property Development in Commercial, Residential and Industrial divisions and 3) Project Management that offers sustainable expertise in construction.

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SOURCES CONSULTED

BusinessDictionary.com, (2015). What is a mission statement? definition and meaning. [online] Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/mission-statement.html [Accessed 01 Aug. 2015].

Chau, V. and Witcher, B. (2014). Strategic management. 2nd ed. Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA, p.33.

Giuliani, R. and Kurson, K. (2002). Leadership. London: Little, Brown, pp.317-319.

Nanus, B. (1992). Visionary leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 207.

Small Business - Chron.com, (2015). Difference Between a Goal and an Objective in Business. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-goal-objective-business20252.html [Accessed 01 Aug. 2015].

Wikipedia, (2011). SMART criteria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria [Accessed 01 Aug. 2015].

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ADDENDUM ADDENDUM A: PART B: BUSINESS PLAN i.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Developing countries in Africa are not always economically friendly when it comes to sustainable design. The notion of saving the environment is somewhat of a useless cause in the developing world as much focus is targeted at processes of alleviating poverty. That is not to say that Africa has shown significant economic growth and development over the past decade.

"Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to strengthen to 4.5% in 2015 and 5% in 2016 after subdued expansion in 2013 (of 3.5%) and 2014 (3.9%) (Business Day Live, 2015),” said the report, co-authored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the African Development Bank and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

With this, ECONIC architects aims to stretch its services into greater Africa to introduce viable solutions in sustainable design that not only better skills development for upcoming African practitioners, – in the form of pro-joint-ventures - but promote a genuine social upliftment and empowerment for all clients and their users.

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CONTENTS LIST PART A: Business Strategy Defined i. ii. iii.

1

Vision and Mission Statements Goals and Objectives Sources Consulted

ADDENDUM ADDENDUM A: PART B: Business Plan i.

1 2 5 6

Executive Summary

6

1. Contents List

7

2. Company Summary 2.1. Description of Business 2.2. Style of Practice 2.3. Business Model

9 9 9 10

3. Services Offered

11

4. Strategy and Implementation Summary 4.1. SWOT Analysis and Business Strategy 4.1.1. Internal Environment 4.1.1.1. Strengths 4.1.1.2. Weaknesses 4.1.2. External Environment 4.1.2.1. Opportunities 4.1.2.2. Threats 4.2. Competitive Edge

11 11 11 11 12 13 13 13 14

5. Market Analysis Summary 5.1. Market Segmentation 5.2. Target Market Segment Strategy 5.3. Competitors 5.4. Marketing Strategy 5.4.1. International Strategy

15 15 15 16 17 18

6. Online Strategy 6.1. Website Marketing Strategy

18

7. Risk Management & Insurances

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8. Operations 8.1. Business Premises and Location 8.2. Capital Equipment Required

20 20 20

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8.3.

Operating Procedures

21

9. Management Summary 9.1. Personnel Requirements

22 22

10. Financial Plan 10.1. Projected Balance Sheet 10.2. Projected Income Statement 10.3. Projected Cash Flow

ď€

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2. COMPANY SUMMARY 2.1. Description of Business ECONIC architects is a small private practice based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg with the confidence of becoming a renowned architectural firm by the year 2030. The founding team have established ECONIC architects as a sustainable orientated practice that focuses on implementing the synergy of a tri-lateral sustainable model (Figure A) that introduces: ecofriendly design, economics and social empowerment that offers clients a totally independent lifestyle. ECONIC architects offers a service in consultation and property development, on a local and international spectrum, in commercial, residential, industrial and private healthcare industries, while leaving a distinctive thread that encapsulates ECONIC architect’s vision for sustainable design.

Figure A: Tri-lateral Sustainable Model

2.2. Style of Practice ECONIC architects will register themselves as a Private Company (Pty) Ltd under the Companies Act, 2008 with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

Matthew Robson, a Professional Practitioner in Architecture and registered legally under the SACAP registrar, will be the founding shareholder and leading director of the company.

Provisions for 2 further directors/shareholders will be introduced in the company. With the chosen form of ownership a full-scope audit is required on an annual basis and will remain intact in perpetual succession. This form of ownership is favored in that, as a separate legal entity, directors and shareholders cannot be held personally liable for any financial debt under the limited protection of the company’s assets.

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3. SERVICES OFFERED ECONIC architects offers the following services in:        

Design Excellence through sustainable strategies which offer energy-efficiency and social independence in the most affordable and viable manner. We put the “value” in “value for money” Effective and Fast-track Production of design resolution drawings and technical documentation, including council and working drawings and their circulation to the respective industry bodies and consultants Property Development in commercial, residential and industrial divisions, that attempts to redefine architecture as a responsive ecosystem for its inhabitants to work, live and prosper.

Professional Architectural Consulting to the private sector in South Africa and selected countries in Africa those of which are recognized for their high levels of economic growth and development.

Joint-ventures specifically in Africa that not only produce responsive and relevant architecture, but equip developing companies with professional expertise in sustainable design.

Sustainable Consultation, specifically in the area of Project Management in terms of the construction phase, smart materials and ‘green’ systems and technologies.

Long-term Financial Plans in the purchasing of expensive ‘green’ technologies and systems - which promotes green design.

Internationally, ECONIC architects aims to expand their services African developing countries: Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Namibia and Botswana

4. STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION SUMMARY 4.1.

SWOT Analysis & Business Strategy

A SWOT Analysis has been cast to determine ECONIC architects’ strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Strategic solutions have been implemented based on the information gathered in the analysis.

4.1.1. Internal Environment 4.1.1.1. Strengths

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4.1.1.2.

Weaknesses

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4.1.2. External Environment 4.1.2.1. Opportunities

4.1.2.2.

Threats

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4.2.

Competitive Edge

Companies that offer sustainable services in South Africa and some parts of Africa, have become ECONIC architects’ primary competition and form the platform for our company to consider sustainability and energy-efficient services in alternative means that differentiate us from the masses. ECONIC architects’ competitive edge is based on the tri-lateral sustainable model we have developed in our practice and forms the essential requirements we strive to fulfill in all our projects

Figure B: Sustainable Financial Plan

ECONIC architects have introduced an economic strategy that sets up our clients, locally and internationally, with an affordable financial plan that allows clients to pay off energyefficient installations over an extended period of time rather than paying hefty upfront costs for energy-efficient systems from public suppliers or even worse, electricity bills straight to energy utilities i.e. Eskom – a local utility proven to be unreliable.

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5. MARKET ANALYSIS SUMMARY 5.1.

Market Segmentation

Figure C: Market Segmentation pie analysis chart

The marketing segmentation outlines:     

5.2.

Company operations: 30% in South Africa & 70% in Africa New Development Projects: 20% in South Africa & 80% in Africa Existing Development Projects: 60% in South Africa & 40% in Africa Project industries: 33.3% Commercial, 33.3% Industrial, 33.3% Residential with majority of commercial and industrial projects based in Africa and majority of residential projects in South Africa.

Project strategy: Meet minimum requirements set out in Tri-lateral Sustainable Model

Target Market Segment Strategy

ECONIC architects target, young, aspiring professionals, entrepreneurs, families, social

empowerment organizations and developers in: South African

-New Developments 20% -Existing Developments 60%

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African

-New Developments 80% -Existing Developments 40%

Commercial Residential Industrial Healthcare

New Developments > Existing Developments: more opportunity to implement our trilateral sustainable model, in the hope that it will serve to inspire clients and investors in choosing ECONIC architects for future proposals.

Africa > South Africa: African countries have already shown rapid growth and economic development rates over the recent years, so with the sustainable model in circulation, it may be adapted to include other African designer trades and building organizations for future generations.

5.3.

Competitors

Globally over the past decade there has emerged a vast amount of interest in green design with a continued growth in architectural practices that focus on green building. Some of ECONIC architects main competitors in the sustainable industry include, but are not limited to: Local energy utilities    

South African Utility: Eskom Alternative local utilities in other countries in Africa Eskom rebate program: to reduce utility consumption resulting in lower utility bills Eskom receives negative criticism on the energy crisis nationwide

Daffonchio & Associates Architects     

Small-medium practice est. Johannesburg, Cape Town & Milan Sustainability service in green building and technologies Expanding in Africa: leisure project in Tanzania Main competitor for ECONIC architects in early career McNabs Energy Works, Parktown North.

GLH & Associates Architects  

Biggest competition for ECONIC architects Sustainability service in energy-efficient design, green building & feasible financial solutions

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  

Experimentation with latest green systems & technologies i.e. Tri-generation-system plant in Standard Bank HQ, Rosebank.

Competitive edge: ECONIC architects offers niche service – Private Healthcare Standard Bank HQ, Rosebank - 5 Star-Green Star SA Office v1

Growthpoint Properties     

Property Development company offering commercial & industrial services Do not offer residential property development Limited operations in countries in Africa Reduce operational costs and provide feasible renewable energy solutions for clients Upper Grayston Bld F, Sandton – the very first 6 Star-Green Star SA Office v1

Solid Green Consulting    

Green building consulting firm in Rosebank Main focus on performance management of existing buildings - offering sustainability audits and strategy plans to clients No certified involvement outside of South Africa Potential for future collaborator > competitor

Up-coming practices in Africa   

5.4.

Emerging independent architectural industries in Africa Tricky ordeal setting up joint-ventures with ECONIC - require much time and effort to develop trustworthy relationships Competitive Edge: collaborate in African competitions

Marketing Strategy

Architecture is mostly an industry supported/advanced through marketing and inevitably results in referrals, which promotes Company reputation. Our Marketing strategies include: Referrals – The Company’s services will be partly due to referrals; by past clients, consultants, suppliers, developers and contractors with whom we have collaborated with.

This referral based marketing and sales strategy is based on professional and quality service and experience based performance – trust.

Direct Marketing – Direct meetings will be set up with potential clients with professional visual presentations. ECONIC architects can market themselves for emerging architects from tertiary educations like UJ by presenting educational lectures. The company can also present suitability seminars and industry events like Sustainability week.

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Publications – Submission of advertorials outlining our sustainable model and implementation, as well as case and study project publications involving the latest green technologies and innovation, to national magazines in:    

Architecture: Leading Architecture & Design, ArchSA Property: Real Estate Investor Sustainability: Earthworks, Simply Green Healthcare: Life

Graphic material – Marketing process supported by collateral and brochure literature. The content and design will be created and collaborated with a graphic designer and would be professionally printed. Some cold calling and business card handouts are anticipated, but not the main effort.

Industry Networks – Become an active member of the different industry organizations like the, Gauteng Institute of Architects (GIFA) and Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA). In which participation in organizational events is compensated with formal networking opportunities.

5.4.1. International strategy Competitions - although potential risk is involved, temporary and permanent ventures can be instigated to gain experience and start the promotion process of our company in Africa, despite whether we win or lose the competition.

Online strategy – Direct emailing marketing strategy in terms of building loyalty and trust with our customers specifically in Africa. Direct emails used to set up joint ventures, send information on viable solutions surround energy-efficient products and technologies, or solicit the company’s sustainable financial schemes Internal networks – Consider the employment of a financial advisor with strong cultural roots or originating ties with a country in Africa who could expose us to previous/new networks. Or even consider taking on board a junior technologist or architect from a joint venture, in a type of non-profit exchange program that sets up future relationships and perhaps more effective correspondence.

6. ONLINE STRATEGY ECONIC architects currently has a website, www.econicarchitects.co.za that serves as an attractive, simple and informative online platform for clients to visit and get in touch with the company, telephonically or via email at info@econic.co.za.

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6.1.

Website Marketing Strategy

The website will be used to educate the consumer on “sustainable” architecture based on our tri-lateral sustainable model. Clients are able to view a collection of commercial, industrial and residential projects - both new and existing developments - in South Africa and other parts of Africa. The company’s website will promote the latest ‘green’ technologies on the market, in the form of a frequently updated newsletter (monthly basis) on the home page as well as advertising for our energy-efficient product providers and suppliers.

7. RISK MANAGEMENT AND INSURANCES It is of vital importance for architectural practices to be aware of the potential business risks which might become apparent with the project process and protect themselves from any liability associated with claims against them. Claims which may arise are associated with the Contract – contractually due to the client/employer – and Delictual claims – due to the public at large.

The necessary steps need to be fulfilled to protect the company from liability:  

 

All shareholders in the company practicing architecture must be registered with SACAP which entitles them to uphold the SACAP code of conduct and carry out services that are professional and in accordance with building regulations.

As part of taking out the necessary Professional Indemnity Insurance (PI) to cover varied scaled projects, ECONIC architects will become an active member of the South African institute of Architects (SAIA), in which the company is entitled to discounted rates, the widest cover and an unsurpassed claim service (www.saia.org.za, 2015).

In terms of PI cover, allocate 10-20% cover charge on the largest single projects and keep intact for at least 5 years after completion of project. As a private company we save money in this regard.

Most importantly all legal professionals in ECONIC architects must carry out his/her duties with the utmost care at a level that “…could have been expected from a competent, conscientious colleague under the same circumstances (Vosloo, 2015.

Sd. 3).”

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8. OPERATIONS 8.1.

Business Premises and Location Contact: Matthew Robson +27 83 453 3988 mrobson@econic.co.za info@econic.co.za

8.2.

Telephone:

011 406 6363

Facsimile:

011 406 6363

Address:

Suite 3, 4th Floor North Point Building Corner Biccard Street & Juta Street Braamfontein, Johannesburg South Africa 2001

Capital Equipment Required

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8.3.

Operating Procedures

ECONIC architects will consider the following procedures of operation:    

Location Equipment Travel Personnel

Location – The physical location of the Company has largely been determined by the company’s position to encourage sustainable development and growth both locally and internationally. Braamfontein, an area thriving on locally-fresh innovation and venture that empowers the individual, serves as the ideal back-drop for our company to be based in.

Braamfontein, also a central hub that intersects diverse industries – commercial, industrial and residential – provides ECONIC architects with accurate contextual knowledge of the city and its surrounding areas and ultimately precedent that can be adapted to suit sustainable proposals in other parts of Johannesburg and the country.

Equipment – It is crucial that ECONIC architects not only practice sustainable design, but operate in a sustainable working environment too. The company uses the latest Autodesk software to produce drawings at a significant time and money-saving rate for both client and practice. Just as important it is to have the latest software, it is in being able to work with these tools effectively and continuously, and so the company has invested in energyefficient technologies such as UPS Battery backups that store energy reserves for uninterrupted operations in the case of load shedding schedules.

Travel - The Company has decided not to invest in a company vehicle as our physical location provides immediate and accessible access to public transport to anywhere, in and out of the city. The company’s close proximity to major freeways allows us to visit distant clients and sites within short notice. The company is also based within walking distance to Park Station, which provides direct and safe travel to Northern project based regions.

Additionally, in order for the company to operate simultaneously in other cities in SA and specifically that of Africa, ECONIC architects needs substantial financial reserves to purchase frequent or emergency flight tickets.

Personnel – a competent operating team in the Company is essential in the running of a successful practice. There are many factors considered in the employment of company personnel, one of which is the ‘right person should be employed for the right job,’ for example employing an architect from another African country, improves relationships with possible joint-ventures in the future and the relaying of information to that venture is effective and clear.

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Manifesto (Alternative Practice)

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Architectural building standards are governed by a set of rules and regulations formally contrived by building conglomerates and the constitution. A rigid system that betters isolated communities with no sustainable outlook for the future. For South Africa, the ‘architect’, is praised and acknowledged in his attempt to bring people together and bridge social-status gaps that still remain intact in this postapartheid era. But what of these built moments of unification, really contribute to this social-political struggle?

Quite frankly, the reality is that change is slow.

Maybe the problem lies in an architect’s egocentric vision to change the world or people’s “worlds” in this case? Maybe the architect needs to be taking off his pedestal and immerse himself on the receiving end? A ghost architect that lingers, hears, sees and responds directly to the singular and collective idea of ‘change’. An architecture that is derived by ones catalytic nature to invent and re-invent when so fit to do so.

The fact is that these architects already exist and operate on an entrepreneurial level, one without building regulations, and only the will to survive. ‘Go-getters’, ‘action-makers’ and ‘urban transgressors’, like the ‘trolley-pusher’ or ‘Zama-Zama’, whom remain hidden and only really make their appearance in the news, are the so-called architects of change. Urban nomads that flock together and continuously adapt architecturally to suit their lifestyles and ensure efficient productivity in the most sustainable way. Controversial designers of course, but still a contemporary minority that introduces a set of key principles of how architects should design: •

Eat: Embrace ambiguity. Fill yourself with knowledge of the unknown. Empathize and immerse yourself within the user group you are designing for. Become part of your audience, that way one can design critically and responsively.

•

Draw: Draw optimistic opportunities from your user group and begin to draw appropriate solutions, responses and prototypes that can be tried and tested in further understanding how your architecture will adapt and develop over time.

•

Sleep: Not in the broadest sense, but dream. Dream big! Push the boundaries, both figuratively and literally. Challenge authority and rigid systems, and design with fluidity and purpose that overlaps different disciplines.

• Repeat: Know that your design is never the final product, but a ‘product of process’ and will ultimately change in one life or the next.

So invent, re-invent and don’t be afraid to completely discard the whole design, because you’re just a ghost, designing for other ghosts.

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Competitions|The Story of the Urban Trolley Pusher in Johannesburg

A Case Study of the role of waste collection pertaining to unemployment in the informal economy

1 Globalization in Africa is the largest in the world, and for this, the level of unemployment is at its highest in the urban areas of many developing countries, much like South Africa’s current situation. To make matters worse, currently, a majority of the world’s population now lives in urban settings, but many of the most rapidly growing cities are unprepared to accommodate an influx of new citizens. “South Africa is Africa’s most industrialised country, and it attracts thousands of foreign nationals every year, seeking refuge from poverty, economic crises, war and government persecution in their home countries.” (South African History Online, 2016) Much to Johannesburg’s demise, migration flows of long-term rural-to-urban migrants in search for better economic opportunities, has posed much pressure on local city planning and providing adequate infrastructure, along with basic human amenities for the masses. “Municipalities in poor and institutionally fragile countries are especially disadvantaged by poor planning and management, deficient public services, and citizen insecurity.” (Fagen, 2013). As a result of this, many individuals in the labour market are forced into poverty and attempt to seek refuge in the urban informal economy as a means of survival. The informal economy plays a vital part in the development of South Africa and there needs to be careful management put in place in order to profit from it. The ‘trolley-pusher’, an urban waste collector in South Africa, is just one user who contributes to the informal economy as a means of survival. The aim of this study, is to shed light on this informal user’s role in our Johannesburg society and provide a means of socio-political empowerment to not only better their current situation, but guarantee the sustainability of their public service to the broader economy of the country.

To view this document please visit the link below:

https://issuu.com/ruanvanstaden/docs/the_story_of_the_urban_trolley_push/1