Mila Ashton Architecture Portfolio

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MILA ALEX ASHTON ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

Email: mila.alex.ashton@gmail.com Cellphone Number: +27786542831

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TABLE OF

CONTENTS

Curriculum Vitae

04-14 Edge Museum for the City 15-21 Mont Verde Precinct 22-25 The Clay House 26-28 “Who We Are” Design-Build

“No ideas but in things” - William Carlos Williams, Paterson

Work Experience

Honours, Awards and Publications

Jan 2021 Aug 2021

International:

June 2019 Sept 2019

Jan 2019

Architectural Intern

MWP Architects 131 Sir Lowry Road, Foreshore, Cape Town, South Africa Architecture Firm - Worked on conceptual, detail and design development and construction documents stages on residential, commercial, and industrial projects.

- Primary responsibilities included drawing, design, application, liasing with contractors and consultants and overseeing over twenty projects.

Design-Build Volunteer

“Who We Are” design-build with UCT, PBSA, RWTH, CPUT Macassar, South Africa Architecture Design-Build - Involved in creating a community space in Macassar and collecting stories and photographs of members of the community to exhibit.

- Responsible for construction of timber wall panels and roof trusses, and designing and workshopping associated details.

Profile I have been interested in tectonics and making since a young age, and since studying architecture I have realised the possibility this field holds not only to create but help. I now aim to learn through my architecture from the past, and communities in which I will practice, and am passionately interested in both the future of architecture in the African continent and it’s integration with biodiverse nature.

Architectural Intern

StudioMAS Cape Town, South Africa Architecture Firm - Responsible for preparing presentations for clients and assisting the architects at the firm with snagging and drawing.

Mila Ashton

Arch. Technologist 15 Cressy Road, London NW3 2NB Nationality: British and South African mila.alex.ashton@gmail.com

Jan 2018 Dec 2020

+27 78 654 2831 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mila-ashton-63a960186/

Dec 2017

June 2015 July 2015

June 2021, Saint Gobain, Paris, France

Awarded the Jury’s Special “Coup de Coeur” Prize at the international stage of the Multicomfort Student Contest for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Paris, while representing South Africa.

June 2015, Oxbridge Academic Programs, Barcelona, Spain

Architecture for Humanity Bologna, Italy Taught by lecturers such as Tatiana Bilbao, Shigeru Ban, Mariam Kamara, and Anupama Kundoo.

University of Cape Town

Bachelor of Architectural Studies, with distinction Cape Town, South Africa Architectural Design and Drawing, NQF level 7

Constantia Waldorf High School

Oxbridge Academic Programs Summer School Architecture and Culture & Cuisine Courses, Top Student Barcelona, Spain Architecture and Culture & Cuisine

Awarded Academic Excellence Entrance Scholarship for Summer School. Awarded the course prize for Top Architecture Student and Top Culture & Cuisine Student.

National: Nov 2020, Saint Gobain

2nd prize at the national stage of the Multicomfort Student Contest.

Sept 2020, Saint Gobain

1st prize at University of Cape Town (UCT) stage of the Multicomfort Student Contest.

Nov 2020, UCT

Undergraduate degree awarded with distinction.

Nov 2020, UCT

Molly Gohl Prize for top female student graduating from the BAS degree.

Nov 2020, UCT

Lisa Blane Memorial Prize for top student in Technology III course.

June 2020, Noordhoek Ratepayers Association

Won local competition to design a bus stop ahead of established firms.

Nov 2019, UCT

Clay Brick Association Prize for the project that made the best use of clay bricks in undergraduate Living Memory and postgraduate degrees.

YACademy High Level Training Course

National Senior Certificate Cape Town, South Africa English, Mathematics, Afrikaans, Physics, Chemistry, History, Design, NQF level 4

References available upon request.

Ranked 23 out of 750 international applicants, including professionals and academics, in competitive entrance to Architecture for Humanity short course.

Local:

Education and Training Nov 2021 Feb 2022

Nov 2021, Yacademy, Bologna, Italy

Interests I enjoy making things: jewellery, gourmet food from many cuisines, clothes, and short films. I made all of the furniture in my bedroom.

I love stories: “slice of life” literature and films in which production design is curated.

I like nature: hiking, wild swimming, and growing plants.

I also take extracarricular still life and life drawing classes.

Mila Alex Ashton ASHMIL001

Nov 2019, UCT

Corobrik Prize for the best project entailing the innovative use of clay bricks in the second year of BAS degree.

Nov 2019, UCT

Dean’s merit list.

2019, Constantia Waldorf School

Awarded prize by Education Department: Top Student at the school.

2019, Constantia Waldorf School

4th in the state for Design with 99%.

Publications: Ashton, M., 2021, Ida’s Valley Housing, in Papanicolaou, S., Lehabe, V. & Rawoot, M. 2021. Modern Architectures: Cape Town. Cape Town: Modern Architectures in the Global South. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33338.

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Skills Languages: English: Mother tongue Afrikaans: Basic working proficiency Italian: Basic Understanding Communication skills: Good at public speaking and presenting Organisational / managerial skills: Good at taking direction and working independently Outstanding organisation skills Computer skills OS: Windows, Mac OS Adobe: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign 2D Drawing: AutoCAD 3D Modelling: Revit, Rhinoceros, Sketchup, ArchiCAD Rendering: Twinmotion, Lumion Other skills Hard-working and highly motivated Quiet leadership in group work Hand drawing, model making, woodwork, metalwork, jewellery making

01 Edge Museum for the City Lisa Blane Memorial Prize for student who displayed the best use of technology in projects in third year

LOCATION: Cape Town, South Africa (-33°56’34.5”N 18°29’14”E) DATE OF PROJECT: October-November 2020 DETAILS: Individual academic project, undertaken in third year PROJECT SUPERVISORS: Heidi Boulanger, heidi.boulanger@uct. ac.za, Casper Lundie, casper@studiobiru.co.za

Using African fractals as space-making elements.

The Edge Museum for the City’s brief, developed by the African Centre for Cities, calls for a hub for experimentation and learning; a hub that will be as much about Cape Town as other African cities while engaging with the past, present, and future in one conceptual breath. This project was the final or thesis project of my undergraduate degree.

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I worked through iterations of fractals and many of them were taking on an open ovular layout, as illustrated above. I chose a trapezoid to arrange around

this shape, inspired by the section drawn below with a taper encourage air flow through stack ventilation.

The final design is monumental in nature, an ode to Africa sitting in pride of place, steadily becoming part of the landscape.

The site is located alongside the Black River in Cape Town. My landscape strategy of water as a revitaliser targeted the polluted Black River before it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. This was achieved by circulating the water through a series of constructed wetlands on the site.

Site Plan

CONCEPT AND SITE The inspirations for this project were twofold. First, I drew on the fractal geometry observed in indigenous settlements across Africa. Secondly, I developed design strategies conceptualised in a theoretical project earlier in the year – a landscape strategy of water as a revitaliser, an architectural strategy of push and pull which plays with opposing elements to create form, and a technical strategy of build-up or aggregation of many layers.

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First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

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Ground Floor Plan

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1. Auditorium 2. Social outreach space 3. Laboratory 4. Workshop 5. Bathroom 6. Social space

7. Staff entrance 8. Supply room 9. Refuse room 10. Storage 11. Workshop for artists-in-residence 12. Exhibition storage

13. Permanent exhibition 14. Gift shop 15. Storage and service 16. Cafe 17. Kitchen 18. Plant room

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Third Floor Plan

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The building itself incorporates a rounded trapezoidal shape at every level of design - from landscaping to building form in both section and plan, to construction details in beams, handrails, and ceilings.

Cross Section

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The primary spaces of the building are constructed from rammed earth which speak both to the histories of African construction and my strategy of build-up. Incorporation of passive green technologies such as stack ventilation and constructed wetlands also begins to address aspects of the green future of architecture.

Technical Cross Section

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This building incorporates exhibition spaces which speak to the past, an urban science innovation hub and think-tanks that speaks to the future, while the forms and reverence of nature speak to our present. These combine to facilitate the collection and furtherance of African knowledge and ideas.

Long Section

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Parts of the buildings are divided into multiple floors. However, there are always openings across multiple floors to facilitate stack ventilation through the roof louvres. The tall windows are fixed but incorporate trickle vents and small openable sections to allow airflow through the building.

Technical Long Section

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East Elevation MATERIALITY AND STRUCTURE The materiality is stereotomic (a subtractive method of architecture, derived from the theory of Gottfried Semper) in the rammed earth spaces, and tectonic (an additive theory) in the roof structure, being composed of adjustable louvres to encourage light and airflow through the building. This materiality is reversed in the steel connectors, with a tectonic frame and stereotomic planted rooves.

This sketch (right) was one of my first sectional explorations of the building, however due to the material constraints of rammed earth, it became a regular gradient rather than the change in slope illustrated here.

Structural Diagram

North Elevation

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FRACTALS AT A DETAIL LEVEL The concept of African fractals as space making elements penetrate the design down to a detail level. The balustrade, ceiling panels, primary loadbearing beam, and even louvres reflect the rounded trapezoidal shape echoing through the building. To the right are some custom details designed for the Edge Museum, illustrating the concept of fractals at a detail level.

Louvre Detail

Balustrade Detail

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Ceiling Detail

Site Section

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ILLUSTRATING IN 3D This massing model is constructed from timber and plants harvested from my garden. I did not have access to normal model making facilities due to the pandemic, so was not able to experiment with iterative physical models in the same way that is normally part of my process. I did, however, enjoy the process of building this model more as a final product of the project, and believe it reflects the early concept (left) of embedding the building in the site.

Permanent Exhibition Space

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Art in render by Robert Slignsby, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Wangechi Mutu

02 Mont Verde Precinct

Jury Special “Coup de Coeur” Prize at 16th Multicomfort Student Contest “The special prize of this edition was given to the South African team... The jury was won over by the excellence, audacity and originality of the “Mont Verde” project, which reinvents collective housing around a wetland park to regenerate local biodiversity.”

LOCATION: Saint Denis, France (48°55’48.9”N 2°20’37.5”E) DATE OF PROJECT: March-September 2020 (Disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic) DETAILS: Academic/competition project, undertaken in third year in a group of 2 PROJECT SUPERVISORS: Albert van Jaarsveld, albert.jaarsveld@gmail.com, Heidi Boulanger, heidi.boulanger@uct.ac.za

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The restorative power of water shapes this urban scheme.

Introducing natural biodiversity and a wetland park to this neglected brownfield site is central to our urban vision to revitalise the greater area. It promotes a healthier relationship between the urban lifestyle and nature, while also creating suitable habitats for bird and animal life within the built-up urban sprawl of Paris. Water is collected off the undulating mountain-like rooves of the buildings as well as from the neighbourhood and is directed into the wetland for further filtration, essentially acting as tributaries.

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CONCEPT My partner and I were both initially interested in the possibilities wetlands had in revitalising the site, and our whole concept developed around this theme. Paris was once a swamp, and our intention was to honour this history, while using it to our advantage to increase biodiversity on the site.

It was my idea to link the buildings to the site through the introduction of the parametric roofscape. This creates a powerful silhouette to the buildings and is a simple way of ensuring our concept penetrates all levels of design.

At first, the tutor and my partner were sceptical of this approach, but these conceptual images helped to convince them of its merit, which developed into the prize-winning conceptual framing.

Concept Sketch by Sasha

Conceptual Perspective by Mila

Master Plan by Sasha

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THE MASTER PLAN The massing of the building is placed around the edge of the site to maximise park and open space. Each building has views of the wetland park as well as optimised circulation, South light and more intimate courtyards.

Each communal courtyard is bordered by a line of urban farming allotments and indigenous heather hedges providing a degree of privacy. Hardscape paths create direct pedestrian connectors across the site as well as meanders through the various biomes.

1 The wetland

2 Views of wetland

Massing Diagrams by Sasha

3 Hollowing out the L to get larger surface area for views

4 Creation of courtyards for more intimate communities

5 Seperation of L’s for ease of movement of people and water

6 Every apartment gets light and views

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Perspective of Park by Sasha

Perspective of Market by Sasha THE SCHOOL There are also disused warehouses on the site. These will be renovated and developed to create the school. The façade facing the park remains largely the same as it historically was. These will incorporate a primary school with an additional wing to house the kindergarten, along with a new leisure centre placed on the street’s edge to serve both the school and public requirements.

THE MAISON COIGNET It was important for us to restore and promote this heritage building as it is the first reinforced concrete building in the world. We have turned it into a produce market, partially supplied by the allotments on site, with a restaurant on the upper floors.

Diagrammatic Analysis by Sasha and Mila

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School Entrance Perspective by Mila

View of Park by Sasha

Site Section by Mila

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View from Balcony by Mila

Layout of Building by Mila and Sasha THE BUILDING Mixed tenure apartments allow for the building to be occupied throughout the day and therefor there are always eyes on the park below, ensuring a safer environment.

Each flat has access to a private balcony as well as the communal courtyard and the park, ensuring each person is more connected to the wealth of nature around them.

Perspective of Courtyard by Mila

Corridor Condition

South Façade

Vertical and horizontal shading for visual comfort

Facade Diagrams by Mila

East Façade

Horizontal shading for visual comfort

North Façade

Widely spaced vertical shading for visual comfort

West Façade

Vertical shading for visual comfort

TECHNICAL ASPECTS The building is constructed from a steel frame and FSC sustainably sourced timber walls. The roof is constructed from concrete with an iron admixture which is aged outdoors for a diversity in patina and designed to have small sections of greenery here and there. Each façade has a different type of timber screen to manage the lighting conditions of the direction it is facing.

Layering of planting and timber screens reduces the noise of the railway. Double glazed windows fitted with trickle vents allow for airflow without necessitating being opened. The sounds of wildlife such as birds and frogs from the park creates pleasant white noise for the residents.

Technical Cross Section by Mila

Balcony Condition

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03 The Clay House

Claybrick Association Prize for the student who has made the best use of claybrick in their design in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

The Corobrik Prize for the best project entailing the innovative use of claybricks for work done in second year.

LOCATION: Woodstock, South Africa (33°55’41.8”S 18°26’54.6”E) DATE OF PROJECT: July-August 2019 DETAILS: Individual academic project, undertaken in second year PROJECT SUPERVISORS: Henk Lourens, henk@glarch.co.za, and Katherine Mann, katherinemann@cybersmart.co.za

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Form derived from materiality.

The site for this project is located in Woodstock, an area that remained racially integrated during apartheid. Now gentrification is ripping it apart and reconstructing it as fancy apartment blocks and expensive markets. In an attempt to find a solution to this, we began to look at the rowhouse typology as a densification tool that maintains the neighbourhood feel of the small streets.

The Site

Site Plan

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This house is largely inspired by the client; a potter who holds classes for disabled children. In a small site, I needed to house both a family of 5 and a pottery studio.

The building is entirely derived from and inspired by its materiality, which is in turn drawn from the occupation of the client.

I wanted to experiment with brick in all of its possible forms, textures, and shapes. A perforated brick screen casts beautiful shadows across the front of the building, displaying the variety of possibilities created by arranging bricks in a way other than is normally done. The building itself uses brick in the paving of the ground floor, the walls and even the rooves with the barrel vaults using brick’s natural properties of compression.

First Floor Plan

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Second Floor Plan

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Perspective of Kitchen

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04 “Who We Are” Design-Build and Exhibition

Sketch of Food Vendor LOCATION: Macassar, South Africa (34°03’39.0”S 18°45’37.9”E) DATE OF PROJECT: July, September 2019 DETAILS: Design-Build project, undertaken in second year PROJECT SUPERVISORS: Clint Abrahams, clint.abrahams@uct.ac.za Collectively imagine better futures in communities.

This design-build project, located in Macassar, a lower-income township outside Cape Town, was the culmination of research undertaken by StudioLight, an NGO made up of members of the community of Macassar. It was a collaboration between the students and lecturers from the University of Cape Town and Cape Peninsula University of Technology, with RWTH Aachen University and the Peter Behrens School of Architecture from Germany and the community of Macassar.

Photographic Collage of Street Elevation

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Site Plan of Link Avenue

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Our research began with a combination of field trips, interviews, architectural drawings, community meetings and design projects used to determine a series of places that were important to the community at an urban scale. We identified Bong’s Place as a place to put the ideas workshopped with the community in phase I into practice in phase II. We learned from the building culture of Macassar which incorporates found materials into shacks. With the materials that were donated or found we made everything from timber roof trusses and columns, to prefabricated walls with patterned panels, to doors, gates, and fences. Members of the community helped with laying the paving of the floor as it required more skills than the team had.

Drawing of Proposed Building at Bong’s Place by Clint Abrahams, Co-ordinator of Design-Build

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The finished shack houses an “ongoing community-driven storytelling project focussing on documenting the oral histories of Macassar” as well as community gatherings, from weddings to funerals, while the owner of the property continues to sell his firewood out front.

This project taught me the importance of workshopping ideas to fit available materials and skills as we were primarily working with donated materials and unskilled students. We workshopped details on site, lifted elements prefabricated at the workshop at the local high school into place by hand and had the pleasure of taking part in the opening of the first exhibition held at the finished shack. It was an incredible learning experience about both the heritage of Macassar and its people along with the difficulties that arise when you begin to build a design.

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