Architecture Portfolio by richard12symons

RICHARD SYMONS

ARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO 2018-2020

A BOUT M E Some of my best attributes are: hardworking, learner, perfectionist, strategic, adaptability, deliberative, creativity, and divergent thinking it is these that I consider as forming the core of my personality.

Eඕඉඑඔ richard12symons@gmail.com u18098292@tuks.co.za Pඐ඗ඖඍ Nඝඕඊඍක 060 618 1898 Wඍඊ Dඍගඉඑඔඛ https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-symons-93575616b https://www.southafricanartists.com/artists/richard-symons-6551

These attributes, especially my creativity, motivated me to continuously draw and create throughout my younger years, placing me on the path where I would find my passion for design and architecture. This passion for the field was born through my first introduction to the architectural field via a grade 10 job shadowing project. It is this passion that strived and is striving me to be the best as possible in this field, for I believe that without true love for this success would not be possible.

N ORMATIVE P OSITION “Architecture has its own realm. It has a special physical relationship with life. I do not think of it primarily as either a message or a symbol, but as an envelope and background for life which goes on in and around it, a sensitive container for the rhythm of footsteps on the floor, for the concentration of work, for the silence of sleep.” -Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture Although my architecture journey just began, I always had a deep fascination with life and architecture, whether with man, nature, or urbanity. I believe that architecture should have a mutualistic relationship, which was always the basis of my projects during my study. Architecture should go beyond being a physical environment and shelter, but it should be rooted in our culture, identity, and a platform for experience and exchanges. Furthermore, architecture is tasked to defend and enhance the human experience, whether that experience is of the contexts or emotions the captured space should, however, be impactful on the soul. Lastly, exploring and discovering is important to me not only within this field. As architects or soon to be architects, we should be cautious in limiting ourselves within our normative stance, but rather explore and expand because growth is constant in life as well as in architecture. After all, if we are evolving as human we should evolve as architects.

C ONTENTS

Tඐඍ Wඉගඋඐග඗ඟඍක

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(2018)

ඐ඗ඝඛඑඖඏ ඎ඗ක ඐඉගඎඑඍඔඌ

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Tඐඍ S඗උඑඉඔ ඖඍඛග

p.27

(2019)

(2020)

Lඑඎඍ ඉඖඌ Dඍඉගඐ

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Rඍගඐඑඖඓඑඖඏ Rඍඋඡඋඔඑඖඏ

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(2020)

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(2018)

ඉ ඎඉඋඉඌඍ ඍච඘ඔ඗කඉගඑ඗ඖ (2019)

Mඍඌඑගඉගඑ඗ඖ කඍගකඍඉග

Lඍඉකඖඑඖඏ ඏක඗ඝඖඌ ඎ඗ක Mඉකඉඊඉඛගඉඌ (2019)

Gකඍඍඖ Pඉඞඑඔඑ඗ඖ

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Rඍඛ඘඗ඖඌඑඖඏ T඗ඟඍක

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(2018)

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(2020)

Knysna Elephant Sanctuary, Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

T HE W ATCH T OWER F I R S T Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2018

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ B˛˒ˎˏ Design an innovative watchtower as symbiotic attainment of the verbs perch and peer. Investigate multiple interpretations of the words to perch or peer and to explore the translation thereof into a watchtower openmindedly. Question how the Platonic ideal of a watchtower (or to perch and peer) and appreciated the possibilities with a height limit of two and a half meters. Keep in mind how and why you are perching and peering or at what.

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ ˜˞˖˖ˊ˛ˢ The watchtower is extended from a popular water hole onto the African landscape allowing one to admire the African elephant holistically. On approach to the perched platform you are placed on a lowered plane that presents one with a diﬀerent perspective of the elephants, this articulates the monumentality of the African elephant creating a new deeper admiration for the mammals. The views are promptly interrupted and create vistas as you move through the nest structure that forces the user to focus on parts of the landscape and if lucy on one of the elephants. The weaved wooden strips that form the structure create vistas, give direction, movement, and filter the African sun. The nest opens onto a second viewing platform, that surrounds a Vachellia erioloba tree, merely raised 1.5 m allows one to view the elephant at eye level allowing you to gaze at its soul. This Oﬀers an additional perspective of the elephants increasing your admiration toward them. After the experience at the watchtower, you will have a new attitude and admiration towards this gentle giant as well as the African landscape as this is the purpose of the well-choreographed experience of the

AND

D EATH

F I R S T Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2018

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ B˛˒ˎˏ Exsplore the polibilities of your given topography. Consider the use of planes, water, movement and program. Create poetic spaces suited to the program of the site exspolre the spatial potential of trees and the comsition and modification of the given topography.

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ ˜˞˖˖ˊ˛ˢ Upon site landing, I founded that there was a battle between life and death throughout the site. The lively river contrasted with the burnt-out dying trees surrounding it or, the campus contrasted with the abandoned site. This brought me to an investigation of life and death and for an interaction between the two. The conclusion was inserting a series of memorial walls that consist of two high mass planes with an opening to allow for contemplation and peace within it. Besides creating an inner remembrance space, the wall creates a series of courtyards in the typography. Here life is played out through resting and playing places, defined by the ever-present remembrance walls.

University of Pretoria - Groenkloof Campus, Groenkloof, Pretoria, South Africa

L IFE

RETREAT

F I R S T Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2018

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ B˛˒ˎˏ Design a contemporary, semi-permanent overnight retreat for your chosen client that would be able to be transported within a shipping container. The programme must accommodate your client for one night. For now you may ignore aspects of the daily clutter of his or her routine so as to allow for an escape from the kitchens daily strife, to rest ,ponder over the future, read and even meditate. Carefully consider the designs reciprocation with the context, thresholds, horizontal and vertical planes, the need for privacy, light and possible views and vistas. Do not neglect the clients sensory experiences.

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ ˜˞˖˖ˊ˛ˢ Between Jeong Kwan’s weekly journey from the Baegyangsa temple to the University of South Korea lies the primitive cabin where she can rest and meditate in the Naejangsan Forest. After a hard day of teaching at the university, she can sprawl between maple and ginkgo trees safely in her overnight cabin. The Cabin spreads out onto the river begins to manipulate the sound and movement of the water creating an orchestra of sounds. The cabin consists of a double spiral that directs and encourages movement to diﬀerent places of rituals and activity. The inner core of the cabin is a space for praying and sleeping here the light is at its minimum with only a single vertical slit that allows light to form a space for preying. The core’s floor plane is lowered to articulate a more sacred space as one is often forced to bow down as you enter a meditation room. The outer coat filters the light to create a de-stress atmosphere and allows for essential plants, it directs Jeong Kwan to the rooftop snack garden and meditation roof where she would face the Naejangsan river as she meditates.

University of Pretoria - Groenkloof Campus, Groenkloof, Pretoria, South Africa

M EDITATION

University of Pretoria - Groenkloof Campus, Groenkloof, Pretoria, South Africa

G REEN P AVILION F I R S T Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2018

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ B˛˒ˎˏ Design a contemporary, semi-permanent pavilion that explores the spatial quality and genius loci of the chosen site on campus. The pavilion structure should sprout from a well-choreographed human experience of the site.

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ ˜˞˖˖ˊ˛ˢ The site has numerous clusters of beautiful trees surrounding a central giraﬀe thorn tree. A naturally curved footpath winds between the clusters and around the central tree. This path naturally formed as a shortcut route to the lecture hall. This pattern founded on the site drove the form and concept. The pavilion consists of a series of glass panel structures that would harvest rainwater. The panel is then filled with plastic bottles of diﬀerent sorts and colors. The purpose of the pavilion was to enhance the current beauty of the site and speak to the fragility of nature, the glass and bottle wall would encapsulate the mentioned tree cluster to create a series of enclosed viewing chambers where whinin the user can explore, play or relax between the tree clusters.

H OUSING

FOR

A conceptual exploration

H ATFIELD

S E C O N D Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2019

Given a central street within Hatfield and tasked to reimagine housing for this street. Park Street is a popular pedestrian route as it connects numerous destinations within Hatfield like the Metrorail and student housing. Therefore it lends itself to be populated with informal vendors, adding to the unique nature of Hatfield. The vendors became the foundation for the housing scheme. Series of nodal points were established upon urban analysis the housing structure is amid to enhance this nodal point within Hatfield. The housing structure consists of a series of communal towers placed near or over the identified nodal points. The plugin housing then spans between these towers. This system envisions to create a new community on top of the current urban communities, and the nodal point would be the interaction points between the two.

After establishing the vision for the overall housing proposal an investigation into the plugin individual housing was done. Since there was no context to respond to, an investigation into how the housing can mold its contexts was done. The concept was a lithograph artwork named Relativity by Escher, the piece translated into an architectural structure that seems to be the center of an idyllic community. Several stairways creating interaction between figures of difrrent world leading to this idea of a stairway that house and connects. Translating this concept into the housing exploration leads to the structure becoming a stairway that connects and house activity. Each housing unit is designed to connect to the next making the collective one connected landscape onto which lived space can be formed.

5th Ave and Boom St, Asiatic Bazaar, Marabastad, Pretoria, South Africa

T HE F ACADE E XPLORATION 16

Tasked with designing and exploring a facade design for a market propasal within Marabastad. It was important to encapsulate the genius loci of Marabastad onto the facade, therefore the architectural quality of the informal patchwork of the surrounding typology. This beautiful

patchwork of corrugated sheet housing that dapples the harsh sun as you move through is the essence Marabastad. Further, Marabastad is also known for its lively arcade and loggia wrapping around the shops and informal markets. This element

was continued into the facade but translated into a contemporary manner. All the above elements were translated into the facade in a contemporary manner, seen in the works of Enrique Miralles. For instance, the patchwork roof sheeting that forms a dialogue with the building typology or architectural elements lined up with the adjacent buildings.

LEARNING GROUND MARABASTAD

FOR

S E C O N D Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2019

Tasked with designing a University facility building within Marabastad as an Urban catalyst. It is important that this would incorporate the Apies river running through the site and the local urban occupants, thus the workshop and market grounds. The site is currently occupied by informal housing, with a beautiful patchwork of corrugated sheet housing that dapples the harsh Pretoria sun as you move through the marketspace founded on the site. This was the essence of the site upon visiting, and it was this genius locus that drove the spatial development of the project. A similar building typology is founded in the rest of Marabastad therefore it was a great opportunity to translate it into a contemporary manner like in the work of Enrique Miralles.

R ESPONDING T OWER

Contextualism creates an environment where memories of a Above responding to the built environment, the focus is placed place are collected. The focus of the project was the notion of a on responding to the human scale. A food truck currently lives building that responds. on the corner of the site and should be an additional response. Lastly, the pedestrian scale is addressed by exploring how Responding to the surrounding typologies. This includes the one’s design can bring down the mass and volume. extruding façade characteristics of the surrounding buildings, elements seen on the site for instance the Madelief shading The modular shading devices used on the building speaks devices and local materials. How does one translate this into the to the modernistic shading devices used on the Madelief current time? building facade and speaks to the extruding characteristics of the surrounding buildings.

1106 Prospect St, Hatfield, Pretoria, South Africa

Furthermore, they keep the western sun away from the main oﬃce space. The way the building touches the ground is of great importance. The space created by the footprint should enable the current urban activity to continue or better increase it. The building’s corners give away to movement and encourage the public to move into the premise. The paving used on the sidewalk is continued into the site, connecting the building to the outer and giving the public an indication that entrance is allowed. The footprint facing Hilda street follows the sidewalk movement further it emphasizes the corner and allows for space to house the hungry zebra food truck. Further informal market space is created in the courtyard or ‘void’ of the building. Lastly, the site allows for a connection to the Aandklas heritage building.

University of Pretoria - Groenkloof Campus, Groenkloof, Pretoria, South Africa

T HE S OCIAL N EST T H I R D Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2020

P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ B˛˒ˎˏ P˛˘˓ˎˌ˝ ˜˞˖˖ˊ˛ˢ By nature, we are social animals. Jane Jacobs, well known for her arguments made against a functional machine-like city, claims that a city should rather be shaped by its small-scale lived experience and interactions. She approached cities as living beings and ecosystems suggested that over time, buildings, streets, and neighborhoods function as dynamic organisms, changing in response to how people interact with them. This topic, of low rise high-density living, asked for an exploration into the city as an organism or how one designs for social interactions on a small scale, especially considering how we are increasingly separated by densification. With this concept of a social nest in mind, I looked at a pod structure as seen in an insect nest. Where you would find a communal pod from which individual pods would spread. Further, one needs to look at the urban landscape and how to include it in this social nest. The design enabled a public tunnel system that filters through the site allowing for increased interaction.

R ETHINKING R ECYCLING A Liminal space for hatfield

T H I R D Y E A R O F S T U D Y-2020

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Throughout, the variety of projects done within Hatfield. I started to note the split personality of Hatfield with limited to no interactions between the two. The divide between the informal and formal realms guided me to The Production of Space as a theoretical approach to mend this fracture. Lefebvre claims that space isn’t merely what we see and what is represented by buildings around us it goes beyond that into the conceived, perceived, and experienced. The lived space is often excluded or pushed to the sidewalk especially noted within my mapping of Hatfield. The everyday rituals like that of waste pickers, vendors, and students are separated and is a missed opportunity for interactions and exchanges that can lead to a richer lived experience. Places are only produced through human interactions and cannot exist without them. Therefore one should design for the lived space and the appropriation of the lived space on our buildings. The site is adjacent to the university which in itself is an isolated entity breaking this interaction further. Therefore the proposed program should not only allow for the lived space to be incorporated but also allow for the university to provide to the social realm of Hatfield. The potential of The Production of Space and the informal sector is harnessed by not only providing infrastructural support but also in selecting an appropriate program. Lastly, to design for the lived space you need to understand its urban occupants. After the mapping I realized the best way to design for the lived space is to formalize the current recycle yard into an up-cycle and recycle facility. The chosen program raised additional informants and allows for the exploration of the spatial possibilities of the program and how it can contribute to the urban lived space.

The required formality of the civic center and inform workshop and recycle facility is placed in contarast. The two realms is seperated by a diagonal datum line that visualy connects and act as a exstention of the prominant tukkies weg. This space between the formal and informal would create a liminal space where both contribute and shape the lived space, encouraging exchanges. Leading to a true rich sosial envirment where indivual identity can be exspressed. To allow the program (recycle facility) to contribute and help shape the lived space it needs to be considered and brought into the public realm. Therefore, the recycling process is broken into sections and spread through the site to carefully help shape the lived space. Exstending the program into the site would in return open the recycling facility to the formal sector allowing this sector into the process. This is a similar approach to that of the Watershed where the ‘lived space’ is brought through the building with multiple interaction points between the formal and informal programs. Lastly, we need to consider the points made that lived space is fluid, therefore we need to consider possibilities of lived space shaping the conceived space as it changes. Creating flexible envelopes rather than geometries or incorporating modular, durable materials.