Issuu

PORTFOLIO

Xifeng Xi

xiwind.xi@hotmail.com

xifeng@chalmers.se +46 0734954490

Pl. du Tunnel 19, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland

Xifeng Xi

+46 0734954490 // xiwind.xi@hotmail.com

Pl. du Tunnel 19, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland

Skills

Computer

Sketch up Rhino(gh)

Archicad

V-ray

Enscape

Lumion

Auto Cad

Adobe Suite

ArcGis

Cyclone

Microsoft Office

Art

Sketch

Watercolor

Woodcut

Calligraphy

Experience

A+H Yihuitang LTD, Guangzhou, China

Design Assistant 03/2019 - 04/2019

Contributed to the design and development of wood and bamboo pavilions for a tourist area in Anji, Zhejiang Province.

Institute of Architecture & Cultural Heritage of SCUT Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, China Architecture Intern 07/2021 - 12/2021

Surveyed and documented the Haifeng Confucian Temple, proposed preservation measures for critical areas.

Studied Jieyang Arcade-house Street. Collected and categorized façade elements.

Developed the design for Kui Guang Tower Attic in Leizhou. Created detailed computer models, renderings, and video presentations.

Conducted architectural surveys using point cloud data and contributed to cultural relics assessment reports.

Reality Studio, Pretoria, South Africa

Architect 04/2024 - 05/2024

Conducted field research and activities in Melusi Informal Settlement. Co-designed and co-built with the local community, and implemented interventions to update the target space.

Education

South China University of Technology, China

Bachelor of Architecture

• Green Building Specialization Certificate The Excellent Graduate 2022

Tianjin University, China

Exchange Student in Architecture 09/2019 - 02/2020

Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Architecture and Urban Design, Msc Progr 09/2023 - /

EPFL, Switzerland

Exchange Student in Architecture 09/2024 - /

Activities

Event Volunteer, 2018 China Architecture Annual Conference

Office assistant, Architecture Department of SCUT, 2021

In modern life, transitions are becoming ever more unrecognizable and impossible to experience. We have grown very poor in threshold experiences. Falling asleep is perhaps the only such experience that remains to us. But together with this, there is also waking up.

CONTENT

1. A Tale of Capturing Flying

2. Derivation of the Wall

3. Columns without Boundary

4. The Hill for Prosumers

5. Living Bathroom

6. Building Identity by Co-building Spaces

—— The Arcades Project

01 A Tale of Capturing Flying

Bamboo Pavilion

Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Construction project

Team work

Time: 09.2018 - 01.2019

Tutor: Guanqiu Zhong, Lu Xiong

The project is located in a lawn of Nansha Waterbird Paradise in Guangzhou. The design concept is to express the poetry of water birds in flight. We explore the logic of generating straight curved surfaces, and consider the posture that architecture can present from the human point of view.

We studied the different textures of bamboo and analyzed how to process the bamboo to secure the connection. The project won the second prize in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Construction Competition.

Workload: concept(15%), design(15%), modeling(50%), node design(25%) construction(15%), drawings in this portfolio(90%)

02 Derivation of the Wall Folk Music Workshop

Turpan, Xinjiang, China

Academic project Independent work Time: 03.2020 - 08.2020

Tutor: Lu Yao

As China's urbanization has decimated rural populations, there are fewer artisans to make folk instruments in Xinjiang. Tuyugou Mazha Village is one of the oldest villages in Xinjiang and one of the birthplaces of folk music. The local tourism resources are rich and the floating population is large, so the project chooses to establish a workshop here for musical instrument craftsmen, apprentices and tourists.

The project focused the local people's connection to the unique landscape and tried to convey this to the participants of the building. The design extracts the concept of "thickness" and uses rational and emotional ways to explore the movement of light, line of sight and temperature and so on to shape different functional Spaces.

An ancient Uighur village located in the south exit valley of the Grand Canyon. It has a history of more than 1700 years and is the oldest Uighur village in Xinjiang. This village completely retains the ancient Uighur tradition and folk customs.

YELLOW CLAY HILL

Maza Village Turpan, Xinjiang, China

Mazha Village in the Desert Valley?

The Thickness of "Walls"

The Landscape around Mazha Village in Tuyoq Valley SITE

Tian Shan Mountain

Kumutga Desert

Semi-shelter

The interlace of space, light and thickness

Musician Office - Restroom

Musician Office - Reception Room

03 Columns without Boundary

Participatory Memorial Park Baghdad, Iraq

Competition project

Independent work

Time: 04.2021 - 07.2021

At present, informal monuments are more needed by cities. The informal characteristics enable more people to participate and reduce the sense of nobility caused by the self-preservation mentality. in commemorative architecture. Edmund Burke emphasized the importance of human perception and social participation in his exploration of the sublime and the beautiful.

The project was to design a new monument based on empiricism. Taking Baghdad, which was broken physically and spiritually under the war, as a academic testboard, the designer created a transition space by extending the Wall, which became the threshold space of the city.

Upward View Axon

Empiricism and the Memorial Architecture

Edmund Burke: Sublime and beauty

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

In 1750s, British philosopher EdmundBurke differentiated the sublime from the beautiful for its capacity to evoke intense emotions. His classification of "beautiful" and "sublime" applies to the study of nature, to the character of people, and to their artistic output, especially poetry, painting, and architecture Thus, by the mid-18th century, the sublime had crossed disciplinary boundaries, moving from literature into the moral and visual arts

Burke gathered aesthetic data so that some future thinker could explain them.

Burke's theory of monumental architecture has been expressed in later architectural practices, but the sense of beauty brought by human interaction in society, which he talked about in the chapter of Beauty, has received little attention.

Architectural Form and Social Engagement

SUBLIME evokeed by the OBJECTIVE ELEMENTS

ARCHITECTURAL FORM

" Another source of the sublime, is infinity if it does not rather belong to the last. Infinity has a tendency to fill the mind with that sort of delightful horror, which is the most genuine effect, and truest test of the sublime.Whenever we repeat any idea frequently, the mind by a sort of mechanism repeats it long after the first cause has ceased to operate."

BEAUTY of the SOCIAL PASSIONS

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

" The strongest sensation, relative to the habitudes of particular society , are sensations of pleasure. Good company, lively conversations, and the endearments of friendship, fill the mind with great pleasure; a temporary solitude on the other hand, is itself agreeable. This may perhaps prove, that we are creatures designed for contemplation as well as action."

Architecture: Memory and Participation

The Exploration of Architectural Elements

How to find a form that encourages people to participate, and also evokes emotions ?

You may pay close attention to empiricism and start with the simple rules of life. Shape, sound, color, light and shadow all evoke the imagination.

I tried to combine the sublime and the beautiful by " picturesque style" , perhaps you could creat the picture between daily life and the scenes of remembrance.

Simple and dispersed elements make it possible to form new spaces in which another kind of time could be presented.

The Pillars and Perception

“ Hold up a strait pole, with your eye to one end, it will extend to a length almost incredible."

" For in a rotund, whether it be a building or a plantation, you can no where fix a boundary; the same object still seems to continue, and the imagination has no rest."

" Whenever we repeat any idea frequently, the mind by a sort of mechanism repeats it long after the first cause has ceased to operate."

Cenotaph for Newton Etienne-Louis Boullée Museum of Lost Volumes Nemestudio

Memorial Peter Eisenman

Peter Eisenman

Xifeng Xi

Apani，the series Ganzfeld James Turrell

1. New Literary History. Vol. 26, No. 1, Narratives of Literature, the Arts, and Memory (Winter, 1995). Kate Nesbitt. :The Sublime and Modern Architecture: Unmasking (An Aesthetic of) Abstraction

Time warps

When people continue to walk along the wall, they will enter an uninterrupted special space and time, where the transition of light and shadow shape the feelings of quiet and exciting. This group of Spaces is a symbol of remembrance.

Layers of framed scenes create a montage effect and walk along the line of sight, turning the lives of citizens into quiet fragments in this monumental set.

When people exit or turn around from the memorial cloisters, they can see different activities daub on the walls like paintings. It is a beautiful scene brought about by living in the moment.

The columns arranged in different densities and rhythms make the scene flat, and the sublime and commemorative feeling brought by perspective disappear, and the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere dominates the space.

Walking along the wall

Facing the wall

Picture of Life

04 The Hill for Prosumers

Shanwei Theatre

Shanwei, Guangdong,china

Graduation Design (Distinction top15%)

Cooperated with Yunjie liu

Time: 01.2022 - 06.2022

Tutor: Jianhe Luo, Wenyi Jiang

The project was to design a theatre in Shanwei, a typical China's Fourth-tier city. Mountains and the sea surround the town, but the sea has been overshadowed by high-rise housing on the shore, and homogenized urban construction is spreading to the hills.

In addition to the natural commodification, people's feelings of isolation keep increasing with the coming of the third wave , Thankfully, the third wave also brings opportunities with society becoming demassified and the emergence of prosumers. Based on our research, we made the different functions of the theatre more independent, producing additional economic benefit.

As to the building massing, we decided to respond to modernization of the city with a radical form. It is a "hill" in the city, from the top of which people can look out over the fragments of the sea and mountains in the distance. It urges people to: Go to the sea; Go to the mountain.

Workload: site survey(50%), concept(60%), project planning(70%), formal strategy&design(50%), fire design and construction equipment(40%) modeling(50%), drawing on this portfolio(90%)

Shan Wei - a Typical Fourth-tier City in China

Shanwei, the second poorest city in Guangdong province, has seen its population shrink as a result of the siphoning effect of big cities, and the encroachment of real estate has left the city with empty residential buildings. As a kind of important public building, Grand Theater is undoubtedly an opportunity for urban development.

The site is located in the construction area of the city's new center, with Yingbin Avenue on the left and Hongwan Avenue on the right. The surrounding environmental elements are currently in various stages of construction. The view of the southwest and south sides is blocked by high-rise residential buildings, while the east side is expanding towards the mountain. The village on the west side will be demolished and a commercial complex is already under construction on the north side. Below is the scene at the site looking towards the sea.

Design selection and Generation Analysis

difference of the theatre and let the height difference become an opportunity for the earth.

MOUNTAIN

Keeping the theater open is a huge drain on government money

But really need an opportunity to promote the city, to attract investment, to attract people.

The construction of the theater has both advantages and disadvantages

singer

the performing place is too traditional or too formal

need the attention of more young people want to perform in a easy and open area for locals

Chinese drama troupe Stagehand

few in small cities few public places for them in small cities

the main type of potentical prosumer need multifunctional places to perform towards Different numbers of people

Lack of cultural and recreational activities

want a place with convenient transportation and low cost

work areas are usually far away from supermarkets and restaurants and boring

want a better working environment, want to interact with peoplelot because of many free time

Salesperson

shops that accompanies theatre is difficult to run because of no audiences in most time

need more consumers

need a professional rehearsal space need feedback from the audience

Western troupe Staff in the theatre

City leader non-resident in most Chinese theatres hard to get troupes to perform in Remote cities

worry about prospects of projects in small cities

need to make sure the city is vibrant enough to support the project's futureHope the project has the possibility of long-term operation

hope to cultivate own troupe hope to attract new types of small troupes to perform regularly

hope that local drama troupe can use the theatre

Nine groups of people are analyzed, including the main decision-makers and users in theater construction, performers and theater staff Their current situation is symptomatic of the difficulties of operating theaters in China's smaller cities. But with the third wave, they could become potential prosumers

Sunken

The interface on the west side of the theatre consists of a continuous undulating semi-open platform. The staggered floors form a rich spatial hierarchy, where the interior and exterior connect with the forms and line of sight. The two entrances to the theatre lobby are toned down, as all the platforms are focused on urban activities.

The eastern interface consists of a set of longitudinal spaces, which is the "threshold garden" of the theatre. The narrowing of the space makes the far mountains on the west side more impactful. The horizontal corridors handle the circulation of public areas, logistics areas and vip guests, allowing different users of the theater to interact at a moment's time.

The undulating platform in the setting sun

Stacked paths in interstice garden

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

sed moluptia quoditat

Street Avanue 666,

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

time does the exhibition start? Hurry up, the show is about to begin.

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

moluptia quoditat Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore, I was born In

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

sed moluptia quoditat

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore, I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

sed moluptia quoditat

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

sed moluptia quoditat

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

dolore,

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

sed moluptia quoditat

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore, I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

sed moluptia quoditat

sed moluptia quoditat Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

Let's start rehearsing the new program!

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

sed moluptia quoditat

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

sed moluptia quoditat

People are involved in the operations of the theatre and meet their needs. We made the different functions of the theatre more independent and planned the circulation to make different functional rooms open to the public as much as possible, producing additional economic benefit. We have also designed different stages in combination with the height difference. These fragmented functional spaces and platforms form the east and west sides of the theatre.

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

sed moluptia quoditat

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

sed moluptia quoditat dolore,

was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

sed moluptia quoditat

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

sed moluptia quoditat

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

sed moluptia quoditat

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Gent, cone rehent. Ut accae parcipsa dolore,

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Street

sed moluptia quoditat

I was born In Kharkiv in 1997

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Gent, cone rehent.

accae parcipsa dolore,

Street Avanue 666, Kodambakkam,Chennai

Kharkiv in 1997

Kodambakkam,Chennai

05 Living Bathroom

Collective House

the positions of the sanitary fittings and their loose boundries; the supply and sewage pipes of the sanitary fittings and the main pipes linked to them; the eye sight lines of users of the sanitaty fittings and the windows generated with them making the inside stories articulate on the facades. Composite Drawing - showing:

Gothenburg, Sweden

Academic Project

Cooperated with Julia Johansson

(The drawings made by Julia are marked)

Time: 11.2023 - 01.2024

Faculty: Daniel Norell, Sara Olsson, Peter Christensson

The site is located at Skeppsbron, an old harbour area in Gothenburg. From the perspective of a wide geography and a long time span, people have always been living with water and also being constrained by water. Conversely, within buildings, the possibilities and importance of water are limited, and people control water through technology to achieve a more efficient metabolism. Frankly speaking, inside the building, the context full of the stories and possibilities of water was hidden by the buildings. One loses the happiness that water could bring.

As a way of responding to that, we would like to investigate what it would mean to celebrate the watery space, or more precisely what it would mean to celebrate the bathroom and its components and functions, similar to what Mark Wigley is doing in his essay “Returning the gift: running architecture in reverse”. An underlying question is whether the role of the bathroom could change to support social interaction which is a key term for collective housing.

The Tale of Human and Water

The analytical narrative starts from a large-scale external context, discusses the role of the water element in macro-geographies, and ends with the current site situation. During this process, we focused on the hydrografic and geological history as well as the human activity in connection to the water.

Not only is Göta älv changing due to natural geological changes, but it has further been changed by humans for instance when Skeppsbron was created. Skeppsbron has served several purposes during the last 300 years, it has changed from being a wild marsh area to becoming an artificially created port and today it is a public transport hub.

This sequence of site sections shows how humans have interacted with water in different time periods. Additionally, it shows how humans have modified the coastal line and the river depth to support the development of Gothenburg as a harbor city.At different times, the needs of life and the technology that people have had are closely related to water. The importance and possibilities of water in human social activities have been continuously explored.

HYDROLOGICAL MAP OF GÖTA RIVER

The waters here are too shallow for large

The waters here are too shallow for large ships to sail in.

too shallow for large ships to sail in.

The waters here are too shallow for large ships to sail in.

We need more

We need more land for our port!

Hej! How many dredging materials do we still need?

What a busy port!

Watch out! Wooooo~

Watch out!

Is this land stable?

Look at our new land!

I’m doing the protective paint.

What a busy port!

I’m doing the protective paint.

What a busy port! Merkur Merkur

Merkur Merkur

Hej honey, do you hear the steam-whistle?

Hej honey, do steam-whistle?

Hej honey, do you hear the steam-whistle?

I think the floor is slanting. Am I imagining it? The year 2023 The year 1894

This building moves 3mm per year. What could we do?

3mm per year. What could we do?

This building moves 3mm per year. What could we do?

I think the floor is slanting. Am I imagining it?

Merkur

Project Concept and Formulation

As a way of responding to the context filled with the dynamic and diverse watery activities, we would like to investigate what it would mean to continue the water-centered narative during the building design, to celebrate the water in the building and its related infrastructure and rooms, or more precisely what it would mean to celebrate the components and functions of a bathroom, similar to what Mark Wigley is doing in his essay “Returning the gift: running architecture in reverse”. As the collective housing, an underlying question is whether the role of the bathroom could change to support social interaction which is a key term for collective housing

The role that is emphasised in the drawing is not that of load-bearing structures and dividing walls, but that of the path of the water element and the space in which water is used. The water passes through the pipes and overflows from the sanitary fittings and then gradually fills the entire building space.

Scenarios

We start by designing the bathroom, or more precisely, we design scenarios in which people use different sanitary ware, and imagine how these sanitary ware can bring a good living experience to people, and how they can facilitate communication. These scenarios return to focus on the emotional connection between people and water, between people and people. This interaction with water is the same as when humans settled by the river, only this time, the scenes are scaled down and put into the interior of the building.

Scenarios drawings made by Julia

Water War

Conversations on the WC2

Showering Dogs

Kids Playing in the Bathtub

Laundry Room Wine Night

Teeth-brushing in Bed

Book-reading in Bathtub

Potty Training

Watering Plants in the Shower

Working Model - Flowing Furniture and Fixed Toilet

The conceptual model has chosen the most radical toilet as a case to explore how people can break away from the traditional model of living space to explore how to set up their new home around water. People can adjust the number and position of furniture and plants to achieve different levels of privacy.

Plans

In plan design, we try to make Scenarios happen. On the groundfloor floor, we designed a threshold space that connects the street to the inner courtyard. At the threshold space there is a hand washing sink and a water pipe, making water used as a shared resource.

The plan shows the lines of sight of people as they move around the watery spaces. The sight lines continue to extend and intersect with the building surface, determining the composition of the facade.

Moveable furniture is emphasised as people can explore their preferred space.

Furniture

Toilet

he facade of buildings often becomes an aid in hiding stories. In the specific context of Skeppsbron, the hidden stories are tightly linked to water. For the new collective house design, we deconstructed the functions of bathrooms, expand the boundaries of the watery space, explore the possibilities of water for people inside the building and show these on the facade as a response to the context, as a contrast to the context.

Pipes, Watery Spaces and Watery Activities

This series of drawings demonstrates the generative logic of architecture.

Perspective - Leisurely Mood

The free planes and elevations create a relaxed atmosphere and convey the idea of a slow-paced life. In this perspective view, people are happily enjoying themselves around the bathtub, toilet and sink. The water pipes extend from the ceiling and connects to the sanitary ware. These exposed pipes make the open architectural space more like an organism, which constantly communicate and interact with people.

Perspective drawing made by Julia

06 Building Identity by Co-building Spaces

Place Upgrading - on the Melusi Youth Development Organization Melusi Informal Settlement, Pretoria, South Africa

Academic Project

Team Work

Cooperated with Karolina Ekdahl, Tove Källander and Guiling Xiao (The drawings made by other teammembers are marked) Time: 03.2024 - 06.2024

Faculty: Shea Hagy, Jessica Lundin, Liane Thuvander, Lina Zachrisson, Jason Oberholster, University of Pretoria

Cooperation: Melusi Community Hub Melusi Youth Development Organization(MYDO) University of Pretoria

This project focuses on how bottom-up and participatory design, coupled with qualitative data collection, can foster community-building architectural processes. The process involved understanding the context, collecting data through workshops, interviews, and observations, reflecting needs back to stakeholders, and co-designing solutions.

Collaboration with local stakeholders led to on-site interventions utilizing community skills and resources whilst promoting sustainable bottom-up solutions. Engaging with the community and stakeholders to understand, map, and address needs can facilitate effective , intentional interventions and encourage future community-led initiatives.

The new spray-painted sign. Pointing to MYDO. Photography by Xifeng.

The project is based on the Reality Studio at Chalmers University of Technology, which is an educational platform designed for joint knowledge creation and collaboration. The initiative started in 2005 and has since continued to evolve, addressing various urban and regional development challenges.

A notable aspect is its focus on real-world applications , emphasizing innovative planning and design strategies adapted to local contexts, aiming to improve the quality of everyday life.

Additionally, collaboration with local communities and organizations, acting as a platform for enhancing partnerships across national borders.

1.2 designing a process

Design Process and Scope

by Karolina

guiding questions

How can we design an inclusive participatory process where we design as little as possible of the end result ourselves?

How can a design process play a role in strengthening the identity of a community and its residents?

How do we ensure that interventions have a long-term postive impact?

Every step of the process builds up to the future initiatives, projection of community

specific aims

Strengthening self- and community identity

Informing aims of project approach

Informing aims of project outcomes

project aim and approach co-design and community project days future initiatives by community needs analysis and reflection specific method aims

The project aim is to explore the role of identity for an individual and a community, in relation to skills, self image and dreams. To investigate how a specific place can be developed to reflect the needs and identity of the community. To co-design with empathy, care, curiosity and deliberation.

Meanwhile, involving and empowering the community and its residents in the design of both process and interventions. To establish mutually beneficial relationships, yielding tangible, positive outcomes in the short and long term. Ideally, to spark future interventions initiated and run by the community

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Goal 4 is addressed through the engagement with an organization that acts as an educational support system for school children and youth. Specifically, target 4.A by contributing to the development of their new educational facilities.

Goal 11 is addressed through the engagement with an organization that works to provide safe spaces and platforms for inclusive interaction and development. Specifically, target 11.3 by engaging the community in creating sustainable change.

Goal 17 is addressed through the collaboration across national, cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Specifically, target 17.16 by establishing relationships built on shared visions, values and exchange of knowledge between multiple stakeholders.

UN Convention for the Rights of the Child

Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously.

Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Article 12 is addressed by aiming to highlight the voices of children as co-designers of a space that is important to them.

Article 29 is addressed by working with an organization that supports children and youth in developing different skills and interests, as well as building self-esteem and identity.

Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Article 31 is addressed by exploring how such activities can be facilitated within the context of the organization.

Identity is the collected perceptions of an individual within a certain context, constructed throughout life. It is personal, but often constructed through socialization and viewed in relation to different

Layout

theory & background

Site Information and Stakeholder Introduction

2.5 stakeholder introduction

MYDO Melusi 3 branch managers

Lerato, Nkhsana and Mpho are volunteers of MYDO Melusi 3, main responsible for maintaining and developing it, and key stakeholders in this project.

Lerato and Nkhsana also operate a news company called WANPW Breaking News, addressing different matters in the community. They started the new MYDO branch in Melusi 3 after seeing the success of MYDO.

Simply Gates

Africa Scrap Recyclers

Mahem Raceway

Nearby neighborhood

MYDO Melusi 3 branch volunteers

Local volunteers take care of the kids at MYDO Melusi 3, especially helping them with homework after school. Most don’t have formal jobs for now and work at MYDO without salary.

Melusi 3 children

The MYDO Melusi 3 branch provides homework assistance and feeding to children up to 18 years old. There are around 25 children ranging from 4 - 14 years old currently enrolled.

Youth

Most came to Melusi to seek jobs in closeby industries and companies. Ages 18-35 can participate in the MYDO Life Skills Program.

MYDO founder

Hlakudi is the founder of MYDO. Currently, he is in the process of expanding MYDO’s services to Melusi 3 together with Lerato and Nkhsana.

MYDO volunteers

The volunteers are mainly from Melusi, primarily working at the first MYDO, but increasingly involved in MYDO Melusi 3.

Community workers

Melusi 3 residents

People residing in Melusi 3, including many families but few elderly residents. Most of them have heard of MYDO, but only a few have participated in their programs.

Ally and Daniel assisted us Reality Studio students in Melusi, and have connections to both MYDO and University of Pretoria.

Community Hub Initiative aimed at improving the well-being of the community through a variety of health and social services.

Melusi 1 & 2 residents

Reality Studio students

University of Pretoria

Architecture students involved in Urban Citizen Studio, also working with Melusi.

Profile drawings by Guiling

Stakeholder Analysis

theory & background

Stakeholder maps are a tool for visualizing the identified key actors in a project context and what their relationships are (Hanington & Martin, 2012). The horizontal axis of the chart below represents the degree to which stakeholders are connected to the project, and the vertical axis represents the relative strength of the stakeholders’ voice in the context. Both are based on subjective measures.

data collection & interpretation

2.6 stakeholder analysis

theory & background

2.6 stakeholder analysis

A diagonal axis emerged and shows the target groups of the project: children as a vulnerable group, being a main focus of the project.

data collection & interpretation

3.1 introduction interview

Interview with the founder of MYDO( Melusi Youth Development Center) Guided Walks and Context Immersion

3.1 introduction interview

insights

Early in the process, we met with Hlakudi, the founder of MYDO, over an unstructured interview. The meeting was not recorded, but notes were taken during the conversation. The questions took inspiration from the narrative interview approach (Kartch, 2018).

Supporting a strengthened sense of self- and community identity aims

Gaining a basic understanding of the community and its needs, focusing on MYDO, historically and currently

“the

key insights

“the story of MYDO”

Gaining a basic understanding of the community and its needs, focusing on MYDO, historically and currently

Building engagement and relationships with people in the community for later co-design work

Participants

In February 2024, the second

branch was

to extend the services to children and youth living on the other side of the settlement.

In February 2024, the second MYDO branch was opened to extend the services to children and youth living on the other side of the settlement.

MYDO came out of a bottom-up approach, as a response to the lack of services catering the the needs of children in Melusi. As more needs were

Even if the homework support is a foundational part of the services, MYDO aims to offer more than just another formal study setting, such as a space for

There is a strong dedication in the community to better the situation for children. This helped the organisation grow, even if they operated on limited

The session helped us understand our position and the terms and expectations of our project.

What impact can we make within the limited scope of Reality Studio?

The data gathering in the field yielded lots of information, analysed through Affinity mapping (Krause & Pernice, 2024). Needs can be broadly categorized according to their explicitness (Visser et al, 2007), and in our analysis we have simplified needs as being either expressed or latent, although in some cases the distinction is not definite.

How does the second MYDO need

story of MYDO”

Homework education program

MYDO

opened

How does the second MYDO need

community project days

with 4.3 interventions

Interventions

Claiming the Space to increase the sense of ownership of the space: 1. Colourfully painted signs made of repurposed metal shelves, standing by means of a folding reeds construction. 2. Partial blockage of the road outside MYDO using dug down car tyres. 3. Stacked rubber strips connected by nails and wire, a solution found by a community member, placed at either end of the space. Naming: Names relate cultural groups to geographical spaces, with important functions for constructing identity and emotional ties to places. Facilitating the Recreation: Different places to sit were built and painted together. In the process, ideas for also facilitating different kinds of activities emerged, based on available materials.

Name of MYDO 2

Entrance

Collective Memory

Collecting

co-design found expressed latent future interventions

for Children

sit

Building

Graphics by Tove

Community Days - "Let's build together!"

Replacing the old fence with a new

Collecting tyres from Mahem Raceway.

Clearing space on the road

Mounting the new signs.

From the left, Guiling, Mpho, Nkhsana, Karolina, Tove, Lerato, Xifeng

Building a speedbump to slow down traffic. Painting the signs.

Construction of new gate and fence.

Evaluation Workshop- Reflections from Stakeholders

At the end of our field study, we invited different stakeholders to a presentation. This was also an opportunity to collect reflections about the project in a workshop, interview and conversation. It also acted as a first handover of the project.

Handover and Follow-up

A few weeks after returning to Sweden, we reached out to the MYDO Melusi 3 managers to follow up on the interventions. The reponse consisted of photos, videos and voice recordings.