ARPL3012: Project 3: Urban SOS

arpl 3012_contemporary approaches to urban design

hand-out 02_project 3

31.7.2012

urban_sos

the inner city of johannesburg has been nearly completely repopulated since 1994 with little evidence of architectural change. having been zoned strictly ‘white’ for more than three decades, its colour code after the abolition of racial zoning has become black and coloured. drug and slum lords, cross-border traders, sex workers, school children and ordinary business people share the spaces of the previously ‘forbidden city’.

visionary power, producing the contemporary city, from denver to dainfern, erasing the power of fear, blacklinesonwhitepaper with motsepe architects, p.248-257, nai publishers, 2007

juxtaposition – good design necessitates framework that can be followed in order to combine targeted development sites with small-scale interventions – incubators of sustainable urbanism. these can spread throughout the community as residents identify and adapt future sites. by stimulating a series of points through the injection of accessibility, development can serve as a valuable hybrid, an invitation for the formal city to come into the heart of the informal.

urban think tank, project tool box

project 3 is placed within 2 larger frameworks, a) the international student competition urban sos and b) the retail improvement district research project, undertaken in the school of architecture and planning.

the competition ‘was created to engage students in urban planning and design, architecture, landscape, architecture, environmental restoration, and engineering with the issues confronting modern cities and to allow them to propose solutions that, if worthy, will be seen by established professionals in their field… the theme of this year’s competition is frontiers… proposals should be on urban sites currently facing chronic liveability challenges that are largely the result of a city’s location on a natural, political, cultural or economic border.’ depending on your focus and interpretation, your project site, the retail improvement district (rid), can respond broadly to the following criteria from the competition brief:

migration and population shifts:

urban communities and sites that are impacted by the mass movement of people, either as migrants across a jurisdictional border, or from a rural context to an urban one.’

transnational destinations:

a site that acts as a gateway or first point-of-entry for international travellers and/or migrants, or the flow of goods and ideas from elsewhere in the world.

shifting geo-political conditions:

an urban community or site that is subject to a changing or an evolving political landscape. this transformation should be impacting either a place’s relationship to its neighbors or its wider national home, its existing cultural affiliations, or recent or anticipated changes in the city’s political status.

furthermore, the brief states that ‘responses can range from a strategic framework to a surgical micro-response, from a whole landscape system to a single piece of architecture. entrants should demonstrate a holistic and sustainable approach to their proposals. they should present a connective language that can embrace many or all aspects of the site, expressing a language of built form that ties together land, buildings, ecology, infrastructure and economic and social activity. judges will value creativity and innovation, but your response must be fundamentally feasible.’

the retail improvement district (rid), research project is a collaborative effort of various planning specialisations (urban design, housing, politics and governance) to understand, unfold and possibly propose future development of johannesburg’s inner city retail district from different perspectives. the idea is to cover a multitude of layers of the area and then share this information in a series of common presentations. the rid is located between jeppe street in the north, harrison street in the west, commissioner street in the south and von brandis street in the east.

project 3

you are asked to develop a vision for the retail district in inner city of johannesburg, based on an extensive analysis of the existing urban fabric. this work will then be the base for the development of an urban design framework for the larger area in project 4. the analysis and the vision are group work, the udf (project 4) must be individual work.

analysis (3 groups of 5 students)

- analyse the existing urban typologies, investigate form, texture, footprint, urban context,

urban qualities, public and private interfaces

- investigate how the physical qualities relate to social, economic and political conditions in the retail district.

- prepare a participatory design methodology to better understand the sociospatial dynamics (possibly based on the ‘perceptions’ exercise with the urban politics and governance students and the ‘interviews’ conducted by the housing students).

vision (3 groups of 5 students)

- develop visions that responds to the idea of an inclusive city and successfully merges formal and informal components.

- envision a mixed-use, mixed-income, non gated urban neighborhood with pedestrian access and green spaces in the given context

- consider the development of a public space system that is based on the use of public transport for a maximum variety of city users.

- integrate sustainable urban elements

visions have to be communicated in a graphic format (visual narrative).

udf, urban design framework (project 4, detailed brief issued 11september )

- develop an urban design framework based on precedents, theories and the

existing conditions in the rid (individual)

- present a range of design interventions = choose an area of focus which will include a 3d model (individual)

project schedule

week 25	july30-august05 tue 31 wed 1	hand in hand out input	project 2 project 3 analysis,mapping and research	5%
week 26	august06-12 tue 07 wed 08 thu 09	site visit gp pres public holiday	analysis_mapping w/politics+housing university closed
week 27	august13-19 tue 14 wed 15 thu 16 fri 17	crit/ pin up consult hand in consult studio/ crit	analysis_mapping analysis_mapping	15%
week 28	august20-26 tue 21 fri	crit/ pin up seminars	vision present	15%
week 29	august27-sept02 tue 28 thu 30 fri 31	present consult hand in	vision feed back project 3 (25%)	10%

assessment

the submissions will be marked as follows:

content 40%

idea and concept for analysis

scales and layers covered, understanding of subject matter

originality, innovation and relevance of scenarios for vision

techniques 40%

research, method, process and presentation

presentation 20%

clarity and quality of the presentation

aesthetics and quality of visuals

language

completeness

weighting

analysis 15% of year mark

vision 10% of year mark

dates

hand in analysis thu, 16august

presentation_vision tue, 28august

hand in_project 3 complete fri, 31 august

deadline competition fri, 31 august

please remember that urban sos competition assessment is based on:

– response directly addresses the challenges posed by gateway or border conditions in rid urban context

– clear strategy for how proposed vision will affect larger city’s transformative state

– clear sense of how proposed vision will affect transformation of site

– holistic approach to vision that fully embraces site

– appreciation for interdisciplinary thinking beyond traditional practice

– creativity and innovation

– feasibility and viability

– ability to communicate ideas in a clear, interesting and compelling manner

by 31 august groups must submit (but are not limited to):

- a full analysis in an agreed and coherent format (a3, a2 or a1)

- an elaborated vision statement

- 5 visionary renderings, drawings, perspectives (a3)

- a brief description (100-250 words) of their proposal. this statement must clearly identify the name of the city and a challenge or solution that is related to the competition theme.

- a pdf slide presentation of up to 10 slides. these must include images and/ or text. there is no word limit but font size must be legible when printed at a4 paper size. all responses must be in english, with any measurements provided in metric units.

- in addition, selected proposals have to prepare all other details required by the competition.

proposed scales (have to be adjusted to specific site and larger selected context)

broader context: 1: 20 000, 1:10 000, 1:5000,

scale base map 1:500,

scale selected blocks: 1:500,

scale street sections 1:200,

scale elevations: 1:500, 1:200

readings + references:

urban sos competition brief, as per hand out

urban thinktank, project tool box, as per hand out

slumlab toolbox, as per handout

city improvement districts in johannesburg: an examination of the local variations of the bid model, elisabeth peyroux, as per hand out