edge_condition

the class shall be in the 1st floor seminar room
thursday 18 august 2016
11 - 12

Strong examples

below are examples of how to begin to construct an urban narrative.  
it begins with a thought, that thought is formulated into text and the text becomes an illustrative graphic

Tues 16 Aug 2016_MUD Accessible Studio_Braamfontein

The Masters of Urban Design students are presenting their findings of Jorissen Street + the Braamfontein locale.

Schedule:

09.00 – 10.13: Group A_West of De Beer

10.15 – 10.30: break

10.35 – 11.48: Group B_East of De Beer

Crits will take place in the School of Architecture and Planning

post graduate basement

You may attend the session if you feel you may benefit form the discussion

16 August Task_3.1 Crit

Task_3.1 – Base Map                                                   

Production

1 Collecting

Base Maps:

Plan, Sections, Elevations + Thresholds (magnetic points).  Plan should include axonometric of selected strategic areas.  The key layer should be the identification of thresholds: kerbs, edges, steps, awnings, trees, etc.  Place the street under a microscope to expose what is normally omitted.

Photographic storyboard and drawings including the thresholds uncovered on by the base map should be used to explain the project.  Samples may include the following: edge conditions, windowsill, fences, garbage bins, streetlights, parking spaces etc.

Photographic recordings and other mapping techniques will serve to represent this complex phase together with a proposed research matrix on a plan in the making.  Unstructured interviews will be part of the scanning process ‘to expose the researcher to unanticipated themes and to help him or her to develop a better understanding of the interviewees’ social reality from the interviewees’ perspectives.’

(unstructured interviews by Yan Zhang and Barbara M. Wildemuth, https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~yanz/unstructured_interviews.pdf) 

16 Aug Crit session will begin at 14
that means class will begin at 14
groups need to begin setting up at 13.45
groups a - e are to use the time from 10.15 - 13.00 to structure and concise their block arguments.
schedule for crits is:
14.00 -- 14.15 intro
14.20 -- 14.37 group e
14.40 -- 14.57 group c 
15.00 -- 15.17 group a
15.20 -- 15.37 group b
15.40 -- 15.57 group d
16.00 -- 16.15 break
16.17 -- 17.00 reflection + Learning from the Street.  Space Perceptions + Edge Condition Concept

task_3

construct an active street
three scenes in the life of . . .

active streets elements:

• thresholds
• safety
• people
• services
• transport

- make a skeleton drawing/ section + plan/ and cut out street elements
- choose 5 protagonists that act a leading characters
- write a draft of their life circumstances. this shall be based on 'real' facts- look at news articles, photo documentaries, do unstructured interviews with people.
- construct 3 scenes of their lives in section/ plan, axonometric

scenarios may revolve around the following themes
going out/ to work
coming back
free day
+ the concepts of dwelling

work in five [a-e] groups of three, each group has one protagonist, each group member has one or multiple scenes.

Arpl3012_2016_task_2_comments

people places things: well written paper  illustrating a burning desire to get to the bottom of the page and conclude.  in future, try to push the work as far as you can.  do not settle for mediocrity.

angels & demons: excellent cover page (remember the font is arial) paper displays a legible structure, which unfortunately omits a conclusion.  why?  clever use of imagery.

the godfather part 3: paper hits and weaves all the correct terms in urban design, grain; diverse ethnicities; eyes on the street, into a coherent narrative.  it's a pity the images were not more integrated into the story – they are too stand alone.  conclusion is appreciated.

a hologram for the king: excellent cover, b also mindful of the font.  be conscientious and not resort to the programs default font.  that being said, the paper is very strong work, displays maturity, structure + a touch of poetry.  beautiful imagery.  overall, excellent work – make sure you maintain + sustain he vigour throughout the semester.

dhobi ghat: cover page? conclusion? image referencing?  that being said, the paper is well written. does a good job of rendering mumbai and gives the reader texture using text.  the bit about how film questions the writer is priceless and the sentiment is welcome, just as the schulz reference appreciated.  in future, mix text with images with . . .

slumdog millionaire:  work that is almost beyond criticism or critique.  work on formatting, spend some time learning indesign, which would have completed the work. use of captioning would have enhanced the paper.  pity that the illustrative arrows appear as an afterthought.  to complement your academic journey, i strongly advise you to learn a formatting program or a desktop publishing application to give your finished work that professional edge.

colombiana: strong paper, which is well written and has an acceptable academic rigour.  the use of images and captions to narrate the story is excellent. that being said, the paper insinuates several, unsubstantiated propositions.  one particular has to be dissected and begs to be addressed – justify the statement the paper constructs that, cities shape the way in which each person experiences and traverses through them.

the giver: just as colombiana, the giver paper also assets a statement too scintillating to be left alone and ignored.  it proposes that, city life is a dream for those living in marginalised or disenfranchised communities but rather a departure for those in power – this needs explanation.  that being said, the paper is written with a mature lyrical prose, employing an academic structure, yet omits images.  why?  this is particularly perplexing since the giver is very visual and parts of it were filmed right on our beloved campus.

the great gatsby: a strong paper which would have been enhanced with the marrying of images and text.  why are the images orientated  in that fashion?  is there a significance to this?  images captions are appreciated but could have said more.  where are these sourced from?  overall, strong paper that is tarnished by grammatical errors + sloppy formatting.  paper should have ended with a conclusion.

paint your wagons: an excellently written paper, which interestingly, only describes the film, ending abruptly.  are we missing something here?

elysium: cover image + body text images could have been more prominent in the paper. be mindful of the font.  paper directs the reader to figure, yet these are noted – as in, where is figure 1 or 3?  images always need captions for enhanced access.  a conclusion would have helped conclude the paper.  that being said, the paper is well written, makes insightful observations, and is a pleasure to read.  in future mix text + images into one single and hopefully, coherent narrative.

walk of shame:   a peculiar paper which entices one to want to know more about meghan and her yellow dress.  the paper attempts to introduce a structure, but the structure it introduces could have been better structured.  consider crisper formatting.  have body text, images which are then captioned.  the text and images in the paper do not quite gel.  a mixture of font types on the 1^st page shows an element of looseness.  overall the paper is saying something worth listening too.  the conclusion is appreciated and the final image is an excellent poignant touch.

sherlock holmes: curios paper which states that the time in the film is the 1980’s.  this is difficult to believe as the films displays a victorian texture and aesthetic, with horses and the london bridge being constructed.  paper suffers from incorrect referencing and the narrative inexplicably ends.

spider man 2: a well written, well structure text heavy paper.

already tomorrow in hong kong: alluring cover page with incorrect prescribed font type. another beautifully written, well structured text heavy paper, which fails to capitalise on the viscerality of the city it narrates.  a pity.

arpl3012_2016_task_1+2

number	1/5	2/5	3.1	3.2	3.3	4	5
7403558	4.3	4.7
886845	4.5	2.5
849298	4	3
799369	3.2	4.5
872525	2.6	3.8
745887	2.6	4
885702	3.2	2.5
816173	4.9	2.8
827751	2.3	3.1
856674	4.5	3.1
812688	2.7	2.8
875443	4.9	3
896103	4	3.5
892322	3.9	4
801900	3	2.9

what if...

it all looked like this?

CITY SYNTHESIS

Dennis Crompton – A Guide to Archigram 1961 - 74

The city is a living organism – pulsating – expanding and contracting, diving and multiplying. 
The complex functioning of the city is integrated by its natural computer mechanism. This mechanism is at once digital and biological, producing rational and random actions, reactions and counter-reactions. The computer programme is a conglomeration of logical reasoning, intuitive assumption, personal preference, chance, sentiment and bloody-mindedness which is assimilated and interpreted. The solutions follow automatically.

The trigger to the computer programme is social man. He creates the City Scene at conscious and subconscious reaction levels by his own complexity. He is identified with the natural computer and is an integral part of its data processing operation – but they are NOT ONE -- each has an individual nature which functions independently. At its logical (or illogical?) limit this division of nature causes the DEATH of both. The city is ascendant when they are in unison, in decay when they divide.

The feed-in for city synthesis has three stages:

1. Primary information about population: birth rate, death rate, unit size and habits. Also city site data: location, topography, geological and geographical conditions, the inter-relation with other urban complexes. The overall network is formed from this information and then absorbs it, processes it, and throws out the subsequent stages.
2. Secondary information: health, housing, marriages, fertility rate, crime rate, journey to work, wages and salaries. Rates of development and obsolescence, density, communications, land values. At this stage the network is modified and amplified, and the substance of the city created.
3. Trends, conditioning of the city and population caused by problems and solutions resulting from stages 1 and 2. Movement within the complex; personal action, shopping, entertainment (personal and mass), recreation, market survey, bus timetables, etc.

The last stage is a continuing feed-back in which every facet of city life is relevant to the whole, values are relative to the observer. The absolute ceases to exist after stage 1. The expansion and contraction of centres and suburbs, the dead ends, the exciting and the mundane – all are now an integral part of the city scene, enveloped in a net of inter-relationships ultimately controlled by the Natural Computer.

SITUATION
This thing we call Living City contains many associative ideas and emotions and can mean many things to many people: liking it or not liking it, understanding it or no understanding it, depends on these personal associations. There is no desire to communicate with everybody, only with those whose thoughts and feelings are related to our own. What we feel and think about the city is not new in the sense that it was unthought of before, but only in that the idea of the Living City has not been acted upon before by our generation. In the second half of the 20th century, the old idols are crumbling, the old precepts strangely irrelevant, the old dogmas no longer valid. We are in pursuit of an idea, a new vernacular, something to stand alongside the space capsules, computers and throw-away packages of an atomic/electronic age. Situation concerns the state of change within the city environment caused by the fluctuating come/go of people and things over a time scale. All of us find the Living City in Situation. An awareness of the city is necessary before we can move forward.

Situation is concerned with environment changes and activity within the Living City context, giving characteristics to defined areas. Important in this is the precept of Situation as an ideas-generator in creating the Living City. Cities should generate, reflect and activate life, their environment organized to precipitate life and movement. Situation – the happenings within spaces in the city, the transient throw-away objects, the passing presence of cars and people – is as important, possibly more important, than built demarcation of space. Situation can be caused by a single individual, by groups or a crowd. Situation can be traffic, its speed, direction, classification. Situation may occur with a change of weather, the time of day or night. As the spectator changes, the moving eye sees. Situation is related to individual perception, and the place of the individual in the environment. This time/movement/situation thing is important in determining our whole future attitude to the visualization and realization of city; it can give a clue, a key, in our effort to escape the brittle ingratiating world of the architect/ aesthete, to break away into the real world and take in the scene

Precedent – Studio Basel

For precedent and concepts as to how to consolidate and present the material, especially to assist in the presentations for the next coming weeks + month, look at Studio Basel

http://www.studio-basel.arch.ethz.ch/ click on Projectsclick on Nairobiclick on Students Workand you’ll find the following themes: 

• A City without a Masterplan

• Architectural Legacy of the 70s

• The Industrial Area

• Waste Network

• Pentecostal Churches

• The Identity of Kibera

• Slum Upgrading

• Somalian Community in Eastleigh

• UN & NGOs in Nairobi

• Matatu Culture

• Green Nairobi: Urban Nature

which, if you download the pdf’s, they might help in structuring your braamfontein research.

street sections

this site gives examples of how
you may draw sections.
particularly one's taken from images.
take the tour:

http://www.streetsections.com/go.asp?a=worldtour&tst=&trowf=&trowt=&tsort1=&tsort1dir=&tsort2=&tsort2dir=&tsort3=&tsort3dir=


or go to the latest tour entries.

http://www.streetsections.com/go.asp?a=worldtour_gettingstarted

www.streetsections.com

in the library

- may help draw something

what if . . .

joburg adopted these themes

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/world/europe/in-denmark-pedaling-to-work-on-a-superhighway.html?_r=2&hp