We were asked to do some research on information and communications technologies (ICT) in delivering primary healthcare services. The healthcare specific ICT I selected was the automated pneumatic tubes. We prepared a presentation sheet that
defined our selected technology
displayed an image of the technology in use
summarise a case study of the technology in use
Were there any benefits?
Were there any constraints?
How the technology might be used or adapted in primary care and communication in the hospital in the future
We as Unit 2 students were privileged enough to go on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya for a week to
I worked with David Spratt for this project and what we focused on were the levels of decision making and control that each specific person, whether a professional or a member of the community. Every person affected by the intervention or design should have a say in the matter but only to a certain extent. David and I disagreed with the approach that the designers took for the railway project. The way that we understood the process of decision making and design of the team was that they went to the member of the community and basically asked each one of them what their dream homes were and what features they wanted, for example a pool. Then they had to go back to the community and explain to them that they could not have specific things in there homes as the budget and space would not allow for that.
David and I suggested that they should have given the community members specific options that they could have in their dream homes. There needed to be a certain level of control and decision making made at a higher level that would set boundaries for the lower levels of decision making.
Our project demonstrated that at the beginning there needs to be some sort of data collection in order to inform decision making. Then every level of decision making that happens in each level, there needs to be more data collection that is specific to the level at which decisions are being made. When making decisions there is a continuous cycle of influence and data collection across the different hierarchical levels.
Context Denver is a light industrial area located along the eastern edge of a broad industrial belt spanning the southern extent of Johannesburg’s CBD. It sits adjacent to the historic east/west gold mining axis (known as the ‘main reef’). This industrial belt (buffer) is embedded into the surrounding urban fabric, simultaneously woven and disconnected by multiple forces: mine dumps, railways, arterials, freeways and storm water channels.
Locating Denver
We started the Denver project off with an in-depth desktop
study of the area, its context and the systems within the area as well as the people
who stay in the area. The study was done through online research and through
the use of the previous year architecture student’s work and information that they
had collected through on-site investigations and interactions. Our UNIT only
had one opportunity to go on-site due to safety concerns, with help and
suggestions from Prof Kendall and our lectures, we as a UNIT designed a new
urban design framework for a section of the Denver informal settlement that
would be implemented through phasing during the construction process and possibly
be implemented throughout the rest of the Denver informal settlement.
UNIT 2 UDF
The urban design framework was further broken down into individual briefs which were split into 3 residential open building typologies. The first being the alteration of the existing men’s hostel, the second was the implementation of 4-story walk-up units with retail on the ground floor and thirdly the implementation of mixed-use row houses that would comprise of private and public/commercial spaces. The designs had to respond to the existing context of the area, through spatial planning, through materials that are used and are available in the area, just to name a few.
These are two precedents that I focused on
DESIGN SKETCHES
Ground Floor Sketch Plans
3D Perspective Sketch
The mixed-use row houses that I designed had a commercial
and public program on the ground floor and a private residential program on the
first and second floors. On the ground floor I proposed a community library as
well as a small café that is adjoined to the library. The café spilled out on
the public walk way that runs from east to west through our urban design
framework and leads to the community vegetable garden.
Ground Floor Library & First Floor Residential Plans
On the upper two floors
I proposed private residential houses that could be used as a single house over
two floors that could accommodate for a relatively big family, between 4 and 6
persons. The houses could also be split across two floors, so a single dwelling
on the first floor and another single dwelling on the second floor, of which
each dwelling would be able to function as a bachelor pad or a and could accommodate
up to a small family of about 3 persons.
I decided to propose the use of steel framed construction
for the structure of the row houses. I found that this was the closest
construction method to the structure and metal use in the construction of the
shacks in Denver, while at the same time it allowed for the best variation and
flexibility for in-fill in both the residential and public/commercial programs
on their respective floors. The use of steel framed construction also allowed
for significant variations in the materiality that could be used for the
mixed-use row houses. Materials I proposed to use were corten steel panels,
corrugated sheet metal, brickwork, timber panels and plywood panels.
Levels are a part
of our everyday lives and can be seen around us all the time. They form a hierarchy
that affects everything we do and how we do those things. The top levels
determine the parameters of every other level that is beneath it. Levels can be
seen as themes, because they categorize and frame specific elements and
features. Levels are an essential part to open building and they can influence
the success or failure of the design of the building, while at the same time
they also reveal the order in which things are built or installed and thus
their importance within the construction process.
Ecosystem
Everything in the
universe is a part of a greater ecosystem that is filled with complex networks
that work together for the survival of that ecosystem. Areas in the built
environment can be looked at as ecosystems as there are many smaller components
and networks that work in unison. There are levels within the ecosystem that
define the area and give it unique characteristics, for example the topography,
infrastructure, built form or even the un-built form of an area. Ecosystems can
be tied to context as both refer to the smaller aspects that form the setting
and the circumstances that occur in the area. We need to study these ecosystems
in its entirety to be able to understand
an area's full context.
Response (Challenging the conventional)
During an in-depth
study of the area and interacting with the people who work and stay in the
area, conventional terms and their meanings or interpretations should be
challenged. By challenging these conventional terms, more investigation is
required which in turn helps you to not make stereotypes and presumptions that
may be inaccurate about the area or the people in the area. It also helps to
clarify what exactly we are investigating and trying to prove and helps us to
communicate that through tools and a language that everyone can understand. It even
directs how we intend to respond or even not respond to the area.
Capacity
Working together
with people who stay and work in an area will help to determine the levels that
influence your design within the ecosystem of the area. The capacity of the
design intervention will determine its success in response to the current times
as well as its success in the future, whether it remains the same or is altered
or added to in the future. In terms of capacity in open building, it is the
flexibility that the base building creates in order for various configurations
of in fill to create new spaces that can serve different functions. Capacity relates to the design of a building
or intervention and its success within the ecosystem.
When I first received the brief for the FADA Joint
Community Project "Design for and with Local Communities" I was a bit
hesitant to be collaborating with 3rd year students from various design
disciplines in UJ. My past experiences with group projects in undergrad, with
other architecture students, were never good and here was a project that crossed
four design disciplines and focused on a site that I never knew existed, so I
had my reservations.
While doing some desktop research on
Westbury, in order to locate the site and to get a brief understanding of this
area's rich history, I found many news articles and websites depicting Westbury
in a very negative light. The sources portrayed Westbury as a dangerous area, labeled
it as a 'no-go' area and described the area and its people as 'helpless and
hopeless'(Gangsterism and
drugs do not define the Westbury nation, 2014).
Westbury's history is one of crime, gangs, violence, murder and drugs. No
community is without its issues but Westbury seemed to have an overwhelming
number of serious issues.
After meeting with my group and going to site for the first
time, all my reservations about working in a multidiscipline group as well as the
connotations and negative perspectives I acquired about Westbury as an area and
its people, based on the research I did, had started to fade. After meeting
people during the first site visit, I felt inspired by their testimonies and I
was looking forward to working on this project and getting involved within the
community of Westbury.
As design practitioners we all brought many different
aspects and views to the table and with a collaboration of our various skill
sets we set out to achieve our goal of uplifting the Westbury area and its
image. We all viewed and interpreted the things we saw and heard about Westbury
in a different manner as we are all brought up in different ways and each of us
have developed a scope or lens that we perceive things through based on our
design disciplines and what we focus on. Design can have a powerful impact on a
community, in both a negative and a positive way, through engagement and
interactions. If members of the community are involved in the design process,
many lessons can be learnt on both sides.
The members of the community learn about the basic
principles involved in design and in terms of architecture they can learn trade
skills, like brick laying or plumbing, which widens people's skill sets which
will help to open up job opportunities and in-turn reduce the level of
unemployment in the area. Design also has the ability to affect the physical
and mental health of people who are using or interacting with a specific
intervention. On the other hand, I would say that community engagement and
experience when working in an area like Westbury is essential to creating a
design that relates to and works effectively in the community. Skills like
presentation and communication techniques can be learnt through a collaborative
process when there is a language barrier, we as designers need to be able to
communicate our design or ideas in a clear and simple way that everyone
involved can understand what exactly is happening and what the possible
outcomes of the project or intervention may be.
Through the community engagement and experience, long term
relationships may form between the designers and members of the community which
brings about a deeper trust between the two. Through long-term relationships,
communication becomes easier as we, as designers, have learnt how to
communicate to specific people and we have a better idea of what the people
need or expect to get through the project or design, so we are better prepared
for the process of the design to be able to design in order to achieve that
solution. When relationships form it allows for further collaboration in the
future and opens up opportunities to help out in any way possible, whether
helping people find jobs, getting scholarships for school or varsity studies
and further skills development.
Although we heard about drugs, crime and gangs in the
majority of the interviews that we conducted, I never got the feeling that the
area was that bad or dangerous. The way of gathering information from people
needs to be respectful and clear as we are entering into their space and we
should be respectful of that. I believe that the best process or approach to
research is one where you get involved in what is happening and get immersed in
the site and the people. Our group gathered information predominantly through
interviews and observations but both of those are very subjective as the
through the interviews the information can be construed towards an individual
perspective or interpretation of an event.
I think that it is important to keep visiting the site to
continue record information and involve members of the community or
organisations in that process to inform collaboration in the area. If we can
get an outcome that influences two parties then there is a possibility that
they will work together for one outcome. But if we cannot work together with an
organisation or person then how will we be able to get others to work with
them. When working in communities like Westbury, there are many different
people with different interactional dynamics. It is hard if not impossible to
collaborate and interact fully with certain people or organisations as there
are many different demographics, there are students, lecturers, activists,
community leaders and many more trying to collaborate.
I feel that dealing with the vast array of demographics was
much easier with students from different disciplines as it allowed for a
broader demographic within our group that could relate to the demographics of
the area, thus making interaction and communication a lot easier.
Conclusion
This project has been an eye opening experience in that I
never knew Westbury existed and it is an area that is full of promise but just
needs so help getting there. The people there and their testimonies are
inspiring which make it easy to work with them and help them out where
possible. Everyone in Westbury seems to be striving for same end goal so why
not work together to be able to achieve that goal sooner.
Like my reservations at the beginning of the project the
people of Westbury have reservations about working together, when you really
get stuck into it is when you learn to work together. Sometimes working
together does not work well while other times it works like a well oiled
machine and the outcomes are phenomenal and have a great influence on the area
and the people. The only way to find out how it is going to work is by just
getting involved and working together. I believe that if people truly share a
desire or an end goal then they will be able to work together as the desire is
greater than the struggles of getting there.
This project and working with other disciplines has been
enormously beneficial to me in the way that I have gone about doing things and
how I will start doing things in different ways in order to achieve different
outcomes and solutions.
Recommendations
Need to have set timetables for when each faculty is
available and try to move lectures around so that everyone from the group can
meet at once. Having specific time slots when every member of the group is
available for site visits or meetings or consultations.
Contact details supplied at the beginning of the project.
Have informal discussions across the groups in the same
area so that ideas and reflections can be shared so that a more in-depth
interrogation can happen.
Possibly identify problems in the areas in the brief and
get the groups to decide which one they want to focus on so that all the groups
aren't just focusing on one problem and all coming up with the same design
intervention strategy or outcomes.
Visit our Facebook page to read more about the project
The idea behind my intervention in Newtown was to upgrade the existing transport infrastructure and introduce a new mixed-use building that would potentially bring an influx of people to the cultural precinct.
I have proposed a renovation of an existing dilapidated building as the building is currently just a form in the landscape of Newtown. I have proposed the use of the building to serve predominantly as a bus stop waiting area for the local and tourist sight seeing buses. On the ground floor, the building will serve as a waiting area for the specific buses. On the first floor will be a curio shop for the tourists to browse while they are waiting and there will be a roof top terrace that will have a cafe' and bar area that will serve as a space for people who have longer waiting times for the next bus.
I am also proposing a mixed use building with retail on the ground floor and residential, for the owners of the retail shops and the students in the area, on the first and second floors. There is an open square attached to the building which will be used for formalized markets on Saturdays, small concerts from Bassline music artists as well as crafts and other retail businesses set up in shipping containers. The shipping containers will serve as permanent studio spaces for craftsman and further retail functions.
