Design for Westbury: Group 8: Together Action Group New HQ
By Taswald Pillay and Daniel Lyonga
The site is located on the corner of Fuel and Hay road, a location which serves as a gateway to Westbury. The expansion of T. A.G as a community upliftment programme through architectural intervention.
T. A.G offers the children of Westbury a afterschool homework centre. The existing centre is a space where kids learn under the guidance of elders and are also thought respect to their fellow peers. It is a controlled environment and keeps them off the streets where the possibilities of drugs and gangsterism loom. The centre currently has 150 children that it offers its service too. The possibility of expanding the centre to allow more kids to receive the guidance and knowledge of T.A.G will only benefit the society of Westbury in years to come.
Our main design intervention is to expand on the programmes offered by T.A.G and provide appropriate spaces for them. The site redevelopment will include a east wing which includes the learning facility and a west wing that offers a skills development facility. The Fuel street boundary wall to be removed and the new retail facility to act as a boundary. The retail to offer an income to T.A.G
The Learning Shed
The intervention is inspired by the existing steel shed on the site. The classrooms are represented by boxes grouped together according to their depending use. A floating steel roof covers the boxes and allows for passive cooling and roof angles allows for rain water collection and recycling. The roof definition also follows the scale of the boxes.
- Senior and junior classrooms
- Library and reading room
- Classroom
- Gamesroom
- Offices
Site Plan
The Skills centre and The Existing hall
A continuation from the learning wing, the skills centre offers classes to adult members of the community to learn basic trade skills and also the as part of the restorative justice programmes teach offenders and help them back into society. The existing office will be an optional computer learning centre for adults and children.
- Skills centre
- Computer room
- Ablutions facilities
- Solar geyser shed
The existing hall will be altered to accommodate more people in a functional space. The hall will be used for dining by the day kids and can be rented out for events on weekends to generate income for T.A.G
The Commercial strip
The existing boundary wall is broken up and the Commercial strip forms a new boundary. This strip programmatically houses a shed ,on the eastern section, that functions as a multipurpose ground floor e.g. Carwash, flea market and a semi-covered public entertainment space for community activity. A restaurant is located in the centre of the strip. The tower, on the western section, serves as both a beacon and a small office complex on four floors, to complete the strip. The office block allows for T.A.G to expand its outreach in terms of manpower and administration. The strip serves not only as a boundary but as a much more user orientated gateway that activates interaction with between the street edge and the building itself. The strip serves as a street edge blurring agent that causes users to interact more with the redefined edge.Design for Westbury: Group 7: Westbury Hybrid
By Dirk Coetser and John Saaiman
Westbury Hybrid at night
Hours and hours were spent debating, talking , arguing on how to approach the design requirements for Westbury. In the beginning of the project we thought that a single building would revolutionise the Westbury community and we would be able to solve all the social and political problems within Westbury. However continuous research and mapping the conclusion that was achieved was … . no building or physical intervention could solve the problems within Westbury and it was a social problem, a mindset that needed to be altered.
The final concept that was decided on by ourselves was to use the notion of drug abuse to our advantage. Instead of going against the idea that soft drugs are harmful we used this idea to promote our design. It is ironic that weed/marijuana is a soft drug which is considered illegal and alcohol which is a hard drug is legal? If you have a look at the two alcohol causes more violence and death related incidents both direct in terms of alcohol poisoning and indirect in terms of fatal car accidents etc. Whereas marijuana has had no known overdose death ever and reports related to violence induced attacks through marijuana are few and far between. Makes a person wonder is the government more interested in making money than actually looking after the welfare of their citizens.
Location of site in the Westbury Context
A case study of the Netherlands showed since the introduction and allowing marijuana to be sold freely within its borders the average death related to drugs has decreased and the drug addicts seeking institutional help has increased drastically with the youth. This proves that working with the problem and not against it has more advantages than disadvantages. The proof lies with the statistics with the Netherlands having the lowest drug overdose deaths in the entire region of Europe .
The thinking behind the Westbury hybrid is to combine to different worlds together to allow them to positively influence one another. The underworld of drug abuse and the practice of religion within Westbury. According to research the majority religion practiced within the boundaries of Westbury is Christianity. By combining these two worlds the objective is to bring the negative aspects out of the community and into one common space. Removing the drug users from the community, the community is shielded from the negativity generated from drug abuse and once the drug user have completed their daily rituals they can return to their community without the fear of having done harm to anyone.
Progressive growth of the Westbury hybrid
The Westbury hybrid will develop over time. Starting with the skeletal frame constructed out of a hybrid of fibreglass and steel followed by the lightweight concrete and litracon building shell. The litracon is used to allow light to pass from one world to the other, creating a constant animated movement of silhouettes and activities. The shuttering of the concrete will be permanent IBR sheeting which will provide the basis for the concrete but also give the reflectiveness of the material the characteristic of a mirror. The design is critical regionalism as it will only work within the context of Westbury and nowhere else.
Section through the Westbury hybrid
The design provides spaces that accommodate the drug users on the external perimeter of the building in the skeletal framework of the design with a community hall and religious space internally which is divided by an office space and bathrooms. The design has intimate spaces which allow the two worlds to mix, whereby the drug users can peek through slits in the walls or join the congregation inside a “baby room” and slowly allow them to build up their confidence to join their community as a positive contributor.
Time is the major factor involved with situations such as Westbury whereby only time will tell, time will heal and time will produce interesting results.
Sectional model through the Westbury Hybrid
Detailed Design of Solar Geyser
Individual Urban Design Submission 1: Westbury HIGHline by Dirk Coetser
Design for Westbury: Group 6: Active Edge
By Dewald Badenhorst and Trisha Parbhoo
Our intervention is to activate the edge along fuel road by creating a new ‘form’ that will provide shelter for the taxi and commuters but also relate to new housing-commercial units that are proposed along the edge. The structure, a taxi node, will overlap the existing site choosing rather to go underneath it so that the programs overlap. The structure of the node will extend to the streetscape of the ‘market’ and provide shading and an interesting environment tying everything together.
Individual Urban Design Intervention 1: Redefining the Core
Smooth space is occupied by intensities and events. The characteristic experience is short term, close up with no visual model for points of reference or invariant distances. Instead of the metrical forms of striated space, smooth space is made up of constantly changing orientantation with tactile relations.
My intervention is to impose a pedestrian paradise over this area to activate the interior green space and to provide a dialog with the surrounding areas
Individual Urban Design Intervention 2: REDEFINING THE IN BETWEEN SPACES.
GATES - MULTIFUNCTIONAL - PRIVATE- PUBLIC SPACES / OWNERSHIP
Solar Geyser Final Design
Design for Westbury: Group 5: Westbury Cultural Centre
By Miguel Pinto and Salome Snynman
In the design our goal was to create a space where people could experience architecture that would appeal to all the senses and challenge the visitor in an emotional capacity whereby self reflection and contemplation is encouraged.
The centre takes visitors on a journey through the landscape, and aims to highlight the textural quality of the rock and the natural plant life that the centre is built amongst. In places the rocky outcrop is excavated, taking the visitor underground and in other places structures are elevated off the ground to draw attention to the vistas over Westbury.
The cultural centre would serve the community as a events based space, providing venues for various events such as film and sport screenings, art and historical exhibitions and general community gatherings.
The centre’s location would also encourage pedestrian movement from the BRT Station through the existing park and across the ‘koppie’ all the way through to the TAG centre and activate the only natural area in Westbury , which is currently a forgotten space used predominantly for dumping.
Design For Westbury: Group 4: Westbury Beyond 2050
By Karabo Mokaba and Jarryd Murray
Design For Westbury: Group 3: Filling the Heterotopian Gap
By Dana Gordon and Dean Boniface
The ‘Heterotopian Gap’ aims at uplifting and improving the lives of the youth of Westbury through the integration of digital media, stimulating technological access, play space, youth activities and sport facilities.
The structure therefore acts as a positive distraction, pulling the youth off and away from the drug infested streets and alcohol abuse they know so well.
Our chosen site lies on the edge of the North East sports field of Westbury that acts as a shared facility of Westbury High school and Westbury Primary school while the width of the field runs adjacent to Main Rd/Ontdekkers.
It thus also serves as a ‘grand stand ‘or covered seating for the community spectators and youth while they view the events of the sports fields around.
The site was also a ‘buffer zone’ due to The Group Areas Act of 1950 Apartheid South Africa, created to separate the White’s only neighborhood of Triomf and the Coloured neighbourhood of Westbury via the industrial strip of Martindale and the four lanes of Main Road. Consequently, through ‘The Heterotopian Gap’ this edge of Westbury is instantly activated and linked to the surrounding townships of Martindale and Sophiatown, finally bridging the social divide that was created via Apartheid South Africa.
Our design can be considered a ‘Heterotopian Gap’ in the sense that a ‘Heterotopia’, coined from the philosopher Michael Foucault, is a physical representation or approximation of a ‘utopia’(an imaginary, perfect or ideal state), ie, a space that consists of undesirable aspects or elements in order to make a real utopian space possible. Thus the ‘Gap’ structure, forming an embracing, safe, active and stimulating haven for the Youth of Westbury, attempts to create a form of utopia for them yet is however still situated WITHIN Westbury, ie; still intrinsically entrenched in the hopelessness, despair, violence, alcohol and drug filled environment around them.
As a result, the structure becomes a Heterotopia-an attempt to form a more ideal space within a space that opposes it at all costs.
The structure becomes a ‘gap’ in that Westbury as a predominantly Coloured neighbourhood can be considered an IN BETWEEN people and place; neither black nor white-it is a literal GAP IN BETWEEN .
Design for Westbury: Group 2: Centre for Food
By Zakeeya Kalla and Julian Manshon
Design for Westbury: Group 1: Mark Making
By Matthew Millar and Sean Pillan
Individual Urban Design Project 1 by Matthew Millar
Individual Urban Design Project 2 by Sean Pillan
BTTC 1~Design 1: Group 5: Breaking Down The Facade
After weeks of mapping and trying to get our heads around Westbury we are at the cusp of crystallising our thoughts into ‘architecture’. More questions than answers have surfaced.
Exploring the possibilities of designing ‘non typologies’, where the experience of the space, and not its premeditated definitions, write the architecture into being. A space of ‘non definition’, where its reality is constantly changing with the personal experiences and perceptions of those who visits it. The design is not an absolute and does not prescribe a certain essence of meaning. It exists as a place for reflection and memory for Westburians, and therefore becoming a sacred and personal space. Attempting themes of identity and belonging.
BTTC 1~DESIGN 1: Group 7: A Hybrid Building
What does Westbury require? Does it require just an ordinary way of thinking or will radical thinking be more appropriate and accepted by the community ? The breif set by ourselves is to create a radical way of thinking by accepting the social problem such as drugs and working with it. By allowing the drug users to congragate in one central place and get them away from the community so that the commuity is no longer underthreat of this harse reality. Working with the residual spaces within Westbury we aim to create a new hybrid building that accomodates for selected social problems.
