The honours design studios focus on interdisciplinary work that brings together students' existing urban, architectural, landscape and interior knowledge with Departmental research foci and real-world problems and opportunities. The quarterly studio modules aim to develop a range of specialised design skills and students exercise a choice among research-led studios that are determined according to the current foci of the teaching staff as well as invited guests.
Lecturer: Johan Swart
The Campus Narratives studio considers universities as complex, layered and evolving cultural landscapes and recognises their potential as sites for the discovery of layered histories and as loci for experimentation with heritage documentation and representational methods. The University of Pretoria (UP) Hatfield campus is a uniquely significant and evolving heritage site, a treasure trove of architectural features as well as an active space of heritage development and debate. Using this campus as case study, the studio will enable a series of mapping projects to engage with a spatially complex and historically rich environment towards the conceptualisation and production of critically positioned heritage surveys.
The studio projects identified and map heritage layers ranging from historical gardens and memorial objects to architectural symbols and spatial relationships. Heritage elements were located and described through documentation processes, followed by the production of publically accessible heritage representations such as photo essays, interactive maps, virtual tours or digital booklets. During the course of this studio, students will engage with heritage theories, collaborate with UP stakeholders, discover new campus spaces and develop skills in the interpretation of cultural heritage. Ultimately, the studio aims to offer new insights and tangible contributions to the ongoing conservation efforts at the University of Pretoria.
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Lecturer: Dr Calayde Davey
We care about the future of our cities, and what we need to do to get there. How do we work to unlock projects that effectively address the ever-increasing complexity of our societies? How do we bring lasting value so that we build better cities and healthier urban communities?
The Urban Strategy Studio explores big picture systemic thinking, applying principles of fundamental urban design theory, systems thinking, and critical dialectic visualization to produce an urban strategy for an alternative city future for the greater Hatfield, Pretoria. The outcome is to produce a conceptual spatial design strategy that is wanted, catalytic, or creates a new trajectory for a City or Precinct. We explore questions on our current and future urban habitat such as hyper-density and hyper-localization, urban feedback loops, intersection of circular economics and society, urban culture and technology, as well as practicing skills in developing strategic leadership, envisioning new trajectories, and visualizing systemic spatial change outcomes.
Our 2021 Urban Strategy Studio’s driving question is: what is the Thriving African Future City?
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Lecturer: Dr Jan Hugo
Informal, spontaneous forms of urbanisation are constituent to Southern African cities. While many believe that these informal settlements will over time be systematically replaced with formalised conditions, some of the developmental trends in Southern African cities prove otherwise. As professionals affecting urban and spatial development, we need to undertake alternative methods to working within these informal contexts utilising appropriate strategies. As part of a larger study that considers the interaction of the built environment and public health in informal contexts, this study aims to map the spatial and material quality of the Melusi context to understand the vulnerability of the local community and develop a climate change adaptation response strategy for the local community. The project undertakes a mixed method approach, incorporating desktop analyses and ground level observational studies to develop and collect GIS based data. The data is interpreted in the studio and also contributes to future projects. As outcome this project will develop a high-level strategic plan addressing local vulnerability using the shared spaces as structuring devices. This strategy will consider the vulnerability map that will be developed and propose strategies to lower the exposure and improve the local resilience of the community to adverse risks. This project plays a vital role in developing our understanding of informality and developing methods to work effectively in these marginalised communities.
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Lecturer: Jason Oberholtzer
Woodlane Village (also known as Plastic View) and Cemetery View informal settlements are situated in the east of Pretoria, in the midst of the most exclusive estates and land in Pretoria. The two settlements have a combined population of 10 000 - 13 000 people that live on 12 hectares of land within 1665 structures (Unit for Urban Citizenship, 2020). The first inhabitants lived in clusters scattered in the open landscape out of necessity in order to live where they work. Since partially formalising the settlement in 2009, the City of Tshwane has been providing potable water and latrines to the village (De Vos 2014:3). The two settlements are an indicator of the vast imbalances and a systemic failure within our city, sitting silently on valuable land amongst extravagant residential estates. This studio is a collaboration between Honours and MProf studios and will focus on furthering the mapping of the interrelatedness between networks of support and the social networks of the urban community in terms of socio-spatial justice. Conclusions from the mapping and previous community action plans are used to form live build workshops and projects to contribute to an integrated future that uses principles of design activism. Continued engagement with the research partners underpins the studio, so that the resultant strategies may reflect the views and voices of this emerging urban society.
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Lecturer: Dr Carin Combrinck
Mamelodi is a vibrant township, bristling with energy and opportunity. Yet, the spatial legacy of apartheid and post-democratic development continues to foster an environment of socio-spatial violence that impacts negatively on the liveability of the area. In this studio, we will engage with learners registered with the Pre-University Academy at the UP Mamelodi Campus to understand how the urban environment accommodates play and impacts on the development of diverse knowledge systems. Significant intersections of typological morphology, economic activity, community based organisational networks, mobility networks and other significant patterns are mapped and documented through the lens of the learners. The research is done in collaboration with the MProf Urban Citizen studio, our partners in the Mamelodi Collaborative and as part of the Reality Studio with Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden. Conclusions from the mapping will then be used to develop Community Action Plans as developed by Goethert and Hamdi in 1997. Continued engagement with the research partners underpins the studio, so that the resultant strategies may reflect tthe views and voices of the youth.
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Lecturer: Johan Swart
The Campus Interventions studio considers universities as places for both the preservation and production of cultural heritage and recognises their potential as sites for the development of cultural programmes and as loci for experimentation with related architectural interventions, installations and experiences. The University of Pretoria (UP) Hatfield campus contains a dense and active concentration of cultural programmes situated along the historical arts axis (Tukkielaan) which are recognised through institutional collaborations such as the UP GLAM initiative for gardens, galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Using the arts axis as a landscape for intervention and the adjacent cultural units as inspiration for programme, the studio will enable a series of architectural projects to engage with the cultural ecosystems of the university environment towards spatial interventions that facilitate the preservation, interpretation and exposure of art, history and cultural heritage.
The studio projects identify and develop architectural typologies ranging from memorial gardens, curated exhibitions and public pavilions to performance spaces, installation art and narrated experiences. Interventions are informed through stakeholder engagement, contextualised within the historical campus environment and strategically developed as interfaces between the hidden cultural capital of the university and a broader community of users and visitors. During the course of this studio, students engage with the cultural role of architecture, collaborate with UP stakeholders, discover new campus spaces and develop skills in the interpretation of cultural heritage. Ultimately, the studio aims to offer strategic directions and spatial contributions to ongoing cultural and heritage developments at the University of Pretoria.
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Lecturer: Dr Carin Combrinck
As the world continues to grapple with the Covid pandemic, the call for architecture to shift its focus to one of greater empathy is becoming ever stronger. In this move towards more socially engaged architecture, the Urban Citizen CoDesign studio engage with network partners in Plastic View, Cemetery View and Mamelodi East to investigate methods of design generation that consider the partnership between architect-expert and user-expert. Relationships that have been established through the Urban Citizen studios serve as the platform for further engagement, which take place in-situ as well as on-line. Through hybrid processes of CoDesign, spatial investigations and proposals are developed to offer a critical contribution to the socio-spatial issues highlighted through these collaborative processes.
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Lecturer: Dr Ida Breed
Under apartheid planned vacant green spaces operated as barriers from opportunities, separating neighbourhoods and communities. Today this spatial segregation remains evident in the urban fabric, while there is a great need for ccess to well-designed, multifunctional urban green infrastructure (UGI). The studio focuses on two sites in the City of Tshwane, comprising green spaces along rivers with informal social activities in Atteridgeville and Mabopane. The aim of the studio is to map and develop integrated multifunctional green infrastructure networks for each of the areas that will improve the long term environmental and social health of the areas. The studio forms part of the multidisciplinary GRIP project and the students engage with the international research team, the City of Tshwane officials and private consultants to formulate and develop the proposals. The studio proposes both ecological and social network maps and formulate strategies to improve access and socio-economic activation, rehabilitation and ecological protection of sections of this open space, with a set of supporting design guidelines. Through this process the studio aims to prepare young built environment designers to balance urban social and environmental needs and learn how these can be integrated in the city planning and design.
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Lecturer: Dr Anika van Aswegen
Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples. ICOM (2021). International Museum Day is celebrated on 18 May 2021 with the theme, The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine. Since 2019, the role of museums has been under global discussion with the aim to redefine how these institutions can stay relevant to serve communities in a changing society. The [narrative + interface] studio explores this dilemma when considering the Pretoria Art Museum (PAM) and surrounding Arcadia Park as site(s) of investigation. The current fence condition, the exclusionary nature and the architectural philosophy of the International Style contextualise the current socio-cultural relevance to the local community and wider public it serves. Applying the ‘new design thinking’ method’s appreciative inquiry and human-centredness, potential and opportunities for intervention beyond obvious problem(s) are revealed.
The project aimed to revise and expand the programme(s) of the museum by considering the objectives of International Museum Day 2021, with the focus on socio-cultural integration. These guidelines aim to extend the social role of museums, bringing people together and introducing new life in local communities. Narrative and interface design is considered on two levels to ‘re-story’ the PAM and Arcadia Park by introducing new spatial narratives of hidden stories of communities: 1) interrelation between identity formation, culture and narrative by considering ritual, tradition and inclusion, and 2) old/new spatial/architectural intervention (complementing/juxtaposing). A human-centred approach introduces theories of empathy and transformative thinking to shift perspectives, question biases and embracing positive incremental change.
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Lecturer: Dr Jan Hugo
In response to the risk posed by climate change, designers are challenged to reimagine our current cities and their built infrastructure. It requires that we develop feasible solutions to improve the resilience of our urban inhabitants but also use these changes as opportunities to improve their wellbeing. This project sets out to redesign the high-density housing typologies found in Sunnyside, Pretoria, to explore the means to improve the climate change resilience of inhabitants and the neighbourhood by retrofitting, transforming or completely re-designing a residential building. The studio interrogates existing literature on climate change, vulnerability both locally and nationally, and specifically use regenerative design practices to develop deep-seated and locally relevant climate change adaptation solutions. These solutions will in the end have spatial impacts and ultimately start questioning the roles of architects, interior architects and landscape architects in addressing climate change and preparing for its impacts.
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Lecturer: Dr Ida Breed
Under apartheid planned vacant green spaces operated as barriers from opportunities, separating neighbourhoods and communities. Today this spatial segregation remains evident in the urban fabric, while there is a great need for access to well-designed, multifunctional urban green infrastructure (UGI). The studio focuses on two sites in the City of Tshwane, comprising green spaces along rivers with informal social activities in Atteridgeville and Mabopane. The aim of the studio is to map and develop integrated multifunctional green infrastructure networks for each of the areas that will improve the long term environmental and social health of the areas. The studio forms part of the multidisciplinary GRIP project and the students engage with the international research team, the City of Tshwane officials and private consultants to formulate and develop the proposals. The studio proposes both ecological and social network maps and formulates strategies to improve access and socio-economic activation, rehabilitation and ecological protection of sections of this open space, with a set of supporting design guidelines. Through this process the studio aims to prepare young built environment designers to balance urban social and environmental needs and learn how these can be integrated in the city planning and design.
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Lecturer: Dr Anika van Aswegen
The city, always in flux as a complex organism, is the place we call home. Its body consists of a diverse, often juxtaposed amalgamation of people, places and events. The scenario + interface studio explores various scenarios for urban regeneration to reactivate the corner at Sunnyside Galleries in Sunnyside, Pretoria. The current urban condition influences the potential cultural and social exchange. A focus on spatial agency, addresses the interrelation between production > process > participation/consumption > narrative (Cronje 2020). The project follows a human-centred approach by exploring various scenarios of living in the city. Urban flotsam: stirring the city (Bunschoten 2001) underscores the attitude towards the project and spatial agency sets the scene for architectural interventions. Small-scale encounters are the driving force behind this investigation – people, events, performance, display, growth and exchange, within a public-private spatial continuum. The project aims to provoke a series of design responses focusing on ‘interface as infrastructure’ through critical reflection on social inclusion, economic exchange, creative intervention and emotional well-being. The contribution of the project is to uncover architectural scenarios that are grounded in real-world sites, following a systems approach (Meadows 2009), to better understand the complexity of high-density urban sites.
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Lecturer: Johan Swart
The Urban Transformations studio acknowledges that sensible additions and extensions to existing heritage sites are critical to the sustainable transformation of the city and that such projects are of increasing interest and relevance within contemporary architectural discourse. The spatial and functional extension of heritage fabric and the mediation between existing and potential conditions allows for complex spatial experiments within broader debates about meaningful urban transformation. Focusing on the Sunnyside inner city housing precinct, the studio will enable a series of urban infill projects to engage with existing Modern Movement ensembles towards the development of design proposals for extensions, additions or densifications. These designs could range from subtle immersions to provocative oppositions, from carefully suggestive manipulation to creatively destructive restructuring.
The studio projects will interpret existing buildings in the Sunnyside neighbourhood and discover their potential within suggested urban renewal processes. An engagement with best-practice case studies and theories of architectural conservation will provide a basis for explorative concept development and design resolutions that will be communicated as extensions to the existing and in synergy with the urban context. Apart from engaging with heritage discussions, utilising drawings from the AAUP collections and becoming acquainted with an unexpectedly rich architectural precinct, students will also develop their ability to deal strategically with complex existing spatial scenarios towards critical new architectural layers.
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