Doing design to learn design
PICTURE: SCRUTINISE: Lecturer Trevor Jacobs inspects a model on display during a recent Vertical Projects Showcase.
Wednesday, 15 August 2018
Architectural Technology and Interior Design students used a recent Vertical Projects Showcase to exhibit nine projects.
Vertical Projects incorporates students across years and disciplines into teams which work on real-world architectural problems and solutions.
Dr Hermie Delport, acting Head of the Architectural Technology and Interior Design Department, said this was the first time they did the Vertical Project twice in one year: “We use it as an ice-breaker at the beginning of the year. We try to focus the middle of the year Vertical Projects on service learning projects.”
She says in future they will align the middle of the year Vertical Projects with Mandela Day.
The nine groups split into sub-groups to handle specific tasks with many of the projects stemming from real-world concerns brought to the Department’s attention.
One project dubbed the Edushed is to create an outdoor classroom incorporating a food garden for Muizenberg Junior School. The school approached the Department towards the end of the last term. During a studio project, first students submitted ideas and presented them to the school.
The school then chose the project they liked best, with the winning project designed by first-year student Isaac Gordon.
Lecturer Trevor Jacobs said the outdoor classroom will become a reality as it is part of Justin Bonello’s Neighbourhood Farm programme which will finance a pilot project (Muizenberg Junior School is one of 11 schools taking part in the outdoor classroom/farm programme) to the tune of R50 000.
“We used the expertise of the students in the Vertical Projects to do the working drawings and the costing of the winning project. The students worked out the cost to be R75 000.
“Now the next level is that the students must build it. Either they have to cover the missing R25 000 or re-cost the project,” said Jacobs.
Other Vertical Projects showcased included:
- Revamping an educare centre in Khayelitsha
- Designing a braai facility for Darling township (several designs were showcased which will be shown to the Darling municipality with a prototype hopefully built in October)
- Adding terms to CPUT’s online architecture multi-lingual glossary
- Posters being entered into a Cape Institute for Architecture competition to create a mobile exhibition space
- District Six Remembered project
- A project to redesign particular CPUT campus spaces frequented by students to create inviting places to just hang out
- A marketing video for the Architectural Technology course; and
- A well-attended debate on the concept “architects have become careless of the city and its inhabitants”
Written by Theresa Smith
Email: smitht@cput.ac.za
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