Report on UIA week Presentation

After getting back together with one another from UIA we started sharing our information that we had gathered from the week down in Durban and in JHB.

We were then approached by the lecturers and had a thorough discussion of what we all learnt and what we actually brought back, a little more than others were just on holiday enjoying the beach.

Our next task was to develop a Pecha Kucha presentation for Tuesday referring back to UIA in two different groups which were Durban and JHB.

Our focus on the presentation was Toyo Ito, which is a Japanese architect known for creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to simultaneously express the physical and virtual worlds.

Slide 1:

Toyo Ito designed a home for all after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. This served as a communal space for victims to gather, relax, feel at home and talk about the future of japan. Through an event like this and an important dialogue with victims, the fundamentals of architecture were rediscovered.

Slide 2:

The proposal of Sendai Mediatheque has always been prototypic and conceptual rather than formalistic from the very beginning which consists of three elements of ‘plate’, ‘tube’ and ‘skin’.With its three simple component elements, the mediatheque will offer a space where a body of electron flow and a primitive physical body which is linked with nature are integrated.

Slide 3:

The tower of winds is a project largely indicative of Toyo Ito’s approach to architecture, particularly his belief in the importance of technology and its vital role in the future of architecture. The project not  only embraces technology and involves it in a dialogue with the city, but also establishes a direct symbolic relationship between nature and the installation.

Slide 4:

Toyo Ito was one of the key speakers at UIA. His work is relevant to this project based on his design theories and principles and rather not his architecture. He draws inspiration from organic forms of nature, prioritizing fluidity between the natural world and the built form in his design.

Slide 5:

His ideas can be seen as a rhizome. He takes into consideration different points and aspects such as human sense and nature that are connected to one another to create a greater whole. The building is an organism that is an integrated, a growing system that exists because of it’s surroundings, it is not isolated but rather connected to it’s context.

Slide 6:

If we consider Denver as a rhizome it would not exist without it’s surroundings therefore it is made up of different elements such as electricity, services, community, opportunity ect, that are interconnected and make a greater whole.

The report back on Johannesburg from our group was done by Tshepo Ngwenya as he was the only one left representing our group in JHB while we were away for UIA in Durban.

The time they spent in JHB was all about collaborative working of cutting stencils and investigation of overlaps between our sites and international journalists came to site to filter and access the group work and see the site in a larger context.

This slide of the pecha kucha presentation is the discovery of different typologies and similarities from our site and other groups sites in terms of shacks placement and electric connection systems.

Presentation of JHB Pecha Kucha