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Visual diary – a series

September 2, 2011   Tags: architecture, manufacture

VISI friend and architect Hugh Fraser never ceases to amaze us. In between working for Glass South Africa, which involves much travelling, research and innovation, he documents his visual experiences with his camera.

 “Currently technology makes it easily possible to record what we see. But do we look?” asks Hugh. “This visual diary is an attempt to record and try to understand our built environment.”

Monday, 23 January:

The importance of the relationship between building and landscape is well known; and was always going to be an integral part of the design of Freedom Park. However, the vegetation of any site always takes longer to achieve. One of the reasons being, it can only start in earnest after completion of the buildings. Freedom Park's buildings have been completed for over a year now and the plants have taken root with a vengeance.  A walk through the landscape is incredibly uplifting and has certainly re-affirmed my love for the South African landscape.

Kicking off 2012

So I had a two-part holiday. Burma for the head and Timbavati for the heart. The first part was spent in Rangoon, Mandalay and Bagan. Aung San Su Kyi (pronouced Chi) has cleared the way for tourists to visit Burma [and for now she is sticking with all the old names]. If you were thinking of going, I'd go quickly before the hordes get in. Rangoon, is pure delight. Gently rotting British Colonial architecture with a buzzing street life. Although, the one great thing the bastard generals did was ban motorcycles from Rangoon. Its undemocratic, but divine. Compared to Mandalay, which is only romantic in the name. Bagan has more pagodas, stupas and temples than any other area in the world. My only regret is not getting to Lake Inle.

Part Two

Oh how lovely to do nothing and relax after my trip. Timbavati has had more rain this season than for many. The wildlife are having a feast.

Wednesday, 14 December:

Heading off to Burma, leaving Joburg in y'all's capable hands for two weeks. This is what I will be missing over the next short period…

Thursday, 8 December:

So my friend Tracey berates me for never visiting her. "Baby," I say, "I only get 20 days leave a year and I’m not spending four of them getting to Ulan Bataar!" So we compromise a weekend in Marseilles. Its halfway between the two. Sort of.  Its an underrated city. France’s second city, much less glamorous but more earthy. It was established by the Greeks as one of their first western ports and clearly has had a colourful history ever since.

Tuesday, 1 November:

The most fun way to see any city is on a bicycle. The most rigorous way to view a city is by foot. So yesterday I set off from the Bryn Mawr area of Chicago and walked to the city. Its about 7 miles (11km) as the crow flies, so that should take about 2 hours or so. But it took me seven. It’s so fascinating walking in a city that lives on the street unlike Johannesburg, that one cannot but help being distracted and taking detours all over the place. It’s a great incubator for ideas just to walk. I must have done double the distance. What follows is just 4 images of the 900 that I took.

Tuesday, 1 November:

Okay, so its not quarry, or the Amazing Race, but there is a frisson of excitement in the thrill of the chase, as one rounds the corner at River Road, Plano, about an hour or so south west of Chicago. Through the autumn trees are the distinctive lines of the Farnsworth House completed in 1951 by Mies van der Rohe for Edith Farnsworth, a kidney specialist from Chicago.
 
So the building is now sixty-years-old and is clearly an icon of architectural history and a major landmark in the evolution of the glass house. A visit puts its design and the human experiences clearly into focus on a number of levels.

Mies was already a celebrated architect with major high rise commissions in Chicago and New York. So why then would he accept a commission to design a house in a rural area for a client who later turned out to be quite (not always unreasonably) difficult? The answers lie perhaps in a number of places. A model of the house had already been displayed in 1947 at the Museum of Modern Art, which suggests that the building was a project waiting to happen. Also Plano lay then in a peri-urban area, which meant that building codes were fairly lax; proposed now, the building wouldn’t stand a chance of being approved.  Thirdly Edith Farnsworth came from a fairly wealthy family which assisted the budget from $35 000 to $74 000. A family house in the area cost about $6000 at the time. Perhaps this was the perfect storm and adds grist to the mill that architects simply use clients’ money to build their own dreams. And yet, to put this into perspective, the $35 000 extrapolated to today’s value would be about $306 000 now. The building was sold in 2004 for $6.8 million dollars. So perhaps there is value after all.

Thursday, 27 October:

I'll do anything not to fly with SAA. So when faced with a fare of R3500 to fly with its dysfunctional cousin SA Express to Bloemfontein, I thought time wise there's not much in it when driving. Besides, you get to listen to the AMAZING radio podcasts from the BBC, which leaves one feeling you wished the trip was longer than 412.8km each way. So yesterday I drove under leaden skies through a gentling greening Free State landscape. Delight. The sky could be an artist’s canvas all on its own. Okay, so the last 100kms is a little tiring and the aggression of Joburg traffic is palpable, but after 825.6km, I'm home.

Wednesday, 26 October:

As an architect, I need to always remind myself of the other room, the one that lies beyond the walls but before the boundary (and beyond perhaps).

I have been living in my house for eight years and although my fingers are closer to black than green, the garden has given me years of pleasure. However, I needed to take a long look at it and the reality was it was a 100% garden > 100% exotic. So I took the courageous step of clearing it out. Removing almost all the trees and we'll start a (long) process of reforestation, mostly with indigenous. I'm not going to be an indiginazi about it, but its better all round. The pictures show the story so far.

Tuesday, 25 October:

The Gauteng Institute for Architecture held its biennial Awards for Architecture on Thursday 20 October 2011.

The institute has battled somewhat to stimulate interest in Johannesburg, possibly because it’s so big and people work too hard. But in a move that is hoped to stem this flow, the body is in the process of moving to Braamfontein.

In a preface to this move, the awards ceremony exhibition was held in the new offices (as yet incomplete) and the function was held outside South Point Central. The ceremony was vibrant with music and much participation by the residents of the surrounding buildings. This move is hoped to stimulate more interest in the profession and the institute.

Friday, 7 October:

Lupini Architects have curated a long awaited exhibition of Johannesburg architecture - primarily unbuilt work. The exhibition opened last night and is open 8, 15, 22, 29 October. It’s at 79 Juta Street in Braamfontein which itself is undergoing a renewal. More information at alive.withtank.com. The work is varied with a number of young architects and more established architects.

Wednesday, 4 October:

I’ve always thought it quite naff, when faced with a title, to rush off to a dictionary to trace the meaning and etymology of a series of words: "The Culture of Design".

Letters are the most ubiquitous symbols around us and if you support the dictum of Marshall McLuhan’s "the medium is the message", you could get bogged down in the words before ever emerging from the marsh[all].  

But if you track the words "culture" and "design" through various languages, we start to see that design is very much a visual communication – an almost secret language – that transcends all cultural definitions.

Tuesday, 27 September:

I'm interested in the relationship between computer and craft. If/does it exist? Computers allow us to generate images and patterns like there's no tomorrow. But is it art or craft? I'm also interested in the geometry generated by nature, in this case specifically by the aloes above. I'm working on a building and we're using aloes to generate patterns to be used as panels on the service ducts.

Tuesday, 20 September:

The beautiful rock formations at Schoenmakerskop are well known to locals. In fact there is a 'Friends of Schoenmakerskop' page on Facebook. Anyone visiting Port Elizabeth with an hour to spare should amble the 15 minutes or so to the southern coast of the city. There you'll be enchanted by the rocks and the beautiful colours.

Monday, 19 September:

Eish, too much. There is too much to see and do in Johannesburg in September. Not only is there the divine weather before the rains come ... glorious sunshine every day, but we are spoilt for choice of arts, culture, plays, movies and markets.

Monday, 12 Sepember:

I’m constantly delighted by the Johannesburg landscape even in winter when the land is dry, there is so much colour. I love driving to work surrounded by the lurid green of the oaks, while the Jacarandas are taking their time.

Saturday to Sunday 10- 11 September:

So weekends are site visits. I'm working on a small shopping centre for Brent. Its Tilt Up construction which is fascinating. The constituent parts of the building are poured on the ground and ultimately hoisted into place, with the pieces weighing up to 50 tonnes. What is great about this project is I design, he builds. No whining client. Well, he shouts a bit, but I can put him in his place. The next pour is this week.

Thursday 8 September:

I have friends who are moving back to Joburg from the coast. We think Joburg is great, especially now that the Spring jolting season is open. The Horse Exhibition curated by Ricky Burnett opened last night. Its totally worth the visit.

Wednesday, 7 September:

Johannesburg is a big sprawling city. My job requires that I drive the city 'sat'. I'm always fascinated by the the micro-commercial activities that happen on street corners in various guises around the city.

On the corner of Cardigan and Chester in Parkwood, there is a Zimbabwean man called Tafi, who makes fantastic wire animals. I spoke to him yesterday while researching for a presentation on the Culture of Design. He has been there for five years and works continuously except when being hassled by the Metro Cops. I can understand the need for order but really, do they need to mess these people around.
He describes the alternating seasons of style. At Easter there are more bunnies.  Sports events are good; and Christmas brings angels. These are some photos of his work.

Tuesday, 6 September:

Another look at the city of Johannesburg, this time the more man made sector.

Monday, 5 September:

Although office bound for most of the day I managed to capture some of Joburg's quiet beauty when I went for a run.

Saturday to Sunday, 3 - 4 September:

An exploration of Cape Town and the trip back to Johannesburg.

Thursday, 2 September:

While much of Johannesburg north was supporting the Springbok departure for New Zealand, I went to Pretoria to see Tom Kundig, an American architect who designs some quirky buildings. Google him. My visuals looked at the trip.

Wednesday, 1 September:

An exploration of 'spring' in all senses of the word.

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