ANTHONY WHITAKER
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN
Builders, Agriculturalists, and Interpreters — Architecture by Narration
The project is based on fieldwork research and
observations of social practices in Gugulethu, Cape
Town. Three architectural approaches make up the
project - a building system (Part1: Proto-town), that
system as building (Part 2: Proto-type), and that
building system as urban model (Part 3: Proto-town).
The first considers buildability and materiality. A
proposal for a replicable building system found and
resolved in the practice of autonomous building,
characteristic of under-resourced and marginalized
neighbourhoods in South African cities – the Proto-
Logue. The Proto-Logue is a replicable building system
that aims to simplify the planning and building process
of construction, enabling non-experts to build and to
have a controlling influence over the design process.
Using basic products of industry and skills that are
commonly known and understood, it responds to
the people who build them and is intended to be
easily altered.
The Proto-Type is a small timber structure hosted
to a 6m ISO shipping container. Its construction
involves simple timber detailing adapted from the
Proto-Logue. The Proto-Type is conceived as a multi-
use ancillary programme to the farm’s activities; a
container makes storing equipment safe and easy,
a raised floor offers much-needed space for admin
related activity. The adjacent meeting space opens
towards the educational crops. It is a place for
recreational activities and educational workshops.
The third begins to project new possibilities
informed by the previous two parts. The defunct
King David Country Club, North of Gugulethu,
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is appropriated and imagined as a Proto-Town.
A proposal for an urban model generated by the
architectural interpretation of autonomous building
and subsistence practices as explored in Part 1 and 2.
The communal hall is the largest and most promi-
nent structure of all in the Proto-town. Its construction
involves the most elaborate technologies of all
structures. The hall is conceived as being built first,
it will accommodate a range of programmes in a
sequence of phases. First, a timber workshop and
yard for the construction phase of homes and public
spaces; a place to build and learn how to build from
each other. Once construction of the town progresses
the demand for the workshops will be reduced to the
necessary maintenance workshops. These structures
are designed to then hold a gathering of 100+ users,
be a place for lectures, meetings, large dinners,
provide shelter and sense of place, care and welcome.
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