Human Settlements Review - Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Human Settlements Review, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010
Emblematic of all the tectonic relations afforded
by the system, a worker with advanced skill
may gain critical training that prepares them for
future deployment as construction foreman, or
indeed in certain cases for commencing their
own small entry level construction firm.
Collectively these individual building
components can be deployed over a site,
allowing for best orientation, for ease of
interconnection, for phased growth and for
productive collective spatial configurations.
This temporal dimension to development
is consistent with traditional rural practice,
and contrasts strongly against the master
planned ‘mega’ structure approach promoted
by contemporary utilitarian approach which
demand maximum delivery in the minimum
time.
This 1,630m grid and column therefore forms
the DNA of the project; it is not a reductive
controlling cartesian grid, but rather an
enabling one that provides maximum freedom
for absorbing and accommodating the many
dimensions of the complex building process.
Despite the utilisation of a systems approach
to design and building with the use of iterative
components and plans, the outcome of each
school is differentiated by mediation of the
model across all the scales of implementation,
from site making through configuration of
selected units and the infil material chosen
down to the hand of the individual craftsperson
who effects the actual work.
another conflict in the process. The project
was therefore reinterpreted as Design Build
Research [DBR]. Essentially the program
became a laboratory for investigation and
experimentation that produced concrete
results capable of measurement and thereby
contributing knowledge in a positive feedback
cycle.
The initial buildings focussed in nuanced
responses to the existing classroom designs.
Critical knowledge was acquired in this process
that lead to an eventual reconfiguration of the
modes of production. However, the knowledge
was gained in-situ, by doing. In other words,
‘thinking and making’ are reconciled within a
single space of production. This approximates
both early vernacular responses to shelter and
settlement making, as well as to contemporary
responses that are prevalent in the townships
and informal sector. Here necessity and the
limitation of financial, spatial and material
resources has prompted genuine innovation.
One of the preconditions in pursuing this
line of design is time/space for research.
It necessarily involves significant delay in
the delivery of goods and services; raising
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