Gaudensia Olago

Form Follows Participation, and Vice-Versa

Research Focus:Form-Finding + Participation

Fields of Infl uence

Among my fi elds of infl uence are a number of personal ad researched projects whose focus can be categorised into:- formal/form-fi nding- social- process-based- environmental

socialsocial social

environmental environmental

formalformal

process-basedprocess-based

hanging vault modelhanging vault modelantoni gaudiantoni gaudi foafoa

iris dome and foldingiris dome and folding structuresstructureshoberman designhoberman design

mobile campus, n.ymobile campus, n.yftl happoldftl happold

139 shelter139 shelterfuture systemsfuture systems

shelter frame kitshelter frame kitworld sheltersworld sheltersgrip clipsgrip clipsrobert gillisrobert gillis

hexayurt, burning manhexayurt, burning man festfestvinay guptavinay gupta

low-tech balloonlow-tech balloon systemsystemtechnocrafttechnocraft

podville, burning manpodville, burning man festfesticosa village incicosa village inc

concrete canvasconcrtechnocrafttechn

huts and low ridersmad housers

an architecture of par-ticipationgiancarlo de carlo

slum clearanceinitiativesnairobi, kenya

various projectsmuf architects

dark days(documentary)marc singer

neighbourhood renewal projectdhs, victoria+ rmit architecture

housing design for australianindigenous peoplepaul memmott, paul pholerosetc

rural studiovariety of projects

parasitemichael rakowitz

global village sheltersglobal village sheltersferrara designferrara design

hanging chain modelhanging chain model,japanese pavilion at the expo 2000 in hanover, shigeru ban with frei otto frei otto

The premise for my research focus is the desire to fuse these two different schools of thought that run through my work:- formal/form-fi nding approach - social and participatory approach

The gap for me is the possibility of successfully fusing these two design methodologies, and allowing them to inform each other in a successful project.

social socialsocial

environmentalenvironmental environmental environmentalenvironmental

formal

process-based

hanging vault modelantoni gaudi foa

iris dome and foldingstructureshoberman design

mobile campus, n.yftl happold

139 shelterfuture systems

shelter frame kitworld sheltersgrip clipsrobert gillis

hexayurt, burning manfestvinay gupta

low-tech balloonsystemtechnocraft

podville, burning manfesticosa village inc

concrete canvasrete canvastechnocraftnocraft

huts and low ridershuts and low ridersmad housersmad housers

an architecture of par-an architecture of par-ticipationticipationgiancarlo de carlogiancarlo de carlo

slum clearanceslum clearanceinitiatives initiativesnairobi, kenyanairobi, kenya

various projectsvarious projectsmuf architectsmuf architects

dark days(documentary)dark days(documentary)marc singermarc singer

neighbourhood renewal projectneighbourhood renewal projectdhs, victoria+ rmit architecturedhs, victoria+ rmit architecture

housing design for australianhousing design for australian indigenous peopleindigenous peoplepaul memmott, paul pholerospaul memmott, paul pholeros etcetc

rural studiorural studiovariety of projectsvariety of projects

parasiteparasitemichael rakowitzmichael rakowitz

global village sheltersferrara design

hanging chain model

frei otto

environmentalenvironmental

Clusters of Informants

As an initial study, I examined two projects I had undertaken in which I used tehse two different methodologies, looking at the clusters of informants for each of them.

a cluster of actions (compositional techniques,strategies, processes)

a cluster of actions (compositional techniques,strategies, processes)

a cluster of inhabitations (habitats to be trans-a cluster of inhabitations (habitats to be trans-formed: program, site, event)formed: program, site, event)

a cluster of inhabitations (habitats to be trans-a cluster of inhabitations (habitats to be trans-formed: program, site, event)formed: program, site, event)

a cluster of urges (desires and directionality:a cluster of urges (desires and directionality: aims, hopes, attractions)aims, hopes, attractions)

a cluster of urges (desires and directionality:a cluster of urges (desires and directionality: aims, hopes, attractions)aims, hopes, attractions)

a cluster of questions (wonderings, quandries,a cluster of questions (wonproblems, curiosities)problems, curiosities)

a cluster of questions (wonderings, quandries,a cluster of questions (wonproblems, curiosities)problems, curiosities)

a cluster of informants (material which informsand embodies aspects of the above; prec-edence, ideas, events, images, propositions,issues)

a cluster of informants (material which informsand embodies aspects of the above; prec-edence, ideas, events, images, propositions,issues)

a cluster of actions (compositional techniques,a cluster of actions (compositional techniques, strategies, processes)strategies, processes)

a cluster of actions (compositional techniques,a cluster of actions (compositional techniques, strategies, processes)strategies, processes)

a cluster of inhabitations (habitats to be trans-formed: program, site, event)

a cluster of inhabitations (habitats to be trans-formed: program, site, event)

a cluster of urges (desires and directionality:aims, hopes, attractions)

a cluster of urges (desires and directionality:aims, hopes, attractions)

a cluster of questions (wonderings, quandries,derings, quandries, problems, curiosities)

a cluster of questions (wonderings, quandries,derings, quandries, problems, curiosities)

a cluster of informants (material which informsa cluster of informants (material which informs and embodies aspects of the above; prec-and embodies aspects of the above; prec-edence, ideas, events, images, propositions,edence, ideas, events, images, propositions, issues)issues)

a cluster of informants (material which informsa cluster of informants (material which informs and embodies aspects of the above; prec-and embodies aspects of the above; prec-edence, ideas, events, images, propositions,edence, ideas, events, images, propositions, issues)issues)

Neighbourhood Renewal

The Neighbourhood Renewal Project in Hastings’ was a government-funded regeneration project to help improve the area as well as social conditions of West Park Estate. Considered a marginalised community, it had once been, but no longer was, a government housing estate.

The community was quite active in the project, with a committee of locals collaborating with us, and the RMIT team was led by Melanie Dodd, of Muf Architecture, a practice that has had extensive experience in collaborative projects, and especially in working with children to generate project ideas.

One of the fi rst things we did was a site visit that was led by children from the local West Park Primary School, and helping the children document these ‘adventures’ as digital stories.

The fi rst adventure I went on was through the backtracks, the neglected bush land behind the estate. The bush was a dumping ground for anything and everything, old and disused, from toys to car bodies, but for the children, it was their play area.

They proudly displayed their lizard-catching sites (Adult: “Hmm! Looks like a bunch of rocks to me…”), the broken cubby (Adult: “A broken computer, a mattress and some pieces of wood...”), Big Foot (Adult: “Seriously, that’s just a big puddle of water…”), and their cubbies (Adult: “That’s a big bush…”).

Participation:

6

6

1

2

3

4

5

MAP KEY

PATH FOR WEST PARK PRIMARY DIGITAL STORY PATH FOR CUBBY BUILD-ING PHOTO STORY IMPORTANT SITES FOR WEST PARK PRIMARY DIGITAL STORY; 1. ENTRANCE 2. BROKEN CUBBY 3. BROKEN HOLDEN 4. KING’S CREEK 5. BIKE JUMP 6. CUBBIES

7 8

3

11 12

4

1 2

9

10

13 14

5 6

Digital Story, Cubby Building

Eventually, my whole project came to be informed by a chance encounter that I had with a group of children off to build a cubby, while I was doing some site analysis. Taking a break from the serious stuff to play, I came along, enjoying and documenting the process, and in the end, I realised that anything I was going to propose for this site had to be small and real and enhance the experience of the site. The proposal was simple: a series of benches and dust bins, and a bird-watching hide. But it was the process that had meant the most.

The fi nal proposal was for a kit of parts that consisted of: benches, rubbish bins, and a bird-watching hide. The path is experiecned as a path, like one of the digital stories.

Final Design proposal

site 1:benches

site 2:bird-watchinghide

connecting path: benches+bins

Form-Finding:

Aboriginal Tent Embassy

The basis of the project was the redesign of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, that was established in 1972, and pres-ently exists outside Old parliament house in Canberra. The embassy is central to the fi ght for Australian Aboriginal land rights, but presently consists of a few containers an a few tents pitched on the grass.

The project involved research into the land rights movement, Australian aboriginal history and ethno-architecture. This went hand-in-hand with a series of intensive form-fi nding exercises, that were aimed at producing ahighly adaptable tent-like structure.

model 1: basic valley and hill origami folds

model 2: basic valley and hill folds

model 3: basic valley and hill folds

form-fi nding exercises

model 4: paper space-frame system of valley and hill folds

model 7: plastic space-frame system with stocking skin

model 6: plastic space frame system

AN 1:200

FPFP

FP

FP

FP

FP

FPFP

FPFP

FPFP

FPFP

FPFP

A A

B

B

VERANDAH

VERANDAH

VERANDAH

WOMENS' TOILETS AND BATHROOMS

MENS' TOILETS AND BATHROOMS

OUTDOORCOOKING HEARTH

OUTDOORCOOKING COUNTERS

KITCHEN/ DINING AREA

SINGLE MENS' SLEEPING QUARTERS

MARRIED PEOPLE'SSLEEPING QUARTERS

SINGLE WOMENS'SLEEPING QUARTERS

FIRE OF JUSTICE SURROUNDED BY SEATING LOGS

ACCESS TO TENT EMBASSY

ACCESS TO TENT EMBASSY

EXISTING CONTAINER

MUSEUM/ EDUCATIONAL AREA

COMPUTER ROOM

ARTWORKS ON THE GROUND

EXISTING PATH

Final Design Proposal

Ampilawatja Health Centre

Ampilawatja is a small community about 300km from Alice Springs, and the community needed to upgrade the local health centre. They specifi ed that they wanted a ‘real proper clinic’ that would cater for the mens’ and womens’ special needs.

Initial site visits were made, and a few dyas of camping just outside te community provided an ooportunity to see and experience the town, landscape, as well as meet the local indgenous people and the doctors an nurses who work at the clinic.

The local women met with us, and discussed the art works made by them, which will be hung in the future clinic, and also showed us important sites in the surrounding locality. Likewise the local elders met with elders from our group to discuss their expectations for the future clinic.

the clinic

Research ProjectForm-Finding + Participation:

ampilawatja town plan

Participation was achieved through Initial site visits and client consultations.I also regarded the act of seeing the place and experiencing the indigenous way of life in the community as an act of participation.

Through the design process, the CEO of the clinic also kept in constant touch with us, reviewing the brief and giving updates on discussions he had with the clinicians and community, and expecting our feedback. he laso attended a reiew of the work, and gave helpful suggestions of what he thought would be the best way forward for the project.

The dominance of the lanscape struck me, and i decided to work with the landscape as a major defi ning factor of the design.

Participation:

According to Paul Memmott and Joseph Reser, an imporant thing to consider when designing architecture for Aborigines is direct experience and emotional response.

The experience of a building and its felt harmony with place and purpose.

This harmony can be enhanced by visual access to the external environment, maximum natural lighting and sunlight.

Form-Finding:

Play with models brought break thorugh and defi nition to the project after a while struggling to defi ne exactly what I wanted. By re-iterating my idea of ‘framing’ by model-making, I was able to clearly articulate what it was I wanted to achieve.

Models: Part 1The fi rst iteration of models

Models: Part 2The second iteration of models axplored the concept of framing on the level of individual rooms, and the applica-tion of these to different part sof the building.

Models: Part 3The third iteration of models explored a different way of framing, by treating programs/ activities as translucent boxes that were inserted into the main building. It was also a concept of framing light that enters a building.

planning diagrams

male/female areas

general male female

circulation and exit points

degree of internalisation

increasing degree of internalisation

The fi nal proposal took into account the form-fi nding processes, as well as the brief and practial aspects that had been established through consultation.

Due to avoindance relationships, it was necessary to func-tionally divide the building into distinct male and female areas,without cross-over.Staff and emergency areas were made accesible to both males and females.

From speaking to the staff, easy acces and exit points were also an important factor, and the building is designed with an easy thoroughfare N-S and E-W.

Another important factor was the importance of providing enough outdoor spaces. Form site visits, we observed people sitting outside the clinic talking, waiting for the doctor, and even having community meetings.Therefore, teh design provides suffi cient veranda space, and the corridors are easily openable to the outside, creating a semi-indoor/outdoor space.

Final Design proposal

Final Design Proposal

interior-womens’ waiting showing childrens’ play area

Wales Street primary School Bean Garden

The Wales Street Primary School Bean Garden was a supplementary project in investigating bridging the gap between form-fi nding and participation, because it was to be built in participation with and used by students from Wales Street Primary School.

Research Project 2Form-Finding + Participation:

Wales Street primary School Bean Garden

The design is what I would describe as a ‘fairy garden’. The design is made of plastic backing that is folded multiple times to give a ‘lacy’or fl owery feel. The spaces created act as the planting pods, and climbers made from cable ties are hung from the fence for the plants to grow up.

Because the form had been set, I supplemented these by doing some formal experiments on how we could provide a lattice for the bean plants to climb up. tensegrity systems were suggested, but a system of long fl exible plastic rods seemed suffi cient, and I did experiments on weaving them.

Form Finding:

During the building of the 1:1 project, we had the help of some of the children in testing how the confi gurations worked. For example, we used one of the children to test whether the space we had provided in between the pods was suffi cient for them to sit in. The cable tie tendrils proved aesier and more effi cient to make so the idea stuck.

Most of the pods were set up in time for the School Music and Arts Festival, with the aim that we could give parents and children a chance to participate in making the cable-tie tendrils. We set up a cable-tie tendril station and got a few helpers, and afterwards strung up the tendrils we had made.

I think the setting for the project was ideal, because it provided a creative yet simple solution, that gave the user the chance to interact in building it as well. Also the fl exibility of teh design allowed teh user the chance to alter it if he wished, even by chance. The cable ties could be tightened or even broken, and they could also be pushed and pulled, and this would alter the design.

Participation:

I believe that play could be seen as a way of bridging the gap between Participation and Form-fi nding. Play can loosen up and bring creativity both into the participation and design/form-fi nding processes, because it operates both on the level of teh designer and of the user.

Play and the User

Because of the nature of play, it requires an active participation of parties in one way or another. Play cannot be defi ned as play unless there is somebody engaging in it, playing. Therefore, it can be used as a means of eliciting participation in architecture, whether or not the party playing (be it the user or the designer) is aware of the fact that they are an active participant in a game.

Playing with the user can open them up and allow the designer to see things their way,and this works especially well when designing with and for children, as in the Neighbourhood Renewal project. By playing with the children, coming along on the cubby-building adventure, I listened and got to learn what they wanted from the design, and I was able to propose a project that might fulfi l their desires. Play can be a means of reading between the lines.

Play can also be a means of encouraging user participation with a project, even after it’s been constructed. By making a project less strictly de-fi ned, and more open-ended, room can be created for play. The essence of participation is the ability for the user to defi ne a project, and make it what he wants it to be,possibly allowing him to express his identity through it.

The Wales Street primary School Bean Garden and The Aboriginal Tent Embassy projects both give opportunity for this because of their form, which is designed to be fl exible and adpatable. The Embassy project also allows the user to defi ne the building by painting on the canvas surfaces, and writing slogans.

The Role of Play in Bridging The Gap Between Participation and Form-fi nding

Play and the Designer

Play is also a means for the designer to test ad develop forms. Model making is a good means of doing this, because it provides the chance to physically make and test different iterations, and decide which one works te best. Sometimes breakthrough comes to the designer when he gives himself the liberty to play, as in the Ampilawatja Health Centre project.

I see play as a key element that can runs through these two different schools of thought, the difference being that the subject differs.

References:-Giancarlo De Carlo, An Architecture of Participation-Peter Blundell Jones, Jeremy Till, An Architecture of Participation-Sanford Kwinter, PlayTime

Conclusion

I believe a successful project for me would be one that sets up ooprtunities for play in its different dimensions. That gives the designer leeway to explore form and function, and also gives the user the chance to defi ne what it is he needs and wants. Of all these I would say the Wales Street primary School Bean Garden had the best set-up and opportunities in terms of this, and I would hope in future for an opportunity to develop fully such a project.