30 June 2007

Upgrade




today in khayelitsha we witnessed upgrades on three very different scales. The first involved the construction of improved rail infrastructure and a new station near the eKhaya eKazi building site in Makasa. This station is needed because currently most of the residents in this area of khayelitsha, such as the MonkeyBiz women, have to take a taxi or bus to the station before beginning the train ride into the city of cape town for work every day. this makes the commute even longer and more costly. This upgrade to the township, however, also brings along with it the need for shack clearance for a new diversion road. All of the shacks marked with an "x" as seen below are to be demolished.





The second was the home of of a couple that moved from the eastern cape in search for job opportunities. They began in a small shack in Harrare and then once they earned enough money joined a federation in khayelitsha. These federations are groups of over a hundred families that pool the 16000 rand government subsidy for housing and help each other build improved housing at a higher standard than the typical "matchbox" houses. They use whatever money they can earn to add more rooms, brick veneers, and improved interior finishes. After the homes are built the federations also become neighborhood associations in which the residents have a forum to discuss the social issues affecting them. This particular federation for example decided not to allow any shabeens (bar/pool halls) to be built in that neighborhood because of the crime and disturbance associated with these businesses. Though Loyiso pointed out that despite this decision many of the residents just go to another area and use the shabeens there, therefore just pushing the problem and stigma onto other neighborhoods.




And the third was the upgrade of a young boy into becoming a man. We were welcomed into a celebratory ceremony and the home of Loyiso's friends where a boy had just returned from his journey to the bush and was to be reintroduced to society as a man. There was singing, dancing, a slaughtered sheep, traditional xhosa beer, and the best bread any of us had ever tasted. The hosts and guests were incredibly open and welcoming to us and generously shared their home and their culture with us. Along with all of the other women we presented a gift and ashley gave a speech wishing him well in his future and the time he will spend with family.



(check out youtube for the videos)


it was another eye opening day in the level of joy and happiness that seemed to upgrade the entire condition of Khayelitsha in our mindset. As Loyiso tried so earnestly to illustrate to us there is a rich culture and community spirit in khayelitsha that at times perhaps transcends the condition.

28 June 2007

Design Development



this is the latest design iteration based on 3 recent contractor meetings and the conversation with Carin Smuts. The primary structure would be too expensive in steel frame as intended and therefore we have simplified the design to have the primary structure be the 12m container and large shed roof. all program will then be plugged in under this roof. The columns will be stacked cmu with rebar and concrete fill with infill cavity walls constructed with maxibrick. Because of security concerns we have a solid base with all light coming in through the polycarbonate (or fibreglass) roof and clerestory windows. Shading will be provided through bamboo lining the translucent roof, which is commonly used in architecture throughout the cape area. We also chose the single slope roof so as to prevent the shedding of water onto the neighboring lots. We have yet to fully integrate the areas for rainwater catchment. at the moment we are considering that water barrels will be kept in the ground level storage room.

Also in terms of personalizing and finishing this framework, Barbara from Monkeybiz has a great suggestion to have bottle wall mosaic in the front entry of the building. This project could involve bottle collection by the women in the area so that there is a physical contribution to the building form. Also the container will be an ideal canvas for a local mural artist.

24 June 2007

week 2

It's Sunday morning, and we--some of us--just woke up with a note on the door from Tom about bringing food for brunch from Olympia Cafe down the street, which will definitely make for a great last day of an incredibly full week.

To begin, we already wrote about the blessing ceremony on Tuesday (definitely check out the artaidsart link on Patrick's post below), which overall was a more beautiful, enlightening, and 'successful'--in terms of starting to connect the community to the project and ourselves--experience than I think we even expected. The following day involved the enormously helpful 3-hour conversation with Carin Smutts, whose new double-height studio studio space on the top floor of her house (with a view of the ocean) happens to be about the size of our site, making it a great example of the kind of large, simple but beautiful space we could create in our own project. Following this talk with Thursday's "field trip" to the Migrant Worker Museum and community center (where Wired Women work) in Lwadle, Guga S'Thebe, and the Philani Nutrition Center and Weaving Studio in Khayelitsha, we definitely heightened our understanding of community centers and how artisans can interact with and use the centers. Finally, we again spent Friday with the women at the MonkeyBiz clinic in Cape Town, this time working with translators (our Xhosa still needs a little work, though I've totally mastered one of the clicks) to record the women's stories--of how their histories, their families, their hopes for South Africa, their legacies for future generations.

Every day I have been completely blown away by people here. The women and other members of the community have embraced us in so many ways, without many of the reservations we might have suspected them to have, and in speaking with mothers, wives, grandparents and other family members we repeatedly see simply a great strength, a perspective on life with realities, priorities, so different from our own but so much more grounded in basic connections to family and to place. People love their homes and the land in a way I think often runs less deep for Americans. Everywhere is an opportunity for meaningful conversations about life here, the state of the country and its future, spoken about very differently by our guide Loyiso or the owner of an art gallery on Church Street or a cab driver. All of this for me has begun to give greater gravity to our project and to our hopes of creating a proud but safe building full of opportunities for its users. I worry more about the disappointment if we are not able to physically accomplish much during our time here, but at the same time I am thrilled with the development of the design as we get more input from community and professionals, and I have no doubt that we have plenty of work to continue moving forward with as the construction realities of every aspect and detail of the building come better into focus.

Gearing up for another productive week...Gena arrived Friday night, so for four full days the entire group is here. We started yesterday with a meeting with the contractor who finished part of Blue on Blue for Tom (the first of three contractor meetings in the next few days), but after that...day off. Penguins on Boulder Beach! I wanted to go swimming with them, but rather than catch pneumonia we opted for a good lunch and a couple beers back in Kalk Bay instead. Which led to getting ready with a bottle of wine back at Blue on Blue...which led to the 31st floor of the ABSA building in Cape Town...which was a great night of chilling out and dancing above the city.

23 June 2007

Photographs

A more extensive collection of photographs from our time in Cape Town can be found on my Flickr page. Visit it here:

www.flickr.com/photos/leidio

I'll be posting photographs every few days or so throughout the summer. Additionally, Tom's photographs from the blessing ceremony in Khayelitsha are found in the latest Art Aids Art newsletter. Visit it here:

http://web.mac.com/artaidsart/iWeb/Site%202/eKhaya%20eKasi.html

20 June 2007

conversation with an architect

Today we met with Carin Smutts, an architect with great experience in community building throughout the area, both during apartheid and since its end. In her Seapoint home and studio (which happens to be almost exactly the dimensions of our site), we dreamed of one day having a workspace overlooking the ocean like hers and we had an excellent discussion regarding the project and its implementation. The following are some notes from that meeting:

COMMUNITY
- Khayelitsha is a younger, faster-moving township with a strong sense of hierarchy within its people and thus a greater motivation for power struggle and fraud. “South Africa is in a bad state at the moment…”
- beware the community ward: while the women may be trustworthy, many community members have a hidden agenda and we are like to end up spending money on what is essentially a bribe.
- rather than buying land, one can obtain a 99-year lease for 1 R/year
- while it is vital to understand what the community members want, it will also inevitably change, so one must always move ahead finding the middle ground for an satisfactory economic project

WORKERS
- we must pay the local workers per square meter **not a set wage** because nothing will get done otherwise
- no cash. set up autobank accounts so that everyone can be paid electronically
- sometimes you must feed the workers and buy their materials before they begin. conditions are better now than they have been in the past, but nonetheless this may be necessary in the beginning of a job. however, this is not custom; the workers should expect to bring their own lunchboxes and buy materials when necessary.
- do not pay up front except what is necessary; no advance loans. payment is received when the job is finished!
- getting emotional results in losing money and does not help us or the community

INVESTMENT
- training people (i.e. as security officers) and encouragement for them to do voluntary service can result in employment
- people are also less likely to vandalize something if they’ve made it themselves
- material collection can directly involve community members: ask what the townspeople want to get rid of, or what they can help you collect (i.e. bottles)
[Guga S’Thebe—CS Studio]
- successful because its sustained by the community, selling to both locals and tourists
- locals were trained during construction in, for example, the metalwork: making tree cages, balastraudes, and handrails out of scrap material
[also see Laingsburg, Zolani]
[Uthango Lotyebiselwano]
- total community participation in its creation, but without sustained use the building was completely torn down piece by piece

BUDGET (*basic rule of architecture: everything will cost at least double what you expect)
- 5,000 R/sq m is the absolute cheapest (our project is about 160 sq m, which would amount to 800,000 R minimum—which is beyond our current budget)
- in order to fit a bare-minimum budget, use containers and plan to do it all yourself
- steel has skyrocketed, so don’t plan on using steel frame structure
- timber is a major fire hazard in a township
- blocks are the safest bet but cement can still be expensive, and CMUs are not as nice as regular bricks. try to use something cheap like maxi-bricks (taller and thinner) and get a place like Corobrick to donate blocks (Bryan Edwards)
- likewise, insulation is sometimes donated, or at least offered at a good price. talk to John McEvoy

DESIGN
- complete the dream design, but work backward from it; when it comes to construction, figure out what is most essential, finish that part, and work forward incrementally as budget allows
- establish a face, an address, an identity, but make it more about a magical space inside the building than making it shout outside
- creating volume is essential (make it as tall as possible) as scale can not only help establish that identity but create a landmark for the community. remember, one “floor” can technically be 4.5 m high
- the box: figure out the minimum satisfactory standards, and start there. put up some cheap trusses in steel or timber to make a basic sheltered space
- leave a “finished product” with each step, allowing for contingencies and hold-ups
- security is the foremost concern
- avoid windows wherever possible; rather, depend on the transparency of the roof to provide light (less likely to be climbed upon and/or broken into) and whirly-birds for ventilation
- incorporate translucent elements to reduce the need for electric lighting
- never skimp on plumbing (cheaper ceramic fixtures always break down)
- start with standards to get the most product/usable space for your money
- incorporate beadwork into the construction and design of the building itself

PROGRAM
- do not open it up to community groups other than MonkeyBiz—allow them to maintain control, always keeping a business sense rather than getting soft
- allowing other groups to enter threatens the survival of the building if it becomes a power struggle
- embrace flexibility of space in front (for example, people can extend the space by clipping on a tent for special events). keep in mind that front façade is only face that can really be “decorated/designed” as other three walls are likely to become shared property—so keep those back walls solid and open the front up with roller shutters
- elements such as water collection tanks could be additionally used to establish identity

CONTAINERS
- providers: Container World, Big Box
- most common insulation is isowall—foam
- extensive documentation will help the bidding process
- make sure foundation is built up and waterproofed

CONTACTS
- town planner Ilias Brink
- Tana Klitzner, landscape architect looking at the larger environment that can be created for people. working in Khayelitsha on the VIPP project to revitalize urban spaces—the “light box” project (Verina?). particularly focused on security issues. moreover, they have a piece of land in Arare that would be free to whoever would like to build on it..
- Sebastiano Peniza, contractor who “knows how to build”
- Bryan Edwards, Corobrick
- John McEvoy, Sajax (? insulation)
- Lovell Freedman, supervisor of artisan Sydney
- Iain Louw, whose phd student constructed “the coolest house ever” out of found materials, including a wall made out of tvs
- Rodney Harbor, formalized plots of land for tradespeople- Helen Liberman and Sipho Powani, Ekamba Lebantu

19 June 2007


This is an aerial view of where we are staying. The body of water to the right is False Bay, which is, it is disbuted, either the Atlantic or the Indian Ocean.



This is a view from a restaurant in Kalk Bay. The town in the distance is an area between Fish Hoek and Simon's Town. The weather had turned horizontally stormy in the afternoon but lateday the clouds broke and the wind picked up; these cloud banks moved swiftly across the Cape just as dusk began to set in.

Celebration



Yesterday, we journeyed to find the University of Capetown just to discover the entire University is on holiday until July 30 for winter recess. though the physical campus was absolutely stunning to behold nonetheless....and as always the studios were in post-review chaos.


We had planned before takeoff to construct an installation of the ground floor of the proposed structure in order for the MonkeyBiz women and community to get a sense of the scale and nature of the spaces that are to be built. Today MonkeyBiz and Art AIDS Art had organised a blessing and celebration for the building and with the large gathering this was an ideal opportunity for us to carry out the installation. CashBuild, the Khayeltisha version of home depot where most residents buy building materials, was the source of the installation materials. We decided on a basic construction of walls using twine and metal stakes. We were unable to install on the site itself because of the existing building so we chose a location a few blocks away next to the large community center. With Loyiso, Sydney, Nadeem, Stephanie, and Tom's assistance the installation construction actually ran very smoothly in the beginning and many people watched from the road and a few residents approached to find out what we were up to. We were then approached by two members of a local community development forum who were concerned about the installation because they saw outsiders conducting what looked like manual labor. This concept insights opposition in the community because there are so many unemployed residents of khayelitsha and with any building project in khayelitsha local residents should be employed. Tom, Nadeem and Loyiso explained the project to the forum members and they invited us to speak to the forum later in the night.


With the installation complete and ready for occupation we went on to Makatiso's house for the blessing and celebration of dancing, singing, bunny chow, and the discovery that no evil spirits reside inside the house or on the site which is always good to hear, Tom introduced the building to the community in Xhosa a great gesture, and Angie introduced the project Khayelitsha team with the translation help of Loyiso. We then gave a short explanation of the building through a board that was taped to the MonkeyBiz container. The community members gathered and said a short statement that they were very pleased with the work of Barbara and MonkeyBiz and that they were excited to have a new center based within the community. Almost the entire celebration group then moved on to the installation site and we passed out floor plans and renderings so that each person could better understand what was to be constructed. There were then more speeches and it was actually a great opportunity for us as well as the participants to visualize the way the space will be used. The group of around 35-40 people fit easily into half of the multipurpose space and this reiterated the concept that Tom and Dorothy stated from the very beginning, that what may seem like small spaces to Americans can be efficiently utilized here in ways that we do not typically conceive of. The MonkeyBiz women and other participants that we met were more open and receptive to the design and the installation than we could have hoped. There were perhaps some that were confused about the installation and its purpose and humored us nonetheless, but as Stephanie (our law school mate at Blue on Blue) stated the most valuable aspect of the event was that we were able to convey our genuine attempt to communicate, share and learn with the MonkeyBiz women and community throughout the building process.




After the long day, and some fried chicken, we attended a short meeting with the community development forum mentioned earlier and Tom, Loyiso, and Nadeem were able to clarify the goals of the project and the current support of the surrounding community and we were also able to show our schematic design board to illustrate the nature of the building.

it was a full day, and a great day to continue to build support and ownership for the project within the local community.

18 June 2007

A week on the Cape

South Africa and the globe

Globalism is the state of all things smelling the same. The scent of a mall, full of commodity gadgets and the same clothing made with the same hands of southeastern Asia and central America as any other mall in the world, is the same in the outskirts of center city Cape Town as it is in my hometown. Often South Africa feels more like Canada. This shouldn’t be alarming since both were (and Canada still is) members of the Commonwealth, which allowed South Africa to be privy to the economic engines that fueled neo-liberal capitalist theory following World War II. Often, South Africa feels more like Italy—dirty in a way, ad hoc in another way, and the same protocol at the espresso bars of Cape Town. Walking around city center (known as the City Bowl, due to the surrounding mountains, including the famous Table Mountain) is an odd mix of Rome, Istanbul, and maybe some place like Guadalajara. I’ve only been to the first two, which is the source of my impressions, the point being that to some extent you feel the grit, the luxury, the darkness, the poverty, and the self-conscious social history of Cape Town all at once, as opposed to American cities where these sensations are often distinctly dispossessed of each other.

We live in St. James, a village in the greater municipality of Cape Town, and spend a great deal of town about a half mile down the road in Kalk Bay, a similar village with a commercial center and a nice collection of restaurants, shops, and watering holes. It is winter here, and many establishments and homes burn wood, sometimes in pyres along the sidewalk (as in the case of the all-you-can-eat-prawn-place), and the air, right along the ocean, smells of the briny sea across the street and the clear winter air through which currents of wood smoke blow. Sunset is early, for obvious reasons, and this can be surprising since I’m used to the lingering light of dusk still at 10:30 back in Michigan. It accounts for a superficial fatigue right around seven in the evening when it is completely black, much as it occurs in winter back home. As a result, we spend time in the studio talking, listening to music, or going to a new restaurant.

Food here at the restaurants is delicious and cheap, so going out to eat is a good activity and allows for meaningful social time. Many restaurants have fireplaces and lingering around is the expected practice. Even after three hours at a restaurant last night our server was surprised when asked for the bill. Thus the joke that in South Africa one partakes in the discussion course, the water course, the bread and oil course, the starter course, the main course, then coffee, then the tab course, the paying course, and the waiting for change course. In St. James and Kalk Bay nearly everyone is white and speak with British accents. But we were interested to learn that Kalk Bay was an area during Apartheid where blacks, coloureds, and whites lived together, and where the rigors of Apartheid were not so explicitly apparent. Whites in South Africa are either Afrikaners or British and speak Afrikaans or English; black Africans in the Western Cape consist of Xhosa and Zulu peoples including many from the Eastern Cape that come to the townships of Cape Town for work; coloureds are of mixed race, descended from blacks or whites and slaves brought from the east during imperial times.

Nearly all in Cape Town speak English, including the Xhosa people who prefer it over Afrikaans for obvious reasons. June 16 was a national holiday commemorating the student protests of June 16, 1976 in which over 170 students were killed during a demonstration against the obligatory teaching of Afrikaans. This event was central to the emergence of the Africa National Congress which would eventually overthrow Afrikaner rule and open up free democratic elections, ending Apartheid allowing for the transformation of the nation previously ostracized by the world’s powers. The ANC is contentious in politics today due to extensive corruption and the perception among the majority that they are not tending to the people; a liberal movement persuaded by the fruits of globalism. We are still learning much about South African politics and at a good time to boot what with elections in 2009 and the arrival of the World Cup in 2010, for which many policy programs mark as some sort of glorious apotheosis of the new South Africa. Obviously, most of the country won’t experience significant change as a result of that magic number and it all feels, I gather by talking to residents in Khayelitsha, like an inverse Y2K deal.

Khayelitsha is the Africa that we all expect. Children push low-slung crates on a crude sort of long bed wagon with wheels around the streets and I have only witnessed children with these things. There is a bus service that brings folks from the township into the city center and other parts of Cape Town. They are tall buses and long, with large non-reflective windows and dirty brown and yellow exteriors. In the fields between informal and formal settlements or housing developments there is trash strewn among the grasses and shrubs; trails crisscross these areas that people scavenge through them looking for things that may be useful. In the afternoon light they are emblazoned on the sky over the plain in which the township rests, an expanse of treelessness and sand that used to be the seabed. The government has implemented the construction of roads and along them some utilities such as street lights. They line the highways of the plain and end in the haze of the mountains along the horizon. Schools and community centers are under construction, as well as new houses, but waiting lists are long for houses which are small and ineffective as long-term dwellings.

Children who do go to school (over 80%) remain without skills and resources upon finishing. On the pavement zigzags spell out intersections and along the roads everyone seems to be carrying plastic bags. Strip malls and even big-box retail are popping up in the townships and people patron them despite a healthy skepticism of debt. Like many poor areas in America, even impoverished homes here have televisions or sound systems and it is common practice for people to play loud music from their front rooms during the day. Walking down the streets I hear Beyonce, Paris Hilton, and techno. The techno, some Berliner-shprockets high modernity nonsense, really makes things feel dystopian. 20-foot long containers double as shops—for barbers, pay phone booths, or fruit stands and they can be found at intersections within the neighborhood as well as along major roads. The train station in Khayelitsha is busted and makes use of ramps which during rush hour are packed and swarming with people. In the car we pass a funeral, another time on a walk we pass a meeting of residents who have gathered to discipline a boy in the community accused of robbery. Justice is bottom-up in the township, particularly in light of the fact that police are far away, and don’t attend to the informal squatter settlements. The colors of Khayelitsha are radiant, and the people here are in tight community. The greatest irony of poverty is that it often brings out the best of human cooperation. The residents take pride in what they can, just like anybody else in this world, and despite rising crime and drug problems, the residents of Khayelitsha are finding themselves empowered to reign in their community in a way that is really unprecedented, even in America. People are friendly and welcoming, and the children fascinated by visitors.

There is always the worry for xeno-exoticism, or the notion visitors have of the victimhood, innocence, purity, or righteousness of struggling communities or exotic peoples. Naturally, this can’t be avoided, and that’s alright to an extent. Curiosity and empathy are essential in all inter-human relations, particularly in cross-cultural exchanges where the aim is to share resources and glean learning from communities with different assets. Moreover, all peoples on this earth are xeno-exoticized to some extent. White Americans do it to Jennifer Anniston, Ivy League students, the Mafia, hicks, and Celtic culture. The difference in guiding productive and meaningful curiosity and empathy lies within a community’s expressed intentions, motivations, and the methodologies of interaction. At the end of the day, the dignity expressed between two people of different origin, livelihood, class, race, gender, or whatever else you want to distinguish, is about mutual experience, respect, love, and affirmation of personhood. Also at the end of the day, this isn’t really all that hard to accomplish. So, when I write fondly of the children of Khayelitsha who exude a vibrancy that I have witnessed only here, I do so because it’s true, not out of pride of having been in the center.

The drive to and from the township takes us along the dunes and the shore of False Bay. To the north and south are steep sandstone mountains that rim the plains. The dunes are lush with growth, the water is a deep blue on a sunny day, and the mountains are slightly obscured by haze depending on the magnitude of the well-known winds of the Cape that emerge from the confluence of the cold Atlantic currents and the warm Indian Ocean currents. All and all, the Cape is epic in its geography and represents the greatest aspirations and the deepest troubles of a country consciously dealing with identity and justice in a free market world. The former is, perhaps, and surprisingly, the result of the extraordinarily late arrival of official equal justice to a Commonwealth nation. In light of the flourishing of rights activism that was possible and supported in the mid-nineties, and the leadership of Nelson Mandela, South Africa is, or has the potential to be, one of the first major post-global nations. It can, under critical scrutiny and the affirmation of its assets, even those of unsavory histories, become a sustainable nation without the delusions of free market globalism.

17 June 2007

cool runnings

1--the name of a bar on Long Street with a sweet second-level balcony. Long Street is a fun downtown strip of bars, restaurants, and hostels that we'll definitely be hitting up in Cape Town, now that we know to stop before you get to the area where people will follow you down the street pulling on your sleeve (fist day mistake).

2--we met some friendly rastafarians outside the church in Khayelitsha yesterday.

3--this morning (actually afternoon since we actually slept in today) I went running in absolutely perfect weather. Up about 12 flights of stairs, along the base of the mountain, down to the beach, and back up along a gentle hill through Kalk Bay and St James. Then I ate an orange on my balcony overlooking the ocean. I'm possibly never leaving.

16 June 2007

pK in za

Part one of the project_KHAYELITSHA (pK) team has landed, and having just finished our first week I'll write about where we are at the moment. We just returned to our St James home from a full day in the township with our guide Loyiso. Nadeem, our unbelievably attentive--and hilarious--host dropped us off around 10am at the MonkeyBiz "Boat," the shipping container currently used by MonkeyBiz as a storage space and workplace for many of the local women bead artists. Yesterday we met many of these artists at the MonkeyBiz clinic in Cape Town, where we helped serve a little food and tag the beautiful dolls they had completed that week. Yesterday we also had the opportunity to meet with Barbara Jackson, Shirley Fintz, and Mathapelo Ngaka, the founders of MonkeyBiz, to show our current design plans and renderings and to talk about our upcoming work. Meeting these women was truly fabulous, as they all have such a passion for their work and very real ideas about the new center in Khayelitsha. I think our notions of the project were greatly informed and influenced by this visit.
Today as soon as we arrived on site we met Mathapelo's mother, who was equally warm and inspirational as she talked with us inside her home next door. From there Loyiso, a local who is experienced in agricultural and landscape projects (and who hopefully will be one of our collaborators on this project), took us all throughout the township, explaining both the newly planned and informal settlements as well as much of the culture of the area. When we finally spent some time on our site at the end of the day, I think we came to a better understanding of some of the challenges of the neighborhood, including the amount of trash, overbuilding of property lines, size limitations...but the bright bright African sun and the warmth of the neighborhood's people seem a good start to making the new center a success.
Okay, there's an initial basic run down. Now I have to get off our cozy studio floor to get ready for dinner in Kalk Bay with Cameron Sinclaire and a local (architect?) friend of his. He's been here for a few days also and is working on a project in Freedom Park, so it should be a great south-africa-is-incredible conversation. Our bed and breakfast is beyond amazing (fell asleep listening to the ocean last night), the weather has been lovely, and between rush hour martinis ($3!) up in cape town and dancing in a pool hall in the township today, we all can't wait to get going.