WEEK 23: CONSTRUCTION COMPLETION AND SNAGGING

The Muizenburg project is reaching its completion this week, and of course as usual snagging has to be done. The structure has turned out exactly like we had predicted it. 
I am still on a fan of it but I am glad that we have managed successfully finish yet another project. 

Now there are a few minor tasks like fixing fascia boards, painting and cleaning up. And then we will come back for another round of snagging.

WEEK 21: SIGNAGE SCHEDULES

This week has been filled with the the same thing throughout. I have been working on the Symphony Way Day Centre signage for a while now.

The signage basically consists of all the important door and directional signage around the structure to make navigation easier. What I have to do is draw up each sign individually as the doors have different signs according to their location, type and sizes. The client (Western Cape Health Department) has been a bit of a problem when it comes to delivery of what is required in order to complete the task at hand. They are required to submit pictograms that are supposed to go with the signage but alas, some are missing and some are incorrect. 

The task has been a new experience to me as I haven't done anything like this as far as schedules are concerned. I was not even aware that architects have to face the responsibility if doing this in the first place. But then again, of course we are jacks of all trades. 

So what I have been busy with this week is compiling the signage with my nonexistent graphic design experience in order to make 1:1 scale mock-ups to manually paste on site for the signage company to copy from. That means printing out the big signs, cutting them and sticking them together if necessary. 

WEEK 22: COUNCIL SUBMISSION SET

This week I have taken a short break from what has become a really depressing task of doing and re-doing the same signage due to inconsistency of the client, and went back to what we are good at - alterations. 

A client approached us a while ago to help with altering his Observatory home. The client asked for an extra room to be added to the existing Victorian house. What made this interesting was how we were going to add another room in the already limited boundaries of the site. Unfortunately for the client, the house is joined to another, with only a party wall separating them. 

So what do we do? Well, there's always a way around these old Victorian houses. Because the roof space between the trusses is big enough to fit head height, it was decided that the new room would be a loft space. Problem solved. 

But what we did not foresee was that the truss space isn't actually high enough for head height, so alterations to the roof structure would have to be added. The drawings were drawn up and now it was up to me to finish the council submission set. So this week I have been working on that, and not matter how small the project is, it was welcome with warm hands because it's at least design related.

WEEK 20: THE DELFT CLINIC PROJECT

Last week we had a meeting at Carin Smuts' home studio to discuss a project. It was revealed earlier this week that the project was a Clinic in Delft, and it is being handed over to us in a near complete state.

The clinic had been under Carin's employee who has decided to leave the compnay to pursue her studies. So what we basically have to do is snagging and focusing on the signage around the clinic.We visited the site to see what is being handed over to us before we can actually start working on it.

The Symphony Way Day Care Centre is a typical Carin Smuts design. It consists of different blocks, scattered around the whole site in order to make up one interesting structure. I must say I am excited to be embarking on a different journey this time around,as this is my first project of this scale even though it has come to me in a complete state.

WEEK 19: EQUITY STUDIO

This week takes a different and exciting turn that will see me doing something new. Or at least that is what my boss told me when we went to Carin Smut’s incredible home studio to discuss this super secretive project.

Well of course I could not sit in the meeting to discuss this as I had my babysitting duties, during which I took time to admire Carin’s lovely design. This woman is a design genius, she could be our very own Zaha Hadid if South Africa was not such a design conservative country.

I only looked at the form of the design as that was immediate and most striking.