Of Simplicity and Beauty

So, it’s Christmas Eve. If you are reading this you have probably survived the malls and the shopping chaos. You have probably spent more money than you had planned. You have probably bought a whole lot of stuff that you don’t really like for people who don’t really want more stuff. But this is our tradition, or rather this is what we have been lead to believe is our tradition. Even those of us who do not come from the land of snowy pine trees, jingle bells and basted turkeys have kind of begun to play along with the “season” and obediently do year after year what is expected of us.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the year-end break. I love floating in the pool, not shaving and pottering aimlessly around the backyard in those moth-eaten khaki shorts that my wife told me to throw out some time before the 1994 elections. But, when I am quiet with myself and think about it, I see that what I love most about Christmas holidays is that there is less “stuff”. There is less driving, less school, less work,  less email, less meetings and less clothing (at least in the backyard).

It is perhaps in this time that I slow down my mind enough to ask myself: “If having less makes me so happy, why do I spend so much of my life energy trying to get more? “ A curious question actually, and I am not sure that I can answer it for myself completely in my own life. But what I am more interested to talk to you about in this column today, is our cities and the buildings in them.  Because it seems to me that the ways in which we have complicated our lives with more and more stuff, is reflected back at us in the shape and form of our cities and buildings that grow more and more complex, less and less efficient and further and further away from the ideal of “natural beauty” that remains embedded somewhere deep inside each and every one of us.

So, what I am dwelling on in my mind these holidays is the question: “Can we find beauty in the process of simplifying our cities and the buildings in them?”.  For me, this quest for simplicity must be a one that understands the city as a living function whole; perhaps in the same way that the beauty of the flower or the butterfly comes out if the simplicity of the design solution as a response to the “whole”. The design of the honey bee colony seems to me to be the simplest, most efficient way of pollinating flowers while feeding honey to young bees. Therein lays its beauty. But our cities are not like this. Our buildings are not like this. Rather, they invent complexity. They reflect in-elegant clumsy solutions of our busy cluttered minds.

The most efficient and simple way to put bread on the table is surely not to be a worker in a giant bread factory in order to earn just enough wages to buy bread. The most efficient and simple way to deal with rainwater can surely not be to pay taxes to build a bureaucracy to run a massive storm water systems to lead perfectly good drinking water off our roofs through complicated concrete channels to the sea, while catching other rainwater deep in the mountains in expensive dams and piping it hundreds of kilometres right to your toilet where you flush it into yet another pipe that takes the water away again to be collected in one big smelly lake before being dumped again, in the sea.

No, of course it does not make sense. But we have become so tired from working so hard to accumulate more “stuff” that we have forgotten that it even had to make sense in the first place. But before you think that I am going on about bread making or water reticulation, I am not. I am asking myself for example: “ Is there a simpler more beautiful way to educate my children?”, “Is there a simpler more beautiful way to provide quality food for my family?”, “Is there a simpler more beautiful way to provide shelter for my family?” “Is there a simpler, more beautiful way to see to it that my family is clothed?”

The sad truth is that I, like you, know that there are simpler and more beautiful ways to do all these things. We also know therefore that there are simpler design solutions for the buildings and cities that must accommodated these things.

 I, like you know, that if we were to have the courage to change, we would be much happier people on a much healthier planet.

 But……where to find this courage? Perhaps it is here, in my backyard somewhere? Perhaps in the cool shade of the Avocado tree?

All that is “building” is not “Architecture”

This column first appeared in the

The Port Elizabeth Herald on 14 October 2013.

Last week Monday, 1 October, was “World Architecture Day”. No; I did not do anything special either. I suppose I got distracted and caught up in all the excitement of World Yo-Yo day and the International Tennis Elbow Awareness week. You see, we live in a world where everything is important and Architecture has become one of those many, many important things. But, I wonder, is a world where everything is important not the same as a world where nothing is important? To be honest, I wasn’t even thinking about any of this on the evening of World Architecture Day. I was at home mending the hole in my backyard chicken house that the dogs had caused over the weekend while we were away. I did notice though, that the weaver birds had built the first nest of the spring in the Mulberry tree that overhangs my duckpond. The nest was well constructed, strong, resistant to wind and, I presume, quite dry inside. But, we know that the weaver bird’s nest is not “Architecture”. Animals can build, but only artists can create Architecture. Architecture is much more than just building, it is an art form. Architecture is a statement by a human mind about the mystical nature of beauty.

Two thousand years ago the roman Architect Vitruvius explained that for a building to be described as “Architecture” it must fulfil the requirements of “commodity, firmness and delight”. In other words, it is not good enough for a building simply to stand and to be functional. It must deliver “delight” to the users of the building. It must deliver “delight” in the same way that a great painting, or a great sculpture, or a great piece of music delivers “delight” to its audience. The difference with Architecture of course is that it is a functional, public art form that, in a very real way, touches the lives of the people that use it. But, the great advantage and significance of this art form is also its great weakness. Because, while those artists who paint with oil on canvas are left to do their own thing, Architects, are continually harassed by bureaucrats and salesmen claiming to be experts in “firmness” or “commodity”. The debate and discussion around “delight” and “what is beauty?” is largely abandoned in favour of arguments that can be supported by “measurables”: tangible things that can be quantified and counted. What strength of beam? What level of compaction below the surface bed? What length of escape to the fire exit?

But why, you may ask, am I even bothering you with this discussion? Is this not rather for Architects and Artists to discuss among themselves in coffee shops and libraries? I would say: “No! Absolutely not!”, because architecture, like other art forms, can only exist as art when it conects with the pubic that view it and use it. Great architecture needs great Architects, but only as much as it needs a public to appreciate it and powerful people to commission it.

Great architecture today, as always, happens only with the commitment and dedication of private sector investors, public sector developers and civic minded wealthy families. Very often individuals in these institutions make extraordinary sacrifices and take big risks in order to promote the idea of great architecture in an environment hostile to “outputs” that that which cannot be readily measured. An entire municipality or department of government can achieve a “clean audit” for ten years in a row without building one great piece of architecture. A property developer listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange can deliver excellent results for 20 years without building one great piece of Architecture. Wealthy families can show a much faster return on their money than by investing in great Architecture. Yet still, selfless individuals in these institutions, dedicated to the idea that there is more to this world what can be easily measured, have consistently seen to the implementation of great works of Architecture by great Architects. Because of this fact and in honour of these extraordinary people, every two years (for much of the 112 that the Eastern Cape Institute of Architects has been in existence), we pause to recognise and acknowledge great Architecture of our region. This process of acknowledgment culminates in an awards ceremony next week and a public exhibition of all the works of Architecture that put themselves forward for public scrutiny in the hope of receiving a much coveted “Award of Merit”.

This year the public are invited to view this exhibition of great work.  All of this happens in the dignified setting of the Port Elizabeth Opera House on 14, 15 and 16 October in an event called the “Urban Assembly”, which not only has three different exhibitions running simultaneously, but also has debates, speakers and activities running in the ornate and beautiful spaces that comprise africa’s oldest Opera House. This event seeks to elevate the discussion around the building of great Architecture and by extraction the building of great cities. It is for people that believe that we are able to transform the cities of our future and for people that know that, as a country and as a city we already have all the essential ingredients to build a great urban work of art in which we can all live our lives sustainably, efficiently and with the joy and pride that comes from being of a place that resonates with our contemporary culture.

Make a point of being there.

Tim Hewitt-Coleman 9 10 13

The Three Headed City Monster

(This piece first appeared in my column in the Herald on 20 September 2013)

My wife and I missed our evening walk on Tuesday. I decided rather to attend a critical evening meeting at the PE St Georges club. I usually prefer to avoid evening meetings to do important family work and to” veg out” on the couch with my dogs, but this meeting was different. It was one in a sequence of meetings that report back on the work of an exciting grouping of business leaders volunteering their time to what they call “Project NMB”. Under the direction of volunteers like Kobus Gerber, Michelle Brown and Andrew Barton, the project has in very little time, identified a clear list of “doable” projects that would turn this region around. They speak about plans for public access high speed Wi Fi, they speak about a clean, Green City, they speak about the freedom precinct and they speak about a full calendar events strategy. Great ideas, great clarity and an impressive commitment that comes from the sincere passion of people that know that Nelson Mandela Bay is yet to live its finest hour.

Sitting through the presentations in the Club’s grand and ornate colonial dining hall, I was remind again that this city is not faced with a shortage of great ideas. It is not faced with a shortage of great individuals. It has great weather. It has no malaria. It is not in a warzone nor is it a viable target for multi-national terrorists. So what are the obstacles?  To be honest, I am not exactly sure, but with your permission I would like to try out an argument on you to see if it resonates.

My argument to you is that the most significant obstacle to meaningful spatial transformation of South African cities lies not in a shortage of academic “know how”, not in a shortage on public sector investment, not in a shortage of private sector mobilisation, but rather in the entrenched dysfunctional relationship between the public, private and academic sectors.

Each of these sectors operates increasingly as a “silo”, separate from the next with no mechanisms available for true collaboration. The public sector has become driven by a number of imperatives that require it to “procure” the “services” offered by the private sector in a standardised procedure designed to “procure” anything from light bulbs to toilet cleaning contractors. The obvious fact that public and private sectors can best serve the urban crisis by contributing the best and brightest from their ranks to collaborate in providing, vision, leadership and direction, is of no concern to the faceless authors of our public sector’s “supply chain management” procedure. The unavoidable net result of this strategy is a contested, completely unproductive standoff between the public sector “urban silo” and the private sector “urban silo”.  No vision emerges from this standoff; no leadership emerges from this standoff. 

In a similar way urbanists in the “academic silo” come under increasing pressure to focus not on the South African urban crisis, but rather on “purer” academic pursuits. A 23 year old with a Phd that deals with some arcane branch of architectural theory is much more likely to assume a professorship in Architecture that a practitioner with 20 years’ experience in city building. This trend seems unstoppable with a momentum developed from very high up in our higher education community.  Architects who teach are now actively discouraged from participating in private practice. Those from private practice who give on their time and share their experience do so as volunteers. Academics offering to serve the public sectors are treated the same as their private sector counterparts, as a commodity to be bought through a “procurement system” with the same resultant frustration.

In this way the silos grow more and more isolated and positions within them become more and more entrenched, urbanists of otherwise impeccable credentials begin to withdraw into cynicism and isolation. Great ideas are shelved, big visions parked and energy diverted.

The sorry fact is that no workable protocol exists that enables top urbanists from the public, private and academic sectors to collaborate and share thinking on the spatial transformation. Instead we have developed the unsubstantiated and unscientific belief that a formalised, project level “public participation” process will magically and miraculously manifest the big ideas we know are waiting to turn our cities around. Well, it hasn’t and it won’t.

In the world of city building I am afraid “public participation” amounts to no more than  a series of noisy meetings in stuffy halls where the housewife’s, car guards and estate agents clamber for the microphone drowning out the voice of any academic or private sector urbanist with real value to add. Yes, its democratic. Everyone gets a say. But that does not mean that we are harvesting the best ideas from the minds of the few that are excellently placed to take us forward. There is no meaningful collaboration, so we stay where we are.

Is there any solution? Is there any alternative to these dysfunctional relationships? Is there any way out of this urban crisis? Of course there is. These challenges were made by people like you and me and the can be overcome by people like you and me.  It’s up to us to develop new protocols and to have the courage as activists, in whichever silo we sit, to do whatever it takes to push them through, to confront our management, to put ourselves at risk.

The re-shaped cities of the future depend on our action.

Tim Hewitt-Coleman  18 09 2013

We can all take green action

(this column first Appeared in The Herald on 7 August 2013)

I spent last Sunday afternoon strolling around the exhibits at the Homemakers fair in Port Elizabeth. I had a reasonable cappuccino, did not lose any children and managed to cleverly avoid a route that passed by the super expensive leather lounge suite my wife has had her eye on.  All in all, not too terrible an outing. But as I drove home on that wintry afternoon, I caught myself harbouring curious, little, almost subconscious feelings of guilt for not buying all the cool and trendy “green” home improvement technologies on offer. I shrugged off the guilt very quickly as I came to see for the first time that we have been lead very cleverly into a trap of believing that climate change is our fault because we have not bought the latest vacuum tube solar water geyser, or the rainwater harvester with in- line UV sanitizing, or the super efficient wind turbine with deep cycle batteries. We have somehow allowed ourselves to be conned into believing that in order to solve the problem on years of excessive consumption, we have to buy more stuff!

 I love all of these new technologies. They are so much fun. It gives a sense that all of us are pioneering a new path in some way. But, there is a lot more that we can do to bring about greener buildings. No, I don’t think its practical that we all start living in houses made of coke bottles and Checkers packets and I don’t think that we should feel guilty about not being “hippy” enough to do it.

The action that ordinary working people can take has much more to do with the choices we make than the new things we buy. Allow me to give some practical examples. Walk into your boss’s office and ask if the building has had an air tightness

test done, showing “leakage rate of less than 15 cub m/hr/sqm at relative pressure of 50 Pa”. Explain to your boss that an air tight building requires less heating and less cooling and therefor uses much less electricity, therefore burns less coal, therefore causes less climate change.

Or how about this? In your next job interview ask what percentage of the space is “naturally ventilated in accordance with SANS 10400”. Explain you anticipate receiving more than one job offer and one of the factors that will help you choose is the Indoor Environmental Quality of your future place of work.  Or perhaps when you choose a school for your child, be sure that you select  one that offers 60% or more of its teaching spaces with a “daylight factor of not less than 2% at desk height under a uniform design sky”. You don’t even need to know exactly what this stuff means (I have put a comprehensive looking list on the Urban Circle Blog. This may help).

By taking these actions you get two things to happen. Firstly you can make an informed decision and vote with your feet, letting the market slowly isolate the big property owners who are not getting with the programme and rewarding those that are. Secondly you are sending a clear message with each action that Green Building issues such as these need to be put on the agenda of these large organisations, that these are not just “nice to haves”, but “must haves”.

Next time you buy a house or rent a flat tell the agent you only want to see properties that comply with SANS 204: 2008 (energy efficiency in buildings). If a thousand of us or even a hundred of us start doing this, property developers will very quickly begin to respond.  When you sign up for a gym membership make sure the gym uses harvested rainwater to flush its toilets and to irrigate its garden. If there is no gym that does this, then choose the one that promises to do it in the shortest period of time.

Many of these actions are longer term and slower moving, but what you can do today to reduce greenhouse gases is to walk from your office to the ATM. Walk from your home to the supermarket. Take a bus to the Library. Walk to the post office. If your place of work is not within 400 m of an ATM, a post office and a supermarket, get another job. If you are a business person looking for new premises, choose one within walking distance of public transport and the basic amenities people need every day. In this way we reduce the number of cars and the emissions they cause. We will reduce the amount of electricity required to process the steel to make these cars. We will reduce the amount of petrochemical asphalt required to build the roads on which we drive these cars up and down.

What I think I am saying is, don’t underestimate the value of the action you can take every day. These actions all help toward the creation of greener buildings and a greener city. If you can buy the expensive new technologies that make you home greener, please do. If you can live in a house made of re-cycled plastic, please do. But if you can’t do those things right now, don’t feel guilty. There is a lot you can do to get the big guys in business and government to take notice and to change things around.

Start today.

THC 1 08 13

How green is your building?

 People often make vague references to how "green' their building is. The Green Building Council of South Africa has a very comprehensive system of "star ratings" which definitively rate a building's greenness. You may want to pressurize your employers to make sure their premises are green, We have worked through the Green Building Council's thick manual and come up with this short list of questions you can ask your boss about the building in which you work:

Management

Is there a building users guide explaining all aspects of how the building is best used to achieve green objectives? If not, when will there be one available?

Has an a air tightness test been carried out showing leakage rate of less than 15 cub m/hr/sqm at relative pressure of 50 Pa?

Indoor Environmental Quality

Is 95% (or more) of the usable area is naturally ventilated in accordance with SANS 10400-O (minimum 5% openable area)?

Are external views are available to 60% (or more)  of the usable area, by direct line of sight?

Does 60% or more of the usable area have a Daylight Factor of not less than 2% at desk height level under a uniform design sky?

Energy

Does the building comply with SANS 204: 2008 (Energy Efficiency in Buildings)?

Transport

Is there reliable public transport within 1000 m?

Are any four of the following within 400 m of public entrance of building: ·         bank/atm ·         convenience store/ supermarket ·         medical facilities ·         post office ·         restaurant ·         Gym ·         Library ·         School.

Does your building accommodate cyclists with showers and bicycle racks?

Water

Are 50% (or more) of the toilets in the building flushed with harvested rainwater?

Is 50% of more of landscape irrigation achieved with harvested rain water?

Of Fear and Order

(This Column first appeared in The Herald on 7 June 2013)

Article in the Herald - 4 June 2013

For a Saturday morning, things were going pretty much as they usually do. My daughter’s under 10 hockey match at 8:30, a quick croissant and coffee in Parliament Street, then dashing through to Charlo or Lorraine or Summerstrand or wherever ever the birthday party/play date/guitar lessons were on that particular day. To be honest I can't remember where I was on my way to, but I do remember a mild throbbing in my head recalling a particularly tasty Friday evening Merlot and  I do remember that I drove past the site that Continental Tyres has been trying to rezone for the last two years. The land lies there, fallow, windswept and bare, offering no benefit, no opportunity and no hope. That's probably why I hardly noticed it and why I certainly did not think of it at all again until I read Mandla Madwara speaking about it in the Herald this week. 

Mandla was eloquently complaining that we can't afford a city where, routine procedures like rezoning get caught up in red tape for such a long time that even the biggest and most well-resourced corporations become exhausted and frustrated to the point of moving their money elsewhere. My concern about this issue though is not so much about the "how" of the rezoning process, but about the "why". I mean, why are we as a city bothering with ”zoning” at all? Don't get me wrong. I am all for legislated building regulations that protect us from fires, shoddy construction and stairs that are too steep. I am all for environmental legislation that stops us from building flats over the swamp where the rare three toed frog lives.  I am all for Heritage legislation, that stops us knocking down a quaint settler cottage to build a Seven Eleven.  What I specifically question in this discussion is the reason for the existence of municipal town planning controls.

But what are town planning controls? Quite simply, they are a set of "rules" that the city makes up to tell you what they think you can and cannot do on the land that you bought and paid for. They are rules that tell you that the municipality would prefer, for example, that you pray there, but don't sleep there, or that ten families may live there, but not eleven. They are rules that tell the shop owner that they are to provide 6 parking bays for their customers when he knows his business customers only need four. Other rules say that you may build two storeys, but not three, or ten meters from your boundary, but not nine. When your idea for what you want to build on your property is different to what the Town Planning controls permit, you have to prepare what is commonly called a “re-zoning” application. It is this application that Continental Tyres has still not got approval for after two years of waiting.

What I am asking myself is: “What would our world look like without Town Planning controls?” Would the resulting city be so intolerable that it would have less economic development? Would such a city create less jobs than the zoned city? Would a city without town planning controls be uglier?

There is of course no way of knowing for sure, but we can get clues from those parts of towns and cities around the world that were built before our contemporary obsession with town planning controls. I have made it a point to visit these places. I find them exciting, vibrant and viable. The best parts of Amsterdam, Mombasa, London, Shanghai, Antananarivo, Buenos-Aires and Stone Town, were all built in an era before anybody dreamed up the idea of “zoning”, “coverage” or “building lines”. In spite of the traffic jams and other minor inconveniences, these are some of the best places in the world to be. If we have developed our municipal town planning controls to prevent our cities becoming like those places, then I think our energy has been grossly misplaced.

It is actually surprisingly hard to find, in any of the Municipality’s documents any meaningful explanation as to why we need town planning controls at all. Heritage legislation explains that its reason for existence is to protect old stuff. Environment legislation explains that it exists to promote biodiversity and other such good things. The National Building Regulations explain that they are there to ensure safe and healthy buildings. But, the closest I can get to a justification for town planning controls is that they promote “order”.

“Order” seems to me to be the opposite of “freedom”. PW Botha used the word “order” a lot to justify his actions in the eighties. I remember the old UPE using the word “order” to justify why its student dress code required men to where pale safari suites with the socks rolled down at the knee. “Order” to me speaks about entrenching the status quo. “Order” speaks to me about making it difficult for a new entrant to the property market to use their property in such a way as to allow them to compete with the old guard.

So, I say to the city fathers: Stop meddling with our freedoms! Trust us. Trust the economy to create the balance. Trust the legislation to guarantee the non-negotiables. Release the landowners of this city to boost the economy, create jobs and stimulate a vibrant and integrated urban experience.

There is no reason to fear!

Freedom and the shape and form of South African cities

Freedom is so complicated. There are so many difficult decisions to make all the time. Do I get Top TV with its new porn channels? Do I marry a gay person? Do I wear a headscarf to work? Do I circumcise myself after high school? Do I circumcise my son at birth? Do I just let my foreskin do its own thing?

It was all so much easier in the old days when they treated us like children. We were told what to think, told what to do, told where to stay, who to have sex with and what gods to pray to.  Now of course, there is so much choice that it is mind boggling and we all suddenly expected to be adults and make up our own minds.

It does seem though that the ideas that we have of freedom take longer to trickle down to some aspects of our lives than it does to others. The aspect that I am quite interested in of course the urban aspect. Cities and town in South Africa now accommodate half the country’s population. That means that 50% of the country’s population now look to towns and cities for the space they need to express their freedom.

So, I ask:

“How has freedom changed the shape and form of our cities since the days of apartheid?”

When I drive the dusty streets of Missionvale or Motherwell, I am struck by how little has visibly changed since freedom. There are still shacks, far and remote from the city. Refuse clutters up open spaces and things seem generally run down. My mother-in-law lives in a cul-de-sac in Connacher Street, New Brighton. (Yes I have the freedom to choose a mother in law from New Brighton) I have been visiting her there since the late eighties and have, since those days, every winter, had to park my car in the same muddy puddle outside her house. Freedom has not yet tarred the dirt road outside my mother in law’s house. Freedom has, though, managed to build a Stadium, a Casino, two five star hotels, a number of glitzy shopping malls, a billion dollar container port and a very big brewery.  Sure, the townships have rows and rows of new concrete block, featureless RDP houses. Some street lights and sewers have been installed, but no matter what way you look at it, we are still faced with a stark and distinct contrast between town and township. There is no blurring of the edges in any way. Yes, millions have been spent on infrastructure. Yes, the scale of the problem is immense, but we would not be doing justice to the challenge by not being brutally honest that we are nowhere near achieving the objective of making “township”, “town”. If we continue to move at this pace, I can assure you, our cities in 20 years’ time, will still be characterised by the terms “town” and “township”.

Many of my friends, I am sure, will say that I am confusing “freedom” with “prosperity” and that we are all now free to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We are all now free to get a fancy job and buy a house in Summerstrand, away from the muddy township streets, littered parks and shack land gangsters. But these friends may be overlooking an important piece of context here. We must remember that the shape and form of our cities is set in the mould of a grand apartheid plan. A spatial plan that not only kept people of different complexions apart, but much, much more significantly, housed  the poor and working class in locations remote from the city centre, remote from opportunity and remote from cultural institutions. It kept the poor remote from all the benefits that come from the proximity generally associated with living in a city. But most curiously and surprisingly, in Nelson Mandela Bay, we have continued to build our city in this mould. We have continued in almost all instances to perpetuate the apartheid city masterplan; locating poor and working people further and further from the centre beyond Motherwell on the road to Addo and beyond Bethelsdorp on the back road to Kwanobuhle.

No matter what we say, poor people are not free to live where they want in the city. Poor people are not free to take advantage of the opportunities that the city has to offer. Poor people continue to be located in such a way and under such conditions as to be lumped with all the disadvantages of rural living, without any of its advantages. They are located in such a way as to be exposed to all the disadvantages of urban living, without any of its advantages. Ask these people to list what has changed in their lives since freedom, and I expect you will not need a very long page.

My argument ,  therefore,  is  that, quite a few (not all) of the causes of poverty and barriers to progress in our city have to do with physical and spatial planning features we have inherited. My further argument is that we have done very little so far to undo this terrible planning legacy, we are instead, perpetuating it.

We can definitely do better, but in order to do so we have to agree that this matter belongs on the agenda and deserves urgent attention. “Business as usual” Is just not an option.

THC

Searching for the real thing

This piece first appeared in The Herald on 10 April 2013.

It was a particularly miserable Wednesday evening on Stanley Street. The Easter Weekend rain that had washed away the Splash festival had left behind a cold, damp windy drizzle in its wake. But still, the street pavements were full of people; students, yuppies, car guards, artists, hippies, wanabee’s and buskers. It was a week night. It was a wet night. It was a cold night, but still we struggled to get an inside table at a restaurant or find a parking spot.

So, as we sipped our wine outside, on the pavement, huddled in our jackets against the wind, I could not help but wonder a little about why Stanley Street, in Richmond Hill, has become such a popular place to be. I mean, it’s nice, there are people walking up and down, quaint shops and restaurants, trees planted down each side of the street, but no evidence of any flamboyant spending. No dancing fountains, no Zara super store, no four storey high ice-rinked  atrium with glass lifts whizzing silently up and down. Why then, were my wife and I, like so many others, rather, instead, not enjoying climate controlled, 24 hour security, undercover parking,  porcelain tiled comfort of any number of malls, shopping centres or franchise eateries available for us to choose from on any given evening. Why were we abandoning comfort and security for this wobbly table on a windy sidewalk in an ageing part of town.  I am sure some would argue that Stanley Street’s popularity has to with the quality of its restaurants. Some would talk about accessibility; others still would guess that about the particular entrepreneurial vision of a key initial property investor.

But I don’t think the success and popularity can necessarily be ascribed to any one of those factors in isolation. In fact, I am trying here to convince you, that what we see in Stanley Street is evidence of a far greater global movement and mind shift. And, of course, it’s not just Stanley Street. We see this re-awakening in Central, we have seen it in the Cape Town inner-city. All through the UK, US and Australia inner-city neighborhoods have become re-invigorated filled with new life, new energy and new business. So, what’s this all about? I am arguing that this phenomenon,  is evidence of the beginning of a wider shift in consciousness which includes the wholesale rejection of all that is fake, a rejection falsehood, pretense and scam.  As mass manufacture, mass media and massive institutions private and public seek do dominate and control, we see beginnings of a backlash and a resistance.

Being continually bombarded by commercial messages and plots to extract money from us has left many cynical and jaded. Growing numbers of people no longer trust big business, big money and big institutions. These powerful “machines” make us stand in queues, they make us talk to their call centres, they keep making us change our passwords, they anger and frustrate us. This new cynicism has led to rush for antiques and collectables instead of cheap Chinese imports  and a rush to social media instead of American TV channels.  Those that still watch TV, watch “reality” TV choosing rather to watch the boring authentic lives of Big Brother housemates over the fake interesting lives of The A Team, Knightrider or the Brady Bunch. More and more people reject branded goods for the hand made alternative. Artisan breads, micro-breweries and a Barista crafting your Cappuccino just the way you like it.

Grassfed beef, whole milk, free range chicken and genuine leather are all part of this movement toward authenticity. Less and less do we tolerate artificial flavouring, dubbed movies or plastic Christmas trees. They are just not the real thing and are not good enough.

A growing number of people are searching for authenticity. People are searching for what is real, sincere and meaningful. For our cities, that means more and more people will come to reject remote suburban malls. More and more people will reject the franchise steakhouse with is standardised happy birthday clap along song and dance. The taste for the authentic drives these people away from the remote, sterile, cookie cutter secure complexes in Lorraine. This movement drives people away from insanely clean, manicured office parks where people live out their days in insanely sterile manicured office jobs. 

In growing numbers, people choose Stanley Street and other inner city environs like it, not because they are cleaner, not because it is dryer or less windy, not because the pick pockets and drug dealers are banished, but because these environments feel real, they feel sincere and they feel authentic. These environments exhibit less evidence of heavy handed government planning controls that seek to sterilise and segregate. Houses in a houses zone. Shops in a shops zone and restaurants in a restaurant zone. Buildings neatly spaced out with nice lawn between them. No messy parking in the street. No people cluttering up the pavement. All very clean, but oh so boring and oh so fake.

Perhaps, what we see starting in Stanley Street and in Central can be the beginning of that “special something”  that Port Elizabeth and the Nelson Mandela Bay has to offer the world. PE can’t be more Joburg than Joburg. PE can’t be more Hollywood than Hollywood. PE can’t be more Vegas than Vegas, but PE can be the best in the world at being sincerely, authentically PE, the real thing!

Tim Hewitt-Coleman

March 2013 Newsletter for the Easter Cape Institute of Architects

Dear Colleagues,

March 2013 newsletter

I was watching with interest how the Easter Weekend rain washed away the "Splash Festival" (again). This muddy no-show came after weeks of consternation about the budget and wringing of hands about the "Splash" brand and how to best position the Nelson Mandela Bay "brand" in the eyes of tourists and locals. But, if one can look through the hype and sales talk of events Companies and PR types, there is of course the real and on-going dilemma of how cities and regions compete for the attentions of the fickle masses of tourists and business people.

The message of how great/clean/fun/crime free/inexpensive your particular town or city is, is very difficult to get across and be heard above the noise of paid commercial advertising from Reebok, Coke or Castle Lager.

By comparison, actually, Architects have a much stronger "brand" than most, cities regions and even many countries. (I would guess that more people in the world know what an Architect is, compared to the amount of people who know where Cape Town is)

The word "Architect" (and its translation into every spoken language) has a real and specific meaning all over the world. If you say you are an Architect, there is a degree of trust that you know something about buildings and about their design. This has been the case for hundreds of years. We are custodians of a very strong brand that is likely to stay strong for hundreds more years if we look after it. But what can you and I do? I am sure we can think of a hundred ways to defend and strengthen our brand ( and I for one, would like to here from readers of this mail regarding those ideas).

But, if we think about Coca-Cola for a second. Such a simple product, but one which keeps a promise, one which maintains the trust of the consumer. When you open a can of Coke (no matter where you bought it, no matter how much you paid) you know that you are going to taste Coke. Not milk, not horse urine, not watered down Coke without fizz, but Coke. The real thing. We all trust the Coke brand and that's why we buy it. The Coca-Cola company does not let any other drink call themselves Coke. It does not even allow them to come close to using their colors or their particular font or shape.

Architects; i suggest that this is the attitude that we must have toward our brand. If an Architect claims to be selling the services of an Architect, that is what she must deliver. Not milk, not horse urine, no watered down Coke with no fizz. To allow inferior service, not worthy of the brand "Architect", will diminish and eventually destroy this fantastic gift that we have been given. Who must police this service? I argue to you today, that it is us as Architects that must do this work, as fearless volunteers, not government, no not SACAP or other regulated bodies. We must do it.

With our brand intact we will survive the fashions of procurement and tendering that will come and go as the economy and the public mood breathes in and out.

So what can we do? ........Many, many things. Let’s begin by sharing with each other the good ideas that we have for strengthening our brand. As some clever Chinese chap, (whose name I have just forgotten and whom I am probably misquoting)  is once rumoured to perhaps have said.

"Everyone action taken is worth a thousand good intentions"

Yours in pursuit of Architectural Excellence,

Tim Hewitt-Coleman - Architect.

February 3013 - Newsletter for the Eastern Cape Institute of Architects

February 2013

Dear Colleagues,

February has been a surprisingly positive month for our city. We have “close to capacity” crowds watching our local team engaged in world class rugby at our world class stadium, we have a municipal manager appointed for the first time in three years and we have Sun International officially opening the new conference centre and five star hotel at the Boardwalk complex in Summerstrand. These are all very encouraging signs of growth, stability and revival in a city in which we all believe.

In fact, I was fortunate to be a guest at this weekend’s opening ceremony for the new and improved Boardwalk complex. But, as I sat at the glitzy, over-the-top, launch function, I could not help but notice those things that architects notice. Yes of course the design of the imposing dolls house façade of the 5 star hotel, is not to everyone’s taste. (In fact it is not to my taste at all, but I expect there are a good number of paying customers whose view is a greater consideration to South Africa’s premier hotel and leisure developer.) But as the function progressed and the mandatory speeches of the politically powerful drew on into the evening, the design issues moved further and further from the front of my mind. Rather, I began to think of the role of our local, Port Elizabeth based, professionals in the project. The project was carried out by a full team of local consultants: structural, civil, town planners, mechanical and electrical engineers. Except for the Architects, where the work was carried out by two Johannesburg based firms. (Yes, there was some “local” architectural support, but only a very small, limited appointment.)

As I contemplated the over-catered exotic foods, the scantily clad waitrons and the exuberant fireworks display that evening, I could not help but to become a little anxious of a pattern I have noticed, where any project of significance in this town requires the leadership and vision of some outside Architectural firm. We see it with the Capetonians at the new Baywest Shopping Centre, we saw it at the North End Stadium with the Germans, we see it now at the Boardwalk and even at the NMMU, where the prized commissions are snapped up by Cape Town or Johannesburg firms.

But, what to do? Can this tendency by reversed?  I, for one, have long given up on the futile idea of trying to defend “our territory” against outsiders. Why? Because this sword cuts both ways. Many architects in our region are doing good work outside of our region and outside of our country, making it insincere and contradictory to argue that we should not be open for business to Architects from outside of our region and our country. Rather, I think we must embrace the reality that the world in which we live is a world of specialisation. We have got to get good at something and to be seen to be good at that thing. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot be based in Port Elizabeth and be recognised as the world’s best in some aspect of design and construction. This, I believe, must be our focus as an Institute. We must be seen to be pushing for the conditions that would enable our members to deliver cutting edge work of the highest order. This is how we remain relevant; this is how we remain competitive. All other “protectionist” strategies are for the short term and eventually tend toward making us weak and lazy. We can’t afford to be weakened any more than we are. Its not an option.

A few years ago I visited the Cairn’s Convention Centre on the north east Australian coast. We were investigating the potential for an International Convention Centre here in Port Elizabeth and we were told we had to visit Cairns as their centre had been voted the world’s best four times in a row. Now bear in mind that Cairns has the population less than Uitenhage and airport the size of Upington’s. The sea is un-swimmable because the mud and mangroves. There is nothing really special about the town at all, but because of the commitment of the town’s leaders to provide an excellent international conference experience, the place is booked out year after year by big spending international conferences.

So, can PE become to the world of Architectural Design, what Cairns is to tourism? Well, I don’t know. But if the answer is “no”, then it is not “no” because we are too small a city, it is not “no” because our airport is too small, it is not “no” because Cape Town is hipper or Jo’burg shinier. If we decide that we want to develop our city as having a reputation for excellent design, for sustainable design, for sensitive Heritage design, for urban renewal, for people focussed “developmental” design, then we better get going with it. We had better get going with figuring out what the first step is, because it is possible. Or we could then of course just do nothing, leave things to chance and winge to each other as our profession is eroded by “outsiders”, “experts” and hostile clients.

I think, I would prefer that we don’t do nothing. We have tried that for some years now. It’s got us where we are now.

But more importantly; what do you think?

Yours in Architectural Excellence

Tim Hewitt-Coleman

(President – East Cape Institute of Architects)

January 2013 newsletter for the Eastern Cape Institute of Architects

January 2013

Dear Colleagues

,

Welcome to the first Newsletter for the year from the Eastern Cape Institute of Architects. We will be sending out these communications monthly, in order to give a view of what is topical to our profession and to the built environment. 

If you are anything like me then you already have too much information coming to your desk and you can’t stomach the idea of another monthly mail that you wont get around to reading. I urge you please to see this Newsletter rather as a time saving device, a view of what you should look into in greater depth and what you could perhaps come back to later.

·         The ECIA has a very useful website (www.ecia.co.za) (thanks Jacques van Tonder) All important notices, memos and minutes are stored there for you to browse through at your leisure. The newsletter will not duplicate that information, but rather highlight what may be most relevant or pressing.

·         The ECIA now has an active Facebook page (thanks Jo Staats). This is an ideal forum for members to engage in debate and discussion around issues relevant to us in our work as Architects. Please “like” the page “Eastern Cape Institute of Architects”

·         You can follow the ECIA on twitter @ECIAPE (Please do). Jo Staats is in control of this feed and posts only quality information there for us.

·         The ECIA has begun to post videos of lectures you may not have been able to attend. These can be found on Youtube (thanks Tarique Abdul) at

http://www.youtube.com/user/eciarchitects

“So what does the year have in store for us?”

January would not be complete without us pondering this question. Let me offer you my view, so we can see how different it is to yours. The truth is, I see a good year ahead.  I say this sincerely and I say it for the following reasons:

·         I see a consensus developing that the worst of the economic downturn is now behind us and that the public and private sector are starting to build buildings again. House prices are beginning to rise and there are some reports coming through of agents reporting stock shortages especially at the lower end of the market. Shortage of stock means new buildings have got to be built and that means business for Architects.

·         I also see that we are heading for national elections next year, and when I look back at the last three national, there was a definite spike in urgency from the public sector developers in the year or so before. I predict we will see the same this time around and have already begun to see evidence of renewed vigour in stalled or sluggish projects.

·         I predict that the political impasse that has crippled Nelson Mandela Bay’s administration of the last few years, will in the coming months find resolution. I see this as an unexpected by-product of the Manguang conference, where our Mayor, Zanuxolo Wayile, visibly supported the winning  “Zuma” faction and his arch rival, regional political boss Nceba Faku, vociferously backed the Monlante  “loosing horse”. Why is this important for Architects to watch? Because it now becomes more likely that the ANC in the region will rally behind our mayor knowing that he is on a winning wicket; and a Mayor with strong support in his own party is a mayor who can be decisive and effective. And we all know that getting buildings built requires decisive and effective leadership. We will watch this space eagerly.

·         The other dynamic I am watching carefully is the tragedy of dramatically low fee tenders that are being accepted by many of our clients. In the past year the MBDA and National Department of Public Works accepting tenders with 40 and 50 percent fee discounts. There are only two possible outcome of this trend:

o    the first outcome sees firms continue to offer the service that we have traditionally expected the architect to provide, but find their expenses outstripping their income leading to inevitable business collapse.

o    The second outcome sees firms compromise dramatically on quality of service. Working ‘to rule’ but in the process damaging the built environment and the long standing good reputation of the Architect as a professional.

Controversially, perhaps, I would argue that both of these outcomes will lead to corrections that would improve prospects for Architects in the longer term. The first outcome will see Architects tendering too low punished with business failure, leaving those that survive to continue, but at more realistic rates.  The second outcome, will see client organisations looking more carefully at their procurement systems to protect themselves against the inevitable poor service that emanates from a tender process that emphasises lowest price above all else.

Whatever happens, 2013 promises to be full of excitement? We have an excellent committee elected at the AGM toward the end of last year. This new team will build on the success and the momentum of Professor Albrecht Herholdt’s 2011/2012 committee. This committee is made up of: Albrecht Herholdt, Andrew Palframan, Bandile Boyana, Debbie Wintermeyer, Jacques van Tonder, Johann Staats, Mary Mangan, Neill Kievit, Nicola Darke, Tim Hewitt-Coleman

These people have all volunteered their time and energy to the cause of the Architectural Profession in the region. Please support them in their task by taking them into your confidence by sharing your frustrations, dreams and ideas.

Colleagues, lastly, please remember that we run the Merit awards programme this year. (thanks Andrew Palfarman and Debbie Wintermeyer) You will be called upon later in the year to submit your best work for a panel of expert judges to assess. Yes, it’s scary, but please participate. This process of peer review and peer recognition is part of what makes our profession great.

Thank you.

Yours in Architectural Excellence

Tim Hewitt-Coleman

(President – East Cape Institute of Architects)