It is important to understand the City of Cape Town at a bigger scale when focussing ideas of a single building. It is interesting to uncover the city in looking at certain problems that exist and how long term solutions could be implemented towards a more efficient city. For example there is a need for more people living, working and playing in the Central City, The Fringe and District Six. This would enable smaller communities to develop and become self-sustaining. There is a need for more recreational facilities, such as running and cycling routes and public parks where people after a day of work, can run/walk from their office. The priority of the street needs to shift from the car to the pedestrian as our public transport improves.

 

My urban strategy ties in with my programme and concept for a dance school, where people are moving and expressing their bodies.

 

The dance school comes alive as movement through the building is visual from the street. The plan, to section, to 3D, evolved through imagining a dancer’s route, from arriving, changing, stretching, waiting and dancing. The studio on ground floor becomes an urban stage, as sectional overhead doors roll up to reveal an open platform to the street. This is where any form of performance has the opportunity to take place – be it an opera, a comedy or a ballet show.

 

There are moments of noise and activity within the atrium circulation stair and then there are moments of relief when entering a quiet studio. I have reinforced this contrast through materials chosen. The studios are timber sprung, whilst the central atrium is made of steel members and mentis grating in allowing light to filter through from above. A blind person could feel and hear their way through the building successfully. One could hear the on-going chatter through the central space, feel the slight grating beneath their soles, and then get that relief when they eventually enter into a studio; quiet and soft.