Michael De Beer

The research focuses on Sound and Architecture, aimed at informing a project proposal in the cultural capital heart of Valparaiso, Chile.

The methodology has been informed by an approach by the Ameriada group and the Open City that both advocate for alternative approaches to architectural design. A key informant being the Act, which proponents such as Alberto Cruz has advocated for.

With recent imperatives in South Africa to align nodal development with urban networks, this dissertation adds to an understanding of economic factors influencing development. By identifying principles, relationships and factors that bear on the economic performance and impact of urban interventions, the study aims to contribute to an informed perspective that enable actors in the built environment to design and implement achievable visions that support sustainable growth. The research engages with transport orientated development,
factors influencing development, competitiveness of cities and locations, as well as the spatial economy, characterising the primary economic factors influencing the built environment. The research finds that users and firms guide the actions of developers, but their relationship is under considered and at times taken for granted. The current paradigm believes that good economics are a result of good urban interventions. This dissertation, however, views an interdependent system of cause and effect in which users and firms, as a sign of good economics, are an origin and result – they’re what we react to and plan for. If we understand this catalytic influence of users and firms in the context of spatial economic dynamics we can begin guiding city growth and addressing socio economic inefficiencies, a critical issue in post-Apartheid South Africa. With focus on transport orientated development in Cape Town, a proposed design intervention is rationalised on various scales according to principles drawn from the research. The site, in Mitchells Plain, is identified as a priority urban area to develop sustainable economic growth and address issues of inequity and inefficiency in the city of Cape Town.

Positions in Practice : Constructing the Commons in the Latin American Metropolis, Graduation Studio (Msc 3 | Msc 4), Valparaíso, Chile, Fall 2017 - Spring 2018.The MSc3/MSc4 Graduation Studio “Positions in Practice” of the Department of Architecture TU Delft (fall, 2017) focused on the urban and architectural context of Valparaíso, as a laboratory for the definition of disciplinary positions and the performance of these positions in practice.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Methods and Analysis | Positions in Practic

To listen and to make a noise, as sonic acts, formed the premise of the project. Continuing a lineage of inquiry of human conduct that is underpinned by the notion that humans engage in purposeful behaviour; the sonic act in the field of architecture questions how people behave sonically in their environments. The importance of this spatial query is underpinned by the premise that sound is critical for experiential engagement and a defining feature of phenomenological attributes of spaces. As with many forms of praxeological inquiries that have given form to the typologies of buildings we have come to know and love; the project was underpinned by continual introspection as to the sonic inhabitation of spaces. Throughout the iterative design phases of the project, continual cycles of questions were being asked- What is the sonic behaviour and how does this form spatially (Vis-a-vis)? The project is situated in Valparaiso, Chile. On the steeps slopes between plan and hill. Drawing on ...

This thesis explores an alternative thematic approach in focusing on how users relate to and interact with the built environment. By positioning users as innately influenced by their process of thought and its production, the thesis critically challenges existing notions that have underpinned spatial practice . Thus the paper is critical of the discourse on phenomenology (sense of place) by arguing that ascribed meaning is a complex, transient and abstract notion.

The paper positions the problematic approach of disregarding cultural value sets, cognitive processes and the influence of affect both in practice and theory. Spatial practice is a discipline inherently concerned with society as spatial practice’s work influences the inhabited environment that in turn directly impacts people. The public and individual psyche is thus positioned as a normative core element to spatial practice. These notions are not new to the discipline however recent advances in understanding how meaning is formed motivates for a review of the theories underpinning spatial theory and practice. Without an understanding of the dynamic positioned in the paper, interventions may be impaired and susceptible to failure.

The paper claims that experience is indispensable from spatial practise, as experience forges deep and meaningful connections that orientate our understanding of the material world; and that function and form do not enable meaning; as well as that place is an abstract notion, disassociated from locality and akin to meaning.

The paper hypothesizes that users’ interaction with the built environment is dependent on their frame of reference, rather than functional attributes of our environments. This hypothesis thus deals with how meaning is created and has implications for how places are formed. The research, expanding on the hypothesis, focuses on recent advances in the fields of neuro-science and the experience economy as well as the discourse on affect, cognition and semiology. The argument situates experience as fundamental to the formation of meaning. In turn experience advocates for place as meaning, which bears on how spatial practice as forming places is a vital part of the discipline.

The thesis’ objective is to contribute to the discourse on spatial practice, in understanding how interventions may meaningfully engage users. Conversely, the thesis advocates that positioning experience as a core element for interventions are critical to their success. In doing so, the intentions informing interventions are essential as they may lead to adverse effects. The paper thus advocates for stimulating experience without predefined outcomes, rather than curating experiences.

In positioning experience as being fundamental to the formation of meaning, the thesis aims to contribute to the discourse on place theory. In developing the position the thesis aims to incentivise the need for more empirical research that could support or challenge the claims made herein.