Hiroshima Sunrise

Durban Beach Front (Curio Stalls)

2010-07-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

A staple of the Durban beach front has always been the pavement market stalls, with sellers of African beadwork and made-in-china toys and curios. Although, perhaps not always the most authentic of African phenomena, these people certainly make their living selling tourists the kind of sculpture and paintings they need to give their Californian houses just that slight ethnic touch.

Either way, as part of the redevelopment project, the old tattered thatch and wattle pergolas have been pulled down from the pavements and some rather attractive new timber and galvanized steel ones erected in their place.

I noticed two distinctly different designs: one at Bay of Plenty, and the other further along, just above the new fan park. The former strikes me as the better considered of the two, a single support element acts as light fitting, down pipe and structural member. A simple concrete storage space is provided for the venders which can be locked at night. The stalls are arranged ad hock, funneling traffic between them, giving an organic market feel to the space.

The second set of stalls are arranged in a line against the edge of the pavement allowing traffic to move past each stall, and although this gives each of the sellers street access, it doesn't encourage any of the interacting the Bay scheme does. The design is not as concise as the previous one, with separate light fixture elements and down pipes, and timber clad storage cells. Although the two clearly speak the same language, these feel a lot more chunky and disproportionate, and seem to cluster uncomfortably together.

Its hard to believe the World Cup is nearly over. Two more days and we'll have a winner, the crowds of foreigners will be gone, and we can start to see the real impact that's been had on our beautiful city.

Durban Beach Front (Addington)

2010-07-07T03:09:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I get a bit sentimental and think that, since I've lived in Durban my whole life, I really SHOULD be able to surf.

I own a surf board. Kinda. So yesterday was one of those days, and I headed down to Addington Beach, where the waves are small and manageable and had a go. Suffice to say I had a good time, the details aren't important.

The upgrades to beach down there are pretty damn awesome though. They've built (or rather, are finishing building) a new surf lifesaving and medics' building. I'm really liking the concrete/brick/aluminium materiality that runs through most of the new interventions. This one brings in an extra, feature element of coloured bricks, which I think looks really great!

The bathrooms are really well considered. The cisterns are built into the walls, there are no seat covers to broken or stolen, and pretty much everything looks as if it can simply be hosed down in one go whenever they get dirty, which, if you've ever used a beach front public toilet, you'll know to be a very important scheme.

Quick music recommendation: Johnny Flynn. I'm really into the whole London Folk scene at the moment. There are a lot of really great artists coming out of there. There's something special about folk artists from big cities. Check him out. Really good stuff.

Durban Beach Front (Site office?)

2010-06-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

Although, as I said in my last post, my cynicism for the World cup has waned considerably, what comes up a lot in conversations about all the new development is just what are we going to do with all the new infrastructure once its all over.

Some of the larger new buildings are a bit of a concern especially: can we expect a massive revival of the use of these spaces, or are we to be stuck with a beautiful promenade of empty, degrading white elephants..

This particular intervention has me totally confused. What is it? To me it looks like a site office with a bit of cosmetics, but its not being used for anything right now.. Perhaps a crafts stall like the ones further up the beach. But why just one? Either way, the faux African wattle canopy is a bit cheesy, which is unfortunate, because on the whole the rest of the new development seems to have subtly steered away from such sentimentality quite nicely.

Excuse the bottom left corner photo. I took that on my way to the fan park for the first game. I was a little excited to say the least, and most of the pictures from that night are pretty blurry.

Durban Beach Front (Moyo)

2010-06-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been pretty incredible. I was quite cynical of the World Cup and all the wealth and abundance it promised to provide our country, but now, half way through the tournament I'm absolutely loving it!

Durban's never looked cleaner, safer and more alive! The effects are most evident along the beach front. I've been down there quite a lot lately, at the fan park, watching bands, enjoying the beach; and I had a camera with me the last few times, so the next few posts will focus on the development in the area.

For now I'll include a really nice new little bar that's been build out on the pier just past Addington beach. I had a beer there the other day with a couple of friends. Its a really beautiful spot.

The beauty of a lot of the new development, and this building in particular, is in its simplicity, both in plan form and materiality, definitely a nice upgrade to the old blue and yellow tile cladding that was so characteristic of the old beach front buildings.

KSIA (Walkway)

2010-06-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I wrote about visiting the New King Shaka International Airport here in Durban. Over all I think it's really great, but there are a few features that stuck out at me a lot.

Linking the main circulation/interactive spaces and the parking areas is a really cool little covered walk way that passed under the road and out to the other side. I love how, in such contrast to the old airport, the whole complex is so considered and comfortable and it just feels really nice to move through.

In the middle of the section below the road is a large skylight which makes the whole tunnel feel really open and light. Above ground it manifests itself as a small glazed box with a small butterfly roof arrangement which mirrors the main parking garage. Its a really cool feature, but the green glass is so trashy. It's all over the airport and really ruins a lot of the buildings. It's such a shame, but I suppose it is Tongaat!

KSIA (Cooling Tower)

2010-06-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

My sister flew in from Port Elizabeth yesterday, so I took the opportunity to wonder around the new King Shaka International airport while I was there to pick her up.

I was pretty impressed for the most part. The terminal's pretty ordinary, but to be fair there aren't a whole lot of exciting terminals out their, since the scale doesn't really lend itself to very creative architecture. There are a couple of really interesting little features around it though, and I got quite carried away taking photos (It was really overcast though, so sorry about the picture quality).

To the far left of the main terminal is a small oval plan structure that I really liked. Its almost impossible to find any information about the airport, but from what I could work out its some sort of A.C. plant/cooling tower arrangement with security offices and an airport shuttle stop. The paving and street furniture also looks really great!

Pretty sexy. Drop me a comment if you know any details.

Then I'm Radio, then I'm Television

2010-06-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

Wow. Its been a long time since last I wrote, and I seem to be saying that at the beginning of every second post lately. Life's been pretty busy for the past month of two. Third year is proving to be a whole lot more intense than first or second, but I'm on holiday for about five weeks over the world cup so its time for some much needed rest! (If the vuvuzela blowing ever stops that is.)

I had a bit of a motorbike accident about a month ago. When I say a bit, I mean I drove into the back of a car, stuck my head through the back window and had to have 14 stitches. No broken bones or anything major though, so I'm happy to be alive. It feels good to be this blessed!

I did a poster for a gig I went to last night, an EP launch for a local band. It was a pretty fun show, and I'm pretty proud of the poster. I've been playing around with graphics quite a bit lately.

Applying design techniques to a new medium's always really exciting. I've been doing some furniture designs and taking lots of photos, and who knows, maybe I'll be doing some fashion design one day!

I should be back for a while, I've got a lot of free time, and a lot to share, so we'll chat soon. I've given up on the splashy fen reviews though. That was just too long ago now. Sorry. Maybe next year.

Lastly, if you haven't heard the new The National yet, get it. Now. Its fantastic. Very similar to Boxer, but a little more experimental I'd say. Really great rainy afternoon music.

Splashy Fen (part 2)

2010-04-08T08:10:00.001-07:00

Varsity started again on Tuesday for me, which explains my apparent lack of interest in continuing my little series on Splashy Fen, but I've got a minute to spare so here comes part two of Bands-I-Thought-Were-Awesome.

The Death Valley Blues Band

Yes, they are as incredible as their name and that photo suggests.

I'd never seen these guys before since they're from Jo'burg, but a friend of mine had been raving about them all day, so I went to see them on Sunday night. They played a kind of fast, dirty, blues and punk influenced rock 'n roll, finishing with a fantastic cover of King of the Swingers from the Jungle book!

The huge, eight piece band barely fit on the small stage, but they had some serious vibe and had the whole tent dancing and tapping their feet!

Go check these guys out! Now!

Splashy Fen (part 1)

2010-04-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

Hi Internet.

I just got home from Splashy. It's really good to be home, I'm pretty tired, but feeling totally refreshed and amazing, and now that I've had a shower I'm even better.

This was the festival's 21st year and, despite some pretty disastrous cost-cutting (You thought we wouldn't notice the toilets didn't you?) it was a really great long weekend!

I thought I'd do a short series on some of the bands I watched that really blew me away. There was a huge variety of acts, and I won't mention ALL of them, but in no particular order, these were some of my favourites:

Thomas Krane

That guy in the photo isn't Thomas Krane. Thomas Krane is his band's name. Not sure how important that distinction is, but I thought I should make it anyway.

These guys are really great. I've seen them play a couple of times and was super excited to see them again. If you like your arty hipster double-barrel genres I suppose you could call them anti-folk; they're what happens when you hand a guy with some really outstanding taste in music a guitar a tell him to write you a bunch of songs. Their sound's not easy to pin down, but they play mostly down tempo folk flavoured indie rock with beautifully crafted melodies and intricate atmospheric guitar work.

Looking fittingly detached they delivered a short set that was unfortunately disrupted by power failures. Never the less, they were probably the best part of Sunday afternoon.

They're such nice guys in fact, that you can go along and download there WHOLE first album for free at ReverbNation. Enjoy!

Some more Beautiful Conrete

2010-03-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I wrote about my little class trip to Pietermaritzburg, and althought the Law building was by far my favourite, there are a few other buildings on that campus that are pretty rad too. Check it out:

On a related note, I've heard an as yet unconfirmed rumor that Zaha Hadid will be speaking at congress in Jo'burg this year. I may not her biggest fan, but I'm sure she has an insane wealth of knowledge to impart.

So here's holding thumbs!

PMB Campus Law Building

2010-03-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I went with my class to Pietermaritzburg for the day and, believe it or not, there is actually a fair amount of interesting things to see in Maritzburg.

The reason we were there was to check out the site for our new design project, a fine arts school on the PMB, UKZN campus. Its a really interesting project and I'm pretty excited despite the daunting task of designing an entire faculty building.

I took a whole lot of photos while I was there, so I have a few things to share, but today's post is dedicated to the Campus's Law faculty building.

Wow.

The campus is basically split down the centre by Golf Road, dividing it into the more traditional, main campus of mostly brick constructed buildings and the Golf Road campus comprising an assortment of incredibly sexy, brutalist concrete buildings of which the law building stuck out as my favourite.

I love the streaky old concrete and huge windows of the South-facing library and the brick infill panels and the planting around it and the stairwells and the symmetry and... Sho. Great stuff.

Hope you're having a great long weekend!

On a side note, I'm absolutely loving David Crowder at the moment. Certainly not your average worship band. So kiff.

Earth Hour

2010-03-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is pure gold. The hypocrisy of it all literally blows my mind.

I stumbled across this article on IOL today that starts off:

Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium will join other landmarks around the world in supporting Earth Hour 2010 when it is plunged into darkness for an hour on Saturday March 27.

The stadium will switch off its lights from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.

Yup. A whole hour. How generous of them to turn our glorious landmark's lights off when its not in use.

This is an issue very close to the heart of our esteemed mayor Obed Mlaba, he is quoted in the article as having said:

"Climate change will affect all of us and it is the poor who will suffer the most. We have a responsibility to our people to take action that reduces climate change and to call on others to do the same.

"It is in this spirit that the eThekwini municipality will be participating in WWF's Earth Hour 2010. If we are united in our call for action and we respond collectively, we can prevent dangerous climate change."

So thank you Durban. You're doing so much for the poor and for the earth by celebrating this wonderful hour of compassion. We get a whole hour.

But after that its back to having all the lights on for absolutely no reason but to draw attention to the giant piece of concrete that I suppose some people must have missed..

Sure its a very pretty piece of concrete, and I've enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere at the games played on its perfectly manicured pitch, but anyone who has driven past it at night will know that any day of the week, the constantly illuminated white basket of Moses Mabhida Studium declares her magnificent preeminence like some post modern sculpture on its massive pedestal.

So to me, in general Earth Hour seems to be a bit of farce. Like driving your Prius to the airport or using a photo voltaic solar panel to power the air conditioner. But, as a friend of mine said to me earlier, at least James Cameron will be happy.

But on that note, I really think James Cameron needs stick to ice bergs killing ships and stop focusing on people killing ice bergs..

Ixopo

2010-03-13T13:52:00.000-08:00

The last two or three weeks have been a blur. This year is turning out to be even more demanding than the last and without God's unexplainable peace, which has been incredible, I'd be a total wreck. Thursday was my first hand in for the semester, and Friday followed with a pretty dismal set of results, but I look forward to a chance to right myself again next quarter.

Submission was completely hand draw, so I have no pictures to post of the project, although I'm not sure that I would either way, since the end results were rather disappointing..

Looking back on the project though, I must say I quite enjoyed it. I've learned a fair deal about how I respond to pressure (not very well) and been directed to do some pretty interesting research work.

The project was a Buddhist retreat for Port St. Johns, a small sea side town on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape. My main precedent study was of a retreat in Ixopo, an hour or so's drive from Durban. It's a really beautiful place that perfectly embodies the opening paragraph of Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country:

There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass covered and beyond any singing of it.

I took a few photos when we visited it about a month ago. There's certainly nothing architecturally outstanding about the place, but it has some serious vibe, and I found it an incredible example of just how strong a sense spirit or identity a certain place can have.

MANdate

2010-02-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

Something I'm quite excited about, is that next month Mark Driscoll, one of my favourite blogger/preachers is coming to Durban and I'm going to see him speak. I feel kind of like I've got tickets to see some big rock band. Pretty amped.

Its happening on the 6th of March at Glenridge church. If you're interested, you can get more details on my Youth's blog, and find out how to register etc..

Mark writes for a great blog I subscribe to called The Resurgence, he's well rounded, eloquent and rather outspoken (which is probably why I like him so much!) I first came across his blog after reading Rob Bells books of which he was a major critic. Interestingly he seems to have become almost as provocative as Bell is.
He says things like:

"My desire as a christian pastor is to see churches raised up as communities of grace ruled by Jesus and led by his gloriously masculine men who work their jobs, eat their meat, drink their beer, romance their wives, study their Bible, and raise their kids in glory and joy."

This comes from a short book of his I've been reading (mainly because it was free on their website) called Porn Again Christian. Really good stuff.

Yakka First Semester/2010

2010-02-13T06:42:00.000-08:00

Wow! Its been a long time since I blogged last. Well, been back at varsity for two weeks now, and I've done/seen/learnt one or two interesting things.

For starters, Yesterday afternoon I helped organise the first Yakka party for this year. Yakka is basically just a sort of punch made from Vodka, lemons, sugar and ice with lemonade, or lime cordial added to taste. Its cheap, relatively easy to make and good for making large volumes. I had a few cups, but the large majority went to the 70+ other people who attended, and proceeded to stumble their way to the Varsity pool once the supply had run out.

We started, at 1:30 with a fashion show put on by the new, First Year students. We (the third years) issued them a brief last Monday at their first lecture, which read as follows:

We weren't really expecting much. To be honest we were expecting most of them to just blow it off, but it actually went REALLY well. It was a huge success. I was involved in judging, and took some photos from the table in front of the ramp (built out of tables from studio). Here are some highlights:

And the winners of the competition:

Yeah, that's all gateway and butcher paper. Pretty damn impressive. You can find more photos from the event here, on Flickr.

Postcards

2010-01-26T04:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my dad found a box of old photos and things that had belonged to my grandad. Our house is still full of boxes and random pieces of furniture in odd places as I mentioned before, but we're going through them all slowly and making some progress. There were some pretty awesome old photographs which I may scan and post up here if I feel so inclined one day, but for now I three really cool old post cards to share:

I love seeing old photos of cities that I know. Its like looking at a really good friend's baby photos. The caption on the back of this first post card reads:

JOHANNESBURG: Hillbrow. The 271m (889 ft.) J.G. Strijdom micro-wave Tower at Hillbrow is the highest structure in Southern Africa and in good weather can be seen from as far as 80km (50 miles) away. Photo by B.K. Bjornsen

I really loved this old photo of the Carlton Centre, standing loftily above a rather different looking 1970's Jo'burg.

Lastly my favourite: A wonderful old photo of Durban. I'm not sure when exactly this photo, accredited to a Mr. John Hone, was taken, but the post card is dated 11/11/85. The arrow drawn in blue pen on the post card points to the block of flats my dad stayed in when he first moved to Durban.

Varsity starts in a week. Holidays have been great, but I am quite looking forward to a bit of purpose again. Expect a lot for Architecture related posts in the next few months!

Post

2010-01-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

Today I received something absolutely amazing, from someone rather nice by post.
So cool.

Thank you. =)

Summer Sale

2010-01-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

Got this sweet little piece of junk mail in the post today:

So cool! Well done Exclusive Books.

The Funeral

2010-01-14T03:47:00.000-08:00

The girls sat in their seats,
In their pressed school uniforms.
How the church echoed with their grief,
As I walked through the doors.

I saw her on the steps,
With the stitches in her face,
But found not a single word
To complement her sad embrace.

But don't you hang around,
There's a beautiful night out there.
But on your favourite pair of shoes,
And tie a ribbon in your hair.

'Cos as that hour hand rolls by,
There's a longing in his wake,
That with each slow degree
Would wain a little heart-ache.

More friends

2010-01-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I wrote about our last Gentlemen's Evening of 2009. Well I posted a picture. GME is a tradition we've developed, and basically just an excuse for some of my friends and I to dress up fancy, drink Gin and Tonic and such, and hang out. It's good fun though.

This month however, for some reason or other, a few of the girls came too. Now, this does not follow protocol, but it was still pretty great.

We had it at my friend Kyle's, who has a wonderful balcony which faces out over the city, perfect for sun downers. Meet Kim, Graham and Rebecca:

And some more boys in suits.

Drown

2010-01-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

I can't say I've been very productive with my holidays, well not with the important stuff. I've been very productive as far as food-eating, fun-having, sunburnt-getting, etc, goes.

Also, I've been writing and recording a whole lot of new stuff! I've got a couple more lined up, but for now, you get this:

(Facebook/RSS link)

In comparison to the others I've been doing lately, this one's very stripped down. Just one guitar track and a couple of vocal tracks.

I'm not sure why I've been writing such morbid stuff lately, but I really enjoyed doing this one. I suppose its very traditional/folky compared to my usual stuff, but I quite like it and I hope you do to.

My comment boxes are looking very empty. I'd really love to hear from anyone who reads my posts, however seldom you do. I recently checked my Analytics for this site and I'm really excited to see my little map getting greener and greener. So if you're here from Belgium, Spain, India, Japan, New Zealand, etc. I'd particularly like to hear from you!

My God Doesn't Live Under Little Boys' Beds

2010-01-11T02:30:00.000-08:00

My God doesn't live
In books full of poems
Written by dead men
Who never left their homes,
Or in old stone buildings,
Or deep catacombs,
Or in religious wars
From which no-one returns.

No, my God doesn't live
Under little boys' beds,
Waiting to strike
When they don't eat their veg.
In old cloistered walls,
Or intellectuals' heads,
Or in each passing day
That the setting sun sheds.

No, my God lives inside
Every Sunday School kid,
Every old widow dreaming
Of loving again.
In quiet men's dreams
And forceful men's actions.
Not in fighting to win,
But the Grace failure brings.

Not in laws and commands,
But the Spirit within,
Now convicting,
Now transforming,
Now comforting.
So it is that our hearts
In our chests they must sing.
To the rhythm of each day
The rising sun brings.

Roaring Lion

2010-01-10T07:26:00.000-08:00

I bought a relatively cheap bottle of wine last night from a display of new start up, and BEE owned wines. There were a few different ones, but I picked this bottle of Roaring Lion for one reason, and one reason only. The awesome label:

As a child I was always told never to judge a book by its cover, but in the design world it really is the other way around. I'm learning more and more that good covers make up about 50% of a good book!

In this case, it was also actually a rather tasty wine. Definitely worth buying again.

That little red label at the bottom reads: South African Wine, 1659, Celebrating 350 years, which I suppose means SA have been making wine for 350 years.

Well, SA wine, Happy Birthday!

Om Nom Nom Nom

2010-01-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

I love summer!

I've Done You Wrong

2010-01-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I did a new music post, but I thought it was about time I did.
A couple days ago a posted a little poem-effort-thing in a note with the same title as this one. Well, you guessed it, those few lines have become a song.

It goes like this:

RSS/Facebook Link.

Since I'm still on holiday, I've had a lot of free time on my hands, so I've been writing and recording and scrunching up paper and throwing around guitars quite a bit. Admittedly this one may be rather over produced, but it was really a lot of fun seeing what I could do with a really simple song and some new software I've been playing with.

I also added some electric guitar stuff which I haven't done on a Hiroshima Sunrise song before, so that was quite exciting. Not sure I'm too happy with the tone though; I'm starting to see the flaws of this stupid web cam mic technique.

As always, trying anything too complex always serves to show up my lack of expertise. Lesson of the day: James is NOT a sound technician. Hell! Multiple equalizers and effects on multiple channels are fun, but not easy, so excuse the shoddy quality in sections. (Big sections.)

Anyway.
Hope you like it.