Architectural

Portfolio

Ngoza Simuule

My Architectural Journey

My basic concepts in my imagination of what architecture is all about

starts with a few thoughts about the structure and how it impacts the

day to day human interactions with the environment.

Man has from ancient time desired fundamental safety guards for

survival from inclement environmental elements. Though aesthetics

play a significant role in my architectural approach, practical

interactions of man and the environment play a more poignant

consideration when I process my thought pattern in dealing with a

design problem.

For instance, when I was given a school project to design an Art

Centre, which was going to be situated on an empty plot next to the

Walsh assembly in the Britannia quay, Cardiff, I had to imagine how

the art centre would fit in with the surrounding listed and modern

buildings.

The site is a bit rectangular with a side tail that brought a witty thought

of me designing a structure shaped like an aeroplane with a tail, about

to go into a hanger. A plane has the wings, the head and the tail with

some obvious technical attributes that are used in general.

As a result, the following shape was arrived at with the above concept

in mind.

The resulting design produced a project that I was confident would

respond to the design brief.

The above represented the “head” of the plane design, or the front of

the project design. The front of the design was “glassed like a cockpit

with the side pillars as supports.

The design suited the brief as mentioned in that it represented

commercial, modern and reflected definite contextual quality to the

surrounding buildings.

The entrance foyer carried an airport feeling of a departure lounge

with high-tech colours representing a “foreign feeling” of “about to

depart” reception area.

This “aeroplane design” has made me to understand that shape and

context matter a great deal when responding to a design brief.

The height, aesthetics, materials and general arrangement of the

structure provided solutions to the design brief that required a

modern response to an “Art centre” in a commercially rich

surrounding of important heritage buildings.

Section through structure

Side elevation with partially revealed Pile system

Front elevation with partially revealed pile system

Roof garden restaurant area for clients used when the patrons want

to rest after visiting the art centre. This roof garden restaurant is partly

covered with roof lights and a system of lighting that provides a

complex treatment of glass, concrete and aluminium frames.

Section through structure

Callout of the structural system

This project resulted in me appreciating what professional architects

are faced with whenever they have a complex design project on their

hands. After looking at the renderings below, I have come to

understand that it is not only the design that should attract the

glancing eye but the solution must be relevant to architectural

dictates of size, context, aesthetics and environmental considerations.

Front perspective

Back perspective

In my journey as a student, I have come to understand that

sometimes, Architectural briefs can be very constraining, leaving very

little room for architectural ingenuity.

A project I worked on recently demanded the use of specific materials,

ie timber, concrete, reclaimed bricks and glass for a design of a motel

for overnight accommodation for back pack trekkers.

The site was set in the CF10 5AH area of a busy Cardiff area. This was

again another disused carpark that was meant to be turned into a

prestigious “away from home but at home” hotel accommodation.

Site plan situated at CF10 5AH

The buildings in the area are basically a series of listed buildings of

great important to the Cardiff area. To get a design solution that would

take all these factors in consideration was daunting for me as a

student.

The journey in my architectural thinking took a severe knock in that I

had to think of how best to utilise timber, concrete, bricks and

aluminium. It is something that a student would not necessarily have

the knack of how to combine the materials properly.

Working with Timber is a tricky situation and designing a multi-storey

building with timber as a major material can cause much

consternation!

Basic design consisted in me thinking of circular individual rooms

linked by a central access route open to the elements rather than an

enclosed passage.

With the above basic concept, I proceeded to arrange the individual

rooms as below and withdrew the administration block to be placed

away from the structure.

With the above, I then had to arrange the access so that it took into

consideration privacy and aesthetics without allowing timber cladding

on the inner frames to distort the design.

Access passage between individual rooms

The design took timber as the major material that cladded the entire

external frame with bay windows that accentuated the external skin

of the structure.

Timber framing/cladding with bay windows

The idea behind the design assisted me to understand where am going

with design issues and it is important that many other issues like the

above project can be found by putting across solutions that are

amiable and completely intuitive.

My journey has made me to respond to design theories with a

pragmatic approach of arrogance with boldness. There are projects

like residential houses that I have practiced my Revit knowledge away

from academic assignments. Below is a sample of my work outside my

academic life:

Villa design

Ground floor

Sections

Renderings of the Villa

Using Revit, one is able to explore various ways of treating finishes and

visual looks of designs and I have learnt to articulate in more ways

than one on how to make the same design to appear different for

presentation to clients.

End