PORTFOLIO + CV FOR BIG

AND I LIVE IN CAPE TOWN.

THIS IS MY ROOM

I TRIED TO COPY THIS GUY’S POSE,----------->BUT I THINK HE STILL WINS..

AND THESE ARE MY CHAMPIONS

KAHNFEHNUYTENBOGAARDTAALTO

THIS IS BIGGIE-SMALLS, FUTURE BONSAI WORLD CUP WINNER 2079

AND THIS DOCUMENT IS MY JOURNEY INTO THE INBOX OF THE BJARK INGELS GROUP

KIDS COLLEGE1990 - 1992

GENE LOUW PRIMARY SCHOOL1993 - 1999

STELLENBERG HIGH SCHOOL2000 - 2004

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN2005 - 2010

IT BEGAN ON THE19/05/1986

THIS IS THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWNWHERE I COMPLETED MY MASTERS IN ARCHITECTURE DURING THE YEAR OF 2010

DUCHENNE SMILEENCLOSE & EXPOSE9 ZWAANSWYK ST

YOUNGSFIELD MILITARY BASEURBAN CAMPISMO

A PROCURA DE PANCHOCAPE (OF NO) FLATS, MASTERS THESIS

POTJIEKOSFIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN

CAMINO DE SANTIAGOTOFFIE-EIER

MEMORIAL OF CONSCIOUSNESSRED LOCATIONCONCLUSION

PROJECT LISTIN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

We were asked to identify an ‘in-between’ condition and develop a project around it.

I decided to investigate an in-between that most people have to deal with on a daily basis: TRAFFIC

Every weekday thousands of Capetonians commute from the northern suburbs into the CBD and are forced to spend an average of 90min per day on heavily congested roads. Traffic forces most people to begin and end their days on a bad mood. Traffic fuels frustration, irritation, tension, stress, hatred, road rage and generally just creates unhappy people. The Duchenne smile is a project that is aimed at one thing: to make traffic fun and enjoyable for those who have no other option but to sit in it everyday in order to provide for their families.

Duchenne de Boulogne, was a French neurologist. He determined that a smile resulting from true happiness not only utilize the muscles of the mouth but also those of the eyes. He referred to these facial expressions as the “gymnastics of the soul”. Therefore in his honour truly genuine-smiles (smiles resulting from absolute bliss) are known as Duchenne Smiles.

SITE: N1 incoming one of the main, heavily congested traffic arteries feeding the city. Potential to establish new pedestrian link from train station into industrial area.

THE DUCHENNE SMILE in traffic2007: 3’rd year, 3 week project

TRAFFIC BEFORE

CBD N1

TRAFFIC AFTER

Stills from an animation showing how the landscape grows like waves from its initial flat state to swallow a ship like build-ing that gently nestles into it. The building hosts the Gardening Crew, their sunken cabins, a plant laboratory, a seed bank, a planting and distribution area, a library/ research area, a floral exhibition space, a freezer/composting area, kitchen and many informal discussion spaces.

At any given time there are a minimum of 8 locally trained crew members on board the structure. Crew members consist of a mixture of botanists, floral designers, field workers, landscape architects, interns, traffic jesters, musicians or anyone that feel they can contribute or learn something. Crew members sign up to live on board for a minimum of 3 months at a time. Their mission is to plant, cultivate and maintain the continuously expanding floral landscape that wraps along the highway. They carefully select and plant indigenous species according to their colour smell and blooming times. This creates different colour and smell zones that can be enjoyed by the people stuck in traffic.

Crew members become highly respected within the community. They engage in and around traffic with their special jackets. Badges are awarded for goals reached and exceptional performance. Each crew member’s experience and subject knowledge can therefore easily be identified via the amount of badges they have accumulated.

SEEDS

During traffic drivers can request specific seedlings to be planted in their honor. These seedlings are tagged with their licence plate nr’s and then gets delivered to their window as soon as the flowers are ready to be harvested. The driver can check the growth progress of his seedlings online whenever he feels like it.

FLOWERS

Drivers can request or order a wide range of flowers from their smart phones. Scanners will register their licence plate and trigger a crew member to deliver the requested flowers to their vehicles window.

TRAFFIC LOTTERY

Everyday a random vehicles licence plate gets scanned as the Traffic Lottery Winner. A wide range of prizes are available to choose from.

LIVE MUSIC

Various performance spaces are hidden all across the landscape. They are constantly occupied by a wide range of musicians and DJ’s playing up a storm for

the traffic dwellers.

CREW MEMBERS

RSA FLAG

HERO’S NAME

FAMILY CREST

NAME RIBBONHOME DISTRICT

SPECIALITYMOTHER TONGUE

PATROL MASTERLEADERSHIP STRIPE TEAM

WORK

QUESTSCOMPLETED

CREW CREST

RSA FLAG

MASTER GROWER

MASTER PLANTER

MASTER HARVESTERHONORARY LIFETIME MEMBER

SPECIAL ACTIVITY BADGES

MATER TRAFFIC JESTER

SECTION THROUGH THE CREW’S SUNKEN LIVING CABINS

SECTION THROUGH THE CREW’S WORK SPACE

SECTION THROUGH THE CREW’S LAB

PERSPECTIVE OF TRANSFORMED N1 INCOMING

PHYSICAL MODEL OF BUILDING ANCHORED IN LANDSCAPE

WHY?Statistics released by rape.co.za suggests that in South Africa you have a better chance of being raped than learning how to read. It is estimated that someone gets raped every 17 seconds. Of these victims only 5% report their assault, 95% have no choice but to suffer in silence.

Statistics like these are impossible to ignore. Yet people still treat rape victims like they are diseased, counsellors and volunteers are exhausted, prosecution rates are appalling and worst of all people do not know where to go after they have been raped. Hospitals are full and police have become desensitized. An intervention is required to assist and change the public persona of “The Rape Victim”.

HOW?By combining all these separate and scattered resources required by a rape victim into one facility. A facility that streamlines and combines all the recovery phases of their physical and mental journey into one building with the ultimate goal:

Successfully re-integrate a rape victim back into society.

SITE:All the existing Rape council facilities are camouflaged in the surrounding suburbs, making them extremely hard to find and engage with. Yes, privacy is extremely important, but so is reintegrating back into society. A balance needs to be found. The building has to be part of normal city life, but must also be able to escape from it. It is for this reason that I chose an infill site, near the corner of a busy intersection on Main Road, Woodstock.

The contrast between the lively Main Road (front) and the quiet residential back street gave me the balance that I needed. It allows the building an opportunity to enclose itself between the neighbouring buildings while being able to expose itself to the lively Main Road when it needed to.

2) INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLINGA space just big enough to accommodate the victim and its counsellor. This is the first stage of the emotional recovery where the enclosed space is punctured, allowing gentle views towards the harbour and sharp dashes of northern sun. In this space you can speak freely and start asking questions helping you to narrate your trauma.

4) RECOVEREDFor the first time an internal space breaks out of the cocoon onto Main road. It is also the first time that the victim is ready to do so. The balcony becomes a very important element and triumphantly protrudes over main road. ‘Look at me world, I am recovered.’

1) SELF HEALING/ REFLECTIONA womb like space, small and enclosed making you aware of your own presence while allowing you to completely block out the external world. A space where you come to terms with what happened to you, you scream, shout and cry inside this space. This is also where you sit and listen to the recorded testimonies of recovered victims, allowing you to begin to understand what the future holds and how you can deal with it

3) GROUP COUNSELLING It is almost an outside space with a physically enclosing presence. Allows views in all directions it is almost a complete invert of the previous two spaces. It stretches from the front to the back of the site and for the first time allowing views down into main road while keeping the gentle views across the harbour. It is the first space that breaks out of the enclosing cocoon onto the quiet one way street. This is the cloud nine space, the staircase becoming the threshold back into the world.

Due to future densification of the surrounding area the east and west facades of the building would be completely blocked off by its neighbours. These facades were therefore treated as impenetrable and became like two hands safely enclosing the building. After a series of explorations I decided to introduce an almost central void running right through the building, allowing all the other spaces to feed off it. This central void has turned into the hub of the building where all the circulation meets and then extends out from.

I was able to divide the stages of recovery into 4 main categories, each category with its own needs, desires and emotions. The diagram below shows the main design intention. While designing these spaces I never saw any of them as separate. They all join together with the ultimate goal of healing the rape victim. From the most fragile moment of recovery to the most secure, they all form part of a whole. A constant connection between all these spaces/phases was something I was really determined to achieve. The transition from smaller spaces into bigger spaces becomes directly related to the victim’s state of recovery. The perme-ability of these spaces increases as the size of the spaces increase, allowing more light and a bigger visual connection towards the outside world. These connections comprise of a series of internal visual glimpses allowing you to either a) peak into a stage of recovery you don’t yet understand or b) reflect back on a stage to see how much you have grown emotion-ally. It also allows for glimpses that stretch beyond the confinements of the site. These visual connections are not the only experience with the outside world, a filtering system of public and private carefully allows for interaction with the victims when they are ready for it.

ENCLOSE & EXPOSE A RAPE CRISIS CENTRE2007: 3’rd year, 8 week project (mini-thesis, we chose our own topic)

medical treatment

evidencecollection/processing

statements, arrestsprotection

all phases of recovery

legal assistance prosecution

FRONT ELEVATION

BACK ELEVATION

PERSPECTIVE SECTION

EXPLORATION DRAWINGS

PHOTO GROUP HEALING SPACE PHOTO OF STRUCTURE AND MAIN VOID

PHOTO GROUP HEALING SPACE

9 ZWAANSWYK STREET2008: 4’th year, 8 month project

After completing the 3 year BAS (Bachelor of Architecture) course at UCT each student is required to do 1 year of practical experience before starting their Honors and Master degrees.

During my practical year I designed and built a house for John and Sandra on a beautiful tree rich area surrounded by magical mountains in a town called Stellenbosch.

I was responsible for the entire project:

- the design - council submission - project management - construction - detailing and finishes

I had a great construction mentor that taught me everything I needed to successfully complete the project. During the project I lived on site in a caravan (like a hill-billy) and every morning I would go pick up my crew and bring them to site. It was a great time. A time that taught me a lot about the fine balance between the dream world of design and the realities of construction.

MY HOUSE DURING CONSTRUCTION + MY ‘BRAAI’ AREA AND LAWN CHAIR

THE CREW HARD AT WORK STREET FACADE NEARING COMPLETION

SOME OF MY CREW MEMBERS

WARREN PIELE AMPIE JUFFROUBOETA

FINISHED HOUSE

FINISHED HOUSE INTERIOR

YOUNGSFIELD MILITARY BASE2009: Honors year, 3 month project

CLICK HERE TO PLAY

Tim and I decided to create this stop-motion animation as a summary to an intense urban design project. We tried to represent the usually boring urban design data in a more accessible way. The film builds the urban design framework from the top down and then jumps and creates the resulting architectural language from the bottom up. This was my first stop-motion experimen-tation. It kick-started my exploration into the exciting relationship between film and architecture.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY

URBAN CAMPISMO2009: Honors year, 4 week project

We were asked to investigate the CBD of the City of Cape Town, identify left over spaces and create a project inside of them.

Through exploring the city I ended up with the following 4 values that drove my project...

1) SYMBIOSIS

2) TEMPORARY/ ADAPTABLE

3) IDEA JENGA

The structure needs to attach onto the existing urban fabric in a symbiotic way. It needs to offer visual relief from the harsh city environment, with the goal of creating an urban oasis to allow city dwellers to stop, relax and recharge.

It needs to be a flexible structure so it change and constantly simulate new environments. The best way to introduce change is to introduce the cycles of nature. Therefore the structure must accommodate some form of nursery that can be engaged with.

It must serve as a cultural blender, a space that generates an environment where people are so switched on that idees grow exponentially out of control.

4) INSTANT PLACE MAKING

INITIAL CONCEPT MODEL IIINITIAL CONCEPT MODEL I

SITE

A place that treats the urban landscape like a mountain. Feel like pitching a tent in the city? Go ahead.

A Little left over space a the top of Long Street (one of Cape Town’s most lively streets)

RATIONALIZATION OF STRUCTURE: Creating a structural spine that accommodates services and circulation

circ

ulat

ion

circ

ulat

ion

com

mun

al

serv

ices

CREATE ONE ROTATING UNIT SPIRALLING UPWARD. AND DUPLICATE. BY GENERATING A RATIONAL SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTION YOU ARE FREE TO PLAY WITH ITS COMPOSITION

FINAL STRUCTURE FINAL STRUCTURE SECTION SHOWING RELATIONSHIP TOWARDS GROUND FLOOR PLANE

INDIVIDUAL CAMPING PODSGENERAL PLAN LAYOUT

GROUND FLOOR BECOMES EASILY ACCESSIBLE COMMUNAL SPACE BUFFERED BY A VAST GREEN SCREEN GROUND PLAIN GETS MANIPULATED TO MIMIC A MOUNTAINOUS LANDSCAPE. CIRCULATION SHAFTS TOUCH DOWN ONTO IT. EACH CAMPER GETS A SPECIAL CODE THAT ALLOWS THEM TO VENTURE UP INTO THE JUNGLE

STRUCTURE IN CONTEXT AT THE TOP OF LONG STREET

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PLAY

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PLAY

Five of my architectural friends and I entered the MOVING SPACE Architectural Student Film Competition 2010 by the Cement and Concrete Institute, and was awarded a grant to produce a short film that we conceptualized, wrote, filmed, directed, edited and animated. We went on an great adventure to Mozambique to shoot the film.

A Procura de Pancho (Looking for Pancho) is an experimental mix of animation, illustration and live action that follows the journey of a solitary student who has come to the city to explore the vibrant work of architect and artist Pancho Guedes.

So far it has screened at the:

Architect Africa Film Festival 2010Shnit International Short Film Festival 2010/2011Dokanema 2010Serpentine Gallery as part of an exhibition on the life and work of Pancho Guedes.SABC 3 Portuguese International TV

We won the ‘Best Newcomer Award’ at this years Multichoice DSTV short film awards held in Johannesburg.

A PROCURA DE PANCHO2010: MASTERS year (during june/july holidays), 8 week project

CLICK

CLICK HERE TO TAKE A JOURNEY THROUGH MY MASTER THESIS DOCUMENT

CLICK HERE IF YOUWOULD LIKE TO SPEND SOME QUIET TIME WITH THE DOCUMENT

CLICK HERE IF YOUWOULD LIKE TO SPEND SOME QUIET TIME WITH THE DOCUMENT

FINAL THESIS MODEL, MADE OUT OF 918 INDIVIDUAL SECTION SLICES

MANY OF THE SLICES CAN BE REMOVED TO ALLOW THE VIEWER TO INTERACTIVELY DISCOVER THE BUILDING ON HIS OWN TIME

BUILDING IN CONTEXT, A NEW MOUNTAIN OF HOPE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CAPE FLATS

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

TOP FLOOR PLAN

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

TOP FLOOR PLAN SUB GROUND FLOOR PLAN

SECTION THROUGH MAIN HUB

BUILDING AFTER 5 YEARS

THESIS SUMMARY

UCT HAS THE BEST ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL IN AFRICA. I GRADUATED WITH DISTINCTION AND CAME 3’RD IN MY MASTERS THESIS CLASS

I entered the MOVING SPACE Architectural Student Film Competition again in 2011 and won a grant to create this the experimental short film Potjiekos.

SYNOPSIS:Everything was fine, until one day their monotonous world slowly spun out of control. Potjiekos is an experimental film that zooms into the mundane yet beautiful act ofmixing a batch of concrete.

POTJIEKOS2011

STONE WORLD

CEMENT WORLD

SAND WORLD

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PLAY

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PLAY

Five Ways to Kill A Man is a story about personal accountability for collective action. It is set in a world much like our own, except that in this world, the all-too-familiar conse-quences of our economic actions are constantly thrust back into view.

It is a world in which collective responsibility is returned to its rightful place. The effects of every decision are borne by the individual.

FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN is a study of what might happen next.

My friend Christopher Bisset and I wrote the film together and it ended up being selected as 1 out of the 5 final projects to be funded and produced for the Berlin Today Award 2011, as part of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. Over 400 scripts from across the world enter every year. We lived and worked in Berlin for 3 months to complete the film. It premiered at the 62’nd Berlin Film Festival and has since showed at:

- Cannes Short Film Corner 2012 as part of “GERMANY SHORTS”-17th BERLIN & BEYOND FILM FESTIVAL, presented by the Goethe-Institute, San Francisco- SHNIT international short film festival where it received a jury special mention. - The 33rd Durban International Film Festival in South Africa- PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL SHORTFEST- Been nominated for a GERMAN HUMAN RIGHTS FILM AWARD

EXTRACTS FROM THE STORYBOARD

A STILL FROM THE FINAL FILM

FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN2011

Doing this pilgrimage in Spain was one of the most important things I have done in my life. Your body completely resets and takes on the gentle rhythms of na-ture, while your brain defraggs like a computers hard drive: Thoughts are calmed, gathered and neatly filed. On this journey I rediscovered the value of time, pa-tience and repetition.

PILGRIMAGE AUGUSTS/ SEPTEMBER 2011

I was asked to do an installation at the TOFFIE POP CULTURE AND DESIGN FESTIVAL 2012. We were each given a table with set dimensions and asked to design a installation using food as our inspiration. I imagined a giant magical bird flying over the venue drop-ping a big blue egg that crashes through the roof and breaks open on the table. With this being a magical egg, it has 3 worlds inside of its egg yolk that festival attendees could secretly spy on.

TOFFIE-EIERFEBRUARY 2012

MARSHMALLOW WORLD

WEET-BIX WORLDPINEAPPLE WORLD

Chris and I got invited to South America to help with a research project for a memorial of consciousness. We travelled through Argentina and Bolivia investigating memorials and magical landscapes.

MEMORIAL OF CONSCIOUSNESS MAY/JUNE 2012

Dave and I travelled to Port Elizabeth to create this film about the Apartheid museum of South African for the architect Jo Noero.The film was made as part of his exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012.

RED LOCATION AUGUST 2012

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR A DEZEEN ARTICLE WITH MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE PROJECT

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR A ARCHDAILY ARTICLE WITH MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE PROJECT

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE FILM

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE FILM

These where the words that I concluded my thesis year with. An intense year where you are forced to discover your values as an architect. I still feel today exactly the same about architec-ture as I felt that day.

The Bjarke Ingels group shares and upholds these values everyday, they show it in every project they work on. It has been my dream to join the Bjarke Ingels family ever since I stumbled onto their website during my 3rd year of architectural studies...

I am a hard/clever working individual that believe in sharing, building and growing ideas. I thrive underpressure and in a studio environment, also just as important, I know how to relax, regroup and start again. I am good at building relationships and just as good at keeping them healthy and relevant. When I believe in a cause I am willing to dedicate everything I have to offer. I believe in BIG as an idea, as a company and the future of architecture and I would love to be able to prove my worth within any level of its ranks.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this document. I look forward to any response from the Bjarke Ingels Group.

Best regards,

Stephen Hitchcock,stephenjhitchcock@gmail.com

CONCLUSION