ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

2014

SIMONFERRANDI

Simon James Ferrandi simonferrandi@gmail.com02153140910769184886

Skills:Fluent in Sketchup Pro and AutoCAD - I have successfully beenusing Susing Sketchup since high school. I have also dabbled in a bit of Revit, but I don’t have a handle on it at this stage

Educaonal BackgroundBishops Diocesan College 1999-2011(matric results aached)

University of Cape Town: School of ArchitectureBachelor of Architectural Studies 2012- 2014(official t(official transcript aached)

Work Experience

R&L ArchitectsWork experience and Intern December 2013 Reference: John During johnd@rlarchitects.co.za

Bishops Hockey Coach Coach for u9 boys at Bishops April 2012-September 2012Coach for u10 boys at Bishops April 2013-September 2014Reference: Murray Anderson manderson@bishopsprep.org.za

Community InvolvementWorked on K4K charity commiee, which is a corporate and interschool relay raceorganized by the Gray House at BishopsPPart of the 2013 Imizamo Yethu water plaorm project build during the 2013 June/July vacwhich was designed and built by students of the UCT School of Architecture with sponsored materials for the community of Imizamo Yethu

InterestsOne of my largest passions is the visual arts, in parcularpainng in the medium of oils (although I have dabbled incollage, acrylic, water colour, pen and ink and charcoal, amongst others). At school I aended several oil painngworkshops hosted by the prominent SA arst Kerry EvansI hI have thoroughly enjoyed being able to connue to drawand somemes paint whilst studying my degree. Whilstat school, I was awarded the Visual Arts Prize, as well as the Pierneef Cup. My final matric piece was also chosen to be exhibited at the achievers gallery.

I also love sports, and whilst I played compe ve team sports such as hockey (at 1 team level), I prefer surfing and sand skateboarding as I have only my ability to rely on.Surfing around Cape Town really opens up your eyes tothe natural beauty of our city which, needless to say, is something which I would very much like to preserve and so living sustainably is very important to me. I also thoroughly enjoy trail-running all over our beauful TableMountain range

BIO

CreaveManifesto

Of all of the Romanc painters, I feel that William Turner’s ability to acutely capture the dynamic quality of light in his work places him head and shoulders above his contemporaries.His landscapes hold the same richness which is evoked by Rembrandt’s portraits. Turner’s painng Dutch Boats Caught in a Gale is one of my favourites, as the painng has such a richtexture. You can appreciate the fine aenon to detail in the subtle difference between thetreatment of the sea and the clouds of the storm. Turner also uses an incredibly rich palee tto add a grandness to what could potenally be a dreary painng, if one considers the subject.There is so much evidence of layering of paint in order to produce more depth and informaon -a technique so synonymous with oils.

The New Constuonal Court is a fantasc example of an all-inclusive, all-encompassing publicbuilding. As a result of a remarkably open and inclusive design process, Design Workshop and Urban Soluons produced a design which successfully embraces and reflects the vibrancy of South Africa’s cultural landscape. I think that it is my favourite building in South Africa at the moment because it cks all of the boxes, so to speak: it is aesthecally-appealing, simple in programme and concept, sustainable in approach and culturally all-inclusive. One of my ffavourite features are the lightwells to provide natural lighng to the interior. I also love the approach to tectonics, where a vast array of natural materials have been ulized to great effect.Arguably, one of the most commendable features of the building is its melessness - it successfullyembraces the past and the future, whilst remaining relevant in its current cultural landscape.

This is an oil of my brother, Paul, which I painted during one of the Kerry Evans weekend workshopswhich I aended. Kerry’s approach is to block in lights and darks early on in order to establish yourcomposion, and to then work into the mid-tones. When she works, she is oen taken to completelyblocking out or painng over whatever she has done. I find my approach far more precious, but with this portrait, I loosened up and just tried to feel my way with the paint. As a result, the work has a dynamism which I don’t think I would be able to emulate again.

The inial stage of the project was to design a prosthec which disabled a certainbodily funcon. I decided to design a device which distorted visual perspecve using light and reflecon. From this, I developed the idea into a performance space within the courtyard of the iziko naonal gallery. The idea behind this was based around the adapon of my original prosthec into ‘a distoron of a performance’where the roof of the courtyard is the most important feature. The roof was made up of mirup of mirrors and angled plywood planes which created a visual distoron through the manipulaon of light.

Iziko

Bo-Kaap Thermae

This project, set on a very small site in the bo-kaap, was a public bath house constructed enrely out of concrete. My design is based around the idea of‘the movement of people to reflect the movement of water’ and needless to say, the programme of the structure ‘flows’ from moment you enter, through the process of ge ng dressed, bathing and heading up to the roof garden to relax. I also wanted the design to reflect a sustainable a tude with regards to the treatmentof of water, so I used wetland pools as a filtraon device to purify the water. The biomass which is a bi-product of these pools is used as fuels for the water boilers.

Smitswinkelbaai House

The brief for this project asked for a small house for two people with a floor planof no more than 25m2. My design is based around the concept of ‘the headlands,the river and the horizon’, which are the most noteworthy natural features of the site. the headlands are represented by the buerfly roof, which slopes into a steelguer feature of the river. This guer has no down-pipe, but instead drains thewater into a storage tank under the building, creang a waterfall as another visual ffeature. the obvious response to the horizon was to open the enre east-facing facade up to the view. All of the materials are light-weight so as to be transportable by quad-bike to the site.

Site Sketches Perspecve of Design

South Elevaon

East ElevaonNorth Elevaon

West Elevaon

Structural SketchTimber Framework

Technical Secon

One of the first things I considered when designing a large building for parlimentarianswas the impact it would have on traffic congeson in the area. As a result, I came upwith the idea of creang an occupyable free-way into which apartments are sloed.The programme is simple: the building is a large spiralling ramp with apartments sloedinto it like a street, effecvely creang a ‘neighbourhood in the sky’, as people are ableto drive right up to the front door of their home. The road eventually becomes a running ttrack, which circles back down to street level.

ParliamentApartments

Design Secon

Perspecves

Lakeside Extension

The brief for this project detailed an extension of an exisng office complex in Lakeside.The small extension required both conference room facilies and an extended officespace area, and due to the slope in the site, required two levels and the installaon ofa retaining wall. Because the project was from our Technology course, emphasis was put on the construcon of the building, as well as on a design which took into accountthe requirements of the client and the natural condions of the site, which overlooked the lathe lakes

Technical Secon

Perspecve

Street Elevaon

North Elevaon

East City Mapping Project[in progress]

The intenon of this project, which was drawn out over the first semester of my third year (2014), was to provide a sensive and well-informed framework on a city-wide scale, which would in turn serve as a rich context in which to place oursecond semester project - an opera house. For my urban planning scheme, I focussed on the exisng energies of the industries which surround the “fringe district site.” My scheme was based largely on the idea of creang an insenvised wwalking route through the city by using smaller “places of interest” (workshops, stalls, galleries, museums) along exisng/imposed routes of pedestrian traffic, inorder to link larger focal nodes (Grand Parade, Company Gardens, CPUT).

Opera House[in progress]

The Opera House Project is our final project for our third year and dominates mostcourses over the enre second semester. The idea was that having provided myselfwith a well-informed context to my opera house site with my urban planning scheme,I then used a similar focus in conceptualizing a design in my opera house. Because a large focus of my planning was based around exisng movement routes of people through the area, I decided that the my opera house would be located on the HarringtonSquaSquare site, extending part of the way up the hill towards Roeland Street. On HarringtonSquare, two important pedestrian routes I idenfied in my urban planning scheme existed and so figured that that juncon required a landmark of note. The design which I am currently working on is based on the idea of bringing the programme of opera - the dancing, singing, music and magnificent stage sets - to the everyday passer-by, who would be using the building as a thoroughfare on their daily commute.The intenon was to involve the people moving through the “inner street” of the buildingin all aspects of the perin all aspects of the performances independently - they can experience a piece of the magnificence without actually having to buy a cket.

Design/Concept Development

Model development

Vision

when I first entered the BAS degree two and a half years ago, my vision for my future architectural career was severly limited - I believed that I would designbeauful houses for my friends and other privileged clientele. now, almost three years into the degree, I have come to realize that architects in our beaufulcountry have a far larger role to play in literally shaping society. we are almost 20 years into a new south africa, yet a massive amount of people are sllnot housed adequately. also, in a world with vast over-populaon and dwindling natural resources, sustainability is rapidly becoming key to any successfuldesign. both of these issues adesign. both of these issues are close to my heart and I would jump at any opportunity to get involved in either. obviously, one of the most contenous architectural issues in south africa is that of mass social housing. it is remarkable that despite the obvious failure of the RDP model, the government sllwill not accept thousands of viable proposals to change the model. I would relish the opportunity to get involved in a project to marry sustainability with social-housing to create a model which is comfortable, aracve and posive with regards to both the future of the environment and the future of the occupaoccupant. obviously the RDP model fails to create a comfortable existence which promotes posivity and producvity and I believe that a lile effort to making that model more sustainable and comfortable to live in will do wonders for the producvity of the naon. I greatly admire the work of alejandroaravena and elemental as they have successfully created a model for social-housing which is aracve, sustainable and most importantly, low in cost.

is it really that hard to introduce a similar scheme here?