ABOUT THIS CPD EVENT
We rarely see the simplicity of building - the layering and jointing - at work on modern construction sites. Today, the scene is dominated by "montage", assembly and prefabricated building components.
"Montage", it would seem, has come to dominate our everyday lives. Robert Musil even likened a person's character, his nature, to a "montage". What we experience as nature is merely naturalized. On closer inspection, the fiction of untouched nature is rapidly debunked.
These internal and external conditions of daily life are rarely at the forefront of our thoughts. It takes images of catastrophic events - a car accident, a building after an explosion - to open a window and look behind the mask of stability. The main task of the mask is to provide a visual representation of stability without being stable itself.
If we are only too willing to accept the daily "montage" of architecture as an image, it is because we live in an image-driven world. Images have more clout than the objects they represent. Hence the importance of the observer and his perception. He must decipher the illusion and judge the veracity of the image in its deciphered state. In other words: the act of looking shapes the object that is looked upon. And the image formed by the act of looking is also changed. On closer inspection, the image of our highly artificial world is revealed as a web of relationships between its components.
Today, building is a deliberate and carefully planned intervention in this vast array of mutual dependencies, in an effort to render them accessible within the planning limitations and to subjugate them to our intention. Unintentional effects must be taken into consideration.
In this interpretation of building, material is but one interchangeable aspect of planning, dependent on supply, The formative and aesthetic power of the natural resistance inherent in a material is simply eliminated through substitution. This "virtual" approach to design makes building materials arbitrary in a synthesizing manner. Resistance is not tolerated. Layering and jointing, the simplicity of building turns out to be antagonistic. Being simple is not the same as being accommodating. Simplicity tends to baffle and amaze because it contains what is basic and renders it visible.
In this event a variety of positions against the background of the history of masonry will be explored. They are by no means intended as examples for contemporary building but allow us to draw conclusions with regard to our own perception. These conclusions, in turn, can alter our present perspectives, thereby making a contribution to current issues in designing masonry structures.
PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY
• Architectural Design
• Architectural History, Theory and Precedent
• Building Services and related technologies
DURATION AND CPD:
The event is available as a pre-recording with a duration of ± 4 hours. You may stop and continue later. On the last day of every month a list of those who have succesfully completed the event will be extracted from the system and CPD certificates genereate - these certificates will be available on the e-Portal with the first two weeks of the next month.
It is validated for 0.4 CPD Category 1 points for SACAP registered professionals.
PRESENTER:
Frans Dekker is the Managing Director of SAIAT and since 2008 has been involved in presenting CPD workshops for SAIAT.
COSTS:
- SAIAT members = R 360.00
- Other professionals / Guests = R 400.00
- Students = R 50.00
(All inclusive of VAT)
Please note that SAIAT offers a 4-month payment plan. Please complete the Instalment Agreement and DebiCheck manadate here.
