Robyn Boy Online Portfolio
Architecture
Parliament Street Restaurant
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The brief was to design a small restaurant in the busy, newly revamped, Parliament Street, Port Elizabeth. The site was a park-like, triangular patch of open ground lined with trees. This called for a sensitive response to the natural elements as well as to the busy vehicular and pedestrian traffic from Parliament street. The 'in-the-round' site was situated deep within the residential scaled, urban fabric of the area, its maximum width being 12m and its narrowest width, only 2m wide.
Plascon Prism Awards Entry
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The brief: Draw your inspiration from South Africa; everything that we are and everything that we can become. Relish in your surroundings, eclectic cultures, history and future, your ability to adapt and evolve and transform an existing space or conceptualise a new one within the following categories:
Commercial Projects, which include public spaces, offices, parks, stadia, retail developments and hotels
Residential Projects, which could be apartment blocks, estates, cluster developments and private homes.
Incorporate one or more of the Plascon 2010 Colour Forecast themes and show us how you adapted and evolved the distinctive South African Style into a space that will ignite a contemporary South Africa.
Njoli Community Centre
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The Njoli site conforms to all the typical South African township characteristics. Low density, fine grain of fabric, lack of services and institutes, a complicated working system of informal transport, lack of hierarchy and legibility, and an existence of scores of informal trading. The brief called for the design of a centre to restore a sense of pride and dignity to the community. A centre which could be used by all for sport, municipal, educational and business purposes. Being situated on an important corner along a major taxi route in a previous residential area, also called for a need to provide additional housing for the residents displaced by the development. The decision was made to provide higher density housing toward the south of the site to reinforce the new hierarchical zone with the vision of a catalytic effect on the area.
Material Recovery Facility
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The site for this project is situated in between the Walmer township and Walmer along the commercially dominated Heugh Road. This site is situated in the undefined area between the two vastly different contexts, A white residential community and a informal settlement. The area served as planned 'buffer-zone' during the Apartheid era. Contributing factors to further the separation in this area include: a railway line, vast open space, planting of major large trees, and serious lack of institutes and supporting infrastructure. There is the potential to use the site to create a space which integrates all conditions of the context.
Beachfront Apartment Block
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The North-East facing site is located on the beachfront across the road from the newly developed Kings Beach precinct. High end living is a demand in this area and the long narrow site, perpendicular to the Northern sea views, led to some interesting design decisions. Sticking to the datum line of the majority of the surrounding buildings' heights, the apartment block is 7 stories including a penthouse and basement parking. Adjacent to the site is the 20 storey apartment block, The Beaches, which caused shadow and issues.
Caesarstone Design Competition
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The brief was to to create a house that resonates in the urban landscape, one house that celebrates the evocative beauty of reshaped and augmented stone. STONE HOUSE, stimulates a conscious response towards the global initiative of environmental responsibility and reflects on the certainty and uncertainty of living in the 21st Century.
The brief aimed to waken students to a realm where the enclosed spaces of the house are subordinate to the grand gesture of occupation in the earth.
Maternity Clinic
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The site was in the Ibhayi district, a typical South African urban township. The fine urban grained area has the potential to become a cultural hub for the area with the Ubuntu Centre and library adjacent to the site. It is a bubble of open space within the residential/ private environment. There is, however, a lack of public and humane elements and a lack of hierarchy in the area.

This project had to incorporate separate zones of the medical field, allowing for independent use and joint use simultaneously. These areas were: a labour unit, an outpatients section and an educational facility.
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The critical issues to deal with in this project were: limited resources, overcrowding, lack of infrastructure, lack of trained staff.
Magistrates Court
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The magistrates court site is located on Market Square in Uitenhage, well within the historic civic core of the town. The square is loosely defined by low rise buildings which lack the civic presence needed on the square.
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The complex nature of a magistrates court's programme needed to be understood and careful consideration needed to be taken of strong privacy gradients and thresholds. The nature of the building is such that the users range from public visitors off the square to criminals awaiting trial, which made the circulation important making sure public and very private do not mix.