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Abstract



This design treatise originates from a concern with the way performing arts buildings are designed and used.

Music schools tend to be a series of exclusive spaces, with limited opportunity for engagement or interaction. There is also a concern with the way the buildings on the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University campus are being located and arranged as the campus expands. These issues will be addressed thoroughly in the chapters to follow, with the following key ideas being kept in mind throughout the treatise:    

 

 

The primary function of the building is an educational one, and the new music school should create an appropriate, inspiring, learning environment for creative practices. The spaces need to be ideal for rehearsing, learning and performing while allowing students engagement with other users of the building.

The building should serve as an ideal place for like minded, creative people to collaborate and interact.

 

 

Secondly, there are two distinctly different campuses due to the administrative structure which is being unified currently, but they still retain their individual character. There is a need for further unification, and the principles of the proposed spatial plan entitled, ‘Urban Design Concept for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University,’ will be utilized in the site selection and design. All new buildings being built on the campus in future should follow the guidelines of the spatial plan.  

 

 

Music has the power to get beyond all kinds of barriers, race, class, religion, language and culture. This is an essential unifying element on a campus as diverse as Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

 

 

 

This research will therefore attempt to uncover ways in which inspiring learning spaces can allow for better collaboration within a music building while addressing the spatial disconnection between the two university campuses.

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​Problem Statement

 

This research problem has been identified primarily through gaps in the way performing arts buildings are designed and used. Music schools tend to be introverted buildings as a series of exclusive spaces, with limited opportunity for engagement or interaction.

 

The primary function of a music school is as an educational facility, and the new music school should create an appropriate, inspiring, learning environment for creative practices. The spaces need to be ideal for rehearsing, learning and performing while allowing students engagement with other users of the building. The building should serve as an ideal place for like minded, creative people to collaborate and interact. Accommodation for a music school needs to provide for a programme consisting almost entirely of practical music making activities, from solo practising, to group performances.

 

While larger performing spaces (like concert halls and large auditoriums) address necessary cultural, civic, architectural and artistic needs, few performing artists begin their careers playing in large halls, and these performance spaces are typically hidden away behind closed doors and can only be experienced by attending a show. Smaller, more informal performance venues play an important role for professional performing artists, especially for students as emerging artists, by allowing them to both reach out to new audiences and develop their performance skills. The combination of the social aspect with performance functions provides a platform for students and new performers to perform to a ‘ready-made’ audience. In order to nurture these emerging artists, these audience-performer interactions are vital.

 

The other issue this treatise will address is the spatial disconnection between the North and South Campus at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, which is a result of the merging of the old UPE and Technikon. The two distinctly different campuses are currently being unified administratively, but they still retain their individual character. The various departments, in an attempt to accommodate the new numbers, needed expansion or relocation. Although these developments address the technical and programmatic requirement, they lack hierarchy and legibility. They appear to distort rather than strengthen, the sense of place and identity of the campus. The buildings are not built and located with a concern for the campus as a whole, but rather with the emphasis on individual needs of the various departments alone. These buildings are therefore exclusive spaces and have limited or no engagement with the public. 

 

There is therefore a need for further spatial unification between the two campuses, and a reconsideration of the building typologies. This research will therefore attempt to uncover ways in which inspiring learning spaces can allow for better collaboration within a music building while addressing the spatial disconnection between the two university campuses

 

 

Context


South Africa is highly influenced by fluctuations from abroad and has since the beginning of Modernism, and responds closely to international trends. (Joubert 2009). The spatial and physical layout of Port Elizabeth (the NMMU South Campus Included) has been highly influenced by the Modernist movement and it is evident in the organization of movement, accessibility, the spatial layout and the physical appearance.
The site is also located on a protected natural reserve which will demand an sensitive architectural response.

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Aims



This treatise will aim to produce a music school for Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University that provides an inspiring learning environment, serves as a place of collaboration and interaction, and acts as a unifier in a diverse cultural educational environment.

 

It aims to address the performing arts building typology as a series of exclusive spaces, by fulfilling the following objectives:

- Gain a clear understanding of the proposed Urban Design Framework.

- Understand the role music plays in public space, if any.

- Research the technical and sustainable principles involved in the making of a contemporary music building.

 

The principle objectives of the music building are to:

- Promote music performance in the public realm.

- Provide a platform for inhabitants of the music building and inhabitants of the campus to interact.

- Provide opportunities for inhabitants of the building to better engage with each other.

- Provide a contemporary centre with inspiring spaces for learning that incorporates all the acoustic specifications necessary for optimum sound quality.

 

 

“THE RESULT IS NEITHER PURELY MUSICAL NOR ARCHITECTURAL, BUT A HYBRID THAT FALLS BETWEEN THE TWO DISCIPLINES…”  -ELIZABETH MARTIN

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References​
 

Books:

AKBARI, F., 2011. Adaptive Re-Design Masters thesis, Dept. of Architecture, Chalmers Technical University.

ANDER G.D., 2003. Daylighting Performance and Design New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

APPLETON, I., 1996. Buildings for the Performing Arts. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd

BLOOMER, K., MOORE, C.W., 1977. Body, Memory, and Architecture, Yale. New Haven: Yale University Press.

CARR, S., Francis M., Rivlin L.G., Stone A.M., 1992. Public Space. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.

COLBURN, R., 2002. Composing Space: the integration of music, time, and space in multi-dimensional sound installations. University of the Pacific. Conservatory of Music.

DLMM Urban Design Association. 2011. An Urban Design Concept for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), Port Elizabeth and George. Internal Document

FRAMPTON, K., 1983. Towards a Critical Regionalism: six points for an architecture of resistance In: The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture. Edited by Hal Foster. Seattle: Bay Press HILLIER, B., HANSON, J. 1984. The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge Cambridgeshire New York: Cambridge University Press
HUTCHISON, B., 2012. Performance Space for Niche and Emerging Artists Masters thesis, Dept. of Architecture, University of Massachusetts.

Kim, J., 1998. Introduction to Sustainable Design. Michigan: National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher EducationLEFEBVRE, H. 1991.

The Production of Space. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.) Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing

LITTLEFIELD, D. 2007. Metric Handbook Planning and Design Data. Third edition. Oxford: Achitectural Press

NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY. 2012S.a. NMMU in Brief. Internal Document

SAENGPORM, P., Urban Water. 2013Masters thesis, Depart of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, North Dakota State University

WENGER. [S.a]. Planning Guide for School Music Facilities.Version 3.1 [S.I].

WOOD N., Duffy M., Smith S. (2007). The art of doing (geographies of) music. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Volume 25, 867-889.

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Articles:
Cultural Industries Growth Strategy (CIGS).the South African music industry report to the department of arts, culture, science and technology.Final report,November 1998.
Olivier, Bert. Music and Architecture: time and/or space?​
 

Websites:

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Wu, Duan 2008. “Mapping the Promenade Experience of Therme Vals in the Form of Narrative.

” International Design and Cinema Conference 3. Accessed 05 October 2013. 

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