Saturday, June 30, 2012

Interactive Design Workshop

by Tuliza Sindi

Model building day re-established our commitment to this endeavour. It was certainly insightful.
We arrived to a few of the block committee members ready and waiting. The presence of six 1:100 scaled Slovo Hall models allowed an easy platform for interaction, providing ease of demonstration and engagement. Models were built of the available building materials, and used on the models as 'building blocks', which proved quite effective. Components were moved around on the model, and many gestures expressed the many clear ideas given by the community members.
Buccs led the meeting, encouraging a flow of ideas and establishing a realistic time-based goal. Jappie proceeded to the Eastern side of the Hall and proposed that it be closed off completely. Buccs then suggested that the roof be raised and extended further west to increase the covered floor space.

Our suggestion to slant the roof enough to catch rainwater was well received, as they mentioned how water is scarce over the weekends due to high levels of laundry being done simultaneously.

There was a clear understanding of time and budgetary constraints from all of the community members present, which made their demands for the Hall very realistic. We were able to plan what could happen in the very near future and were told of the many talents we could have perform in the Hall after our build week.

We met afterwards to discuss the agenda for the next week, considering the homework given to us by Buccs to prepare a proposal document. This is needed by the block committee members to convince community members to each donate R5 towards the project. This need encourages us to finish the design work and documentation hastily, and establishes the documentation needed to raise funding.

The process is well under way!