F!reProofW!tch: Architecture project

MoByJo & me update

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:42:03 GMT

Goeie dag ! Ungakhatezeki, take it easy...

Well, everything can happen, you just have to believe.

I hope everybody is very well, ca va la France ? j'ai appris que mes frequentations alsaciennes profite de mon absence pour aller tous ensemble en boite... m'en fiche, na! Le offshore ca pu le vomi

Seriously, MoByJo project is doing well. The City of Johannesburg loves it, YES! the intermodal tower I designed happens to be just were a multimodal station is planned for 2010.... and the Land Use proposed me to go for approval to add my urban design to the Spatial Development Framework for region F. It's a Alleluia! good news ! Even if it is also a huge process. The word "Icon" for the city renewal has been use for the tower. I am so please, as my aim was to please Johannesburg citizens.

Quant a moi, I already change from my former company to a bigger one, with only fun to design, like big villas, casinos, luxury hotels all around the hype place of the world and of course a better salary .

Je dois aussi ajouter que j'ai enfin quatre chaises autour de mon kitchen bar, vous etes donc les bienvenus fransozens friends !

Voila, I have to apoligize for still not giving you new pics to look, I promise as soon as I get the opportunity, you will have brand new albums to look at.

Lot of Love, I miss you like hell you french crew.

Joburg Monorail

Tue, 29 May 2007 14:57:57 GMT

'afternoon people,

I hope everyone is very well. The news of the month is that Newcyc Vision, a Malaysian investment consortium, is planning to built a monorail between Soweto and the CBD. The project is called "Going Up" and guess what ? it takes the same route MoByJo project does. it's like a blessing for me, telling me my design is sensible. The main difference lies in the fact I proposed a tramway, which would obviously cost less and be more convenient for everyday transport. On the other hand, I have to admit a monorail will have a more impressiv look for the 2010 Soccer World Cup event. And the Malaysian consortium is relying on private money, so... Anyway, let's hope this is for the best for JOHANNESBURG future, I believe it.

Original report :

The project is a private sector initiative by the Malaysian investment consortium, Newcyc Vision

BUSINESS NEWS
'Going up' - Gauteng's new monorail
Wed, 16 May 2007

A R12-billion monorail will be built between Johannesburg and Soweto in the next two years, it was announced on Wednesday. "By 2009 no one from Soweto should have to wait more than 15 minutes for transport," Gauteng Finance and Economic Affairs MEC Paul Mashatile said at the launch of the project in Sandton.Work on the 44.7-kilometre monorail and its 39 stations will start in September.The monorail was intended to complement and not compete against existing forms of transport, said Mashatile.

Moving people ‘efficiently’

"The problem in South Africa when it comes to public transport is not competition; the problem is people queue for three to four hours (for transport). "We want to move people: move them efficiently; move them safely; move them in an affordable way..." It was hoped the monorail would move 1.5 million passengers a day, between Soweto and Johannesburg, to ease congestion on the roads. The monorail service will consist of 4.5 metres high, rubber-wheeled carbon fibre carriages, 10 metres long and three metres wide — able to carry 107 passengers each. These will run on concrete beams atop six-metre tall pillars situated mainly on the centre medians between road carriageways, and will dock at aerial stations accessed via escalators.

Set to be a hybrid

The hybrid variety used in South Africa will run on a combination of electricity and solar-powered batteries. The monorail is expected to cost $25-million a kilometre (about R173-million) to build, but none of this will be borne by the government. The project is a private sector initiative by the Malaysian investment consortium, Newcyc Vision, with which Mashatile, Gauteng Public Transport Road and Works MEC Ignatius Jacobs and Gauteng Economic Development Agency chief executive officer Keith Khoza signed a deal on Wednesday. Newcyc has been given three months to find Black Economic Empowerment partners.

Companies invited

Newcyc chief executive officer Jeyakumar Varathan has invited both small local development companies and big civil construction companies to present the consortium with their profiles. He said that while raw materials were being sourced outside South Africa because of present local shortages, construction would take place in the country at a factory in Mogale City, next to the Merafong Hospital. Built on 20 hectares of land provided by the Gauteng government, the factory would be the hub of monorail developments throughout Africa. Jacobs said he first proposed that the idea of a monorail for Gauteng be explored in his 2002 strategic agenda for transport. However, year-long work on a feasibility study for the project had been kept largely secret until now to prevent any escalation in the prices of, among other things, land, said Mashatile.

Essentially a ‘skybridge’

The monorail was not expected to result in expropriations similar to those caused by construction of the Gautrain, and only minimal disruption was expected "because we're going up. This is a skybridge," said Jacobs. "We are convinced we are entering a new era of modernising public transport to our province. It's a revolution," he said. Instead of being run by computerised high technology, the South African service would be labour intensive, in the interests of creating jobs and reducing poverty, he said. The project was expected to create 100 permanent jobs per kilometre. It would create 5000 jobs during construction with another 2400 at the factory. While round-trip tickets were expected to cost R10 each, rides between stations would cost less, to encourage inner-city travelling in Soweto — between shopping centres, stadia and major heritage sites. The entire route would take 45 minutes to cover at an average speed of 40 kilometres an hour, with a peak speed of 80 kilometres an hour. Trains would run every 10 to 15 minutes and every three minutes during peaks. Sapa

link to Newcyc website :

http://www.newsysip.com/

alle, pas besoin de traduc en francais, toute facon j'ai qu'un QWERTY sous la main, et ca serai plein de faute ;-)

busy & happy

Thu, 10 May 2007 11:00:58 GMT

Hola !

I'm very well settling in SA with very hot architecture projects ! My MobYJo project (find comment in previous post) is going to be presented wealthy client (cooooooooool)

Bonjour tout le monde, juste un petit mot d'Afrique du Sud pour vous rapeller que la France n'est pas la seule option qu'en on est architecte...

Quelques exemple de projet sur lesquels je bosse :

- atelier de poterie pour handicapes

- business district and criquet field

- musee et hotel sur un fort a Cape Town

- creation d'une Miami-Monaco a Durban...

vala, pas de quoi s'ennuyer !

Bisous, kiss, Hug & love ! Gwen

MoByJo = Moved By Joburg

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:03:38 GMT

Hello ! I wish You a Happy New Year 2007 whoever You are, and hope You'll find this interesting.

Bonjour ! Je vous souhaite à tous une Bonne Année 2007 ! Les albums photos concernant MoByJo vous présentent mon dernier projet d'archi et d'urbanisme sur Johannesburg (Afrique du Sud). Les commentaires sont en anglais mais le contenu des images donne un aperçu parlant du projet.

MoByJo is the main project I worked on last year. Since my trip (Dec 2005) in South Africa, it took approximately 8 month to analyse, understand and assess the existing and the needs, design the transport and urban project, write the memoir "architecture and identity : intermodal facilieties for Johannesburg". And the rendering stage took almost a month, for the plates, models and powerpoint to look convincing. Here (in pictures) is what it is (almost) all about.

MoByJo project is about Johannesburg, a city fifteen times as wide as Paris. As it is so huge, and its short history so eventful, it is ideal place for a very open question, which is the link between architecture and identity.

At the beginning, it should have been “just” an intermodal station, but Johannesburg vastness leads to think in a bigger scale, and it is at the end an urban project. This project is designed in the real context of a municipality wish, and answer to everyday life needs of Johannesburg inhabitants. But it also goes along with an international event, as it is on the site where first and final match of the soccer world cup 2010 will happen.

In concrete terms, the one hundred pages memoir ask the flaw between Soweto and Joburg CBD, as in its urban fabric than in its public transport network, the two being intimately bind in its history. Today reality for Joburg is the construction underway of the Gautrain, aimed to link the international airport to Pretoria and the inner city of Johannesburg. This high speed train will end is route in the main station (rail) of Joburg. The line that goes from there directly to Soweto deserving Soccer City with the FNB stadium, is only deserved by motorway and public transport relies on private minibus and taxi company. This is already a problem for every day working trips people from Soweto have to do through the City going north. Even if this private business keeps Soweto running, it won't be efficient enough to provide transport for the mass of tourism the 2010 Soccer World Cup will convey here. The new motorways planed by the municipality will ad to the traffic jams at the cross highways at the Crown Interchange. To really free Soweto from old inherited enclosed situation, to let it benefits from tourism, to offer the world cup a strategic development area, and at least to offer Johannesburg a breath, let loose the north/south belt. MoByJo project suggests a tramway line and urban development linking Park Station, the Crown knot, Soccer City and Soweto. This would complete the sheme planed for 2010, goes along with the 2030 world class city vision, and above all, build shared advantages for the south african dream to last.

More than helpfull link : http://www.joburg.org.za/