Mylena Oliveira
Arebueng Saense! Lets Talk Science!
To work on this project, a commmunity focused science centre for marginalized communities in Rustenburg, South Africa, we formed a diverse and multidisciplinary team. We used workshops with local stakeholders to develop the project’s design. These workshops provided an opportunity to challenge our ideas and suppositions by presenting the project to future users of the science centre.
Taking into consideration the collaborative nature of this project, and with the ambition of creating a more interactive relationship between the design team and local stakeholders and collaborators, the team explored numerous collaborative design methodologies. In the end, the team decided on develop and utilize a card game concept, where the cards would synthesize the research and also provide an opportunity for play and discussion.
Full-time unpaid work in the DET Lab with Professor Aziza Chaouni – University of Toronto, Summer 2014 (from May 1st to August 15th for 40 hours/week).
Position of Research and Designer Assistant on the design development phase of a design-built project that included a community center and ecotourism accommodations for an AGO in Rustenburg, South Africa.
The Project
A total of 49 unique cards were developed in order to synthesize the research done in the first phase of the project prior to our visit to South Africa.
My participation in this stage of the work was to research and develop together with my partner Macedo the Materials Cards, being a total of 19 cards.
After all the research phase, the Master Plan was developed, involving the entire group.
Situated among the remains of illegal sand mining which pre-existed on the site, the Below Us Pavilion explores themes which happen below ground, namely mining and archaeology. Mining celebrates the dominant local industry, empowering locals by showing them the connection between their livelihood and the world. Archaeology connects South Africans to their rich and extended cultural heritage, often forgotten in daily life.
Composed of a checkerboard pattern of interior exhibition spaces and gardens, the Among Us Pavilion explores the issues of things that surround us including ecology, agriculture, and society. 11 gardens, representing the 7 bioregions of Rustenburg and the 4 main agricultural products of the North West Province invite users to consider issues of ecology and agroindustry, reflecting on the coexistence of man-made and natural landscapes.
Constructed out of the earth produced during the excavation for the Below Us Pavilion, the Above Us building explores themes which are important to South Africans: religion, astronomy, and the creation of the universe. The very form of the building is a teaching tool, with apertures designed to align with celestial events such as the solstice and equinox and the oculus serving as a marker of the sun`s movement through the sky.
