Anne-apolis

As cities become more densified , a number of problems come in: there is a loss of biodiversity and green space; stormwater and the risk of flooding become heightened; and the widespread use of heavy construction materials such as concrete and dark coloured materials such as asphalt for roads contribute to the Urban Heat Island . One solution is to use the roofs of buildings to reintroduce vegetation. A green roof at the University of the Witwatersrand Green roofs can either be extensive, as shown in the photo, with a fairly shallow layer of soil over the whole extent of the roof-space, or intensive with much deeper soil to support larger plants such as shrubs or even trees. Intensive roofs are quite heavy, so usually they can only be used where they have been designed for in the original construction of the building. By contrast, extensive roofs are quite lightweight and can be installed on a variety of existing flat roofs without the need for structural modification. The green roof i...

  Today I would like to share some thoughts on city planning, which in many parts of the world, including my home town of Johannesburg, is in the process of a shift in mindset. This is in response to the urgent need for a more environmentally responsible approach, as cities are some of the largest contributors of greenhouse gases, consumers of energy, producers of waste and disrupters of ecological processes, such as the water cycle. This new thinking is associated with the Compact City approach, which aims to reduce a city's greenhouse gases, reduce energy consumption, reduce private car use and at the same time reduce travel time especially for day-to-day activities. In this philosophy, there is a drive to protect green space and manage stormwater in a more sustainable way. A city that has made great strides in many of these objectives is Curatiba in Brazil, famous as one of the first cities to introduce a bus rapid transit system, and with some very creative approaches to waste ...

Often our reasons for feeling that we need to move house is because the rooms feel too small, so today we look at some of the inexpensive ways in which we can make a room appear to be more spacious. I will be focusing on the living room, but the principles apply to all rooms, although often with less flexibility such as a bedroom which will be dominated by the bed and maybe a free-standing wardrobe. A good starting point is to draw up a plan of the room: squared paper is very useful for this and you can use the same paper to draw and cut out plans of all your furniture. You will need to measure the room and the furniture so that they are to the same scale. For interiors, I usually let one 1/2cm square on the paper equal 10cm. In an earlier blog , I looked at fitting two studio apartments into a one-bedroom flat, where I used cutouts of the furniture to experiment with different layouts. Two important things to think about when working on the layout is to make sure that you have enough ...

 Living in a heritage building is a joy - large rooms with high ceilings, versatile spaces, beautiful detailing and generally an atmosphere of crafted elegance. But sometimes there is a down-side. Every time anyone opens or closes my front door, the knob comes off in their hand! The doorknob is the original steel one with a restrained art deco design. The front door's is a slightly larger version of the interior doors, using the same steel finish and fluting to the door-plate and knob.  My front doorknob I have tried to repair this myself, using Pratley's steel adhesive, but that only lasted a couple of turns of the knob before it fell off again. Several locksmiths and building contractors have tried to fix it, but with no joy. I really don't want to replace it, as it is so much a feature of the building, matching in with the other doorknobs in my own apartment and the front doors of many of my neighbours. It also matches in with the original bell-push, many of which have b...

Restoration of a heritage building is a complex and specialised activity, especially if the building has heritage status and needs to comply with legislation. Here it is essential to consult with a qualified heritage architect, who will be able to guide you through the process. If the building is not protected by legislation, we have more of a free hand, but we need to navigate the complex decisions around authenticity, practicality and affordability. This becomes even more difficult if we also want to aim for the smallest possible environmental impact. I was introduced to lifecycle costing several years ago, when I was teaching alongside one of the experts, whose PhD and subsequent research focus has been on this topic. As with heritage, this is a complex topic and one that needs specialist input if we are to have a robust lifecycle analysis. This said, there are some pointers that we can use to allow us to interact with the experts, or just to give us guidance if we don't have th...

  A couple of years ago, in 2019, a family member had seriously run out of space. Her apartment has many special features, primary of which is a most spectacular view, with a large balcony opening off the living room and bedroom. It is also in a very secure and well-managed complex, where her sister lives, so there were many very compelling reasons to solve the space problem. View from the balcony The bedroom and kitchen had quite old fittings, dating to the original construction of the building in 1998, so a refurbishment could potentially be a good investment by improving the resale value of the unit.  We began the design process working room by room to determine how much space and of what type was needed. We focused on the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, as these rooms had outdated fittings that would be strategic to replace. We drew up an inventory for each of these three rooms and then measured up the spaces to draw the base plans.  We started with the kitchen, an ope...

Before I moved into my present flat, it was essential to refurbish the kitchen entirely: the existing fittings must have been installed in the 1960s, and many of the cupboards had been severely damaged. This was a great opportunity to restore some of the original 1930s features as the rest of the interior was still quite authentic, with the original wooden parquet and boarded pine floors, paneled doors and Art Deco door handles. My design intention was to keep the layout of the kitchen as simple as possible, respecting the symmetry of the building design and its strong horizontal emphasis, seen in the exterior treatment of the building which has a "streamline moderne" aesthetic. At the same time, I wanted to use modern fittings, such as granite work-tops, and built-in stove-top and oven.  The kitchen is quite small and compact, 3m wide by 2.5m deep, so the design needed to be carefully tailored to be able to accommodate all the fittings and leave space for the large appliance...