WERDMULLER CENTRE - Bypass? Amputation? Mummification?

Earlier in the year, a group of 4th and 5th year architecture students at the University of Cape Town undertook an elective design studio with Don Albert to assess and make recommendations towards the adaptive reuse of the economically defunct Werdmuller Centre in Clairmont, Cape Town. (See Ilse Wolff's article here). The studio encouraged an "information visualisation" design approach assisted by Bruce Gourley and Andrea Gerdes, that extended the digital design focus of Don Albert's usual studio methodology. The studio entitled BAM : Bypass? Amputation? Mummification? produced a range of highly conceptual schemes that used economic viability as a generator, but tempered with more abstract form making in keeping with the modern approach of the original architect Roeloff Uitenboogaardt.

The work was exhibited at the Cape Institute for Architecture in addition to design studios co-ordinated by Jo Noero and Piet de Beer.


WERDMULLER CENTRE MASSING ANIMATION (Devon Smart & Robert Richardson)




WERDMULLER CENTRE STRUCTURE & CIRCULATION (Devon Smart & Robert Richardson)