Student Design Reviews

Design Project of a Boutique Hotel

Name:Thamsanqa J Nyakudya

Nationality: Zimbabwean

Project: 5 Star Boutique Hotel

School: Limkokwing University Botswana

PROJECT BRIEF

'Intensive but fun

The project brief was to design a 5 star hotel on a heritage building. The design explored through imagery of ‘rich, rigorous detail’ to serve high class people. Thamsanqa did exactly that, he turned an old building into a 5 star hotel with his imaginative thinking.

“With the complexity of the project, I got enough help from my design lectures who kept my perspective broad by encouraging a range of types of thinking, says Thamsanqa. This project involved long hours and a huge workload, but was hugely rewarding and game me a wide range of skills, from researching to detailing and even presenting my final work; concluded Thamsanqa

“For this project I learnt how to manage my time. How to solve problems architecturally and also apply different techniques and skills that I have been learning from other modules. I improved on my design skills.”

Architecture Techniques Mass Model Project

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Name:Thatayaone Morwa

Nationality: Motswana

Project: Mass Model

School: Limkokwing University Botswana

The brief of the project was to create the mass model of CBD Gaborone, which includes the landscape, surrounding buildings and one of the chosen building. He chose the first capital bank building as a final model to be constructed. Thatayaone attempted to produce the buildings the way there are by using different material and model boards to show textures of materials and most used where white and black modeling boards to show contrast and textures of materials.

As for the landscape, Thatayaone used artificial grass and stones to decorate the surrounding landscapes.

Lack of sourcing proper materials on material boards to mimic buildings and sites the way they are were was one of the problems I encountered “says Thatayoane”. This resorted on him using black and white boards mostly. But besides that he says he did not face any difficulty and enjoyed the project in general.

Though a tremendous amount of work modeling, I gained a lot of insights about Architecture Techniques and construction. I had to pull lot of all-nighters, many late nights in which I worked hard alongside my classmates to prepare the deliverables required, Concluded Thatayone.

Architecture Design Project

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Name:Tania Moyo

Nationality: Zimbabwean

Project: Parasitic Architecture

School: Limkokwing University Botswana

The project brief was to design a studio for any artist of their liking. Students were given a site between two buildings in Gaborone, main mall. The studio was to accommodate the artist for their creative needs and also act as recreational space. The space should gain structural integrity from the adjacent building, a form of PARASITIC ARCHITECTURE. Parasitic Architecture is a building attached to a larger structure that already exists.

Tania’s difficulties with the project had to incorporate the existing tree as part of the design. The second constraint was designing a functional space in a congested and limited area.

“I managed to tackle challenges faced by applying what I have learnt from other modules like Building Construction and Building Structures. I learnt that in order to achieve an efficient and functional design, one should always establish proper site response by analyzing strengths, opportunities and threats” Tania Moyo