H2 (Heliport x Hotel)

Abstract

This book is a discourse about the impact that consumerism and globalism have on South African and global architecture. It is irrelevant whether the impact is negative or positive. Architecture has to deal with a reality that’s rooted in a context informed by market driven decisions. As the growth and expansion of cities are uncontrollable, architects become interveners, not masterplanners. The brief asked for a heliport and a boutique hotel (aptly named H²). The site for H²is next to a major regional shopping center, and a national highway. The building will be adaptable, and transformable to cater for future growth and needs; and no urban masterplanning was done, as the building intervenes rather than dictates. Much of the debate in this book revolves around the impact advertising has on our urban realm. The design of H² borrows from the principles and tactics employed by advertising companies to create desire in consumers. H² responds to the highway and to the consumer ‘cathedral’ next to it on a subconscious level, and like a advertisement, piece of music, or a film, aims to amplify the responses and emotions of visitors and passerby’s alike.