Follies in the veld with the MAAK 2019

In June 2019 we embarked on an almost year long project with architecture firm theMAAK: their 3rd edition of Follies in the Veld.

https://www.themaak.co.za/follies-in-the-veld 

https://www.themaak.co.za/

For this edition, the MAAK wanted to move their annual design + make project into a more urban space, so we were asked to be a partner and to provide access to our network. They also asked Amy Rusch to be a partner as an artist and maker who, like us, also uses a lot of plastic ‘waste’ in her work.

https://www.smithstudio.co.za/amy-rusch

Collaboration - from planning to execution

The collaboration started with a meeting in the MAAK’s Woodstock office. Thereafter, we met on a monthly basis, to collaboratively plan the eventual design + build workshop to take place in October later in the year.

Through these monthly meetings, we eventually decided on a material to work with – Tetrapak – and a site for the installation. We chose a space on the main road in Langa, outside the famous Pass Museum.


https://www.lonelyplanet.com/south-africa/cape-town/attractions/langa-pass-museum/a/poi-sig/1509261/355612


Alongside ten of our members from Langa (kindly sponsored by the V&A Waterfront), there were paying participants from other parts of Cape Town. We all stayed together at a local Langa guest house, and we ate together creating a close sense of community within the group.


On day one of three, we went through a series of exercises in collaboration (exercises we had collaboratively planned in earlier group meetings) which resulted in a wide range of small scale prototypes, from which we chose one final system of construction.

Day two was spent with all participants starting to manufacture components on a large scale.