Monica Patel

Monica completed her B.Arch degree at the University of Waterloo, Canada in 2019. She has worked at a number of practices globally, in New York, Amsterdam, and London, as well as completing a term of study in Rome. Monica received a RIBA West Student Prize nomination for her first year work in 2020 and is looking forward to weaving together her personal and architectural interests in practice.

Her interests in the production of identity within the Indian diaspora, culture, and craft, have been explored throughout her first year studio work, dissertation, and her final year research and design. Monica hopes to continue exploring these areas of interest and the role they play within architecture.

A field of marigolds, wrapped and layered with veils of volumetric textiles, challenges and subverts the perception of the existing land being a space of divide. The introduction of the marigold to this new form of inhabited landscape holds the power to reclaim the land by subverting the view of nature as being a space of divide. The heightened political nature of landscape within South Africa no longer can be seen as idle nor dividing, but rather it becomes a form of resistance through its inhabitation, carving out spaces for the wider community to be together.

Designed under the framework of the Indian diaspora and subcultural groups like Kutti Collective, the new form of landscape becomes a form of resistance through the creative, celebratory, and artistic production of the individuals and wider community across Cape Town. During Apartheid, natural elements within the landscape were used to enforce racial separation leading nature to be strongly tied to feelings of divide. By appropriating one of these sites, the inhabitation of the landscape becomes a new form of resistance. Here, 250 inhabitants can live, create, and celebrate one another. The new form of inhabited landscape brings together layers of marigolds, textiles, indigenous vegetation, and hardened grounds, allowing disparate groups to come together on a site that was once a political tool of division. The marigold, a flower brought to South Africa by the Indian diaspora, embodies a symbolic connection between places. Nurtured by the hands of the diaspora, the marigold has intertwined culture and context. Identities become hybridised, never complete and always engaged.

A linear sequence of spaces draws from the Pol House typology, moving from a built defined edge at the base of the hill to an open field above. Curved, stone retaining walls create spaces for inhabitation while allowing earth to hold onto water despite the dry climate, creating opportunities for new and indigenous plants to establish themselves along the slope. Intricate layers of textiles fragment this linear sequence forming moments of in-betweeness. These layers of volumetric textiles blur the peripheral edge, creating moments of temporary enclosure for collective engagement between defined spaces of artistic production and collective moments of ambiguity. The temporality and shifting nature of both the plants and textiles creates a symbiotic relationship between the landscape, construction and its inhabitation. As the marigold blooms again, the light temporal textile structures are constructed, leaving tracings along the heavy elements embedded within the land.

The new form of landscape takes on many forms, a field, a park, a living room for collective artists, and a house for creative experiments. It is through these different forms of landscape that new identities tied to the specific piece of land emerge. Distorted intensities of colour, openness, and density mediate between blurred conditions, where celebratory and creative gatherings can now occupy and resist the divided land.

Site: Natural Barrier and Landscape — Vegetation and plants were used during Apartheid to create divisions within the landscape through strategic planting schemes, which created dense boundaries that visually and physically separated groups. The new form of landscape uses these plants to reclaim the land, carving out space for the wider community to be together.

Overall Plan and Temporal Roof Axo — The new form of landscape brings together groups from the wider community by creating a porosity of retaining walls, temporary structures, textiles, and plants. Acting as a filter between two polarised groups, the landscape now becomes a new point of collective engagement within the city. The temporality and shifting nature of both the plants and textiles work with the heavy elements embedded within the ground creating a symbiotic relationship between the landscape, construction, and its inhabitation.

Fragment Ground Plan — The linear sequence is defined by a gradient down the hillside, where a series of curved retaining walls carve into the ground, creating spaces for inhabitation alongside and within the earth. A series of intricate textile layers further fragment the sequence, creating spaces for individuals and collectives to gather, create, rest, and share an environment where displaced groups can belong.

Fragment Roof Plan — A series of temporal roof structures cover and shelter certain inhabited spaces, like studios and collective plinths, creating the ideal environments for plants to establish themselves each season. As the sequence of spaces fragments, so does the frame, allowing for more blurred conditions between layers fabric, creating a gradient of togetherness and separation.

Abstracted Marigold Condition Embroidery — Marigolds create field conditions between the textile layers, framing intimate moments of collective gathering within the linear gradient of artistic production spaces. The introduction of the marigold to the landscape alongside these collective moments become a form of resistance that challenge the perception of the land being a space of divide.

Longitudinal Section and Plant Taxonomy — The introduction of marigolds and textiles to the landscape creates a soft, blurred boundary between spaces. The layering of this blurred condition through textiles allows for individuals to choose how far and to what degree of intensity they inhabit the new form of landscape.

Marigolds Temporality Textiles

Inhabited Parks: Clearings of Marigolds — The progression of spaces along the landscape move from open ambiguous forms, to hardened enclosures. At the top of the slope, clearings of marigolds between productive spaces create gathering points for a confluence of different types of communities to gather and filter through the once divisional landscape. Large open fields are framed by a thick, vibrant edge of marigolds, acting as a park for the wider community to meet, relax, and engage with the creative individuals inhabiting the landscape.

Inhabited Plinths: Collective Performative Spaces — The linearity is punctured by collective hardened plinths where activities such as staged performance, dance, photoshoots, and film sets can take place between layers of textile, creating a contrasting material culture to these forms of artistic production. Layers of intense marigold hues enclose these spaces, filtering out to more neutral textiles along the periphery.

Inhabited Grounds: Artist Studios and Temporary Living — At the built end of the sequence, smaller individual studios and temporary living spaces follow the curve of the stone retaining walls, carving into the ground to form a more defined edge. The vibrant marigold textiles extend down from the roof to create shelter and a sense of enclosure for these individual spaces. The scale of creative work is magnified within the landscape as it brings artists together, enabling artistic production and subcultural practices to be part of the wider community.

Artistic Production Parks Plinths

Marigold and Silk Organza Textile Studies — The marigold holds a cultural significance to the diaspora, while it also allows for spaces and landscapes to be interpreted in a different way. These textile studies abstracted elements of the marigold which explored layers of transparency, colour, and delicacy. These qualities are used to create intricate, blurred boundaries which draw from the marigold and the material culture of the Kutti Collective.

Ornamental Pleating — Drawing from the ornamental depth seen in the Pol and Otla typologies, a series of pinch points define a volumetric form. The abstract textile ornament forms patterns of openness and density along the surface, defining the most delicate and intricate layer of space. Pinch points are connected to other layers of textiles, creating an intensity of colour that envelop collective forms with the material culture and sense of symbolic familiarity of the marigold.

Colour Materiality Natural dye Textiles Transparency

Monica Patel

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Royal College of Art