Joe. Blogs #55 – Sunday 3 December 2023
Howzit guys!
Another scorcher of a week with some intense weather here in the Cape. Summer is here and the visitors to the Cape are increasing as the city gets busier and busier!
Scheckter’s Raw is getting busier too as many international traveller’s have been visiting the store. With Cape Town receiving the ‘best city to visit’ award we are expecting crazy numbers of people to visit over the festive season! It’ll be my first experience of the festive season from a retailer point of view, as we ready ourselves for a hectic few weeks ahead! Bring on summer!!
Workwise I have become incredibly busy this week with so many different work opportunities ranging from retail developments to educational, hospitality as well as residential AND all of them involve modular lightweight steel opportunities! The Upward Group which is a property development company I’m part of, responsible for most of these opportunities, is a company that I’m super excited about for the year ahead with so many projects to look forward too. I’m also excited about the design and construction of my POD house in G-BAY as well as my new restaurant and coffee shop [SHIFT] in Paardevlei.
I am busy working on various POD’s for these projects and trying to develop a cost effective solution that will apply to all of them as well as have a distinctive style, a SEAN|PEARCE|ARCHITECT style! 😊
So, whether it’s a hotel room, classroom, spare room or a house, it will be distinctive and creative! I think that no matter the type of project, a modular prefabricated system of building is the way forward in terms of technology and a better-quality construction. I had a discussion with an architect about lightweight steel and his attitude was that lightweight steel is nothing new and not really a future solution. I know its been around for a while, but my take is that its better than our current brick and mortar way of building. Lightweight steel framing has been around for a long time in other parts of the world, and I think its time we started using it as well. Personally, I’m hoping to try and make it more cost effective and even find a way to progress it to a point where its more acceptable to people rather than being misunderstood. I want to try educating people to the fact that lightweight steel framing is a new, faster way of building with better inherent qualities w.r.t insulation and a better quality of living. My ‘Living POD’s’ will be more responsive to the environment by protecting us from the incredible heatwaves and extreme cold as the world starts to feel the impact of global warming.
Personally, I’m extremely worried about mother nature in the future. Global warming is real, and its impact is largely unknown but when mother nature is angry, we all need to watch out. Insulated, environmentally designed buildings are necessary to deal with these new challenges. Air-conditioning and hearing systems are expensive to run, and we need to be more responsible about how we use our energy. If we can all live responsibly and build responsibly then we are going in the right direction. My dream is to develop a building system from a material that can be 3D printed and be environmentally responsive.
On a lighter side, these POD’s also provide an opportunity to create and build experiential architecture by locating them in crazy, cool places for people to live in and appreciate! The crazier the location, the better!
My cousin from Sydney came to visit last week and he loves the idea of building a POD to use when he visits for a few months and then renting it out when he is not there. We discussed the idea of him buying the G-Bay POD on our new property in Gordon’s Bay so I’m excited to be able to build my first Living Pod TM early next year.
2024 is looking to be an incredible year as we head into our second year here in the Cape. We are starting to settle in nicely and finding our groove. I’m loving the lifestyle change and feel passionate about architecture again.
Have a super week everyone, see you on the other side!
Later,
Joe.blogs
