Games Room

The Castling

Kasia Kwiecinska and I created this short film for an architectural research project. It is about how a simple house can turn into a chess academy.

Special thanks to the KwaThema Chess Academy for all their help.

The Corner Shebeen

#1 Job Maseko was abuz this Friday, with a re-enactment scene of the shebeen (pub) that Anthony Shoba used to run in the structure. The music was blaring, the fake drinks were flowing. A big thanks to our very good actors.

KwaThema Chess Tournament 2007

This film was taken in KwaThema, it is of a chess tournament organised by Anthony Shoba and the KwaThema Chess Academy. (Created by Kasia and I)

#1 Job Maseko Street - Eduardo

Select one of the images to see the higher quality versions.

Mixed Narrative - Eduardo

Working on the KwaThema research project has opened my eyes to all the new possibilities of architecture and its growth.
It has become clear in our research that one cannot separate architecture and narrative. Every built outcome is a result of a story, every change means the possible inclusion of new characters, this is not merely a tree-shaped system, but quickly forms a network that is so intricate that one needs to act like an investigator to try and find the clues that best reveal the network.
Working with Anthonly that the chess park has meant an avalanche h of links, people, history and economy flooding towards us. I hope that we have set the right filters in place in order to make sense of this information.

A Sunday out and about

I took my mum to Kwa Thema and together we went round to most of the houses talking to people. Most people were out and about with it being Sunday. I got most of the groundwork done and people are starting to recognise me. Most people are still asking me to help them in some way and it is quite hard to explain that I can’t be that person that helps them.

But what I have learnt is that what at first appears to be ingenuity and resourcefulness is really the work of a few. There appears to be a few craftsmen and mural artists who do all of the personalisation and decoration and that most people employ others to create these elements of their homes. It was quite disappointing to realise this but I suppose that in reality this is how it works everywhere and there is no reason to believe that Kwa Thema would be any different.