Portfolio issuu 3 by Carla

STUDY TITLE Mid Year Review Portfolio June 2017 Name of Student A Study of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in Bertrams

RADICAL SUB [ ? ] URBAN FUTURES CARLA GAUM

RADICAL SUB [ ? ] URBAN FUTURES IMAGINING THE INCREMENTAL TRANSFORMATION OF BERTRAMS FROM SUBURB TO CITY. I, CARLAGAUM declare the dissertation for the degree of MTech (prof) Architecture to the University of Johannesburg, apart from the help acknowledged, is my own work and has not been previously submitted to another university or institution of higher education for any degree. Signed:_________________________________ Date: NOVEMBER, 2017 I would like to thank my family, friends, classmates and unit leaders for the tremedous support throughout the year.

UNIT 16 envisions the city as a ‘natural’ habitat in which humans can thrive. The ‘next’ Johannesburg is already here, already under construction, with large parts of the city being re-constructed through countless incremental actions. By reading, observing, listening and drawing students engage with the forces that shape cities to broaden their understanding and relevance as architects. Our area of investigation is Bertrams and its surrounds, an ‘arrival’ neighbourhood, located in the Eastern Sector of Johannesburg and earmarked by the City for densification. We explore various ‘live-world’ scenarios which offer opportunity and choice through hybrid combinations of working, trading, living, learning, socialising and playing. Unit 16 encourages an entrepreneurial approach to design, that seeks to add value through our ability, as architects, to operate at both the micro and macro scale, while taking place and time into consideration. Urban Think Tank (UTT) and students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) joined us for the BU!LD JOBURG Colloquium at the beginning of the year. This short and intense programme packed with talks and tours allowed us to engage with experts, residents, developers, funding institutions, researchers and city agencies and helped us gain insight into how public policy and private interests configure the built environment. As projects developed specific experts were brought into the studio informing Unit 16’s exploration of programme, scale, proportion and materials of the NXXT CITY, not as a distant utopia, but as a thriving urbanity within our reach.

Unit Leaders

26’10 South Architects Anne Graupner Thorsten Deckler Paul Devenish

Unit Research Partners:

Bronwyn Kotzen & UTT-ETH Zürich

CONTENTS PROJECT OVERVIEW...

YEOVILLE.. 13 FIRST RING SUBURBS ...

BERTRAMS... 33 URBAN SAMPLE...

LIFE WORLDS...

INTERFACE...

BASTARD...

MPD: A DENSIFICATION STRATEGY...

GLOSSARY... 113 REFERENCES... 115 ANNEX A TH: HISTORY & THEORY...

119

ANNEX B DR: DESIGN REALISATION...

139

ANNEX C: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE...

149

...LIFE WORLD

RADICAL SUBURBAN FUTURES ...BERTRAMS

RADICAL SUBURBAN NARRATIVES ...YEOVILLE

EXPERIMENTING IN ...YEOVILLE

URBAN SAMPLE...

M1... M2...

SUBURBAN DENSIFICATION...

DR ...

BASTARD...

Project overview: The beginnings of my M2 Major Design Project (MDP) took shape during my M1 year. Through an intuitive process of experimentation and investigation in the first ring suburbs of Johannesburg I explored the potential of these out-ofdate properties that were the first to form around the inner city periphery and how these are changing into a new urban form. Radical Suburban Narratives is the account of this exploration in Yeoville. Radical Sub[?]Urban Futures, my MDP completed during my M2 year, starts with the premise of looking to these first ring suburbs as an indicator of the NXXT CITY. A series of assignments - Urban Sample, Life World, Interface and the Bastard each unpack a critical aspect of how Bertrams functions. These findings, combined with those of the Unit as a whole, inform a densification strategy for the freestanding housing typology, characteristic of suburban sprawl (within a pilot block).

A DENSIFICATION ...STRATEGY.

...INTERFACE

Key images of sub-sections from the MPD are illustrated in the adjacent graphic representing the portfolio structure. The DR symbol, used next to two works within this Portfolio, can be traced to Annex. B where a further process of Design Realisation behind the works are unpacked. Also indicated within the portfolio are video clips to be viewed from the file Gaum, Carla_Media.

AN IMAGE FROM A M1 PROJECT WHERE THE CHALLENGE WAS TO ENVISION THE INFORMAL BOVINE TRADE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF A SUBURB (INSPIRATION: S’KOP, FROM TANYA ZACK AND MARK LEWIS’ WAKE UP, THIS IS JOBURG.)

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because of apartheid, people live great distances from where they work; standards of urban infrastructure vary enormously; parts of the city are devoid of shops, businesses, entertainment venues and schools, while others are saturated with them; chasms separate one citizen from another, so much so that people feel like tourists in each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worlds. â&#x20AC;? - Lindsay Bremner

APARTMENT BLOCKS IN YEOVILLE.

BUSINESSES IN YEOVILLE.

“My obligatory rejoinder is an offer to personally mug any visitor who feels he’s missing out on the innercity experience.”

- Achal Prabhala

The author of Yeoville Confidential satirically reflects on his time spent in this ‘working class neighbourhood’. This chapter from Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, by Sarah Nutall and Achile Mbembe was my M1-introduction to the suburb of Yeoville, which would later become the first tie to an interest in Bertrams. Prabhala’s writing is a tongue in cheek commentary on the preconceived ideas of these first ring suburbs. Legally these suburbs are defined as urban, with urban usage patterns, but not quiet from a typological character. The challenge for people living here is to retrofit a historical suburban typology, to accommodate the new urban patterns. The M1 works included here focussed on unpacking the mutations (page 15-20) to the freestanding housing typology already made. These mutations where then used to inform three interventions (page 21-24) with the aim to densify and optimize the income these properties generate.

YEOVILLE HOUSES IN YEOVILLE.

THE WALL-BOUND STORE KUMO’S SUPERMARKET 32 DUNBAR STREET.

THE IN-HOUSE BUSINESS BESHA’S TRADING 39 REGENT STREET.

THE IN-HOUSE BUSINESS & THE WALLBOUND STORE

COCA-COLA 53 REGENT ROAD.

THE SIDE SHOP CELL STORE 60 REGENT STREET.

THE WALL-BOUND STORE HENRY TEX SUPERMARKET 16 SAINT GEORGES ROAD.

THE SIDE-SHOP

CHANTALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BEAUTY SALON 35 DUNBAR ROAD, ENTERING FROM BEDFORD ROAD.

THE GUEST HOUSE CAPE TO CAIRO B&B 6 SAINT PETER ROAD

THE IN-HOSUE BUSINESS FACTS 35 BEDFORD ROAD

A SAMPLE AREA IN YEOVILLE, CHOSEN IN PROXIMITY TO THE REYA VAYA BRT, WITHIN WHICH THREE OF THE HOUSE-BOUND BUSINESSES ARE THEN FURTHER EXPLORED.

YEOVILLE

GARDEN SPACE AREA - 157,7 SQM 41,6% OF ERF

RESIDENTIAL HOUSE AREA - 177 SQM 46,7% OF ERF

THE SIDE SHOP AREA - 44,7 SQM 11,7% OF ERF

ATTRIBUTES OF THE SIDE-SHOP

IN FOCUS AREA: SALON AND CELL PHONE REPAIR RENTS SPACE FROM HOME OWNER

GARDEN SPACE AREA - 260,2 SQM 59,4% OF ERF

SIDE-SHOP AREA - 44,5 SQM 10,2% OF ERF

ATTRIBUTES OF THE IN HOUSE BUSINESS: PREDOMINANTLY RESTAURANTS OR FOOD SERVICES. OWNED AND MANAGED BY THE SAME PERSON. ALSO A RESIDENTIAL HOUSE.

YEOVILLE

BACKYARD STRUCTURE: AREA - 69 SQM 15,8% OF ERF

RESIDENTIAL HOUSE: AREA - 143,3 SQM 32,8% OF ERF

GARDEN SPACE: AREA - 187,4 SQM 43% OF ERF

THE WALL-BOUND-STORE AREA - 36,6 SQM 8,4% OF ERF

ATTRIBUTES OF THE WALL-BOUND-STORE

THE WALL-MENU. ONE OR MORE SERVICE WINDOWS, PROVIDING SECURITY

YEOVILLE

INITIAL TWO PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS MADE FOR THE DENSIFICATION OF THE WALL AROUND A SPORTS FIELD IN YEOVILLE AND THE UNUSED SPACE ON GROUND AND ON A ROOF OF AN UNDERUTILIZED COMMERCIAL BUILDING.

YEOVILLE

THE THIRD PROPOSED INTERVENTION, DOMESTIC DENSIFICATION. ERF PORTIONS ARE SUB-DIVIDED INTO THE WALL, THE HOUSE AND THE BACKYARD. WALLS AND FENCES IN-BETWEEN ERFS ARE REPLACED WITH JOINT ACCESS PATHS TO THE BACKYARD ZONE.

YEOVILLE

PIN-UP OF RADICAL SUBURBAN NARRATIVES AS PAGES OF A BOOK.

YEOVILLE

NXXT CITY

First ring suburbs: Yeoville and Bertrams. This major design project explores the transformative potential of Johannesburg’s suburbs through incremental growth. Since the majority of the city consists of low-rise suburbs, their transformation into higher density, mixeduse environments can radically alter the overall nature of the city. The suburb’s potential has largely been limited through modernist zoning practices, regulations and bylaws in support of apartheid planning. Yet the low-rise, homogenous nature of Johannesburg’s suburbs has slowly changed through absorbing different household structures, cultures, demographic and economies. This can most clearly be observed in first ring suburbs (Durnham-Jones & Williamson, 2009), such as Bertrams. Here, changes can be read as indicators of a new future of the suburb, which informs the decision to look at the first ring suburb, rather than the outer ring sprawl. These changes are often informal built increments, or a By-law manipulation, where need has driven residents to retrofit the original suburban structure. Little consensus exists on a clear definition of a South African suburb. One common definition is of ‘a low density, residential environment on the outskirts of larger cities’ (Nicolaide & Wiese, 2006:6-9), yet we see peripheral residential areas, such as Diepkloof in Soweto, with densities far exceeding those commonly used to define high density environments. The normative idea that densification and mixed use remain the preserve of inner city areas will be challenged through this thesis by asking the following questions: • • •

To what extent can housing projects catalyse and drive the formation of a mixed use, higher density urbanity? What kinds of multi-stakeholder negotiations and deals are necessary to ensure the viability and sustainability of such projects? What architectural typologies can support mixed use and engender an incremental, multi-functional suburban fabric?

The Inner City Eastern Gateway Urban Development Framework - 2016 (UDF) highlights an important issue to this Thesis: “…a shift in planning focus towards a polycentric city that will ‘bring jobs to residential areas and housing opportunities to job centres (rather than merely transporting people between the two)’.” (UDF 2016:73) Regarding the two suburbs’ position and topography; Yeoville and Bertram are separated by the Yeovillel/ Observatory ridge and Bertrams by the Troyville/Kensington ridge system, both running east to west. The Jukskei river also daylights after Ellispark and runs through Bertrams. Much of the Ridge system is undeveloped and residual in nature (UDF 2016:22).

YEOVILLE BERTRAMS

YEOVILLE & BERTRAMS

NXXT CITY

Imagining the Incremental Transformation of Bertrams from Suburb to City. The Major Design Project uses Bertrams as a laboratory in which to model mixed-use housing scenarios that reinforce and support in-situ urban growth and densification. Bertrams has been prone to migration, informalisation and institutional neglect. Its central location and industrial core have attracted a multitude of new inhabitants who have found accommodation in communal arrangements of highjacked buildings, tenanted backyards and overcrowded houses. The late modernist town planning scheme, in force since 1979, as well as the current fixed preservation neighbourhood’s Victorian heritage, is fundamentally questioned. According to the UDF 85% of the population in the study area (that includes the whole Eastern Gateway area – see Glossary for definition) are currently renting; the immense need for housing, especially as short term rentals is apparent in the UDF. As many people engage in piecework, income patterns are unpredictable, and complicate rental agreements (UDF 2016:62). Both TUHF and the JHC have been active in the residential rehabilitation in the area. (ICHIP p25). The chosen focus area within Bertrams is characterised by “a fine grained townscape with many buildings of heritage significance” – this means that the context has very few openings for larger scaled high-density residential developments. Therefore excluding the traditional bulk economies of scale, built on vacant land, that lends itself well to low-income housing (UDF 2016:75). The UDF emphasizes a sensitive approach to the finer grained townscape in Bertrams. It proposes the formalisation of backyard structures, subject to a three storey height limit. However it then discourages erf consolidation with “a view to maintain the finer grained townscape of these areas…” This Thesis proposes that the fine grain can still be maintained to spite erf consolidation; through an incremental approach where the new architectural from is forced to respond to the existing over time.

BERTRAMS

THE MAURICE FREEMAN HOUSING SCHEME INCLUDES:

106 FREESTANDING SINGLE STOREY HOUSES.

4 DOUBLE STOREY APARTMENT BLOCKS WITH A HALF LEVEL STORAGE (CURRENTLY BEING ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED).

Cities area full of stories in time that, like layered narratives, can be read from the urban fabric. - JamesHolston (2005:37)

In 1889 (only three years after the establishment of Johannesburg) Robertson Fuller Bertam leased a portion of land, that was to become Bertrams.

PEMBERTON STREET CUL-DE-SAC.

“In 1902 the township was re-surveyed and soon became an affordable residential area. In time, parts of the area started to degenerate into slum conditions. In the late 1930s a housing scheme was set-up on the southern portion. White residents were re-settled and in 1938 a complex of 70 houses and 48 flats were completed between Bertram, Frere and Queen street to become the Maurice Freeman Housing Scheme (named after the major who planned the slum clearance). It seems that the council approved slum removals in the 1930s with its forced removal and relocation of black and coloured residents to outside the city limits to make way for poor Afrikaner whites also paved the way for the forced removals of the 1950s – 1970s (like Sofiatown).” (City of Johannesburg, 2014) Within the Maurice Freeman Housing scheme the block between Thames and Frere road is the scheme’s pilot block. This model was built after the initial investigations of the Urban Sample to illustrate the sample area within the context of the whole housing scheme and in relation to the site’s slope.

URBAN SAMPLE.

4 APARTMENT BLOCKS ARRANGED AROUND COURTYARD.

This Urban Sample, entitled incremental change, is located in the South Western corner of Bertrams. The appeal of this specific sample of Bertrams was the suburban and domestic nature of an area. There is a deep narrative in time that can be read throughout the urban fabric of Bertrams and especially in this sample. Firstly the heritage footprints tell the story the housing project constructed in 1938. Since this point in time several incremental changes have been made, adapting to the changing realities everyday life.

URBAN SAMPLE

“The existential core of urbanism is the desire for radical change … This radical impulse stands in contrast to the necessary prudence and constraints of incremental change, which is the only way of intervening in conditions of profound complexity…” - Edgar Pieterse (2008:6)

Edgar Pieterse argues that Radical Incrementalism then “provides a means to confront the struggle and perpetually work one’s way through it” (Pieterse, 2008:6). An incremental approach has the inherent potential that small scale transformations are carried out only partially, or completely by people themselves, rather than state institutions or private developers. This idea is fundamental to the MDP; through tweaking the regulatory DNA and harnessing the massive need for affordable rental housing, new funding mechanisms to improve properties can be explored. In this Sample area Backyard structures are constructed where possible, in many cases informal and fall short of humane living conditions. Regardless, a majority of home owners in the block, generate an income from subletting these structures and rooms in their houses. Landowners can pay back loans faster and turn their properties into cash flow positive assets by embracing the need for affordable accommodation, small scale retail and manufacturing spaces in an economy with limited formal jobs.

URBAN SAMPLE

ADD ON STRUCTURES: 4% OF SAMPLE AREA

STREETS: 20% OF SAMPLE AREA

ORIGINAL STRUCTURES: 20% OF SAMPLE AREA

2,65 HA SAMPLE AREA

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The combination of low income and high population density seen in the area means that low-density, detached housing is inefficient and expensiveâ&#x20AC;?

(UDF 2016:58)

The five following five diagrams give a breakdown of the coverage of the Urban Sample area vs the available void space. The aim was to look at coverage of the whole block instead of only by single erf. Just 24% of the area is currently covered - 20% for formal and 4% add on (which is predominantly informal), leaving 71% void (including street surface).

VOID: 71% OF SAMPLE AREA

URBAN SAMPLE

INCREMENTAL CHANGE:

AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION OF THE URBAN SAMPLE SHOWS THE EXTENT TO WHICH RESIDENTS HAVE ALREADY MADE CHANGES TO THEIR PROPERTY IN THE FORM OF SEVERAL BACKYARD ADDITIONS. TWO OF THE HERITAGE HOUSES ON THE SIDE OF BERTRAMS ROAD HAVE ALSO BEEN DEMOLISHED (BY THE CITY) TO ACCOMMODATE A WIDENING OF THE ROAD RESERVE. EVEN THE HALF-LEVEL STORAGE ROOMS UNDERNEATH THE APARTMENT BLOCK HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO INFORMAL ADDITIONS; BEING ILLEGALLY RENTED OUT TO RESIDENTS.

SUM OF INCREMENTAL CHANGES

CURRENT URBAN SAMPLE

URBAN SAMPLE

“However, the key point is not merely that we need fuller, richer and more textured accounts of ordinariness in African cities… the point is that we need these differentiated accounts to help us understand…the spatiality of the city.”

- Edgar Pieterse

Life World investigates the life of M. (42), who has been living in Bertrams for over seventeen years. She lives in a stand-alone house along with her one daughter and three sons. Early in 2017 she became the official home owner when the previous owner left the property in her name. M. greatly accredits acquiring the deeds of her house to the help of her neighbours. Although she is unemployed M. is able to generate an extra income by renting out three of the backyard structures in her yard. M’s life world attests to the importance of the location of her home in Bertrams. Her relations with neighbours shape a system of social infrastructure on which their livelihood depend.

LIFE WORLD

WATER SUPPLY

WALK TO TAXI RANK

NEIGHBOUR

Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S MOVEMENTWITHIN BERTRAMS

GROCERIES SPAR

ELECRTICITY SUPPLY

GROCERIES SPAZA SHOP

FAMILY VISITS PER TAXI

PIECE JOBS PER TAXI, 1HOUR

R 500 R 200 Income (2) Piece Jobs R 1400 Income (3) Child Grant R 1500 Income (4) Sub-Letting R 3600 R 0 (Alternative payment)

Income (1) from Daughter

Water & Electricity

-R 1700 Groceries -R 1400 School Fees & Supplies -R 84 Travel RTotal 3184 monthly

household expenses

RENTABLE UNIT COMMUNAL USE COMMUNAL HOUSEHOLD USE M. AND Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CHILDREN USE

Backyard Dynamics: The diagram, Backyard Dynamics, shows how M, her family and different tenants make use of the space. The main bedroom is used by M. The second room, marked was a ‘Rentable Unit’, but in an agreement with the previous owner, M. does not charge this tenant rent. The third bedroom is shared by M’s daughter and three sons. The ‘Communal Household’ space is used by M, her children and the in-house tenant only. The position of the outside toilet, characteristic of these older housing typologies, is then useful allowing the backyard tenants access separate from the household. In the Backyard are four structures, three of them are currently rented by one tenant each, the forth is recently empty. M. explains that these renters are often migrant worker and the tenant turnover is usually high, usually only staying for a couple of months.

LIFE WORLD

INTERIOR PLAN

WAYER SUPPLY

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

LIFE WORLD

LIFE WORLDS

INTERFACE WALL

FRONT OF INTERFACE WALL

SIMILAR INTERFACE WALL

“One of the major things we can learn from the informal sector is the mobility and flexibility that this way of living allows.” - Simon Sizwe Mayson (2016:241) The Wall of street trade allows a user to communicate with the urban fabric by creating a platform to trade goods. This specific Trade Wall is found on the corner of Albertina Sisulu and Fuller Street and essentially acts as an ‘entrance’ to Bertrams. It is located on a busy corner, adjacent to a welllit shopping centrum which is fundamental to its success. Although similar ‘Trade-Walls’ exist within Bertrams, this specific one seems to be the most active and one of the very few places in Bertrams that are still operating at night. A major feature on this Trade Wall is the small and informal property trade. The transition, in this case, is from a particularly private room in a house to an extremely public market in order to attract the best renter. The interface doesn’t necessarily connect the consumer to the seller physically, but instead, provides a virtual connection. People can be seen standing in front of the wall with their cellphones in hand. This property trade has to function differently because of the nature of renting out a room or backyard structure. This boundary becomes a threshold and connector to another place in or nearby Bertrams (see page 57-58). The wall allows for a very adaptable and fast changing market, often on a monthly time-scale, as is clearly shown in how fast the posters on the wall changes.

INTERFACE 54

FULLER RD

URBAN SAMPLE

ROOM FOR RENT

SHOPPING COMPLEX INTERFACE

BER

TRAM

S RD

CARNARVON RD

ALBERTINA SISULU RD

NXXT CITY 56

“Turning a unit that is intended for single-household space is a good way, but it presents a whole bunch of problems. What I concluded was that rooms are fine and definitely the way to go, even if they were very small rooms.” “I am pushing for architects to think about what I call ‘cluster units’, where you have three or four bedrooms around a bathroom and people cook in their rooms…Just take a look at what is happening organically in the informal sector, I am trying to push them to design with the knowledge that people will subdivide anyway. ” - Simon Sizwe Mayson (2016:241)

THE WALL - NOVEMBER 2013 (GOOGLE EARTH)

THE WALL - 3 MARCH 2017

THE WALL - 25 APRIL 2017

INTERFACE

VIDEO CLIP:

PLEASE SEE VIDEO FOLDER: 01 INTERFACE_CLIP AND PLAY.

TEST DIAROMA #1

TEST DIAROMA #2

INTERFACE

INTERFACE AT DAY

INTERFACE AT NIGHT

INTERFACE

This bastardization aims to investigate how a multitude of small catalyst additions can be made to suburbia, with the aim to optimize erf portions. It merges two distinctly different housing types, the Maurice Freeman housing scheme (Bertrams, built in 1938) and Elemental’s Villa Verde in (Chile, started in 2010 and still being built), within modern day Bertrams. A simple analysis of the two housing types’ roof eaves illustrates the contrast between Villa Verde’s incremental building concept and the stand alone Bertrams houses. Case scenarios of the modern day Bertramite were created to develop different programs for the housing. This lead to a new Bertram specific Backyard-incremental being developed to accommodate the reality of a growing market of migrant tenants, as well as the inclusion of possible retail or workshop space on the street front housing. Flexibility of a kit-of parts is key to the success of this project.

SUB ADD

URBAN

BASTARD NXXT CITY

EAST-WEST SECTION

CASE STUDY ARCHITECT: ALEJANDRO ARAVENA “Housing could be a tool to ask for a loan that allows a family to start a small business, get access to better education for the children, or simply to entre the market of social mobility” - Alejandro Aravena (2012:) This case study done by research partner ETH student Marie Jabobsen looks at Villa Verde by Elemental (Alejandro Aravena). Villa Verde was a part of a project to suppling housing, after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile. It is based on the concept of incremental housing, meaning that instead of building one poor house, the sponsor’s’ finances the first good half. The half house was just big enough (57m²) to meet Chile’s minimum standards of low income housing. The ‘Good half’ which means concrete foundation, sewerage, drainage, garbage collectors, infrastructure, building manuals etc. In Chile, this concept was implemented on an open site, but the concept of ‘half a house’ and incremental growth was bastardized into Bertrams, this time within an existing context.

FIGURE 2: MARIE JACOBS, ELEMENTAL, 2017

+ ELEMENTAL CONCEPT

EXISTING CONTEXT

‘GOOD HALF‘ OF HOUSE

3 BUILT BACKYARD INCREMENTS

BASTARD

Row House Building type 5.0 People per Unit 42% Site Coverage

SECTION A ADDITION TO HOUSE

2 Floors 1.7 Floor Area Ratio 81m² Rentable Area per Unit

GROUND FLOOR PLAN ADDITION TO HOUSE

ELEMENTAL HOUSING The scheme supplies structure and services that can be filled out by the owner at a later stage – allowing their asset to grow in value.

2250 914

Stand Alone Building type 6 People in this Unit 29,7% Site Coverage original 40% Site Coverage current 1 Floor 0,3 FAR 4 No of rentable units

2270 3254

GROUND FLOOR PLAN ADDITION TO HOUSE

MAURICE FREEMAN HOUSING The placement of the free standing house on an erf limits the amount of infill possible with a proper standard of ventilation and natural light.

BASTARD

DISSECTING THE HOUSE

Densification vs. Heritage As the Maurice Freeman houses are older than 60 years, they are considered heritage. The conditions and criteria regarding when a Heritage Impact Assessment needs to be done are set out in the National Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999) According to Section 34 of the National Heritage Act “all manmade structures older than 60 years are protected. Such a feature is then classified as part of the National Estate and belongs to everyone in the country. The landowner has an obligation to curate and protect heritage on such a site. This is a blanket protection and not the single criterion to determine ‘significance’.” (Heritage Assosiation of South Afric:2016) In terms of the City’s of Johannesburg’s Heritage Policy Framework “demolitions of heritage buildings and structures can only be justified where the loss or damage to cultural property is unavoidable, minor or otherwise acceptable in the light of expected benefits, and only subject to approval by the relevant heritage authority”. (Fraser:2008) The value of simply reserving all the heritage houses at the cost of the area’s potential is contested by this thesis. Considering that the heritage feature “belongs to everybody in the country”, heritage is looked at the scale of the neighbourhood of Bertrams. Workshop sessions with THUF revealed that in many cases the residents aren’t financially capable of the necessary maintenance to preserve the houses. However the fieldwork also revealed the extent to which several households function in symbiosis over and within existing property lines. The existing houses represent a certain time and typology, and at a human level they represent individual memories and community connections. Simply demolishing the focus block and building a high density scheme from scratch would also not be using the historic asset to the optimum. Moving the block’s residents out would sever these extremely important community ties. The Bertrams Bastard experiment reveals the limitations of infill whilst retaining the houses. As alternative to both these scenarios, I propose that the solid/ void relation of these houses be interrogated and turned in on itself – incrementally by the residents and homeowners themselves.

FIVE SUBTLE VARIATIONS OF THE HOUSE MORPHOLOGY THE THESIS AIMS TO COMMEMORATE OVER TIME.

MDP

Through a radical inversion, the free-standing housing typology will be transformed into a higher density, mixed use fabric arranged around courtyards. In the process the Heritage houses will be dismantled and recycled, their absence made legible in the voids left behind.

MDP: DENSIFICATION STRATEGY

MDP

VIDEO CLIP:

PLEASE SEE VIDEO FOLDER: 02 MDP PHASING_CLIP AND PLAY.

GROUND FLOOR 9 ROOMS 4 INFORMAL ROOMS

PHASE 1

GROUND FLOOR 12 ROOMS

PHASE 2

GROUND FLOOR 12 ROOMS 3 BATHROOMS

PHASE 3

Phasing and financing. The film clip on page 75 shows a proposed scenario of incremental change of 3 consolidated erfs. In report done by THUF on the construction sector in the Inner City, they state that financing is considered the following basis of several variables. Three that stand out as fundamental to this thesis are: • •

A security: In this case the asset is the house; since the asset is at some point partially destroyed, it is important to raise rent via backyard rentals to make initial loan payments. The first 4 phases entails owners formalizing backyard structures.

• •

Phased development: Each phase from the film clip is accompanied by a typical plan.

• •

Policy exception to be argued in certain circumstances: The Densification Framework relies on the City relaxing certain policies and allowing for the consolidation on the scale of this whole block under pooled land ownership.

Essential to this Densification Strategy is a built in consideration that allows the homeowner access to a loan from institutions such as THUF.

1ST INCREMENT 2ND INCREMENT 3RD INCREMENT 4TH INCREMENT 5TH INCREMENT 6TH INCREMENT 7TH INCREMENT

1ST FLOOR 18 ROOMS 3 BATHROOMS

PHASE 4

GROUND FLOOR 18 ROOMS 3 BATHROOMS

PHASE 5

GROUND FLOOR 19 ROOMS 6 BATHROOMS

PHASE 6

GROUND FLOOR 24 ROOMS 6 BATHROOMS

PHASE 7

1ST FLOOR 30 ROOMS 6 BATHROOMS

PHASE 8

2ND FLOOR 39 ROOMS 9 BATHROOMS

PHASE 9

1ST INCREMENT 2ND INCREMENT 3RD INCREMENT 4TH INCREMENT 5TH INCREMENT

1:200 MODEL; COLOUR CODED AS PER PHASING.

6TH INCREMENT 7TH INCREMENT

1:200 MASSING MODEL A modeled up scenario of how densification within the framework could play out over time. Key to functioning of this model wos the ability to constantly changea and re-model a new senario.

INTERNAL CORRIDOR.

HOUSE SKELETON FORMING COURTYARD.

HEIGHT LIMITATIONS.

DR SEGMENT 1

THE CORNER FACING BERTRAMS ROAD ALLOWS FOR MORE GENEROUS HEIGHT RESTRICTION. SUBSEQUENTLY OVER TIME THE BLOCK WOULD SEE MORE COMMERCIAL FUNCTIONS HOUSED, ESPECIALLY AT GROUND FLOOR WITH FACING BERTRAMS ROAD.

SEGM

MID-BLOCK; ILLUSTRATES TH STILL BE APPLICABLE WHEN MAINTAIN THEIR INDIVIDUAL THE INITIA

MENT 2

HAT THE FRAMEWORK WOULD N SOME RESIDENTS OPT TO PROPERTY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ESPECIALLY IN AL PHASES.

DR SEGMENT 3

TWO HOUSES ARE PRESERVED AT CORNERS, AND A FINER SCALED BUILT FORM AS THE FRAMEWORK MOVES INTO RESIDENTIAL BERTRAMS. THE MAURICE FREEMAN APARTMENT BLOCK CAN BE SEEN ACROSS THE FULLER STREET.

THIRD- TO SIXTH FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR

GUIDELINE 1:

PHASING COLOUR CODE. 1ST INCREMENT

2ND INCREMENT 3RD INCREMENT 4TH INCREMENT 5TH INCREMENT GROUN FLOOR

6TH INCREMENT 7TH INCREMENT

GUIDELINES FOR DENSIFICATION: The following set of diagrams sum up the guidelines for densification proposed. In the diagrams the scheme is modelled up to its full potential, this was done in response to scenarios played out on the massing model. It is important that the scenario’s, informed by Unit 16’s Life World exercises, and preceded the framework guidelines. Densification strategy guidelines:

GUIDELINE 2: SET CONSTRUCTION LINES.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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“…the phenomenology and practices of ‘the everyday’ or ‘the ordinary’ must be the touchstone of radical imaginings and interventions.” - Edgar Pieterse (2008:9)

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GLOSSARY

Suburb: Little consensus exists on a clear definition of a South African suburb. One common definition is of ‘a low density, residential environment on the outskirts of larger cities’ (Nicolaide & Wiese, 2006:69), yet we see peripheral residential areas, such as Diepkloof in Soweto, with densities far exceeding those commonly used to define high density environments. First Ring Suburb: Suburbs, like Bertrams, located in close proximity to the inner city. Often working class and arrival suburbs, absorbing different household structures, cultures, demographic and economies. This idea, articulated by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson in their book Retrofitting Suburbia, explores the potential of the out-of-date properties in the suburbs that were the first to form around the inner city periphery (2009:20). Lifeworlds: Edagr Pieterse references Norman Long’s definition of ‘Lifeworlds’ which draws upon a phenomenological understanding of social life, using the term to depict the ‘lived-in’ worlds of a social actor (2001:9-29). Through engaging with these ‘Life Worlds’ (Pieterse, 2009) of Bertram’s inhabitants, the spatial dimensions and social constellations created to survive and thrive can be used as powerful informants for a strategy of incremental change.

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Inner City Eastern Gateway area: This area mentioned in throughout n portfolio for including Bertrams, also includes: New Doornfontein, Troyville, City & Suburban, Jeppestown, Reynols View, Kensington and Judith’s Praal. THUF: “We provide access to finance to people with passion, potential and integrity for purchasing, converting or refurbishing buildings in the inner cities of South Africa. Our hands-on approach and specialised knowledge of the complexities of inner cities enables us to empower our clients to catalyse the regeneration of our neighbourhoods and communities.” FROM: http://www.tuhf.co.za/about-us/

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REFERENCES Durnham-Jones, E. & Williamson, J. (2009). Retrofitting Suburbia. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Iacobelli, A. (2013).Elemental, Edited by Aravena, A. Santiago: Hatje Cantz. Holston, J. (1998). ‘Spaces of Insurgent Citizenship’, in Making the Invisible Visible: A Multicultural Planning History, Edited by Sandercock, L. Berkeley: University of California Press. Lane, M. B. (2005). ‘Public Participation in Planning: an Intellectual History’. In Australian Geographer 36(3), November: 283-299. Long, N. (2001). Development Sociology: Actor Perspectives. London: Routledge. Nicolaides, B. M. & Wiese, A. (2006). The Suburb Reader. New York: Routledge. Pieterse, E. (2008). City Futures. Cape Town: UCT Press. Prabhala, A. (2008). ‘Yeoville Confidential’, in Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis, Edited by Mbemb, A. & Nutall, S. London: Duke University Press.

Online: Johannesburg 1912 – suburb by suburb research. (2014). Bertrams and Lorentzville. [O]. Available from: https://johannesburg1912.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/bertrams-and-lorentzville/ [Accessed: 3 April 2017]. Neil Fraser . (2008). Joburg’s heritage, drawing on national and local government policies. [O]. Available from: • https://joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&id=2338&Itemid=58 / [Accessed: 10 October 2017]. Neil Fraser . (2016). Here’s the right way to ‘alter’ a Heritage home . [O]. Available from: • • http://heritagesa.org/wp/2016/09/06/heres-the-right-way-to-alter-a-heritage. home/ / [Accessed: 10 October 2017].

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FIGURES

Figure 1: Johannesburg 1912 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; suburb by suburb research. (2014). Bertrams and Lorentzville. [O]. Available from: https://johannesburg1912.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/bertrams-and-lorentzville/ [Accessed: 3 April 2017]. pg, 60-65 Figure 2: Marie Jacobs, Elemental, 2017, pg. 26

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CREDITS University of Johannesburg. My Freinds and Family. Fellow Unit 16 & 14 members. Community of Bertrams: Maria, Stella and Beuhla. Unit 16 & 14 Staff:

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ANNEX. A TH: HISTORY & THEORY

THE FUTURE OF SUBURBAN JOHANNESBURG: FICTIONAL SENARIOS.

ABSTRACT Past imaginations have been made on the future of Johannesburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suburbs; in her science fiction novel, Zoo City, South African author Lauren Beukes paints a picture of a dystopian Johannesburg. While this book was inspiring as to the possibilities of trying to predict a radical future, I want to avoid the dystopian finality. Rather, I will build up future case scenarios as the possible ends to which our current paths would lead. Imagine, for example, a future where the gated communities and elaborate walls, characteristic of Sandton, takes over the streets of Westdene, exaggerated into a regulated, restricted and privatised Johannesburg. I theorize that many of the conditions of our current suburbs are unstable. Unstable in the sense that they are not firmly established, prone to change and likely to give way as the city of Johannesburg evolves. For the purpose of this dissertation, I identify three of uncertain conditions as The Wall and entrance, Mobility/Transportation and Density. I then use the fact that these conditions remain unresolved, as possible indicators of future change. My dissertation predicts exaggerated future case scenarios if either one of these unstable conditions either prevails, changes or falls away completely. To focus the study I will apply these speculations on two typical suburbs of Johannesburg, northern Sandton and more central Westdene. The three fictional scenarios, of how these indicators may change Johannesburg;s suburbs, is used in this dissertation. The idea is to represent a clear mental picture summarizing my conclusions made during my research.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION The way South Africans dwell has changed significantly since the abolishment of apartheid legislation after 1994. However, even though much has been written about regeneration of inner city Johannesburg, according to Richard Tomlinson, Robert Beauregard, Lindsay Bremner and Xolela Mangcu (2003: 13) only 8% of Johannesburg’s residents live in the inner city, with the major population concentrations predominantly in the South (59%) and then the North (33%) of the city centre. With the migration to suburbs being seen as the ideal for a great portion of the population, there needs to be an emphasis on what these suburbs will become, or alternatively what parts of them would disappear. This dissertation will render three, short fictional future scenarios, based on the research examined of Johannesburg’s suburbs. The idea is to represent a clear mental picture summarizing my findings, which can be used as a tool of persuasion. Because Suburbanism is a culture of comfort zones I believe that such a tool is needed to question the path Johannesburg’s suburbs is on. This dissertation also examines the idea that is referred to as ‘indicators of change’. These are three categories of factors, also derived from research, which I use as guidelines for predicting change.

CHAPTER REVIEW

TWO:

LITERATURE

This dissertation is essentially a speculative study, but it is grounded in a review of related literature as well as the analysis of dwellings in two of Johannesburg’s suburbs. The dissertation looks to the works of, among others, Lindsay Bremner and Alin Mabin on the transformation of Johannesburg and its suburbs after the end of apartheid. A great deal of inspiration for the fictional part of the dissertation was drawn from the works of South African writer Ivan Vladislavić, specifically two of his novels: The Folly and The Restless supermarket, for capturing the concept of change and memory of the way people dwell, in fiction. Vladislavić’s Portrait with Keys was also influential in writing about the city of Johannesburg through referring the everyday practices of live. It is the contradiction in writing fiction about something as ordinary as the suburbs which appeals to me. As Vladislavić writes about his own work; “But the world is already so overloaded with big stories and important information that the small and the peripheral has come to me to seem positive value” (Gaylard, 2011: 1). I see this obsession with “peripheral” subject matter as a way of celebrating the ordinary. According to Gerald Gaylard, Vladislavic’s “attention to minute particulars” enables him to cognitively map wider geo-spaces, or as he puts it; the local situated within a bigger region.

These detailed accounts allows us to distinguish between space and place (2011: 6). ‘The particular’ of a place is then an important element of his writing that I would need to implement in my own imaginations of the future suburbs. When Vladislavić writes about the effect of time’s passage on a home, like the “bricking up of a fireplace” of the home of Mr and Mrs Malgas in The Folly (Vladislavić 1993: 55), he hints at the changes time has had on the way this couple uses their suburban house. It is also vital to study the socio-economic elements that make it either attractive or unattractive to live in the suburbs. A comparisons of my own extrapolation of Johannesburg’s future and the CSU’s (Central Strategy Unit) Jo’burg 2040, a Growth and development strategy, will be made. The Joburg 2040 GDS (Growth and Development Strategy) defies itself as “an aspirational strategy” of the type of society the city aspires to achieve by 2040 (Joburg 2040 GDS [sa]).

CHAPTER THREE: SUBURBIA 3.1 Suburban history: ‘memories of early origin’ Charles Bosman, a South African short story writer, who wrote a series of essays on Johannesburg, expresses Johannesburg’s tendency towards amnesia: (Herman Charles Bosman, Joburg man 2004: [sp]).

Because I know Johannesburg…there is no other city in the world that is so anxious to shake off the memories of its early origins. It is, however, imperative to understand the history that led to the current spatial expression of Johannesburg’s suburbs. This is not a comprehensive look at its history, but rather a brief overlook at the key shaping factors. According to The suburb reader written by Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese (2006: 2); modern suburbs trace their origins back to the mid-eighteenth century. The book explains that suburbs developed as residential heavens for the emergent upper class to escape the “ill effect of urbanization” (2006: 2), and that suburbs were seen as an ideal way to live in harmony with nature, based on healthy family life and well-defined gender roles. This way of living was the ideal for the respectable Bourgeoisie and class conscious.

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The city of Johannesburg was founded on the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand reef in 1886. A triangle called Randjeslaagte (also referred to as uitvalgrond or surplus ground), between the three farms of Braamfontein, Doornfontein and Turffontein, was close to the gold reef, but didn’t have any likely prospects itself, which made it ideal for settlement (Beavon 2004: 3-4). After it was confirmed that mining development was not suitable in the part north of the ‘uitvanlgrond - triangle’, the city centre developed and the area to north evolved around it (Beavon 2004: 4-7). When the National Party took power in 1948, the urban areas act formalized segregation, and black residents were evacuated from the city centre southwards, with the exception of Alexandria (which today still remains a predominantly black suburb of in the North). André Czeglédy (2003: 25) lists three legislations that established the beginning an urban expression of apartheid: In 1950, the Group Areas Act established spatial segregation of the population groups defined by the Population Registration Act of the same year. This was succeeded by the Natives Resettlement Act of 1954, which gave authorities the right to evict residents from designated locales. Third, the Natives (Urban Areas) Amendment Act was introduced in 1955 to ‘remove such concentrations of Blacks as the servants living in central city blocks of flats. These legislation were enforced spatially in Johannesburg which made the city a testing ground for urban racial segregation – “essentially the model apartheid city” (Czeglédy: 23). The effect of this is that in South Africa architecture and urban planning will always be inherently bound to politics (Bremner 1998: 62). This new city of Johannesburg then experienced a great economic surge in 1960’s (Chipkin 2008: 249). The developing city underwent a mainly labour-oriented migration in the 1980’s, spreading outside the inner city region and linking it with the Northern suburbs.

Figure 3.1 Fortification, Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Buffer zones, “like rail lines, industrial and warehousing zones, impenetrable walls, and multilane highways”, were purposefully constructed to divide the city into class and race lines (Murray 2011: 40). The political divide between North and South was set, with the northern suburbs distinguished by single standing houses on large plots with tree lined streets. While the mining dumps and buffer zones of uitvalgrond characterise the less prestigious Southern Suburbs (Czeglédy 2003: 24). At the same time, white flight started from the Central Business District (CBD) towards Northern suburbs and along with it, the relocation of new suburban business nodes to Sandton, Rosebank and Randburg. This was enabled by the M1 and M2 highways linking CBD with the northern suburbs (Chipkin 2008: 252). There was a large Increase in ‘2-car families’ in the northern suburbs and because of this, woman were no longer depended on public transport to shop which opened up a new world of mainly shopping in malls and enclosed centres (Chipkin 2008: 261). After the first democratic election in April 1994, an overwhelming sense of insecurity survived the transition to democracy. Suburban residential architecture adapted in order to restore a sense of “boundary control”, this was done through burglar bars, alarm systems, high perimeter walls, gated communities and private security companies (Ballard 2002: 12). Figure 3.1 and 3.2 shows an example of this manifestation of fortification in typical suburban architecture in both Sandton and Westdene. It is significant to me that he entirety of the history discussed within chapter 3.1 started with a meteor impact at the Vredefort dome. Tilting a layer of earth’s crust and thrusting a gold reef towards the surface (Kentridge 2014: 73). A singular event which allowed the existence of the unique spatial manifestation of a city on the inland high veld. As Martin Murray puts it (2014: 38) “Johannesburg owes its existence to the overlapping forces of nature, geography, history, and economics.”

Figure 3.2 Fortification, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

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Figure 3.3 Richard Ballard and Kerry Bobbins (author), GCRO home page, 2015 (GCRO Map of the month 2015).

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3.2 The current state Johannesburg’s suburbs

In drawing lessons, William Kentridge (2014: 73) writes that “it is also about contingency, the improbable combination of events and forces that make the specific, the X-point of pressure”. I find this is true in the way that the unique set of historical events are combined to create a very specific place, with all its complexities, that could not be re-created anywhere else: Johannesburg. As for the definition of a suburb, I find no real clear consensus, but I would like to refer to the idea that, according to The Suburb Reader, many have of suburbia; a “low density, residential environment on the outskirts of larger cities”, that is occupied primarily by families of similar class and race, with plenty of trees and grass. It is essentially urban sprawl and a product of the process of decentralization (Nicolaide & Wiese: 2006 p.69). This definition, however, would then clearly exclude many of Johannesburg’s especially southern suburbs. I thus need to widen the definition to a Johannesburg-specific meaning. The general critique on suburbs include that suburbia is seen as a breeding ground for conformity, materialism, female loneliness, and even social pathologies like adultery and alcoholism. There is also the clear issue of the toll that suburban sprawl has on the environment (Nicolaide & Wiese: 2006 p.4-5). The failures of suburbs are clear, yet we still see a predominant settlement pattern embracing suburban sprawl. The Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s map of the month for December 2015 (represented in Figure 3.3) provides a footprint of the urban land cover across the wider Gauteng City-Region, as well as some “indications of future growth”. The map represents two points in time; what existed in 1990 vs what came into being between 1990 and 2013 (Ballard & Bobbins 2015: [sp]).

The urban land cover that came into being between 1990 and 2013 (the yellow shading on the map in figure 3.3) indicates that much of the growth since 1990 is on the fringe of the older settlement pattern. According to Ballard and Bobbins, this is the expected pattern growth; simply because of land availability and rising demand. This map does not show the development of the existing footprint which the urban parts of Johannesburg has undergone through extensive densification by either subdivision or vertical construction (Ballard & Bobbins 2015: [sp]). However the figure clearly indicated the extents of the suburban sprawl of Johannesburg. I have chosen to focus my suburban-speculations on two of Johannesburg’s suburbs: Sandton and Westdene. I by no means intend that these two are representative as a whole of Johannesburg, but I have chosen them due to their relation of residential to business functions. It is an interesting manifestation of Johannesburg to have two competing CBD’s in a single metropolitan area: “the one for the migratory rich, the other for the migrant poor” (Chipkin 2008: 261, 410). This development of a new polycentric city meant writing off vast assets in the Braamfontein CBD and acquiring new infrastructure on the periphery.

• The parts of the map shaded black indicate urban land cover that existed in 1990. • The yellow shading represents urban land cover that came into being between 1990 and 2013. • The

red

shading

indicates

township

establishment

applications which were approved between 2005 and 2013. • The blue shading indicates township establishment applications which were under consideration in 2013. • The white outlines are of the mega human settlements announced by the Gauteng provincial government in April 2015.

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3.2.1 Westdene

3.2.2 Sandton

According to the Westdene Residents Association (WRA), Westdene falls into Region B, one of the seven administrative regions that make up the City of Johannesburg. In contrast with Sandton, Westdene is situated closer to Johannesburg’s CBD. There are around 2,000 households in Westdene with roughly ten thousand inhabitants. Property sizes in the suburb are generally no larger than 450m² plots (WRA: 2013[sp]). Figure 3.4 and 3.5 are two typical examples of Westdene’s Suburban houses, while figure 3.6 and 3.7 depict a typical street view.

In Sandton however, these residential plots are significantly larger (Beavon 2004: 89). Sandton comes to mind as one of the most distinct northern suburb of Johannesburg. Initially Sandton was mostly a Peri-Urban residential area attracting the upper to middle classes of Johannesburg. Characterised by the leafy tree canopies that were planted in the early days of its set out (Beavon 2004: 90). The Norther suburbs according to Clive Chipkin (2008: 415) can be traditionally defined as “the suburbs north of the arterial line Louis Botha Avenue – East Avenue – Empire Road”. The large scale perimeter parking surrounding of Sandton City with the “internal pedestrian streets and corridors” of malls make up some of the most striking spaces in Sandton (Chipkin 2008: 261). The deterioration of downtown Johannesburg caused many corporate offices to move from the CBD to Sandton in the 1990’s.

Figure 3.4 House façade 1, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.5 House façade 1, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.6 Street façade 2, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.7 Street façade 2, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

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When Sandton city was constructed, it helped claim Sadton’s reputation as a Financial and business centre. Along with that the JSE, Johannesburg’s stock exchange, relocated its offices to Sandton as an extra enforcement of Sandton as business district. The term “Africa’s richest square mile” is often used to describe Sandton. In stark contrast, right next door there is Alexandria, the non-affluent of the northern suburbs. A great majority of urban black residents lived here during apartheid and now remain trapped in the “monofunctional dormitory” with little amenities, having to travel to nearby suburbs for work daily. (Murray 2011: 37) According to Census 2011 Sandton’s area of 143,54 km², remains a predominantly white and English speaking suburb 49.78%, followed by 34,67% Black, 11.12% Indian or Asian and 2% Coloured (remaining 1.93% marked as other). Sandon’s elevated landscape also carries a significance on the urban form; “..creating exclusive space with high social status” (Chipkin 2008: 413).

Many of my sources give an introduction on Sandton, states the fact given above and mentions the political significance of Sandton as a white-privilege Northern suburb. There has been a dismissal of the studies on the ‘privileged’ suburban middle class. Ballard describes that, for many academics, there is something rather uncomfortable about research that sets out to study a ‘privileged group’. “The elite are protected by “the absence of a scholarly discourse on their dysfunctionality” (Ballard 2002 :21). The current state of ‘The Wall’ that we find in Sandton. “Gates of Hyde Park and Sandhurst, shown in figure 3.8 is the ellaorate wall found in Ilovov, Sandton, the very picture of a “message decoded by Barry Ronge in 2004: ’Strangers are not unwelcome, but entirely unfit to enter the domain or to meet the owners who are so rich and important that they merit such outrageous gates as these’ ” (Chipkin 2008: 415).

Figure 3.8 Elaborate wall, Ilovo - Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

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Along with the “Fortress architecture in the Northern suburbs” (Czeglédy 2003: 32), a variation of foreign styles characterise Johannesburg. Edwardian and other ‘period’ architecture such as mock Mediterranean houses, especially in gated clusterdevelopments (Czeglédy 2003: 32) is evident of a trend that tell of an desire to be elsewhere in the world. A romanticized place to which the inhabitant of a suburban home can escape the chaos of Johannesburg. These styles do not have the ability to acknowledge the past, so that theses styles practice a “selective amnesia” (Malcomess & Kreutzfeldt 2103: [sp]). Chipkin refers to lack of contextual sensibility. Houses of northern suburbs lack a “cohesiveness from street to street” synthetic influences (Czeglédy 2003: 33). Refer back to Figures 3.6 and 3.7 that show a much more cohesive street façade in the suburb of Westdene. Added to these styles are of course the straw thatched rondaval (reference Chipkin for architecture styles). Used often as a braai lapa, our interpretation of the ideal South African recreation place. Johannesburg architecture, traditionally, has been built around a regular, four square structural design, single storey construction with mono-course brick walls and corrugated iron roofs (Czeglédy 2003: 33).

Figure 3.9 Gated street, Ilovo - Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

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CHAPTER FOUR: THE INDICATORS OF CHANGE I theorize that many of the conditions of our current suburbs are unstable. Unstable in the sense that they are not firmly established, prone to change and likely to give way as the city of Johannesburg evolves. The CSU’s (Central Strategy Unit) Growth and Development Strategy for Jo’burg 2040 explains that when developing a future plan for Johannesburg, it has the challenge of both having to define a clearly defined growth path, but still having to make accommodation for uncertainty. The CSU then identifies some of the contributors to the uncertainty of the Johannesburg’s future as: • Increasing migration • Globalisation • Climate change • Natural resource scarcity • Technological innovations • Inequality (Joburg 2040 GDS: 6). The oxford dictionary defines ‘unstable’ as “Likely to change or fail; not firmly established” (oxforddictionaries.com 2016). My theory of unstable factors thus rests on the idea that because these three categories are not firmly established, have undergone considerate change in the past and will most likely change in the future, they can be used as ‘indicators of change’ for the future. In his book, City of extremes, Martin Murray identifies three spatial patterns that characterise the morphology of Johannesburg as fragmentation, separation, and low-density sprawl.” (Murray 2011: 176) These “distorted” characteristics are all upheld by the three indictors of change I identify as: The Wall, Mobility and Density.

Figure 3.10 Boom-gated entrance, Ilovo - Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

4.1 The wall

4.3 Density

When Vladislavić writes about his experience with the change of the wall over time it is clear to see that, as urban element, the wall has undergone considerate change. Bremner explains that the problem behind fortifying suburbia is that it becomes a sign of privilege and therefore an opportunity for crime. He also mentions that our social spheres are carefully chosen when we wall ourselves off from the outside world. The fact that ‘The Wall’ actually also negatively impacts our suburbs, means that it cannot be firmly established in its current state. One of the ‘contributors to the uncertainty of the city’s future’ that the CSU identifies, inequality, ties into my understanding of the future implications of the wall. It is these reasons that lead me to identify ‘The Wall’, as an unstable factor, unstable in the sense that I predict that it cannot keep existing in this manner indefinitely without serious consequence.

Currently many of our suburbs are densifying, take for instance the already prevailing trend of subletting backyard apartment. The problem is not that municipal and provincial policies do not contest densification within urban areas, but that such policies are frequently not upheld, which leads to housing developments on the periphery, further adding to suburban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74). Another aspect of density, especially for Johannesburg, is the continuous influx of both domestic and international migrants. The way that this influx of migrants changes the city of Johannesburg is explained in Jo’burg 2040: …migrants articulate diverse ways of being in a city…As Johannesburg becomes even more multi-cultural, building social cohesion and creating spaces that allow for multiple expressions of this rich diversity is an ongoing priority for urban governance role players. (Joburg 2040 GDS: 6).

4.2 Mobility/Transportation It is not hard to imagine the way we use transportation as an indicator of the change to come in future. Questions around environmental sustainability and alternatives to vital fuels has painted an almost certain picture of alternative modes of transport being implicated any day now. The continuous use of private instead of public transport also exposes Johannesburg to the risk of fuel price shocks (Joburg 2040 GDS: 28). Johannesburg’s suburbs rely heavily in the use of motorcars, roads and the characteristic M1 motorway traffic jam. The ability of Johannesburg’s citizens to access transport is inherently linked to any new opportunities they will have available to them (Joburg 2040 GDS: 28). It is almost unreasonable to imagine the suburbs functioning without the family motorcar. With mini-bus taxi’s and Putco or Metro busses being the main use of public transport, the middle class suburbs have always been exempt from the use of public transport, only recently has the Gautrain provided the ‘middle class’ alternative to public transport.

4.3 Density Compared to other international cities Johannesburg has very low urban density and high urban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74). The reason why this is identified as an unstable characteristic is because it is unsure how densification will manifest in the middle class suburbs. It is, amongst others, the flight to suburban neighbourhoods in the 1970s that have enabled this urban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74). Currently many of our suburbs are densifying, take for instance the already prevailing trend of subletting backyard apartment. The problem is not that municipal and provincial policies do not contest densification within urban areas, but that such policies are frequently not upheld, which leads to housing developments on the periphery, further adding to suburban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74).

Density, as indicator of change, thus includes that Johannesburg’s was never designed to host the variety of people that it currently residing within its boundaries, let alone its future inhabitants. This while cities of the past were “planned for efficiency, standardisation, predictability and social control” (Joburg 2040 GDS: 23).

CHAPTER FIVE: THE WALL AND ENTRANCE The wall as an element has been taking over the suburban landscape of Johannesburg since before the end of apartheid. Vladislavić’s writings put in perspective the effects on the suburbs before and after the wall: We lived in a new suburb then…on the outskirts of Pretoria; …These were the days of the garden-variety wire fence, long before the advent of the candy-striped boom and the two meter wall, when a stranger who had lost way might hail a man mowing his lawn or tinkering with the engine of a car. (Vladislavić 1998: 305) In the front of my own house is a slot, with a hinged flap marked ‘Letters’ left over from a time when the postman, unhindered by locks and barbs and security doors, could open the front gate, walk up the path, climb the steps, cross the stoep, and drop the letters through the slot onto the hallway floor. (Vladislavić 1998: 312) These are seemingly insignificant changes that the exaggeration of the wall has had on our live, but they invite the reader to start to recognize the impact of the fortification of our houses. Also for a younger reader, like myself, it is interesting to think that an everyday activity, like asking for directions and delivering mail, could have functioned so differently than now. Posing the idea, how much different would it then function it the future?

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5.1 A different suburb than now: The tale of the GPS-malfunction (January 2040, Sandton Johannesburg) Compared to other international cities Johannesburg has very low urban density and high urban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74). The reason why this is identified as an unstable characteristic is because it is unsure how densification will manifest in the middle class suburbs. It is, amongst others, the flight to suburban neighbourhoods in the 1970s that have enabled this urban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74). Currently many of our suburbs are densifying, take for instance the already prevailing trend of subletting backyard apartment. The problem is not that municipal and provincial policies do not contest densification within urban areas, but that such policies are frequently not upheld, which leads to housing developments on the periphery, further adding to suburban sprawl (Joburg 2040 GDS: 74). Another aspect of density, especially for Johannesburg, is the continuous influx of both domestic and international migrants. The way that this influx of migrants changes the city of Johannesburg is explained in Jo’burg 2040: …migrants articulate diverse ways of being in a city…As Johannesburg becomes even more multi-cultural, building social cohesion and creating spaces that allow for multiple expressions of this rich diversity is an ongoing priority for urban governance role players. (Joburg 2040 GDS: 6).

I imagine a future of THE WALL as unstable factor that has a result of us being such “tourists in each other’s world” that the simple act of traveling through Sandton, for a non-Sadtonite would be impossible without the aid of a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. The maze effect of traveling in Sandton due to closed of streets, is emphasised when the new gates are erected so rapidly that these gates often do not register on a GPS; meaning travellers might be met with a no-access barriers on a suggested route. This, along with the private security firms that protect these gated streets, is what Mabin refers to as privatization being a response to the fear of crime. The problem with this creation of walled off communities is that these areas establish forms of social segregation (Mabin 2011: p.23). The northern suburbs are secured with high perimeter defences with low visual permeability; alienating neighbours and the pedestrian. The private nature of these enclaves then makes possible what Ballard describes as “Influx control” being replaced by “regulated access”, pass books are replaced by swipe cards and access codes, and police are replaced with private security guards (Ballard 2002 :12). Functions that were previously Municipal are sold to private agencies or incorporated into the package that a building and street complex offers (Jürgens, Gnad & Bähr 2003: 57). The cost of this is the restriction of freedom of movement and denial of chance contact, separating the people of Johannesburg even further.

Because of apartheid, people live great distances from where they work; standards of urban infrastructure vary enormously; parts of the city are devoid of shops, businesses, entertainment venues and schools, while others are saturated with them; chasms separate one citizen from another, so much so that people feel like tourists in each other’s worlds. (Bremner 1998)

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CHAPTER SIX: TRANSPORTATION

MOBILITY/

Johannesburg’s residence generally live great distances from where they work. A large portion of Johannesburg’s work force does not even live within the city itself, but commutes, daily from the Gauteng City Region (GCR). The map represented in figure 6.1 was compiled for October transport month by the GCRO. This map shows the transit routes to work within the GCR, categorised by race. The GCRO observes a pattern of a great percentage of African respondents having to travel great distances from fringe areas like Soshanguve, Orange Farm and Daveyton. While white respondents’ trips are either concentrated at the centre of the city-region or contrastingly respondents travel more than 25km to the massive development of new gated housing estates and townhouse developments on the urban edge (GCRO 2014: [sp]).

Figure 6.1 Chris Wray, Graeme Götz, Guy Trangoš, Christina Culwick and Samy Katumba (author), GCRO home page, 2014 (GCRO Map of the month 2014).

The existence of suburbia is dependent on its inhabitants commuting back and forth from different zonings. Spending a lot of time in your car is awfully typical to suburban live. The effect of this is that suburbanites do not walk to the places they want to go. On average, suburbanites do not use public transportation and when they do use other means than their own private motorcars, the interactions are marked by suspicion and caution (Bremner 1998). These residential areas without any connection to public transport are also critiqued for fostering no feeling of belonging (Jürgens, Gnad, Bähr 2003: 68). In contrast to this experience via the motorcar, Vladislavić writes about experiencing the city through walking: The world at large is lost to me. As my eye becomes attuned to everything that is extraneous, inconspicuous and minor, that is abandoned or derelict, the obvious, useful facts of the city recede and a hidden history of obsolescence comes to surface. Every time I go walking, I stumble right out of the present. (2006: 176)

The periphery where suburbs exists, it is a continually moving low density sprawl that demands more highways and road, which carry more vehicles, that stay on the roads for longer. Thus the experience of a locality is lost, and along with it historical attachment (Czeglédy 2003: 38). Our automobile dominated lives are expressed in many ways. Take for instance the entrance of a typical Johannesburg’s suburban home, the door, as an example of how mobility has transformed the way in which we dwell. The motorcar becomes key in the entry point. Many households don’t even use the front door anymore, it might be more convenient to enter through the back kitchen door or even the garage door. The automatic gate is also not only a reaction to the needs of the motor vehicle, but also seen as a needed safety feature for suburban live.

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One strange manifestation depicting the amount of time Jo’burgers, and South Africans in general, spend on the roads is the robot-market. Informal entrepreneurs can be seen at various main intersections of our roads, capitalising on what they know: we spend a great deal of our lives and money inside our motorcar. However the majority of Johannesburg’s residents still do not own motorcars and make use of public or private bus, public rail or private mini-bus taxis. While the middle-income bracket of Jo’burgers rely mainly on their private motorcars. The CSU explains that there has been no viable mass public transport system to facilitate a shift in the minds of middle income residents, from private car to public transport. (Joburg 2040 GDS: 68). Getting people to change their mode of transport is not just about logistics, but pivotal for the survival of the city (Joburg 2040 GDS: 72). In its future prediction the CSU makes a bold claim that “by 2040, the City will be pedestrian and public transport oriented” (Joburg 2040 GDS: 95). It explains that through the Rea Vaya BRT and the Gautrain transport holds a ‘tremendous potential for integrating a divided city.” (Joburg 2040 GDS: 67). The Rea Vaya BRT’s goal is to place 85 percent of the City’s population within a 500 metre radius of a feeder route (Joburg 2040 GDS: 70). The Gautrain (with a Johannesburg-OR Tambo airport route, and a Johannesburg- Tshwane route) was developed as a “high-speed corridor” to connect the major cities within the GCR. This means that the success of the Gautrain, as a middle class public transport alternative, still rests on the support of other secondary transport systems. Both the Rea Vaya BRT and Gautrain’s development opportunities lies in the investment in “intermodal hubs”; the infrastructure to support the movement form one mode of transport to another (Joburg 2040 GDS: 71).

6.1 A different suburb than now: Abandoning the motorcar (January 2040, Westdene Johannesburg) The transportation pods from our suburban home take us to the nearest transportation hub. Here, it is a coming together of lives; businesses are stacked in between the infrastructuregrid provided by local council. Informal markets serve the formal Gautrian service which has been repurposed to operate with the range of secondary transport modes available. These moments of public interaction have become a crucial part of the daily lives of Wesdene’s inhabitants. The transportation hubs’ structure serve the suburb as well. The sidewalks are walkable, and lead to the entrance of homes which are designed to accommodate people, not things.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: FROM TRANSPORT TO DENSITY The CSU emphasises the importance of a compact urban form, in that it would bring about a more liveable city which would in turn make Johannesburg more resilient for future change (Joburg 2040 GDS: 26). Take for example a possible future fossil fuel shortage. Urban sprawl is dependent upon car ownership, but with a fuel shortage it would render a great portion of Johannesburg’s suburbanites stuck. Residential Sandton is one of Johannesburg’s most low-density developments, but is it plausible to assume that this suburb can continue to exist in this way? Czeglédy explains that “unlike the inner city, which was under relatively tight municipal control, the residential districts of the northern suburbs were developed without central coordination” (Czeglédy 2003: 31). I propose a future where the suburbs have to include higher density into its design.

7.1 A different suburb than now: Inhabiting the wall (January 2040, Sandton & Westdene, Johannesburg) In the future residents of Sandton, partly due to government legislation, but also due to the financial pressures of owning and maintaining such large plots of land, are forced to sublease the front portions of their yards. In First Street, Ilovo, building lines were set approximately 6m into the yard measuring from the boundary wall throughout the length of the street. This has made it possible for, the Smiths, a local suburban family to lease off the front part of their yard. Where their visitors would have been greeted with an elaborate 3m wall almost 30 years ago, it is now replaced by a ‘liveable wall’ of multi-use units. The 4 storey structures ups the overall density ratio, of the now almost urban area, to what is allowed by government. With this increase of density also came the feasibility of a public transport bus-system servicing the area. This is a post-rationalist solution to the immense sprawl created in the early years of Johannesburg’s outset. It creates a very specific built type, the ‘liveable wall’ that exists nowhere else as it does here. The citizens of the wallsuburb know how to navigate the wall, they also know who the agent are that make it possible. An interdependent human agreement exists; from who rents out an urban plot to who is responsible for the street face it presents. Security is now left in the hand of the inhabitants as a trust-based relationship is formed amongst neighbours. The suburb of Sandton and Westdene, each have their own unique identity, due to the fact the scale of their ‘liveable walls’ differ. Sandton’s former low density made it possible to include a great deal of functions in these walls, while Westdene (having already been a denser suburb) relied on the entrepreneurial spirit of its inhabitants to include multi-use functions into their homes. However these two distinct suburban identities are joined with the use of the communal transportation hubs.

7.2 Density in diversity There is a focus on the importance of building a resilient future for Johannesburg in the CSU’s Growth and Development Strategy. It entails building economically vibrant neighbourhoods with “diverse and distinct” urban forms and “cultural identity” (Joburg 2040 GDS: 26). Currently suburban houses serve as independent and self-contained centre for leisure with no wider social contact with the city needed. A built form must be used to create shared spaces that would have a “greater social cohesion and inclusion” and be accessible to the diverse community of Johannesburg (Joburg 2040 GDS: 30). Creating a city where a suburban community may retain their own individual culture, must be balanced with the city’s social harmony on a larger level (Joburg 2040 GDS: 47). Is it then even such a big jump to predict that this elaborate wall could be exaggerated to such an extent to where it is liveable?

CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION 8.1 What is recommended for the future of Johannesburg’s suburbs? It is clear to see that suburban sprawl is being embraced as a settlement pattern, and that this expression of urban form must be deal with. The South African Institute of Architects 2011, recommends for a human settlement to include a multitude of different zonings which would allow for mixedused and enable people to run home-based enterprises. I also recommends creating a “one-hour walking neighbourhood”, so that most social amenities are accessible within an hour’s walk, which goes hand in hand with the activation of street edges. Incremental development that allows for phasing and adaptation should be considered. The decision-making of these aspects of the urban form of a community should be inclusive, with the neighbourhood involved. Along with these suburb related changes, it is also important to promote connectivity across the larger city and explore public transport gaps, as well as encouraging greater linkages across green spaces in the city (Joburg 2040 GDS: 73). On the dangerous of sprawl: “If something as trifling as hot coffee carries a warning, why not something as significant as urban sprawl?” from Euclid (Ohio) Major Paul Oyaski (Nicolaide & Wiese 2006: 477)

8.2 How can there futures be used as indicators for the current aspects of suburbs? The significance in this study lies in outlining the future effects of current causes. Because of these suburban changes certain adjustments will have to be made to the way dwellings are designed. What aspects of how we understand suburban dwelling today might fall away or be replaced as a dominant quality? The CSU’s 2040 plan for Johannesburg is amongst other challenges tasked with changing the minds of suburban inhabitants. Depicting the benefits of densification, which is met with resistance. The picture of the alternative needs then to be more seductive, of having a reliable transport system and liveable, walkable cities – there needs to exist a clear benefit of densification. And getting people to change their mode of transport (Joburg 2040 GDS: 72). The particularity of each suburb is what makes it interesting and what would separate the path of a suburb like Sandton from Westdene. While the examination of Johannesburg’s manifestations of suburbia left me with unanswered questions about the Johannesburg specific definition of a suburb, as it is clear to see that a ‘personalised’ understanding is needed to understand this city’s suburbs. Although it is said that Johannesburg attempts to forget its history, it is evident that this history has, and will shape the city’s future path. These fictional pieces aspire to summarize a mental image of what the data and facts discussed in the chapter means. So that that the response is emotional realisation understanding of the human impact meaning of how our spaces manifest. The suburb, which is normally considered the mundane element of urbanism and therefore ignored, is put into question through these fictional pieces.

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SOURCES CONSULTED Ballard, K. & Bobbins, K. 2015. Gauteng’s changing urban footprint 1990-2013. [O]. . . Available: http://www.gcro.ac.za/outputs/map-of-the-month/detail/gautengs-changing-. . urban-footprint-1/ Accessed 20 July 2016.

Beavon, K. 2004. Johannesburg The Making and Shaping of the City. Pretoria: / Unisa Press.

Benjamin, A. 1979. Lost Johannesburg. Johannesburg: Macmillan South Africa / (PTY) ltd Beukes, L. 2001. Zoo City. Oxford: Angry Robot. Bremner, L. 1998. “Crime and the Emerging Landscape of Post-apartheid / Johannesburg” in blank_Architecture, apartheid and after. (Eds. H. Judin and / I. Vladislavić.) Cape Town: David Philip. Chipkin, C. 2008. Johannesburg transition, Architecure & society from 1950. / Johannesburg: STE Publishers. Czeglédy, A. (2003). Villas of the Highveld” in Emerging Johannesburg, perspectives / on the postapartheid city (Eds. R. Tomlinson, R. Robert, A. Beauregard, L. / Bremner and X. Mangcu.) London: Routledge. Dewar, D. 1998. “Settlements, change and planning in South Africa since 1994” in / blank_Architecture, apartheid and after. (Eds. H. Judin and I. Vladislavić.) / / Cape Town: David Philip. Gaylard, G. 2011. Marginal Spaces, Reading Ivan Vladislavić. Johannesburg: Wits . University Press. GCRO. 2014. [O]. Available: http://www.gcro.ac.za/outputs/map-of-the-month/detail/getting-to-work-in-the/ gcr-trips-to-work-by-race/2 Accessed 20 June 2016.

Herman Charles Bosman, Joburg man. 2004. [O]. Available: http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&id=886&Itemid =52 Accessed 10 June 2016. Joburg 2040 GDS. [Sa]. [O]. Available: http://www.joburg.org.za/gds2040/pdfs/joburg2040_gds.pdf Accessed 20 June 2016.

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Jürgens, U. Gnad, M & Bähr, J. 2003. “new forms of class and recial segregation; / ghetos or ehnic enclaves?” in Emerging Johannesburg, perspectives on the / postapartheid city (Eds. R. Tomlinson, R. Robert, A. Beauregard, L. / Bremner and X. Mangcu.) London: Routledge. Kentridge, W. 2014. Six Drawing Lessons. Harvard: University Press Mabin, A. 2011. The struggle to belong Dealing with diversity in 21st century urban / settings. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand. Murray, M. 2011. City of extremes the spatial politics of Johannesburg. London: / Duke University Press. Nicolaides, B.M & Wiese, A. 2006. The suburb reader. New York: Routledge. Malcomess, B. Kreutzfeldt, D. 2103. Not no place. Johannesburg. Fragments of / space and Times. Johannesburg: Ultra Litho (Pty) Ltd. Oxford dictionaries. [Sa]. [O]. Available: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/unstable Accessed 18 July 2016.

Statistics South Africa. 2011. 2011 Census | Statistics South Africa. [ONLINE] Available at: / http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=993&id=city-of-johannesburg/ municipality. / [Accessed 2 May 2016].

Tomlinson, R, Beauregard, R, Bremner, L & Mangcu, X. 2003. Emerging . / Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City. New York: Routledge. Vladislavic, I. 1993. The Folly. Serfif: London: Serif. Vladislavić, I. 1998. “Street addresses, Johannesburg” in blank_Architecture, / apartheid and after. (Eds. H. Judin and I. Vladislavić.) Cape Town: David / Philip Vladislavić, I. 2006. Portrait with keys. Houghton: Random house. Vladislavic, I. 2001. The Restless Supermarket. Pietermaritzburg: David Philip. Westdene Residents Association. 2013. WRA (Westdene / Residents Association).[O]. Available at: / http://westdene.org/about-westdene. [Accessed 2 May 2016]. Wray, C. Göts, G. Trangoš, C. Culwick, C & Katumba, S. 2014. Gauteng’s changing/urban footprint 1990-2013. [O]. Available: http://www.gcro.ac.za/outputs/map-of-the-month/detail/getting-to-work/ in-the-gcr-trips-to-work-by-race// Accessed 20 July 2016.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page:

Figure 3.1

Fortification, Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.2

Fortification, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.3

Richard Ballard and Kerry Bobbins (author), GCRO home page, 2015 (GCRO Map of the month 2015).

Figure 3.4

House façade 1, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.5

House façade 1, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.6

Street façade 2, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.7

Street façade 2, Westdene, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.8

Elaborate wall, Ilovo - Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.9

Gated street, Ilovo - Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 3.10

Boom-gated entrance, Ilovo - Sandton, 2016 (Photograph by author).

Figure 6.1

Chris Wray, Graeme Götz, Guy Trangoš, Christina Culwick and Samy Katumba (author), GCRO home page, 2014 (GCRO Map of the month 2014).

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ANNEX. B DR: DESIGN REALISATION PORTFOLIO

141

Decisions are made through the process of making and investigating a series of works - (Discussion point form a studio visit to Workhorse Bronze Foundry) This annex unpacks the methodologies behind design realisation. Exploring the solid / void relationship was key to this the concept of inverting a house. Combining foam, a very fast material to work with, and plaster casting to investigate positive and negative form. Responding to the realities of the material; casting is extremely time sensitive. Foam casts-forms could be dissolved with acetone to reveal intricate casting. The MPD is not designed and then built, but a product of this process. Not all process ideas are carried through, but lead a perspective change.

THE EVOLUTION OF MAKING.

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SECTION & PLAN CASTING 1:200

MASS CASTING 1:200

143

HOUSE FAÃ&#x2021;ADE CASTING 1:50

EARLY PROCESS MODEL 1:200

CONSTRUCTING NEGATIVE MASS FOR CAST

CONSTRUCTING POSITIVE MASS

CONTEXT MODEL

CONTEXT INVERSION â&#x20AC;&#x201C; PROCESS MODEL

FOAM CUTTER

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INTERCHANGEABLE PROCESS MODELS

EARLY CONCEPT PLAN DRAWN ONTO MODEL

145

DR 1:200 FOAM MASSING MODEL

INPUT DRAWING + (OVERCOMING LIMITATION OF THE 2D MEDIUM) = MODEL + (REVEALS AN ASPECT THAT HAD TO BE FURTHER EXPLORED) = OUTPUT DRAWING

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EARLY CONCEPT SECTION

CAST SECTION

147

DR 1:100 SECTIONAL MODEL

A COMBINATION BETWEEN THE INABILITY TO ILLUSTRATE TWO SECTIONS AT THE SAME TIME AND THE CASTING OF THE VOID SPACE IN SECTION BETWEEN HOUSES LEAD TO BUILDING A SECTIONAL MODEL. THE LIMITATIONS OF ONE MEDIUM (DRAWING SECTION AND PLAN) LEADS TO ANOTHER MEDIUM.

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ANNEX. C PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

LIMINAL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS PART A:

Vision and Mission statements:

Vision: A Vision of a firm is an overall description of the firm’s goals and objectives – This defines where the firm is going and what it should be at a fixed future time (usually between three and five years) in terms of facts and figures. It is a reasonable future prediction, achievable and measurable to ensure that the business is making progress. The firm’s vision talks about where the firm wants to go and will lead you towards your mission. (Peter, P and Bradford 2003: 166)

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Liminal Architectural Design’s vision:

•To employ 2 junior level staff within the first two years of practice as well as an admin staff by at least the end of the first year. To grow by adding another senior architect and two junior level staff by the five year mark. This is to be able to handle a wider range of projects, whilst still staying a generally small firm that specialises in a unique and personal approach. •To widen our design project scope to town planning and inner city re-generation projects with the first three years. •After five years we would like to reform with an added likeminded partner trained at our firm. •To achieve a profit of 15% within the first 3 years, and handle multiple larger scale projects after 3 years. •After our three year mark we would like to intensively focus our firm to expand up into Africa. •Location: Acquire another office space in same building. •Capabilities: Comprehensive architectural services, focussing on refurbishments, town planning and inner city re-generation. In five years grow into the firm of choice for our market. •Market: To widen our client base to development firms, Government and private clients within three years. •To establish a few (3 in the first three years and there afters up to 5) well trained and loyal employees with a high level of job satisfaction and efficiency/commitment.

Goals:

Mission: This states what the frim does and how they do it presently. For example identifying services you offer and clients you cater to. An inspiring, but general description of what your firm wants to be. This mission statement lists the general goals to which the firm strives. It defines what would be considered as success to the firm, internally, as well as the parties involved in it. A mission statement talks about how the firm is going to get where it wants to go. (Peter, P and Bradford 2003: 166) Liminal Architectural Design’s Mission: •Liminal Architectural Design are committed to high standards of client service, staff development, ethical practice and reasonable profit. •Our firm endeavours to gain a reputation in the marketplace as a leading on one of a kind and highly effective refurbishments of existing buildings and regeneration of the inner city. With the emphasis on a firm with intimate and tailormade solutions. •A community and sustainable culture. •Our clients are start out as mainly private owners and connection development firms. •Human resources: our firm will put great care into managing our employees with the idea to provide opportunities for well performing employees to grow within company •Capabilities: Comprehensive architectural services, focussing on refurbishments, town planning and inner city re-generation. •The firm is bases on the benefit of working with like-minded people with a high level of job satisfaction.

Goals and Objectives:

The general purpose toward which the firm strives, or an outcome that the firm wants to achieve. The goals are what the firm wants to achieve. Liminal Architectural Design’s Goals: •To become a profitable and sustainable company in the long term. • Train and guide experience and satisfied employees. •Recognition that is directly related to effort. •Better control over issues of personal importance and design •The personal fulfilment of having a sustainable business embedded in the community. •An approach is based on efficient use and recycling of existing structures. •To stay a generally small, but efficient frim with great care being put into personal details. Objectives: The firm’s efforts or actions that are intended to attain or accomplish a target. The objectives are the specific steps that will achieve the associated goal. Objectives should be measurable. The objectives are how the firm will achieve their set goals. Liminal Architectural Design’s Objectives: •Achieve the 10% profitability mark by the end of year one. •To be profitable within three years. •Become a leader of the firm’s speciality within 5 years. •Benefiting from a new niche in market by Year 4 of the densification of suburban areas and repurposing of existing buildings. first year. To grow by adding another senior architect and two junior level staff by the five year mark. This is to be able to handle a wider range of projects, whilst still staying a generally small firm that specialises in a unique and personal approach. •To widen our design project scope to town planning and inner city re-generation projects with the first three years. •After five years we would like to reform with an added likeminded partner trained at our firm. •To achieve a profit of 15% within the first 3 years, and handle multiple larger scale projects after 3 years. •After our three year mark we would like to intensively focus our firm to expand up into Africa. •Location: Acquire another office space in same building. •Capabilities: Comprehensive architectural services, focussing on refurbishments, town planning and inner city re-generation. In five years grow into the firm of choice for our market. •Market: To widen our client base to development firms, Government and private clients within three years. •To establish a few (3 in the first three years and there afters up to 5) well trained and loyal employees with a high level of job satisfaction and efficiency/commitment.

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LIMINAL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS PART B: A BUSINESS PLAN

Table of content 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

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Description of the business Style of practice SWOT Analysis Business Model Marketing Competition Operating procedures Accommodation requirements Personnel Business insurance Capital equipment required Sources

… p.6 …p.8 …p.9-10 …p.11-12 …p.13 … p.13 …p.14 …p.15 …p.16 …p.17 ...p.17 …p.18

a. Executive summary (statement of the business purpose) Vision: Liminal Architects is start up professional practice that specialises in architectural and urban designs projects. We will be a partnership registered with SACAP and a member of GIFA. Our main focus is the re-purposing of existing buildings and densification of suburban areas. We also specialise in mixed use developments, and Inner City regeneration projects. With creative and innovative approached to re-purpose existing buildings into urban apartment blocks in areas of Johannesburg currently densifying. The company will be based in Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa. We will start of as a partnership of two Architects: Carla Gaum and Tshego Malatji.

c. 1.

Body of the document Description of the business

Liminal design would be a partnership between Carla Gaum and Tshego Malatji. The idea of this business is to start small and grow over time. Within the first two years our aim is to employ at least one entry level architectural technologist or architect in training. And within the next two years to add another entry level architect as well as an office secretary. Attention will be given to guide the entry level architects as it is our long term aim to guide and mentor these persons so they would be in a position to grow within the company. Our 10 year goal would be to add at another two senior architects to the company and have 4 training staff. The goal is not to have a large body of staff, but rather a small, motivated and dedicated team. Participative management style with clear opportunity for grow for entry level staff within the company as well as the opportunity to add to the business style and high reward for bringing in business. The idea is to find like-minded people who can add their unique point to the firm without having to look elsewhere to achieve their goals (great care would therefore be put into finding employees).

Our competitive edge will be a combination between our previous knowledge and experience of our focus area and superior and personalised customer service will also be a point of firm differentiation We specialise in densifying suburban areas of Johannesburg. With creative and innovative approached to re-purpose existing buildings into urban apartment blocks in areas of Johannesburg currently densifying. Project type specialists. Full service client partners. Community contributors.

Approach: We believe in a flexible and responsive approach to Architectural and urban design that fosters the creation of well-balanced and sustainable environments. We are committed to service excellence, creative and innovation solutions and cost effectiveness. We are also committed to a process of design and planning as a team effort with client and professionals together, and delivering a quality product, within budget on time. Services: Urban Design Services These services provide integrated spatial development frameworks and strategies, from broad regional conceptual planning to precinct planning and design guidelines. In our capacity as Principal Agents we provide project management and project administration services. Feasibility studies developed to the point where the Client is satisfied that quality objectives can be achieved within their time and cost parameters.

Style of practice

Partnership Provides design solution for persons requiring comprehensive, efficient service and high levels of person involvement. Balanced staffing triangle with an even mixture of staffing levels. Relatively high efficiency levels.

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Opportunities

•Location: we are sharing a building with other construction related professionals and we are part of the creative niche of Melville. •Management team relationships: Partners are likeminded people with an extensive history of working together. •Tech-savvy: Partner has extensive training in most related software. •Quality and one of a kind products •Unique products that require singular expertise or innovation. Deep knowledge, creativity, innovation design talent. •Partner that specialises in town planning. •Diverse, yet complimentary experience and skill sets of partners bring to the table as a result of working on major projects for other firms. •Familiar with local market and local clients.

•Area growth: We have ties in other towns such as Bloemfontein and Pretoria and this might represent an opportunity for growth. •Experience •Customer loyalty: we are looking for an ongoing relationship with customers such as development & construction firms. •Growing market for our specific product. •Depends on skilful use of human resources and delegating. •Growing market for our specific product. •Good relationship with established construction firms. •Gifa membership as networking opportunity. •A portfolio of pro-bono work to aid with company marketing.

Weaknesses

Threats

•Lack of capital: small Safed capital leaves little room for error without supplemented with loans. •Lack of reputation: the firm is new and unestablished. •High start-up costs: Acquiring the computers software such as Revit, Photoshop and admin programs •Marketing: Founders do not have marketing background. •High expense for maintaining licences of software.

•Competitive market: Large corporate companies who specialise in quick-fix demolition of existing buildings and construction of new glamorise apartment blocks. •Long established firms near our location.

Business Model

Action planning Liminal Designs identified developed an action plan tom implement our vision, we identified specific actions that we need to implement to realize our vision.

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Action planning

Person responsible 1st year

2-3rd year

After 5 years

Recruitment and hiring of new employees and writing specific job description.

Both partners: Carla Gaum Tshego Malatji

Both partners: Carla Gaum Tshego Malatji.

Carla Gaum Tshego Malatji (with possible inset of new senior additions).

Promotion and marketing.

Partner: Tshego Malatji.

Partner: Tshego Malatji and Senior Employee: Lize Muller.

Develop a manual of drawing standards and guidelines and put together library.

Both partners: Carla Gaum Tshego Malatji.

Partner: Carla Gaum + Junior Architectural technologist.

Upgrade CAD software, yearly.

Partner: Carla Gaum.

Partner: Carla Gaum + Junior Architectural technologist.

Partner: Carla Gaum (overview) + Senior Architectural technologist.

Write articles on new development in our specialisation and keep Blog and social media up to date (monthly).

Partner: Tshego Malatji.

Partner: Tshego Malatji + Junior Architectural technologist + Admin secretary.

Run weekly internal staff coordination meetings.

Partner: Carla Gaum.

Partner: Carla Gaum + Admin secretary.

Partner: Carla Gaum + Admin secretary Partner: Carla Gaum + Admin secretary.

Networking and membership representative as well as firm social planning.

(primarily) Partner: Tshego Malatji Alternatively Carla Gaum.

Schedule client satisfaction meeting with client

(primarily) Partner: Tshego Malatji Alternatively Carla Gaum.

Delegate budget and admin.

Partner: Carla Gaum and accountant.

Partner: Carla Gaum, Admin secratery and accountant.

Revising and Updating strategic / action plan (yearly).

Both partners: Carla Gaum Tshego Malatji.

Both partners: Carla Gaum & Tshego Malatji (with possible inset of new senior additions). 156

5. MARKETING Market Segmentation: Our target clients are divided into four categories; private owners, developers, government, and contractors. The initial geographic location we will focus on is areas of Johannesburg Understanding our consumer’s needs: Our consumer’s need base are durable and sustainable buildings for moderate to lower costs. Product Price Place Promotion & People Process and Physical evidence (Offices, websites) Parented Tshego Malatji will be in charge of firm Image, networking and membership representative as well as firm social planning as well as writing articles on new development in our specialisation and keep Blog and social media up to date (monthly).

6. COMPETITION We have identified Competitive market during the SWOTanalysis as a threats. Large corporate companies who specialise in quick-fix demolition of existing buildings and construction of new glamorise apartment blocks, pose a possible attractive alternative to our clients. To counter this we will focus our marketing as one of a kind buildings with the attention to detail and use of refurbishment of existing buildings that the ‘knockthem down’-mentality of the larger corporate companies do not focus on. To handle our competition we will also focus on diversification of services: working in other parts of South Africa such as the Bloemfontein office as well as in Africa.

7. OPERATING PROCEDURES Financial management: 8. Fees charged are based on estimated cost plus profit, calculated as a percentage of the building costs. 9. Software use to record daily expenses and incomes; Pastel Express (as one of the partners has experience with the software). 10. Accountant used: 11. Overdraft facility or line of credit: Credit card because of 30 day interest free loan. 12. Financial reserve: enough cash to cover all expenses for a period of 3 months. 13. Information management: Filling system we will use: Hard copies of all admin files as well as electronic back up on server and on cloud serves. All electronic work to be saved on server and cloud service. 14. A library of details and information 15. Keep the detailed time sheets of each employee to determine cost records and fee negotiation. Risk management: • Security system including alarm system. • Off-site back up for electronic copies of work (cloud service). Back up of work after every day to this service. Employ an It services on consultation to install effective anti-virus software and advice on backup systems. • Comprehensive short term insurance. • Death of Principals: Life insurance in favour of the firm.

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8. ACCOMMODATION REQUIREMENTS (INCLUDING LOCATION): “1 x 50 sq.m & 1 x 60 sq.m open plan office units, suitable for professional businesses. Current tenants include architect, civil engineer, environmental practitioner, project manager. Located in Richmond, close to Melville & Auckland Park, Johannesburg. Well located for access to Johannesburg CBD, ReaVaya bus routes and quick access to M1 highway.” http://johannesburg.locanto.co.za/ID_411184558/Professionaloffice-space-Auckland-Park-Melville.html Professional office space Auckland Park/Melville Clamart Street, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa.

9. PERSONNEL

10. BUSINESS INSURANCE

Partners:

Insurance: professional indemnity, short term, life, income protection, disability, retirement annuity, medical aid.

Carla Gaum B.Arch.Stud (University of the Free State) M Tech in Architectural Techn. Prof. (University of Johannesburg) Tshego Malatji B.Arch.Stud (University of the Free State) M.Arch. (University of the Free State) Junior Architectural Technologist # 2 Junior Architectural Technologist # 1 The benefits of our firm being a partnership are simple to establish, articles of association drawn up between partners.

Partners are jointly and severally responsible for all professional and debt risk. â&#x20AC;˘ Professional indemnity insurance, (10-20% of single project) kept in lace for at least 5 years after completion of that project. â&#x20AC;˘ Client-architect agreement used: The client-architect agreement must allow for regular payment (monthly), client will receive a pre-invoice notice a week prior to invoice. Discount for early payment will be offered if the project allows for such an agreement.

Notice periods: Extended notice periods of 2 months are asked of key staff members. Partnership will be considered for high performing key staff members.

11. CAPITAL EQUIPMENT REQUIRED IT service Accountant Accommodation rent R 5 000 Transport SACAP registration GIFA membership SAIA membership Marketing Revit Licences Printer Computers Insurance Expensed Equipment Legal Taxes

Projects and estimated revenue and profit Gross Revenues Reimbursable revenue - Consultants Reimbursable revenue - Repro, travel, etc.

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Sources: • Foxell, S. (2015). Starting a Practice: A Plan of Work. Newcastle: . / RIBA Publishing. • Klein, R.M. (2010). The Architect’s guide to small firm management: / Making chaos work for your small firm. John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken. • Peter, P and Bradford, P. (2003). Architect’s Essentials of Starting a / Design Firm. John Wiley & Sons:Hoboken.

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A shift in your mindset caused by creating something out of a fine balance between insights and innovation, leading to a MindShift. A MindShifter is one who professes such change. Commonly held notion of a MindShift according to the Urban dictionary (2011). - URBAN DICTIONARY (2011) I believe a MindShift is transpiring, the phenomenon of a shift in Architectural mentality, that is needed for the profession to remain relevant. In the introductory chapter Architecture Sans Frontiéres’s [ASF] describes this mind shift as seeing people as the main force in the improvement of their habitat. This does not mean that the role of the Architect as expert falls away, but rather that it shifts from the person in charge, to the expert as part of a larger network. We as architectural practitioners are the spatial agent, defined as “the one who affects change, through the empowerment of others, allowing them to engage with their spatial environments in ways previously unknown or unavailable to them…” (ASF Chapter 1). We are at the same time the people who need to undergo a MindShift, as well as the MindShifter; “who professes such change”.

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Balancing the insights and innovation is described as key to a MindShift (Urban dictionary 2011). In this context insight, for me, has to do with the comprehension of other people’s perceptions, this is where participation with the community would come in. Adding innovation as a catalyst of development that comes from outside. A design partnership would peruse a common goal and recognise the benefit of working in collaboration between such actors as the public sector, business sectors and civil society, each with their own agendas (ASF Chapter 8). Alternative practice challenges the responsibilities of us as today’s architect to question whether issues like discrimination are relevant to their role in the built environment. By understanding “space as a social product” (ASF Chapter 3), I argue that it should be part of the Architect’s consideration. Includint the community in the design and planning process is an example of how the Architect can minimise the effect of discrimination by giving a community a platform to engage in. It is relevant because the built environment is a reflection of a society and it’s rituals over time (ASF Chapter 4). The main challenges facing lower income dwellers are identified as Housing, infrastructure and amenities as well as the fact that informal settlement are often built on high risk land (ASF Chapter 2). The fact that a large part of the population cannot afford the cheapest legal accommodation, will naturally result in “extra-legal urbanization”. The first step to overcome this, is engagement with local political and institutional structures and the understanding of underline power-relations that shape the processes and products of urban planning and social development. Securing formalized land tenure decreases social and economic vulnerability of low income dwellers who are threatened by forced eviction and displacement (ASF Chapter 5).

While working in practice, at ASA Architectural design, I encountered one very relevant project example. Brickfields Social Precinct situated in the inner city of Johannesburg, would undergo an extension utilizing prime land next to the precinct. However this extension would have initially landlocked ‘The Station Social Market’ next to it. Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) considered developing the housing on land outside of the city centre, but a housing development on this land would not have come with the added community opportunities that Brickfeilds had. A compromise had to be made and the design was adapted to include access to the neighbouring site, but to make this possible several new housing units had to be scratched. This project was my introduction into the multifaceted interplay concerning housing, in this context I realise the responsibility I will have as a practitioner working with such complex sites. The workshop we participated in on Friday 25 August, highlighted the relationship between maintaining the residence’s original environment, while at the same time prompting to development through the railway. One cannot be sacrificed for the other and a compromise needs to be reached. The role of the Architect in this shifts from a provider to the supporter and catalyst. The Architect must consider how to use skill as a social resource. ASF encourages collaborative discussion and mapping of ideas above surveys. This idea to me, is an interesting shift that I would like to apply in my own design research, to learn “lessons from the everyday” (ASF Chapter 6&7). In conclusion I reflect on participatory design as a mind-set shift; it is about the adaption of the architectural profession, about the realization that we participate because our optimal futures are tied up in each-others’.

References: Urban dictionary MindShift. 2011. [O]. Available: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=MindShift Accessed 09 February 2016. Architecture sans frontiers international. Chapter 1: The Urban Context. [O]. Available: https://challengingpractice.org/urban-context-2/ Accessed 09 February 2016. Architecture sans frontiers international. Chapter 2: Disasters, risk reduction and Reconstruction. [O]. Available: https://challengingpractice.org/disasters-risk-reductionand-reconstruction/Accessed 09 February 2016. Architecture sans frontiers international. Chapter 3: Discrimination. [O]. Available: https://challengingpractice.org/discrimination/ Accessed 09 February 2016. Architecture sans frontiers international. Chapter 4: Heritage. [O]. Available: https://challengingpractice.org/heritage/ Accessed 09 February 2016. Architecture sans frontiers international. Chapter 5: Land Tenure [O]. Available: https://challengingpractice.org/land-tenure/ Accessed 09 February 2016. Architecture sans frontiers international. Chapter 6: Participation [O]. Available: https://challengingpractice.org/participation/ Accessed 09 February 2016.

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VIDEO CLIP:

PLEASE SEE VIDEO FOLDER: 03 ALTERNATIVE PRACTICE_CLIP AND PLAY.

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