Post-Apartheid Urbanism by vanlin howejoos

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post-apartheid urbanism lindsay blair howe vanessa joos

a·part·heid [uh-pahrt-heyt, -hahyt] noun

1. any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc. 2. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid policy of segregation of the non-white population.

Origin: 1945–50; Afrikaans, equivalent to apart, apart + -heid -hood; separate neighborhoods

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post-a路part路heid urbanism [an-ti-uh-pahrt-heyt, -hahyt ur-buh-niz-uhm] noun

1. changing the way people in isolated urban areas interact through strategic development plans and architectural interventions. 2. (in the Republic of South Africa) re-inclusion of neglected urban areas and inhabitants through revitalization of neutral buffer zones.

漏 COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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ETH Zurich Department of Architecture Prof. Hubert Klumpner and Prof. Alfredo Brillembourg, Chair of Architecture and Urban Design Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid, Lectureship of Sociology Prof. Dr. Philippe Block, Chair of Building Structures Thomas Kissling, Chair of Landscape Architecture, Prof.Günther Vogt Fall 2011/Spring 2012

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Volume One

Analysis

Contents CONTEXT

VOLUME I: ANALYSIS

THE SPATIAL LAYERS OF JOHANNESBURG

011 CONTEXT 012 Unequal Societies 022 Location 026 Economy 030 Apartheid Planning 042 Housing Policy 046 Identity 051 ENCLAVES 054 Enclave Typologies 084 Crime and Prejudice 090 Transition to an Enclave 096 Patterns of Living 104 Replicating Informality 114 Urban Impact

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121 ROUTES 124 Layers of Circulation 126 Commuters and their Routes 132 Public Transportation 138 Taxis 144 Footpaths 155 NODES 158 Exclusion and Inclusion 160 Transportation Nodes 168 Cultural Nodes 176 Leisure Nodes 194 The Ideal Node 189 BUFFER ZONES 192 Buffer Typologies 212 Separating Neighborhoods 230 Post-Apartheid Policy 6

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VOLUME II: INTERVENTION ENACTING POST-APARTHEID URBANISM

237 EMERALD NECKLACE 240 Reclaiming Urban Spaces 248 The Emerald Necklace 270 Post-Apartheid Strategy 283 PILOT PROJECT 286 Marlboro Industrial Township 298 Public Amenities and Spaces 314 External Influences 320 Residential Factories 330 Urban Patterns 340 Marlboro Greening Scheme 356 Architectural Catalyst 364 The Urban Spine 374 Urban Ramifications 380 Conclusion

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387 APPENDIX 390 Terminology 392 History 396 Bibliography 399 Interviews 400 Acknowledgements

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Context

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T h e c u r r e n t u r b a n s i t uat i o n i n Johannesburg, its history, and its inhabitants’ identities.

Johannesburg CBD, with mining areas visible in the background.

Unequal Societies 012 Location 022 Economy 026 Apartheid Planning 030 Housing Policy 042 Identity 046 CONTEXT

The Problem of Unequal Societies

“Huge gaps between the frightened rich and the resentful poor, a schizophrenic cityscape of sequestered enclaves intermingled with derelict sites and concentrated pockets of inner-city impoverishment—and ringed with informal shanty settlements where the jobless, the poor, the dispossessed, and the socially excluded are abandoned to their own struggle for survival.” - Martin Murray on Johannesburg in City of Extremes Is this description unique, or could this represent the future of any global city? Inequalities in society and economy continue to increase and are a crucial factor in the survival or failure of urban areas and nations; consider Libya, Egypt, the riots in London. What will be the image of the world’s future cities—will they be characterized fear, crime, separation and exclusion? Or will they promote inclusion and integration? The gap between the rich and the poor in contemporary societies has increased due to the instability of the world economy, as traditional world powers begin to give way to new markets and influences. These disparities have become more and more visible because of the level of technology available for communication, such as social networks, and because of globalization, allowing places worldwide to link in ways previously unimaginable. This global, mobile generation poses a new set of challenges for its urban areas. Contemporary cities exhibit a lack of plasticity and adaptability in accommodating the changing needs of their inhabitants

Furthermore, established models for living are becoming obsolete in the face of climate change and resource scarcity. Today’s fragmented city is characterized by a kaleidoscope of urbanized areas, interconnected in a series of complex networks. Such areas, or enclaves, are largely mono-functional and extensive travel time is required to carry out the activities of daily living. The distinct disadvantages marginalized people experience as the bounds of the city push outward are universal, and most extreme in highly unequal societies. South Africa is an example of a nation suspended between developed and developing. It generates over a third of Africa’s entire economy; ten percent of this wealth originates in the Gauteng Province, which contains Johannesburg and the surrounding metropolitan area. This creates an extreme between the “haves” and have-nots,” which has stamped itself onto the fabric of Johannesburg since the time of apartheid. Nearly twenty years after the transition to a majorityruled government, the image of the post-apartheid South African city remains the epitome of an unequal society. It consists of a series of isolated enclaves, islands in the city, connected by transit lines and bounded by the forgotten spaces in-between. Some of these barriers are physical, such as highways or industrial zones, some are perceived, such as the fear of crime. These groups of inhabitants move through the city in a series of parallel universes—passing one another but rarely interacting—each able to ignore the presence of the other and precluded from interacting in urban public space by the very structure of the city itself.

CONTEXT

Johannesburg in its present state sprawls beyond its borders into an entire metropolitan region of largely mono-functional enclaves with highly secure shopping centers serving as the primary source of social interaction. Space is highly territorialized according to economic or social status in the city, due to the prevailing fabric of apartheid. However, over the past several years, conditions in Johannesburg regarding crime have improved. Elaborate security systems, an increased confidence in the police force, and the presence of round-the-clock surveillance teams has increased residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceived notion of safety. However, despite this renewed confidence, urban public spaces still tend to attract only one kind of socio-economic demographic. Johannesburg provides few opportunities for a common experience of urbanity.

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The city exhibits a particularly extreme case of the way urban conditions can dictate unjust patterns of interaction, serving to further isolate demographic groups and create a perpetual cycle of societal inequality. Residents of Johannesburg must be granted equal access to the economically, socially, and environmentally valuable parts of the city. As architecture is a medium of generating action, it remains an essential tool for improving conditions for the disenfranchised inhabitants of Johannesburg. This study advocates a new definition of urbanism in the South African context and proposes a means of stitching together isolated patches of unequal urban fabric into a heterogeneous quilt.

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Townships are fenced in and every amount of available space inside the territory is occupied with shack infill.

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Wealthy areas are characterized by single-family homes and townhouses in a lush landscape.

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Neighbors hang their laundry and clean our their toilet buckets in a township.

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Quiet streets are patrolled regularly by security guards in an enclosed neighborhood.

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Portable toilets or the bucket system are often the only access to sanitary facilities in townships.

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Luxurious facilities by interior designers provide sanitary relief to upper-class mall visitors.

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Location

Johannesburg is located in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, or the Gauteng Metropolitan Region. The latter title is appropriate, because the city sprawls far beyond its borders, forming a conurban regional area extending to South Africa’s capital city, Pretoria. Over ten million people live in this area, and it is considered one of the most unequal territories worldwide due to the immense gap between the privileged and disadvantaged inhabitants of this area.

BOTSWANA

GAUTENG METROPOLITAN REGION

SOUTH AFRICA

CAPE TOWN

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SWASILAND

LESOTHO

BLACK POPULATION

WHITE POPULATION COLOURED POPULATION

INDIAN POPULATION

Geography and History The landscape of Johannesburg is dominated by the Witwatersrand, the ridge the stretches through the city dividing its northern and southern districts. During apartheid, this geographical feature was used as a planning tool to separate the inner city and wealthy, white northern suburbs from the Southwest Township, or Soweto, which was an area designated for black Africans. There were also areas designed by race for those called ‘coloured’ as well as those of Indian descent.

Apartheid was legally codified in 1948 and existed as a system until the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994, but historical precedents for this deliberate spatial separation of races had existed since gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand in 1880. Rapid industrialization and the need for male laborers to work in the mines were the primary catalysts for growth and economic success in the Gauteng region. Without this sudden and extreme wealth, the system of exploitation that came to be apartheid never would have been possible. Since the fall of apartheid, the inner city’s Central Business District (CBD) has been dying, as growth shifts northward and the economy follows. The northern suburb of Sandton now possesses the city’s high-profile financial firms and commercial retailers. In contrast, the skyscrapers of the CBD have been occupied by those who fled the townships or came to Johannesburg seeking opportunities after apartheid. Meanwhile, the marginalized “losers” of this polar society, characterized by extreme wealth and poverty, do not seek to improve their situation because they deem it temporary. This is because the government promised housing to all South African citizens — free of charge for those below a certain income level. The spatial layers of this city are complex — isolated enclaves mark the land, determining transportation routes through the in-between spaces separating them. Perhaps the most present layer of the city, however, is its history. The situation in which Johannesburg finds itself today is first and foremost a product of the spatial planning methods executed according to apartheid policies of the deliberate separation of races, cultures, economies, and societies. Populations, and the cultures associated with them, are highly concentrated in certain areas. The patterns of socioeconomic enclaves make clear the divisions still present in contemporary life in the city. 24

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JOHANNESBURG

Economy

The economy of South Africa is important to Africa, as it generates over 30% of the continent’s total economy. The city of Johannesburg itself produces 16% of South Africa’s total GDP; the Gauteng Metropolitan Region over 30% of the total national GDP. The sustainable development of this region is thus a significant factor in Africa’s future. Although Johannesburg’s population is less than half of a world city like New York, its urban footprint is 35% larger.

Johannesburg

New York

Zurich

1,640 km2 3.8 mio people 2,310 p/km2

1,214 km2 8.2 mio people 10,360 p/km2

92 km2 385,000 people 4,190 p/km2

Density

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Population

Economy

Johannesburg 3.8 m Gauteng 10.3 m

16% of South African GDP

73% are black 16% are white 6% are coloured 4% are indian

40% of Gauteng’s GPD © COOPERATIVE URBANISM

42% are < 24 years 6% are > 60 years

74% of jobs are in the service sector

Utilities

UN-Habitat, “The State of African Cities”. (United Nations Human Settlements Programme UNHabitat 2008) . “Cities: People, Society, Architecture: 10th International Architecture Exhibition” - Venice Biennale, ed. Richard Burdett (Rizzoli, 2006).

37% are unemployed

34% have no sewage

91% of those unemployed are black

16% have no electricity

Transportation

HIV

33% own a car 36% use public systems 31% travel by foot

average infection rate in Johannesburg is 29.5%

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Gini Index of Unequal Economies South Africa belongs to the top ten list of the most unequal societies in the world. The Gini Coefficient, determined by the World Bank, ranks it amongst the most disparate societies, along with Namibia, Botswana and the Central African Republic.

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< .25 .25-.29 .30-.34 .35-.39 .40-.44 .45-.49 .50-.54 .55-.59 > .60 no data Gini Coefficients Worldwide, Worldbank 2009

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Apartheid Planning

Colonial systems of planning determined the development of much of the African continent and set the stage for the apartheid system in South Africa. Neighborhoods were specifically devided according to race. Social separation was the legal norm during apartheid; today, marginalization of disadvantaged populations persists in part because the apart-ness of this system continiues to preclude access to the “valuable” parts of the city. Under Colonial planning, cities were considered a European invention and fit for settlers, not for “natives” — who belonged to rural areas and were only to be there temporarily as a source of labor, for example to work in mining; housing typologies were conceived and built as such. The European housing model was the “bungalow,” a single-story variation on the traditional Colonial-style home, and the model for native populations was the “barrack,” military in origin and often contained within a closed compound. This model was widespread in South Africa, where barracks were laid out around a large, open square and enclosed by a guard-patrolled fence. This promoted a highly regulated, introverted environment which remained hidden beyond the walls. These planned areas were meant for workers, not for families or the formation of lasting social relationships. It was a simple and deliberate system of control.

As prosperity of the mines continued and the number or workers increased, employers ceased providing housing for laborers. They were required to erect their own housing on unoccupied land adjacent to the mines, unapproved by any sort of legal authority. These “informal settlements,” without any connection to infrastructure or health systems, rapidly became prone to disease and crime. In effort to control the exploding population coming to work in the cities, and keep them separate from the “white” European descendants, the South African government instated the creation of racially segregated “townships,” sometimes called “native locations,” along the urban periphery. The minority ruling power justified these measures of surveillance and control with claims of protecting the health of the European population and separating contrasting cultures, thus preventing conflict. This inequality became deeply embedded in the culture, as the government began to pass laws differentiating racial groups and requiring each group to carry passes stating their heritage. Each race was given a designated residential area and its members not permitted to live elsewhere, or with members of other groups. People designated of African descent were not allowed to hold land titles, except in rare cases, and the methodology of planning that had been used to contain mine workers was transferred into the planning of townships. In this way, a small minority was able to restrain and control the majority population. However, the result of minority rule is a constant state of fear. The precedent of Colonial mechanisms for neighborhood planning set the stage for the series of problems that plagued the urban areas of South Africa during apartheid and, to a large extent, remain in the fabric of

CONTEXT

the city today. This precedent established not only the segregation of populations, but also the mono-functionality of highly separated residential areas. The bungalow-style houses for those of European descent, characterized by spacious grassy lawns and well-serviced infrastructure, began to build fences to protect themselves from the growth of the townships, essentially cutting themselves off from any prospect of a public urban life. In the townships, street life continued to flourish; however, publicservices and opportunities rapidly scarce.

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Design of a Native Township, in: Ivan Vladislavic, Judin Hilton. Blank-:Â Architecture, Apartheid and After (NAI Publishers. 1998).

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From “Garden City” to the “Donut Effect” Based on the Garden City model by Ebenezer Howard, apartheid planners wanted to create a “slumless” and “smokeless” city with off-shoot sub-cities for each race. However as apartheid proved a failure, the “off-shoot” areas of Johannesburg, particularly to the north of the city, became more valuable than the central city. The flight of whites and businesses to the north created a “donut effect” in the urban fabric of the city center by the end of apartheid, which was quickly replaced with low-income residents.

“Garden City,” accessed December 18, 2011, http:// scodpub.files. wordpress. com/2011/03/ city-group. png?w=450&h= 383&h=383

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to Pretoria

Centurion

Sandton

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Alexandra

Soweto

Central City Area 128 000 Acres

Katlehong Lenasia Metropolitan Area Area 406 000 Acres

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Spatial Separation of Races under Apartheid Spatial planning under apartheid was characterized by the deliberate spatial separation of residential areas based on race; a person was categorized either white, indian, coloured, or black. Areas were physically isolated from one another through so-called “buffer zones.” This concept can be clearly identified in the geographical landscape of Johannesburg and its extensive sprawl areas.

Drakaais-Smith, David. Urban and Regional Change in South Africa (Routledge, 1992).

CONTEXT

Farmland / Nature Reserves

White Middle Class

IN TR DU IA SL

White Middle Class

WLC

INDUSTRIAL

Soweto Black Township

Jürgens, Ulrich. Gemischtrassige Wohngebiete in südafrikanischen Städten, ed. Kieler Geographische Schriften, J. Bähr, H. Klug und R. Stewig (Selbstverlag des geographischen Instituts der Universität Kiel, 1991).

D AN

Coloured Lenasia Township Indian Township

STRI DU

Indian Township

CBD White Lower Class

Alexandra White Middle Class

White Middle Class White Lower Class

INDUSTRIAL OP EN LA ND

Coloured Township

White Middle Class

Farmland / Nature Reserves

5 km

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Johannesburg apartheid planning scheme overlayed with the actual city development.

/ Nature Reserves ÂŠFarmland COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Sandton

White Neighborhoods

NIN

Soweto Black Township

ELT Coloured Township

Lenasia Indian Township

Farmland / Nature Reserves

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Alexandra

Farmland / Nature Reserves

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Alexandra

White Neighborhoods

NIN

ELT

Soweto Black Township

Coloured Township

Lenasia Indian Township

Farmland / Nature Reserves

5 km

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Discrimination and Segregation Within the daily life of the residents apartheid was omnipresent. Each daily routine was organized separately; according to race people had to use different buses, restaurants, and restrooms. Races existed side by side but blacks were publically ignored, and warning signs were even posted on the roads leading towards township locations. Fear of the “other” dominated personal relationships.

“Apartheid was a system of deliberate exploitation.” - Ivor Chipkin, Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg

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“Bus Stop,” accessed February 20, 2012, http://cache.boston. com/resize/bonzaifba/Globe_Photo/200 8/08/01/1217568387 _8628/499w.html

“Apartheid Signs,” accessed March 01, 2012, http://whygo-afr. s3.amazonaws.com/

Sign placed close to a native township. CONTEXT

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Zoning Diagram, Kwa-Thema, in: D.M. Calderwood. Native Housing in South Africa p.148 (Cape Times Limited, Parow, C.P. 1953).

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D.M. Calderwood. Native Housing in South Africa p.5 (Cape Times Limited, Parow, C.P. 1953).

Aerial view of Kwa-Thema, new Native township, Springs.

CONTEXT

South African Housing Policy

After the fall of apartheid, one of the primary goals of the new government was to alleviate housing demand and improve living conditions for marginalized populations. The new regime founded the Reconstruction Development Program (RDP), which promised every South African citizen a house with basic services. Twenty-five percent of the population currently lacks housing with sanitation and electricity, most of whom live in townships and informal settlements. During the Apartheid era, it was forbidden for black Africans to settle in cities. Only male workers were allowed to sleep in simple houses on the borders of the cities, while women and children had to remain in the countryside in their designated “homeland.” By the time that political power changed hands in 1994, all limitations were repealed and a massive migration into the cities began. Under RDP legislature, within seven years one million twohundred thousend houses were built for five million South Africans; however, twelve million are still on the waiting list in townships, transit camps, and informal settlements. The houses were financed by the South African government, in collaboration with foreign aid. The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) was involved in several housing projects in the Eastern Cape and Freestate. From 1994 to 2001, the GTZ spent eighty million euros to improve rural households, provide housing related infrastructure and build RDP houses. A typical RDP house consists of one or two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. The walls are made of brick, the roof out of corrugated iron. The design is the same all over the country, as the project’s goal was to provide basic shelter without considering social and local aspects. It is also nearly identical to the design of the houses that were built in township areas during apartheid.

RDP houses are often located far outside city centers, forcing inhabitants to rely on public transportation — which is usually unaffordable for the very group targeted by the program. Thus, these people are either trapped on the urban periphery, with few opportunities for work, or they choose torent their house and continue living in their shacle, closer to the city. The current RDP housing areas are planned for purely residential purposes, without shops, businesses, or social institutions. For people surviving on minimal income, it is crucial to be part of a dense and readily accessible network, both for business and social purposes. The unemployment rate in informal areas is very high; people often attempt to start their own businesses in order to earn money and gain independence. The street, the primary public space in a township, is thus the most vibrant and multi- functional space. Another problem the housing program and other social projects face is the question of financing. RDP attempts to keep the equity ratio low, but the people intended to live in such houses often rent them out to wealthier individuals or families, who can afford transportation to and from the remote locations and the utility fees for water, sanitation, and electricity. The rent low income families receive from their middle-class tenants then becomes a comfortable and stable source of income. The top-down approach to financing and providing housing is not effective, considering

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UN-Habitat. “Housing finance system in South Africa,” ed. Xing Quan Zhang (UN-Habitat, 2008).

this process behind the scenes of the RDP project. A unique problem in South Africa is the lack of upgrading that people are willing to invest in their own homes. Because of the government promise that everyone will have a basic house, in general, those living in slum conditions prefer to await the fulfilment of this promise rather than making it happen of their own volition. Even the financing of building materials to erect a shack can be an extreme challenge for the lowest income groups. Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, authors of the recently published “Poor Economics, a Radical Re-thinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty,” have examined alternative methods for overcoming crises such as housing shortages or unemployment. Rather than top-down strategies or largescale master plans, they promote single, small-scale solutions and intelligent projects. For example, if parents receive five pounds of lentils for free when taking their children for a vaccination, inoculation rates drastically increase. Particularly in Johannesburg, an incentive-oriented society, such methodologies could be implemented in the construction industry to increase the rate of housing and social project development through innovative financing programs with incentives for companies or private individuals.

Inciting the process of self-initiated building is essantial if the lack of housing is to be overcome in South Africa. Within the next fifteen years, three million units will need to be constructed to house the population already on the RDP waiting list. These figures do not include immigrants from other countries — and their descendents, considering the project’s time frame. More importantly, even if the RDP project were able to keep pace with the number of people on the housing list, merely providing housing is not enough to incorporate those marginalized by apartheid into society. To be included, they also need access to economic opportunities and to be provided with spaces to encounter members of other socio-economics demographics.

“Housing and the informal city,” accessed March 15, 2012, http://housinginformalcitysahousingcontext.blogspot. com/

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D.M. Calderwood. Native Housing in South Africa p.97 (Cape Times Limited, Parow, C.P. 1953).

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©Urban Think Tank, ETH Department. Photograph 2011 by Daniel Schwarz.

Typicsl RDP urban planing in Soweto.

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Identity

In contamporary South African culture, a common element of national identity is difficult to identify. As the nation continues to heal, the ideal of inclusion must be encouraged through concrete projects and interventions; otherwise inequality will continue to increase. Integrating the layers and sub-systems of the city must occur if the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history is to be overcome and different racial and social groups to trust and respect one another. What does it mean to be South African? After such a history of violence and disregard for human life, how can wounds be healed and a collective future sought? When asking South Africans what they identify with their country, or what brings everyone together, the answer is consistent: beer, braai, and sporting events. Cultural elements such as food and sports provide possibilities for exchange and encounter, but are generally reserved for at least middle-class citizens. A nation with cities so long divided legally, spatially, and socially cannot be expected to change rapidly, and without direct and deliberate interventions, a national identity to which the marginalized people of South Africa can also relate will not evolve. Common elements must be sought and spaces created for people of different background to meet one another in a neutral environment.

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A similar question of identity could be posed to Johannesburg as a spatial entity. What does it mean to be a city in South Africa? The city center and high-rises, which immediately come to mind when picturing Johannesburg, have little to do with the way the city sustains itself. Its core abandonded, the real Johannesburg consists of fragmented enclaves, forming a kaleidoscope of isolated urban areas interconnected by infrastructure. The city lives on beyond its place of collective history and memory. Particularly on the urban periphery, where the daily activities of Johannesburg occur, little motivation exists for different socio-economic groups in the city to cross paths due to the monofunctionality of suburban areas. The formation of gated communities far from the city center is a phenomenon, present worldwide exacerbating the gap between the wealthy and the urban poor. Those of lower income people follow the opportunities they can find â&#x20AC;&#x201D; causing a cycle of migration between rich communities pushing outward, away from the abandoned city, and lowincome settlements following in their wake. These cycles of growth must be regulated and cities like Johannesburg redensified with mixed-use, mixed-economic status developments. This is the task of post-apartheid urbanism. If architecture and spatial planning are not actively used as a medium to combat unequal urban living and economic conditions, a commonality among peoples cannot evolve and the ever-widening gap will evolve beyond control.

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Protests against the apartheid regime. “Historical Voices,” accessed April 15, 2012, http-::www.historicalvoices.org:pbuilder:pbarch:overcoming_apartheid:a0:a9:overcoming_apartheid-a0a9c0-a_3272.jpg

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“Social space is not an empty container, inert void, or innocent background within which social action takes place but a powerful and creative social force in its own right.” - Henri Lefebvre, French Sociologist and Philosopher

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Enclaves

A distinct and incontiguous area or group enclosed or isolated within a l arger territory.

Walls further the fear of what lies beyond them—and increase create a fictitious paradise inside.

Enclave Typologies 054 Crime and Prejudice 084 Evolution of Enclaves 090 Patterns of Living 096 Replicating Informality 104 Urban Impact 114 ENCLAVES

Enclave Typologies

An enclave can be defined as a distinct and incontiguous area or group, enclosed or isolated within a larger territory. Johannesburg’s urban landscape is dominated by enclaves. These fragmented pieces of the city cannot survive on their own because they generally have only one use or function, and are no longer necessarily associated with the city center. Johannesburg’s people, in a city with the world’s highest rate of crime, barricade themselves inside their enclaves whether real or perceived. The suburban movement or “white flight” to the urban periphery of cities is a worldwide phenomenon. In 1950s and 1960s Europe and America, movement was to the suburbs. Due to the industrial revolution in Europe and the U.S., large-scale developments were necessary to house the workers required for factories, which were already located on the periphery. Movement outward expanded as cities became overcrowded and successful citizens were able to purchase land and single-family homes. Today, movement is back inward as the economy struggles and the environment becomes a more and more important decision-making factor.

This precedent developed in a different manner in Johannesburg. The city also experienced rapid growth due to mining and industrialization, but the relationship between European descendents of colonists, long divided economically and socially from African tribes, set the stage for a spatial division of people not merely according to economic status, but also by race. Johannesburg exhibits several variations of enclaves, including several varieties of residential and commercial developments. Some are retrofitted into the city, others deliberately planned.

ENCLAVES

INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS ENCLOSED NEIGHBORHOODS RESIDENTIAL ESTATES GOLF/LEISURE ESTATES

Enclosed Neighborhoods Enclosed neighborhoods are areas of the city which were once a part of the public urban fabric. Due to factors such as crime and traffic, residents of a given area banded together to erect a traffic boom and hire a private security guard, present 24 hours a day. Security team response times are allegedly two to three minutes should any disturbance occur. There are over 300 enclosures in Johannesburg, approximately 100 of which were permitted and the rest were enacted illegally.

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ENCLAVES

middle class to upper-middle class residents

spread throughout Johannesburg

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Enclosed neighborhoods change possible patterns of travel because roads are closed with traffic booms.

ENCLAVES

Johannesburg is unique because it was founded on mining— not a valuable geographical location. Wealth has always perpetuated its history and has made it uncertain; this has made it a place where the ‘utopia of gated communities’ and the ‘dystopian nightmare’ of the townships and informal settlements exist side by side.

- Observations based on the writings of Martin Murray, Author of Taming the Disorderly City

ENCLAVES

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM A security guard moves cones to allow a resident to enter an enclosed neighborhood.

Private security officers are equipped with automatic weapons and SWAT gear. ENCLAVES

Townhouse Complexes These residences represent a typically modest variety of planned development. Rather than enclosing existing territory, these residential areas are executed by developers. A full range of services often exists, from laundry facilities to swimming pools. Entrances are guarded twentyfour hours a day and electronic access to the front gate—operable by cell phone—is a standard security feature. Residents are most often single and in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties.

ENCLAVES

middle class to upper-middle class residents

spread throughout Johannesburg outside of the CBD

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Townhouses are typically planned developments adjacent to major roads.

ENCLAVES

“The pedestrian world is no longer possible because [activities of daily life are located] so far away or accomplished by car travel; a maze of highways encircles the city and characterizes the white flight northward.” - Martin Murray, Author of Taming the Disorderly City

ENCLAVES

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Grenville Close is an enclosed townhouse community in the area known as Savoy Estate, in Bramley, Johannesburg.

This residential community consists of six two-story townhouse units for singles or an occasional small family. ENCLAVES

Residential Estates A more indulgent form of the townhouse complex, a typical residential estate is similar to the suburban, single-family home neighborhood popularized in North America. These developments are planned, but often do not possess common facilities such as parks or pools. Residents are primarily families with children. Usually, the neighborhood is fenced in and monitored by security services twenty-four hours a day, and individual plots have another fence. Street activity is rare.

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ENCLAVES

upper-middle to upper class residents

on the urban periphery

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Residential estates are generally large in scale and do not include communal facilities.

ENCLAVES

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A single-family home in the Bramley neighborhood of Johannesburg, from inside the fence.

ENCLAVES

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The same single-family home, viewed from the street.

ENCLAVES

Golf and Leisure Estates The most luxurious form of enclave is the golf and leisure residential estate. These communities are planned around a feature like a golf course or natural reserve and offer the highest standards of living. Security around the perimeter includes walls with electric fencing and twenty-four hour security at a front gate. Within the complex, walls around individual home are typically low and for demarcation. A semi-public life exists in the seventeen estates on Johannesburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s periphery.

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upper class residents

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Golf and leisure estates are planned around a natural feature and are associated with a high level of luxury.

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“[Potential homebuyers] want to feel as if they’re living in Africa, and they also want compensation fot the problems of living in Africa. They want to live in a castle because crime and grime are making it traumatic outside.” - Claire Difford , The Return of the Big House

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“Farm Living at the Urban Edge,” accessed November 08, 2011, http://www. monaghanfarm. co.za/wp-content/ themes/monaghan/ images/headerhome.jpg

“Villas To Led,” accessed November 12, 2011, http://images.rentalproperties. co.zaSL013_ 000000200_01.JPG

At Dainfern, a complex to the northwest of the city, homes are available both for purchase and for rent. ENCLAVES

Townships Former racially designated areas, or townships, have become South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s equivalent of slums. Overcrowding and development of every available space have led to poor living conditions and few or no basic amenities such as sanitation and electricity. A township is often the antithesis to the gated community: street life flourishes, however, so does criminal activity. Control in these areas is not done by walls and security systems, but rather, by self-policing within the community.

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lower-class residents

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Townships are often perforated with informal shack building infill, seen here in black.

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Spaces between township structures form a courtyard shape, often utilized for hanging laundry.

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These spaces are also the local play area for children, where they can easily be monitored by family and neighbors.

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Vertical Townships After the abandonment of Johannesburg’s city center, the city’s formerly glamorous high-rise towers were left vacant. Almost immediately, these buildings were possessed by people fleeing the townships as well as immigrants from other countries coming to seek economic opportunity. Rent-paying communities are secured at the main entrance, and some residents hire guards or implement electronic systems to control who can enter the building. Other buildings are inhabited by squatters and have no form of security or regulation of who comes and goes.

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lower-class residents

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“Vertical townships” formed in abandoned high-rise towers.

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yright: GCRO, Municipal Demarcation Board, GeoTerraImage (GTI)

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“Ponte Tower ,” accessed November 28, 2011, http://fotki.yandex. ru/users/urbopunk/ view/264231?page=2

Ponte City Apartments, or what is now known as the Ponte Tower, from its circular inner atrium.

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“Ponte Tower,” accessed November 28, 2011, http://www.kaptransmissions.org/media/ images/098939700127 60797680.jpg

Trash from temporary and informal residents accumulates at the bottom of the atrium space.

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Shopping Centers Large-scale developments for shopping and entertainment are common landmarks in conurban Johannesburg. Although the open spaces are actually public and free for all to enter, a psychological border exists, separating areas frequented by the wealthy from those occupied by the urban poor. Shopping centers thus function as enclaves, because they demand a certain level of income if one is to be able to experience the activities they offerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all of which have their price.

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middle class to upper class residents

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Shopping malls serve as an economic form of enclave, offering an entertainment and leisure experience.

Gauteng City-Region Viewer Superimposed layers copyright: GCRO, Municipal Demarcation Board

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“[So-called] ‘urbanoid environments’ [are] sealed-off private environments puporting to be public spaces. As such, they contribute to the rise of the ‘private city’ in which the disorganised reality of older streets and cities is replaced by a measured, controlled and organised kind of an urban experience which is ultimately linked to a fusion of consumersim, and popURBANISM culture.” © entertainment, COOPERATIVE - John Hannigan, Author of Fantasy City

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM The Faraday Market in the CBD is openly accessible, yet its products only attract clientel from the lower-class.

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Crime and Prejudice

South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime worldwide. Crime tends to accompany political transition and economic instability. Areas are fenced in with walls and electric shock systems, and are often under twenty-four hour surveillance with guarded entrances. Johannesburg is unstable because valuable areas in the city have been abandoned, unbridled growth outwards is rarely restricted by the government, and areas of extensive luxury exist along spaces of great strife. Segregation was codified into law in South Africa under apartheid and as such exists in an extreme fashion. All races were arranged in a hierarchy. It was subliminally a crime to be black, as those of this demographic were treated like criminals—required to carry identification at all times, restricted to certain areas of the city, and unable to improve their lot because they were not permitted to participate in government affairs. Geographic profiling conducted by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria shows that crime usually occurs close to an “anchor point,” or place of importance in the space accessible to criminals. Thus, crime can be described as a spatial phenomenon. Violent crime tends to be close to these anchor points, and property-related crime far away from these points. This is clearly supported by the patterns of crime in South Africa; in townships, crime is usually more violent in nature and occurs between people who knew each other beforehand. Property loss or damage occurs in wealthier areas.

Instances of actual danger and crimes afflicted often prove to be far lower than general sentiment would indicate. Suburbanization and the closing off of neighborhoods has served not to decrease crime, but rather, to displace it elsewhere. Accordingly, the fear of the “other” and the “outside” tends to increase inside isolated enclaves. In this sense, individual enclaves are indicative of the greater spatial problems which create separation and fragmentation in Johannesburg and the Gauteng Metropolitan Region. Because people fear what they do not know, they remain within their trusted network of locations and activities and exclude those who do not belong to their demographic group. Thus, public space is only used in a transitory and exclusive manner and precludes the opportunity to de-stratify South African society.

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Martin Murray Taming the Disorderly City

“The New South Africa,” accessed September 26, 2011, http://thenewsouthafrica.blogspirit. com/images/medium_hijackinghotspotsign.jpg

A sign warning of car and hi-jacking along one of Johannesburg’s highways.

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Physical and Psychological Boundaries Johannesburg is a city of walls, enclosing areas and isolating populations. Apartheid was a deliberate system of separation racially, socially, economically, and spatially. Johannesburg is also a city of imaginary urban conditions. The fear of the “other” and the “unknown,” and what may happen without walls is the prevailing mentality of the enclave. Segregation was codified into law in South Africa, making racism much more extreme than in other comparable nations because of its legality. A rigid hierarchy of races existed, with the African populations on the lowest tier. The police, proven to act as a third force in the violence that occurred between different racial and tribal groups during the final stages of apartheid, remain largely mistrusted by both wealthier and disadvantaged socioeconomic citizens. The rich see them as ineffective and prefer to hire private security, while the underprivileged view them as untrustworthy and absent.

Authority for the police forces has continued to improve with time and the assistance of private security groups; however, crime is often merely displaced rather than eradicated. As noted by Martin Murray, “the failure...of the cityscape to register the presence of marginalized people who inhabit unacknowledged places effectively renders them unknown and hence unknowable, expunging them from history and memory.”

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Martin Murray Taming the Disorderly City pg. 120

Walls and razor wire continue to characterize the physical borders that dominate Johannesburg’s landscape.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Security signs mounted on walls outside the entrances to private homes serve as a constant reminder of fear.

Private companies post emergency numbers to call if suspicious activity should occur.

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Evolution of an Enclave

Three primary forms of residential enclaves exist within Johannesburg’s cityscape: the enclosed neighborhood (existing urban fabric closed with a boom), the security village (a planned development usually located on the conurban periphery), and the township (the spatial antithesis to the gated community). While these areas continued to value or devalue, the spaces planned to separate them during apartheid remain undeveloped and forgotten. Residential enclaves can be broken down into two primary categories: enclosed neighborhoods and so-called “security villages,” such as residential estates or golf and leisure estates. An enclosed neighborhood involves isolating an existing piece of the city fabric by introducing a barrier to control the flow of traffic on a public street, and is financed by the residents of the area. Although the space behind the obstacle remains public domain, functionally it becomes the semiprivate collective property of the neighborhood. In contrast, a security village is a planned, private development, physically and visually protected by an electric fence atop a solid wall. Such villages are typically located on the urban periphery, where large tracts of land and a rural lifestyle are the cornerstones of a utopian rural existence. The distinguishing characteristic of both of these urban phenomena is the desire to retreat behind an elaborate security system. In a security village, the perceived notion of “safety” is the predominant design objective; a high standard of living is a secondary goal.

Johannesburg went through these sorts of transformations as the result of an increase in violence and property-related crime during apartheid; since apartheid this trend continued to increase. While such areas became more and more valuable, the ‘antithetical enclave’—the township— began to devalue with an increase in population. Because jobs were increasingly scarce and regular sources or income rare, township homeowners began to allow the building of informal shacks on their property to provide rental income. While the rest of the city expanded beyond its perimeter, the townships densified. However, while most homes did not have legal sources of power and other services, a positive and powerful sense of community began to develop that does not exist in the rigid, formal settlements of Johannesburg’s gated communities.

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Karina Landmann, CSIR studies on gated communities

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Gated communities and townships were spatially separated during apartheid and developed into polar enclaves.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Typical neighborhood structure with fences around each parcel and closed facades to the street.

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Township urban infill with original houses; over time and with migration lots are subdivided until mere footpaths remain.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Enclosed neighborhoods are public streets where residents hire private security to install and guard a traffic boom.

Security villages are completely surrounded by walls, usually with additional walls within. Access is highly controlled.

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Street as Public Space In Alexandra Township, the street is still a source of collective life, both for small-scale enterprises and social interactions. Rather than controlling access with a barricade, a “neighborhood watch” monitors the comings and goings of its inhabitants. However, this system fails to prevent crime. More than eighty percent of violent criminal activity occurs in townships, among people who knew each other before the crime was committed. In contrast, over ninety percent of crime in wealthy areas involves property damage or theft.

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Death of the Street Through the erection of a barrier on a formerly public street, a neighborhood in Bramley hopes to prevent traffic and crime from infiltrating its territory. Access to this particular enclave is restricted to the entrance on the opposite end of the street, which is controlled by a security guard twenty four hours per day. However, it is still possible to enter by foot. This phenomenon suggests a disconnect in the way that crime is perceived by the privileged classes and its concrete prevalence, since a criminal could easily park at the fence and enter by foot. With this fence, the collective perception of safety is increasedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;unfortunately, at the expense of any sort of interaction beyond immediate neighbors.

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Patterns of Living

Everyday life in Johannesburg is determined by the enclave in which one resides and the access this location has to infrastructure and economic opportunities. The neighborhood demographic is often monotypical; people move in similar patterns and utilize the same means of transportation. The paths that people take through the city on their daily routines determine whether or not they encounter members of other enclaves and reveal the character of the city itself. “Mental maps” can be powerful tools to examine where people are willing to go in a city and where they are not. This type of analysis can determine potential meeting points for different socio-economic groups in Johannesburg. Strategies utilized for geographic profiling of crime can yield potential “comfort zones” and “avoided areas” similar to how activity spaces for criminal organizations are currently spatially mapped. In wealthier areas, residents of gated communities travel to work by car and move from enclave to enclave—for example, from their townhouse to their gated office park, to the gated mall after work to meet friends and buy groceries, and return back to their community practically without ever having to leave their vehicle. In contrast, in low-income areas such as townships, movement occurs by foot to the nearest location to catch a taxi—travel times are thus drastically longer than with a car, but the level of human interaction is significantly higher. Daily life in enclaves occurs on two separate levels: gated communities and a car-based existence; and townships and a foot and taxi-based existence. It would be possible for one group to essentially ignore the existence of the other, as their paths may or may not cross on any given day—and if so, only in passing.

Many social problems, such as exclusion and spatial segregation, are exploited by the powerful or majority groups of society. Experience from Brazil suggests that a lack of intervention from local government, and the uncontrolled growth of gated communities, can exacerbate existing patterns of spatial segregation and social exclusion. This, in turn, undermines democratic consolidation in a country that is still recovering from years of authoritarian rule.

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Tarrington Terrace Townhouse Community, Kenneth Road, Sandton

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Daily patterns of activity in Johannesburg are dominated by security concerns. Those who can afford to do so barricade themselves behind elaborate security systems with hourly patrols. They travel entirely by car; during the working hours the area is vacant except for the occasional worker arriving on foot. Owning a vehicle enables access to economic and social opportunities.

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Tarrington Terrace, Kenneth Road, Waverley Daily Comings and Goings on: 21.10.2011

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Street view of Tarrington Terrace Townhouse Complex in Sandton.

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44 2nd Street, Emergency Housing, Marlboro Industrial Township

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Those who cannot afford to own a car must walk or take a taxi. They often leave to search for work as early as four a.m., returning around noon to try again the next day, or after five p.m. if they found an odd job. Many work as security guards with shifts from six a.m. to six p.m. or six p.m. to six a.m. Access to social and economic opportunities is precluded by location and transportation.

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View of 44 2nd Street, Marlboro Industrial Township, across an open field used for dumping.

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Anchor Points and Comfort Zones

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The most important points in the daily lives of a survey’s participants and their “comfort zones” in the city can be mapped to examine potential future locations and activities for the encounter of multiple socio-economic groups. While few places or leisure activities overlapped, almost all participants agreed that the inner city is to be avoided due to crime and lack of security.

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Replicating Informality

As the city continues to increase in size, economic opportunities follow the patterns of growth. The development of new neighborhoods and gated communities on the urban periphery has led to the phenomenon of the self-replicating informal settlements. Because opportunities to work in households or in commercial and industrial areas are no longer accessible with public transportation in a reasonable amount of time, slums follow the growth of sprawl. The pattern of development functions much like medieval Europe; first, a castle keep and walls are established, then shacks are built outside their foundations as the population increases. It is also long established in Johannesburg’s spatial planning history. For example, Alexandra Township long served as a labor pool for the wealthy district of Sandton. Although once on the periphery, with time the township has become completely encircled by more privileged neighborhoods. Because Alexandra was established as a “native township” with unique freehold rights to own land, its residents were able to maintain a strong sense of culture and identity. Because of its relationship to Sandton as a source of labor, the township remained desipte multiple plans to relocate the population; it is the original example of the “self-replicating” slum, where labor follows growth.

With its prime location near Sandton and easy access to transportation networks, Alexandra is often the first stop for the city’s many immigrants and is commonly know as the “Gateway to Africa.” Those not able to find housing in a place like Alexandra must settle further outward. On the current periphery of the city, several new developments exhibit this phenomenon of the self-replicating slum. Tembisa is the largest informal development further northeast of Alexandra, located near Midrand; during any given rush hour more mini-bus taxis drive to this destination than to all other destinations combined. Now that Alexandra is surrounded, Tembisa is the new informal settlement serving the Sandton and Midrand areas. To the northwest of the city, in Roodepoort, lies the Jackal Creek Golf Estate. Here, townhouse developments, relatively modest in nature, have sprung up nearly simultaneously with the informal settlement of Zandspruit. A unit in this development is called a “cluster.” One of the most wealthy neighborhoods in Johannesburg, Dainfern Golf and Residential Estate, led to the growth of the Diepsloot informal settlement. Many such examples exist along the urban periphery in new zones of development. Inequalities must be tackled and the city redensified if this cycle is to be broken. The enclaves of Johannesburg stretch far beyond the bounds of a future sustainable city. Providing services and opportunities for social and economic encounter in the spaces between these islands, or in the planned spatial buffer zones, could serve as a first step to overcoming the iniquities of the past and stitching together the city’s fragmented pieces.

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Dainfern Diepsloot Midrand Tembisa Zandspruit Jackal Creek

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Dainfern and Diepsloot Far beyond the city center, nearly halfway to the capital city of Pretoria, Diepsloot has become the largest informal settlement in greater Johannesburg. Pathways can be seen on the fields separating the two areas, etched in the landscape by the daily routines of the city’s most poor going to work in the households of the city’s most privileged. This sort of symbiotic relationship has long existed between wealthy areas and townships.

Because of the immense size of Diepsloot and its importance as a source of labor for Dainfern and other wealthy neighborhoods north of the city, the informal settlement has developed a formal organizational character and a local council. It is now recognized as an independent urban area. However, the transition to incorporation in the greater structure of Johannesburg requires upgrading of sub-standard shack housing, legalization and implementation of basic services, a better connection to public transportation, and social integration into the urban fabric of the city.

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Google Earth 12/2011 Diepsloot, to the left, and its counterpoint Dainfern Golf and Residential Estate, to the right.

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“New York Times,” accessed November 23, 2011, http://graphics8. nytimes.com/ images/2009/06/29/ world/28345941.JPG

Living conditions in Diepsloot, separated from the luxury by a mere field.

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“Dainfern Estate,” accessed November 26, 2011, http://www. emeraldinsight.com/ fig/1915_10_1108_ S1047-0042_2010_ 0000010010.png

The entrance to Dainfern Estate and the promise of security behind its gates.

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Ruimsig and Ruimsig Country Estate Nearly thirty kilometers northwest of Johannesburg, outside the city limits in Roodepoort, the Ruimsig Country Estate and Roodeport Country Club have given rise to an informal settlement. Unlike other golf courses in Johannesburg’s urban area that have been abandoned once informal dwellers began to infringe on the property, a unique symbiosis has developed between those who play golf at the club and the new reisdents. Setting up directly on the edge of the golf course, squatters are able to make a living by collecting balls from the course’s rough areas. The settlement has even formed its own means of leisure by fashioning rough golf clubs from wood and practicing with balls too damaged for resale.

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Google Earth 05/2012 Ruimsig informal settlement to the north of the Roodeport Country Club golf course, and Ruimsig Country Estate.

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©Urban Think Tank, ETH Department. Photograph, 2011 by Daniel Schwarz.

Residents of the Ruimsig informal settlement have developed a unique relationship with their surroundings.

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©Urban Think Tank, ETH Department. Photograph, 2011 by Daniel Schwarz.

A dwelling in the Ruimsig Country Estate, able to look down on the golf course and settlement from its balconies.

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Urban Impact

The ramifications of gated and enclosed communities are twofold: those outside the walls envy and resent those within who have created a version of paradise from which they are deliberately excluded; and these “outsiders” become increasingly stereotyped by those within as criminal and dangerous. The presence of perceived borders dictates patterns of spatial and social interaction, further isolating socioeconomic groups and creating a perpetual cycle of inequality. As noted by Karina Landman in her analysis of gated communities for the CSIR, social boundaries are rigidly constructed in the way people conduct their daily lives. Particularly in Johannesburg, the crossing of these boundaries elicits emotions of “aggression, fear and a feeling of unprotectedness...residents of all social groups have a sense of exclusion and restriction. For some, the feeling of exclusion is obvious, as they are denied access to various areas and are restricted to others. Affluent people who inhabit exclusive enclaves also feel restricted; their feelings of fear keep them away from regions and people that their mental maps of the city identify as dangerous.”

Wealthy enclaves benefit from their substantial economic power. This is particularly true of gated communities, which were planned as isolated areas, opposed to enclosed neighborhoods, which were parts of the urban fabric removed through the insertion of barricades and road closures. Privileged areas enjoy a wide range of facilities, easy access to major vehicular routes and transport hubs, and generous nature reserves neatly arranged along highly maintained roads—all behind clearly determined and constantly protected edges, with prominent security features and controlled points for entry and exit. The rate of violent and property-related crime is high in South Africa. Enclaves are largely created because of a shared notion that without a wall or form of regulation, everything will disintegrate into chaos. By creating a place where crime decreases through twenty-four hour surveillance, property value increases, and outdoor spaces are considered safe for occupation, this notion is perpetuated. However, it does not mean that crime is reduced—rather, crime is displaced and refocused. Erecting a wall is a solution typical of South African efforts to treat the symptom rather than the disease. Enclosed neighborhoods often create barricades without permission from the municipal government, privatizing normally public spaces like sidewalks and streets. Maids, for example, who arrive to work in these areas by taxi, are often forced to walk several kilometers from the suddenly imposed barriers because their drivers are no longer allowed to bring them the full length of their trip; if, in a rare case, a taxi is allowed to continue, it will be followed by a security patrol car. This is an infringement on the civil liberties of the underprivileged classes and fosters mistrust between socio-economic user groups in the city. It is a small step from mistrust to fear, and another from fear to hatred.

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Teresa Caldeira , as cited in: Karina Landmann & Martin Schoenteich, Urban Fortresses: Gated Communities as a Reaction to Crime, pg. 39.

A few luxury estates on the urban periphery are common fixtures of modern cities, and do not have a significant impact on the city itself. However, transformation on a large scale changes the fabric of the city into a super-block structure, where public space is an undesirable threat and security and wealth take precedent over the overall organization of component urban parts. Many of the spatial planning issues in Johannesburg today result from the lack of governmental control of the real estate market and land speculation. South African politicians have yet to take a stand and outline a position regarding building permits for the construction of gated communities and enclosed neighborhoods.

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The separation of the city is the legacy of apartheid and must be combatted if marginalized populations are to become enfranchised and patterns of inequality altered. Otherwise, the freedom and democracy for which South Africa fought may be dispensed of in the name of safety. Creating a more equal society will involve a certain amount of risk for those with much to lose, but it is a quintessential step if South Africa is to become more equal.

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“Policy and planning not only secure the physical connections that allow workers on the periphery to be integrated into the city’s economic activity but also can minimize the vicious cycles to which the very engines of economic growth can subject those who need their benefits most.”

-E.I. Birch and S.M. Wachter, Authors of Global Urbanization

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“[Enclaves not only maintained] the spatial divisions inherited from the apartheid past but introduced new kinds of clevages that have reinforced the yawning gap between affluence and impoverishment.” - Martin Murray, Taming the Disorderly City

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Routes

Transportation networks and flows of people connecting enclaves.

Local taxis at a “rank” in Soweto awaiting passengers.

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Layers of Circulation

Johannesburg is dominated by conurban sprawl. The IBM 2011 Commuter Pain Survey calculated that commuters on their way to their work or school spent at least thirty-six minutes on the road. This travel time is one of the longest daily commutes globally, shared only with the cities of Nairobi, Mexico City, Beijing, Bangalore, and Moscow. Modes of transportation exists in layers of routes based on economic status, much like the city itself. Johannesburg is a divided city when it comes to transportation. Several systems run parallel to and overlap one another without connecting. By examining the type of transportation taken, a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic status becomes apparent. Wealthier residents can afford personal vehicles, while public transportation is primarily used by economically disadvantaged citizens. Fear of crime and travel time are the main factors which make owning a vehicle the most preferred type of transportation for the wealthy. For long-term development, this phenomenon is neither ecofriendly nor sustainable. Before hosting the Soccer World Cup in 2010, the city began to improve the public transportation system; some developments are still under construction today.

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PEOPLE TRAVELING

Distance from Point of Origin to Mall in: Sandton Alexandra

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The type of transportation a person uses for daily commutes often reveals their economic status. Travel distance surveys, conducted at centrally located shopping malls in Sandton and Alexandra, reveal the distribution of different modes of transportation, including a comparison of typical travel time and typical distance traveled. While the private vehicle is the primary means of transportation for the upper and middle classes, lower-income groups depend on an informal taxi system. By traveling with their own vehicle, wealthy citizens can avoid both using overcrowded trains, buses, or taxis, as well as contact with people of a lower economic background. These people drive to work from their enclosed neighborhood or gated residential complex, perhaps purchasing a newspaper or accepting a winshield wash from one of the many street workers and children. They enter their gated office complex and return home to their residential area, perhaps stopping by a gated shopping mall on the way. Pathways through Johannesburg connect from island to island of enclaves; drivers keep their doors locked to prevent notorious traffic light robberies. Moving in the city can thus not only mean avoiding contact with other social demographics, but with anyone else outside of the vehicular bubble at all. Most cars are driven by individuals, creating bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic jams and absurd travel times distance traveled. Such phenomena could be significantly reduced if ride-sharing or public transportation were perceived as viable alternatives.

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Approximately one-third of Johannesburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commuters drive a private vehicle, one-third utilizes public transportation, and one-third travels by foot. However, these numbers are expected to change in the near future. Gauteng Province has made public transportation more attractive for the middle and upper classes with the implementation of the Gautrain system, connecting major enclaves in the city. The initial development phase of this rapid-transit railway was completed for the World Cup in 2010, connecting O.R. Tambo International Airport with Rosebank in the northern suburbs, as well as with Pretoria, the capital city to the northeast of Johannesburg. It is seen as a more privileged means of traveling throughout the metropolitan region, although side-by-side price comparisons reveal that a fare costs nearly the same as that of an informal taxi ride. The systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long-term impact, as well as it how it will interact with other existing transportation systems in the future, remains to be determined.

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The M1 Highway with heavy evening traffic towards the CBD.

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Destination and type of transportation commonly used in Alexandra. ROUTES

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Sandton Alexandra

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5 min

Type of transportation to average travel time. 5 min compared 10 min 15 min

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The M1 Highway, a major route between Soweto and central Johannesburg.

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Public Transportation

Gautrain This train line was constructed prior to the 2010 World Cup. It intended to provide visitors with an alternative to the existing national railway system, generally considered unsafe for the middle and upper classes, and to connect the airport to inner city stadiums. The destinations serviced by the Gautrain are clearly intended to connect specific areas within the city. It is the first public transportation network in Johannesburg for the wealthy.

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On the Gautrain, quiet platforms are patrolled regularly by security guards. The most expensive route is to the airport, which costs 125 rand for a one-way ticket, in order to take advantage of tourism. Comparing the costs of travel on this route to a typical bus or train fare, it is clear that the newly implemented Gautrain system is intended for the economically privileged classes. Although travel costs from the norther suburbs to the city are not significantly higher than with any other means of public transportation, the common perception of the Gautrain as a train for the rich deters most lower-income users from inspecting the prices and considering its use. Another deterrent is the fact that the bus feeder routes of the Gautrain system do not serve the underprivileged neighborhoods, and in fact the buses remain largely empty.

Businesspeople Tourists Upper/middle income group Marlboro-Sandton 19 Rand 12 min. in peak periods 20 min. in off-peak periods 30 min. on weekends Gautrain links the airport with the inner city and Pretoria. The train is connected to Gautrain bus routes, which service wealthier neighborhoods near the stations.

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Underground Gautrain station in Sandton after a rugby match.

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MetroTrain and MetroBus MetroTrain operates nationwide, connecting major urban areas throughout South Africa. As prices are relatively low and its stations connect important township locations like Soweto to the Johannesburg CBD and to Pretoria, the trains are generally utilized by the lower classes. Many also utilize the system informally if they are not able to afford a ticket or choose not to purchase one. MetroTrains and MetroBuses are often standing-room only during rush hours.

Within the city of Johannesburg and the Gauteng Metropolitan Region, the government-owned company “Metro” maintains a well-established network of bus routes. Depending on location, these routes are usually very frequently serviced during peak traffic hours; however, sometimes only once an hour particularly during off-peak times. If a commuter wishes to reach a less popular destination, they must often transfer to the informal taxi network or continue on foot. On the trains themselves, a fear of crime and violence between commuters is very high, and is one of the primary reasons why people who can afford another travel option choose to avoid using this system.

Middle/lower income group Marlboro-Sandton 9.20 Rand (2 Zones) 5-10 min. in peak periods 30 min. - 5h in off-peak periods

The Metrobus distributes the commuters within the city, whereas the Metrotrain serves as a connection between the cities. Several bus stops are shared with the Gautrain Bus. 134

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Comparitively empty Metrobus in Parktown, Johannesburg.

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Reya Vaya Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) The Reya Vaya is a system implemented in anticipation of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to provide a safe and efficient connection between the northern suburbs, the CBD, and Soccer City in Soweto. The BRT forms a separate corridor along major vehicular routes between opposing lanes of traffic. The stations are enclosed compartments, patrolled by private security guards and monitored with closed-circuit cameras. The construction of the Rea Vaya system is still in progress, since the structure of the road network must be altered in order to contain a separate bus lane and bus station islands. Completed routes between Soweto and the CBD are reported to be heavily used; stations located in the northern suburbs currently closed to the public.

Financing occurred under the auspices of the City of Johannesburg, which calls it “the most ambitious project ever.” Prices vary according to the type of route, whether it is a feeder route, a “trunk” route to a major destination outside the CBD, or whether it is to or within the CBD. The Rea Vaya system was implemented at approximately the same time as the Gautrain system, but by two separate developers; the Gautrain was financed by the Gauteng Province and the Rea Vaya by the City of Johannesburg. A more fluid and unified system could have been planned if one advisory body had supervised the planning, financing, and construction; however, an exchange between these different levels of government did not occur.

Middle/lower income group 10.30 Rand full trip/feeder to the CBD 7.30 Rand trunk route outside the CBD 4.00 Rand inner city 5 min. in peak periods 16 min. in off-peak periods The Reya Vaya system consists of a primary corridor, trunk routes, and feeder buses. It connects Soweto with the city center and also eventually to the northern suburbs.

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Operational Reya Vaya stop between Soweto and the Johannesburg CBD.

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Taxis

South Africa has two different taxi systems: meter taxis and communal taxis with a specific destination. Most people take public transportation ride these mini-bus taxis; this multi-billion rand industry in South Africa is highly organized and complexly structured. “Taxi wars,” or what are often referred to as “turf wars,” between taxi associations and individual mini-bus drivers have been a common phenomenon in South Africa since the 1980s. The majority of “mini-buses” are sixteen-seater passanger vans, although the government is trying to implement the use of commuter buses with eighteen or thirty-five seats. The mini-bus taxi industry has always been an informal industry, which the government is now trying to formalize through licenses and taxi use-laws. The poor condition of many taxis and the danger this poses to their passengers has also been recognized by the government; some mini-buses are no longer allowed to operate, assuming they are discovered by city officials. The individual taxi associations organize independent repair workshops, often connected to a local taxi stand, or “rank.”

The taxi ranks themselves are highly organized regarding not only their finals destinations, but the order in which they are allowed to proceed, hence the word “rank.” Upon reaching the taxi rank, each driver has to wait in their lane, according to destination, until an organisational leader in charge of the routes signals that they are allowed to proceed. There is a marked hierarchy within the mini-bus system; one must generally begin as a driver for one of these leaders, paying them fees and attempting to save enough money to eventually afford purchasing a five-passenger local taxi, and eventually a mini-bus. However, owning a mini-bus does not mean the driver can start running a route. First, the rights to the route must be acquired from the relevant taxi association, either by purchasing the route from another driver or by applying to this association for a new position. With time, a driver can acquire further routes and hire drivers to run them, earning money from their fees, and can effectively retire from driving to an organizational position.

Middle/lower income group 7.50-10 Rand per route according to fuel price 5 min. in peak periods 15-30 min. in off-peak periods The network of routes is well-established and connects highly frequented places. There is no planned connection to other transport systems, but they occasionally overlap.

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“Mini-bus” communal taxi in the Johannesburg CBD.

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PRETOR IA 50 KM

EAD

DM WOO M 10 K

MI D 15 RAN KM D

S AY W UR FO KM 20

ISA MB TE M K 25

RIV 14 ONIA KM

SANDTON 10 KM

KELV IN 4 km

SUNNINGH 10 KM

ROS E 10 K BANK M

TE GA ST EA M K 14

RA N KM DBU

HA AIG CR M K 14

KY 25 ALA KM MI

CBD 18 KM

Commuters leaving the Pan-Africa taxi rank in Alexandra during rush hour on a Friday evening. 10 Commuters

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Pan-Africa taxi rank in Alexandra, organized on the rooftop of this expansive shopping mall.

Taxi Communication Traveling by taxi within Johannesburg requires knowledge about prices, routes, and the correct signal to indicate the direction or destination of travel. The hand signals originated from workers traveling to and from Soweto and the inner city. These signs have been expanded with time and simplify communication between the taxi drivers and their potential passengers. If a hand signal indicates the same direction the driver is heading, it is easy to stop and pick the person up; occasionally drivers will even alter their routes to accommodate passengers because the goal is to make as much profit as possible during one trip.

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Paintings by a local artist showing local taxi signals.

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Fourways

Randburg

Johannesburg CBD

Diepsloot

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Footpaths

One-third of all commuters in Johannesburg travel by foot. In the Johannesburg metropolitan region, including Soweto, roughly three million pedestrians fill the streets every day: women walking to their jobs in the households of the northern suburbs, men walking to factories, young sportsmen jogging on major highways, and children walking to school all leave traces on their environment, particularly visible on fields or street corners with open land. From an aerial point of view, human tracks are clearly visible, marking shortcuts through open land. These paths have existed for decades and transport hundreds of children and adults to their daily destinations. However, streets often do not have sidewalks; people walk directly along the side of the road in sand or mud, of on the highways themselves with dangerous car traffic. If it is raining or dark, due to the lack of street lights, these locations are frequented by robbers, rapists, and murderers. But despite the potential danger, people tend to seek the shortest distance between two points, which is particularly important if one must walk for an hour or more.

Building enclaves, enclosed neighborhoods, or gated communities becomes a significant barrier for pedestrian traffic, since these people must rearrange their paths around the perimeter of new developments. Some enclosed neighborhoods in “safer” parts of Johannesburg thus often leave a gate in their fence open, so that a “walk through” is possible. Since at least one side of an enclosed neighborhood is patrolled by a security guard, it is still not possible to go through the area without a form of control. Pedestrians, approximately ninety-five percent of whom are non-white, experience the city in a different way; their impressions of certain areas are much stronger, as they have more time for to analyze a certain distance and have a different relationship to the environment they constantly move through compared to a person always traveling by car. These people bring life into the streets of Johannesburg, generating a vibrant urban atmosphere.

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Google Earth 12/2011

Footpaths through open land in Tembisa Township, northeast of Johannesburg.

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Busy intersection for people and mini-bus taxis in the Johannesburg CBD.

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Sidewalk along the M 40, the primary highway connecting Sandton and Alexandra.

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Street life in Alexandra is dominated by pedestrian traffic.

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People walking from work in Sandton home to Alexandra in the evening.

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A narrow corridor in Alexandra shows the scale of township pathways.

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Any outdoor space is a place for laundry to hang and children to play.

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Central bus station in the Johannesburg CBD.

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“We see our environment less and less as pedestrians and residents, but rather as motorists and tourists. So you should pay again and again attention to the details of a place. Simply turn off the navigation system and just perceive the place.” - Lucius Burckhardt, Landscape Architect

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Nodes

Centerpoints of social and economic encounter in an urban area.

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Local market at Walter Sisulu Square in Soweto.

Exclusion and Inclusion 158 Transportation Nodes 160 Cultural Nodes 168 Leisure Nodes 176 The Ideal Node 184 NODES

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Exclusion and Inclusion

Johannesburg is a city with complex layers and residents belong to a specific spatial demographic. Depending on their status, they either take public transportation or drive to their jobs from their residential enclaves, which are equivalent to socioeconomic enclaves. Thus, people are always surrounded by others with a similar background. Nodes, or the centering points of all these component parts, must begin to offer the possibility of including different demographics. Nodes are characterized by their ability to unite different demographic groups through a common interest or need. They are spaces for encounter in an urban area, at the intersection of different enclave and pathway layers of the city. Through analyzing Johannesburg, its residents and its urban phenomena as well as observing recent architectural trends in the region, some ambitious case studies surfaced. All of the projects share the characteristic of having been deliberately planned to attract multiple societal groups or having developed this quality over time. These groups can be defined in terms of age, race, or economic circumstance. The case study nodes are spread throughout the Johannesburg metropolitan region and serve as cultural anchor points for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inhabitants. However, although these nodes attempt to overcome separation of various demographics, each lacks at least one of several aspects that are necessary to truly achieve this goal.

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Nelson Mandela Interpretation Center

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Zoo Lake Park

Ellis Park Stadium Faraday Market

Baragwanath Transportation Interchange Walter Sisulu Square

5 km

Transportation Nodes

Faraday Market The site of Faraday Market was originally a historic bus station, once seen as the gateway to Johannesburg for mine workers arriving to work the Witwatersrand Gold Ridge. In 2002, Albonicka + Sack Architects and Urban Designers in collaboration with MMA Architects realized a project planned to convert the area into a formal taxi rank and traditional market. By reusing the existing structure, the old bus depot site was transformed into a new public transportation hub. Trade and tradition are further key aspects to the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thesis, as the design incorporates not only space for local and long-distance taxi ranks, but also space for traditional healers, fresh produce markets, and public artwork.

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This project achieved an integration of the rural context into the urban. The public space generated by this project is a mixture of transportation hub, market, and health services facility. It is a place to meet people while looking for the right bus, to purchase groceries, or to visit a traditional healer. Those not utilizing the taxi system are attracted to the market to buy local products. Although the project does attract multiple user groups, it does not attract the white residents of Johannesburg. Considering that hardly any whites use the taxi system, local products are not enough motivation to entice them to leave their comfort zones. Such products and traditional healers were never a part of their culture, and are as uninteresting to them as well as to wealthy urban residents. Although it successfully integrates low and middle income groups, the project still represents a socio-economic and racial barrier, and is spatially isolated in a highly territorialized zone between the CBD and Soweto.

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SITE PLAN

Deckler, Thorsten; Graupner Anne; Rasmuss, Henning. Contemporary South African Architecture, in a Landsacape of Transition(Double Storey Books, 2008).

TARGET GROUP

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RICH NH

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SHOPPING

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A transport hub combined with a local market located close to the CBD.

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Traditional spices and herbs are sold as well as traditional medicine.

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Baragwanath Public Transportation Interchange and Tradersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Market The Baragwanath Transport Interchange is located at one of the busiest transportation nodes in South Africa. Most Soweto residents pass through this hub during their daily commute. In 2008, Urban Solutions Architects and Urban Designers planned the project next to the existing Baragwanath Hospital, which provides motivation for the elderly or ill to visit the site. Because of its variety of functions and central location, the project is an important place for the residents of Soweto. The site runs 1.3 kilometers along Old Potchefstroom Road, which is the main access route from Johannesburg to Soweto. On average, the site is only fifty meters wide, with streets on both sides. Space exists for 500 street traders, including storage space, management offices, and infrastructural support. In order to host different types of businesses, the trader stands vary in size. The transport area has twenty-two bus ranks and 650 mini-bus taxi ranks; approximately 2,000 taxis depart from this station daily.

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An ongoing competition between buses, taxis and street traders was the main design challenge. In the past, informal businesses were not typically given official spaces. As a busy transportation hub, the area is very attractive for traders and market salesmen, and this project provides space for all of these interests. Integration into the city infrastructure network is made possible through this hub, as the CBD has become much more accessible from Soweto. One place in Johannesburg and Soweto where street life is particularly vibrant is the transportation hub, as significant numbers of people wait for connections, or start and end their daily journeys. The project successfully combines the challenge of transportation with the issue of buying goods and meeting people. Space here cannot only be seen as a transportation zone alone; it is also a new portal for Soweto, a place to meet and communicate, as nearly seventy percent of all Soweto commuters utilize this interchange. Because of its location in Soweto, the project is not interesting to the wealthy or white residents of the northern suburbs. However, an economic and age mixture between Soweto residents was achieved, partially because of the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proximity to the hospital. Unfortuantely, the design fails to overcome spatial, racial, and greater socio-economic separation.

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Deckler, Thorsten; Graupner Anne; Rasmuss, Henning. Contemporary South African Architecture, in a Landscape of Transition (Double Storey Books, 2008).

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“Sixty-five percent of South Africans use mini-bus taxis every day.” - The Voice of America, as cited in the article “Infamous Johannesburg Minibus Taxi Drivers Get Trained to Behave,” April 26th, 2012

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM One of the entrances to the Baragwanath Transportation Hub in Soweto.

Deckler, Thorsten; Graupner Anne; Rasmuss, Henning. Contemporary South African Architecture, in a Landscape of Transition, (Double Storey Books, 2008).

Baragwanath Transport Facility is one of the largest taxi ranks in Johannesburg. NODES

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Cultural Nodes

Nelson Mandela Interpretation Center At the center of Alexandra Township, the Nelson Mandela Interpretation Center serves as a cultural node. Just opposite Mandela’s Yard, a shack where Nelson Mandela lived in the 1940`s, the center attracts tourists to visit the township and experience its heritage. For ten years, the Peter Rich Architects has been constructing the project. It is financed by the Alexandra Heritage Foundation, which can only provide money occasionally; the lack of regular funding has greatly extended the project’s estimated date of completion.

As a building for the surrounding community, the center provides not only training facilities but also an exhibition and library space on its upper level. Accessible by ramp, the building can also be used by the physically disabled. Several public plazas, various small shops and training facilities, jazz archives, an internet café, a food court, a youth center, and workshop areas are planned to be housed by the structure. Within Alexandra, this building creates a strong sense of community and tries to enrich the lives of its inhabitants through education. Training in the field of tourism is alsooffered at the center to strengthen local small and micro-enterprises. Integration of tourism into the local economy is one of the goals of the project, which attempts to create a certain reverence for traditions, history, and the way of life in the area. From the top, the remarkable courtyard structure of Alexandra is visible, normally hidden from views of people walking in the street. The design functions as an open-air building, a loose composition reacting to the context and creating its own yards and public plazas. Underneath the gateway or corridor bridging the street, a new kind of public space is formed. The building and its outdoor areas are multi-functional spaces, planned to one day host political and social events in Alexandra. Even today, a fear of unknown places and alleged violence and crime in the townships persists among the wealthy, white community. A project like the Interpretation Center may attract tourists and enrich local lives in the township, but it is unlikely to attract non-foreigners from the urban area of Johannesburg. The townships largely remain a no-go zone, and projects situated deep in their centers fail to act as integrating nodes because they are so territorialized.

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Deckler, Thorsten; Graupner Anne; Rasmuss, Henning. Contemporary South African Architecture, in a Landscape of Transition (Double Storey Books, 2008).

< 1 HOUR

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SHOPPING

“Alexandra Heritage Centre,” accessed December 12, 2011, http://www. peterricharchitects. co.za/projects/ alex_center.php

Future exhibition space is explored by township children.

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“[Despite its obvious flaws], apartheid concentrated and protected culture.” - Robert Rich, Johannesburg Architect

Outdoor public space is created by bridging the street and mediating the terrain change.

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Walter Sisulu Square Kliptown, Soweto, is one of the most historical and vibrant places in Johannesburg, and is the location of Walter Sisulu Square. In 1955, the historic signing and adoption of the ANC Freedom Charter took place with the Congress of the People, including 2,884 delegates and 7,000 spectators watching the proceedings. In 2002, StudioMAS planned a new urban space surrounded by a market and hotel right in the center of Soweto. The project is an homage to the South African people, and is a purely public space. The western part of the square is intended for events and meetings, the eastern part for everyday use, such as trading and leisure. A retail wing, including a multi-purpose hall, borders the site to the north, and a hotel and market to the south.

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Celebrating and commemorating the birth of a democratic South Africa and embodying the principles of the Freedom Charter are the primary ideas behind the design. The western side of the square commemorates past struggles and pays tribute to those who fought for freedom and equality. On the eastern side, the ideals of a democratic society are celebrated, subdivided into nine smaller squares symbolizing the nine provinces of South Africa. A hotel was placed within the project, connecting it to the tourism industry. Presently, there are few hotels and hostels located in Soweto, and this four-star hotel project is an attempt to reverse this trend and reduce fear of the township. Through tourism, social integration among the wealthy and disadvantaged is suppose to be promoted. The success of this strategy remains to be evaluated. The scale of public space is enormous, and as such has been criticized as disproportionate. Although the wings hosting the different functions are well frequented and connect to their surrounding areas, the square itself is an empty, unused space. The architectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; motivations behind the design do not translate to reality, and furthermore, highlight how difficult it is to translate a strong concept into an actual urban space. Through the hotel, the project clearly suggests a strategy to attract people from different economic backgrounds in one place. However, located in the middle of Soweto, the project remains more attractive to the black community and to tourists. Racial and spatial separation remain.

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SHOPPING

“Walter Sisulu Square, Soweto,” accessed December 12, 2011, http:// www.flickr.com/ photos/ismailfarouk/ 441857521/

The enormous scale of Walter Sisulu Square is evident from the air.

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Walter Sisulu Hotel on the upper two levels of construction.

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Leisure Nodes

Zoo Lake Park Zoo Lake Park is located on Jan Smuts Avenue, a fifteen minute drive from the CBD and near the Johannesburg Zoo. The site was originally part of the Sachsenwald Plantation, which was owned by a mining company to grow trees for use in the mines. Today, it is the place to be for Johannesburg residents on the weekends for dog-walking, jogging, having a braai, attending open air concerts, or supporting one of the sports clubs within the park.

During its time as a plantation, the site was used for hunting, picnics, and riding. Percy Fitzpatrick even collected wild animals, which were later given to the Johannesburg Zoo. In 1904, the site was given to the city of Johannesburg “in trust for the inhabitants of Johannesburg to be used for the purpose of a public park.” Despite racial separations already in place by the turn of the century, the park was required to be free for a person of any background to enjoy. In 1906, an artificial lake was created within the site, forming natural recreation ares. Two years later, the construction was finished and since then, it has been one of Johannesburg’s premier attractions. Restaurants and various sports clubs such as tennis, swimming, cricket, hockey, fishing and archery were implemented in the park. On weekends or public holidays, the park is crowded with people regardless of race, color, religion, or origin. People come highly equipped for their recreational activity and spend the day there with friends and family. Every first weekend per month, national artists display their work; large concerts and events, such as the Johannesburg Jazz Festival, also occur in the park. Because of its history, the park has always been considered a melting pot. Although this works in theory, it does not function on an economic level. Anytime a township resident wants to go to Zoo Lake, he or she must take public transportation. Since the park is located near one of the most well-off neighborhoods of Johannesburg, far from the townships, this involves significant transportation costs. Although the park is an important place for overcoming social separation, it also excludes a part of society because of its spatial location within a former white territory.

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SHOPPING

People relaxing in the park on a sunny spring day.

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A mixture of various races and religions is evident at Zoo Lake Park.

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Ellis Park Stadium Ellis Park Stadium, also known as Coca-Cola Park, was constructed in 1980. Use of the site as a sports grounds dates back to 1927, when the original Ellis Park Stadium was erected between a mine and a landfill for the Transvall Rugby Football Union. Ellis Park became known worldwide as a symbol for a new nation when the Rugby World Cup Final was hosted there in 1995 and Nelson Mandela congratulated the victorious South African team. For the first time, the nation was united by an athletic event; previously, rugby had been a sport supported by the white population and soccer was considered to be for the non-white population. In 2005, Ellis Park became the first black-owned stadium in the nation as the Golden Lions Rugby Union turned over management of the stadium to a consortium of Ellis World of Sport, Interza Lesego, and the Orlando Pirates FC.

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The stadium hosted seven games during the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and serves as a home stadium for the Golden Lions rugby team as well as the Gauteng Lions soccer team and the Orlando Pirates FC. It is the heart of a sport complex surrounded by the Johannesburg Stadium (track and field), the Standard Bank Stadium (tennis), and an Olympic-size pool; it also functions as a premier concert venue in South Africa. The stadium can host up to 70,000 people and is normally sold out during major events. In 2001, fourty-three people were killed and hundreds injured as the result of a stampede during a soccer game between the Orlando Pirates and the Kaizer Chiefs. Hundreds of people without tickets tried to enter the stadium and panic ensued. Not surprisingly, attending a game in Ellis Park costs a significant amount of money; for example, a ticket for an ordinary rugby league game costs about 150 rand, which is the average monthly income for some in Johannesburg. Sports unify people and bring them together, but as soon as one has to pay entry for a game, economic segregation exists.

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SHOPPING

“You helped to unite our nation, as only sport can do. By winning the rugby world cup in 1995, you made us all proud of being South Africans, citizens of the new non-racial, democratic South Africa.” - Nelson Mandela, retrospectively thanking the Springbok Rugby Team, 2011

182

NODES

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Ellis Park Stadium entrance gates before a rugby game.

Security guards ready to prevent fan interference during a rugby game. NODES

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The Ideal Node

Comparing the case study nodes to one other reveals that each project has a specific target group, and thus emphasizes certain aspects of design. The project’s location is a significant factor in determining their success or failure, regardless of whether or not the initial ambition was to integrate people of different backgrounds. Places for encounter located between neighborhoods would be more likely to attract different socio-economic groups than the ones located in the center of a demographic area. A commonality among the case study projects is the fact that they exhibit either spatial or racial separation. In Johannesburg today, inhabitants are used to certain habits and rules that existed under apartheid. Many of the more privileged would never go into a township of their own volition. Some, in fact, go their entire lives without ever setting foot in the “other” side of the city. This experience is crucial to understanding the current state of the nation and why things are the way they are. In contrast, township residents come into constant contact with the wealthier neighborhoods of Johannesburg, working in the households as nannies and groundskeepers. There, they are confronted with luxurious houses with spacious rooms and gardens, expensive cars, and elaborate security systems, and then must return to their dwelling in the townships. These people know the layers of the city much more intimately, because they experience both extremes.

It seems that one side is benefitting from the other; cheap labor makes ways of living possible which would be unaffordable other places in the world. If South African society is to become more equal, this one-sided relationship must yield greater benefits for the underprivileged. The wealthier members of society live a lifestyle based on Western standards; groceries, rent, or even going out to dinner is often comparable to prices in Europe. The amount of Mercedes-Benz owners per capita is the second largest in the world, just behind Germany. The issue is not a lack of capital; rather, the capital flows do filter down to the people who are most in need. If just a small percentage of the current flow of money found its way into underprivileged neighborhoods, the result would be life-changing for their residents. An ideal node would be a place of encounter for people from both of these worlds. This requires that it be located neither in the rich suburbs nor in the center of townships, but in the in-between zones that border these areas on neutral land. This node would be a place for people who want to better comprehend their history and society, who wish to create change, and who are willing to risk letting others benefit from their wealth. With time, encounter will reduce fear of the townships, and could even give a purpose to the South African search for a shared cultural identity. Criminality is not solved through deploying police and private security to patrol gated communities. To increase trust and respect, one must be able to give the unknown, “other” face a name, and emerge from the anonymous security behind Johannesburg’s walls into the urban, social realm.

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A node within territorialized areas serves only its zone.

An ideal node in a neutral zone could attract both.

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Informal ice cream vendor in Zoo Lake Park.

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“The garden is the last remaining luxury of our time, as it demands the most rarest and precious things in our society: time, attention, and space.” - Dieter Kienast, Landscape Architect

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Buffer Zones

Ne g l e c t e d a r e as o f t h e c i t y, p l a n n e d t o a c t a s spatial barriers between neighborhoods.

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View from Alexandra Township to Marlboro Industrial Township, encircled by walls.

Buffer Typologies 192 Separating Neighborhoods 212 Post-Apartheid Policy 230 BUFFER ZONES

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Buffer Typologies

The cultural history of Johannesburg is omnipresent in the lives of its citizens, both physically in the form of walls and barriers, as well as psychologically, in the form of perceived boundaries between socio-economic groups. It is composed of fractal enclaves and the forgotten spaces between them. These spaces possess the potential to re-densify the city and reunite the isolated neighborhoods of Johannesburg, leading to a more spatially just as well as a more sustainable urban lifestyle. Since the apartheid era, spatial zones have existed as physical buffer zones between residential districts. The fabric of urban apartheid, or segregated and separated neighborhoods, persists today. Formulating a plan that promotes inclusion both socially and spatially is thus no small task. Enormous potential for re-densification and new social functions exists in these neglected, deterritorialized spaces between segregated enclaves, on land that does not belong to one particular socio-economic group. Racially separated neighborhoods have their own distinct urban character. Based on the size of land plot and house type, it is clear which race, and thus which economic status, an apartheid neighborhood possesses. Townships are characterized by dense informal infill and bustling street life. Middle and upper-class neighborhoods, on the other hand, contain single-family homes and are characterized by wide, quiet streets. Large-scale industrial buildings are usually found in a buffer zone condition, serving to separate neighborhoods. Thus, the fabric of the city itself enforces and protects cultural enclaves.

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Industrial Buffer Zones 100 km2 [95 km2 surface of the city of Zurich]

Infrastructural Buffer 30 km2

Topographical Buffer Zones 64 km2

Landscape Buffer 496 km2

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Topographical Buffer: Soweto & Johannesburg By the beginning of the twentieth century, city planners decided mine workers should no longer be allowed to live within the city limits, but rather be placed outside the city. Some of the workers had contracted diseases and white residents feared their spread to the general population. A site was selected southwest of the city, just beyond the mines. Thus, the primarily black laborers were settled close to the mines, but at the same time outside the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and out of the sight of the white population due to the physical height of the mines. This signified the founding of the Southwest Township, known as Soweto, and currently the largest township in South Africa.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Today, the population of Soweto continues to increase. As the mines are no longer active, people have moved into the open fields surrounding them in order to live closer to the city. In 1989, Soccer City was built, the largest soccer stadium in Africa and host to the 2010 World Cup Final. It is located near Gold Reef City amusement park and the Apartheid Museum. Most public buildings and service-oriented functions were constructed within the last ten years.

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Google Earth 01/2012 The Mines clearly separating Soweto from Johannesburg.

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Gold Reef City amusement park located south of the CBD.

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View from Johannesburg towards Soccer City; Soweto remains hidden behind the mines.

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Infrastructural Buffer: Alexandra & Linbro Park Alexandra Township is located west of the N3 Highway, which separates the neighborhood from and the low-density, single-family home neighborhood of Linbro Park. This road is accompanied by a large expanse of open land on either of its sides, which creates a significant buffer zone between the township and the more upscale area. After the fall of apartheid, the township of Alexandra began to attract more and more people. “Extensions,” or additional parcels of land reserved purely for housing, were constructed on the open tract of land along the highway, which belonged to Linbro Park. These neighborhoods are known as the “Far East Bank,” or just “Alexandra,” whereas the original township is called “Old Alexandra.” As seen in the satellite image, Linbro Park retained much of the infrastructural buffer of the N3 highway and a significant physical landscape buffer, and the neighborhood remains a separate entity today, both socio-economically as well as spatially.

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Google Earth 01/2012 The N3 highway contains the expansion of Alexandra towards the more privileged neighborhood of Linbro Park.

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Train tracks dividing the CBD from the northern suburbs.

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View of the N3 Highway between Linbro Park (left) and Alexandra (right).

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Landscape Buffer: Alexandra, Wynberg, and Sandton Between the neighborhoods of Sandton, Alexandra, and Wynberg exists a small park, which originally functioned as a golf course. The park is located west of the M1 Highway, and belongs to the district of Sandton. The highway serves as a border between those neighborhoods and the land next to it, which is lesser in value due to its proximity to Alexandra. Containing lakes, open land and a view towards the skyline of Sandton, the park was a popular location for sports and leisure, and hosted music and art events.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

According to signs currently posted by the City of Johannesburg, the park can be visited only by paying an entrance fee; however, this rule is no longer in effect. The park has been informally possessed by squatters, who need a home close to Sandton where most seek work as daily laborers. The squatters occupied a former farm and the area around it within the park, and cut their own entrance into the fence along the highway connecting Sandton and Alexandra. The buffer transformed an exclusive and expensive golf course into an informal settlement; instead of golf, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residents play soccer with the Sandton skyline as a backdrop.

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Google Earth 01/2012 Innisfree Park is located between a residential upper class neighborhood and an industrial area.

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Informal settlements occupy a former farm inside Innisfree Park.

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View from Innisfree Park towards the skyline of Sandton’s financial and shopping district.

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Industrial Buffer: Alexandra and Sandton Alexandra was considered a blemish among the white northern suburbs during apartheid. On several occasions, demolition of the township and relocation of its residents to Soweto was planned. However, many township residents worked in the intentional industrial buffer between Alexandra and Sandton, entitled Wynberg. Ultimately, the propositions were overturned, as Alexandra provided a valuable source of labor and its residents were able to organize significant resistance to relocation.

After the end of apartheid, crime and violence in the area increased, the population of Alexandra dramatically grew, and unemployment skyrocketed. The businesses located in Wynberg began to decline; some survived, yet many remain abandoned today. Industries found in the area vary from building material supply and small workshops to large companies specializing in food supply, including a chocolate factory. A mall-like shopping center called “Pan-Africa” was constructed on the border between Alexandra and Wynberg and possesses a highly active taxi rank that connects the township to the rest of the city. Pan-Africa has become an anchorpoint in the area and an indicator that the areas have begun to fuse together.

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Google Earth 01/2012 Wynberg industrial area separates wealthy Sandton from the township of Alexandra.

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A waste disposal company in the functioning industrial area south of the CBD.

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Informal services and goods are sold in front of retail stores and factories on the streets of Alexandra and Wynberg.

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Separating Neighborhoods Marlboro Industrial Township was originally a buffer zone between the black township of Alexandra in the south and the indian township of Marlboro Gardens to the north. Because both sides are bounded by high walls, the area is highly contained and difficult to access. To the northwest, only one public entrance connects local roads to the highway; to the east, a transit camp for recipients of RDP houses limits access to the area. It is effectively sealed from all sides.

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Vasco da Gama Road and Marlboro First Street, separating Alexandra (right) and Marlboro Industrial Township

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Wall between Marlboro Gardens (indian apartheid neighborhood) and Marlboro Industrial Township.

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“Johannesburg is a city of walls . . . Ironically, today [these] walls stand as a unique physical symbol of the dramatic changes that have swept through South Africa in the past twenty years.” - Frank Lewinberg, Celebration of Walls

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Limited vehicular access to Pretoria Main Road from Marlboro Industrial Township.

Transit Camp blocking Marlboro Industrial Township from accessing open land and the Gautrain stop.

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Wall separating Marlboro Gardens and Marlboro Industrial Township.

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View down Vasco da Gama Street and Marlboro First Street towards the Far East Bank.

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Apartheid Neighborhoods The white neighborhood of Sandton, the richest area of Johannesburg, required a labor pool to serve its household needs and meet the demands of industry during apartheid. Thus, as Soweto was planned and other townships such as Sophiatown were destroyed, Alexandra and Marlboro Gardens were allowed to remain the only townships in the white northern suburb belt of the city. A buffer zone containing industrial areas, a park, and open land separated the individual neighborhoods. The contemporary density reflects the economic inequality between the areas: Alexandraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s density (56,250 p/km2) is the highest in the city, and is about 30 times denser than that of Sandton (compare to Zurich at 4,190 p/km2).

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“BBC News” accessed February 19, 2012, http://news.bbcimg. co.uk/media/ images/52009000/ jpg/_52009709_ livingapartnanny.jpg

Black nannies played an important role in the lives of white children.

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Apartheid Museum Archives, Johannesburg

Men primarily worked in the mining belt and were treated like property—forced to endure communal showers.

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Contemporary Demographics During apartheid, Marlboro Industrial Township separated Alexandra from the indian township of Marlboro Gardens. As the area was originally planned as an isolated and self-contained industrial district, regulating the crime and violence that began after the fall of apartheid was a challenge for the municipal police forces. The rising cost of post-apartheid labor combined with a rise in crime caused many businesses to leave the area. Because Marlboro Industrial Township was not as established and developed as its neighboring area, Wynberg, many of the plots abandoned during this time frame remain vacant today. Wynberg has remained an attractive working area and Marlboro Industrial Township has become a uniquely deterritorialized zone in the city.

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Access and Transportation Shopping centers or malls are often connected to the public transportation network; in Alexandra and Marlboro South, formal transport only exists at the edge of the township and does not penetrate the area. A handful of main roads in Alexandra are accessible by local mini-bus taxis, which terminate at the Pan Africa taxi rank and provide connections to the rest of the city network. These routes can be irregular and are thus not depicted. Access to the newly constructed Gautrain is precluded for both underprivileged areas by the walls surrounding Marlboro South and the transit camp to the east. If footpaths or public transportation included this area in the network, it could provide a viable alternative to reach job opportunities in Sandton and the inner city.

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Gautrain Metrobus Major Roads Highways

GAUTRAIN Train Station

PAN-AFRICA Shopping Center and Taxi Rank

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Access to Economic Opportunity Most Marlboro residents depend on public transportation to travel to their jobs. As the existing mini-bus taxi routes do not lead through Marlboro Industrial Township, and local taxis drive only on specific streets at irregular intervals, people are forced to walk to the Pan-Africa taxi rank. A commuter often must walk approximately thirty minutes until arriving at the taxi that can take them to their destination. Travelling by taxi involves waiting time at the taxi rank, and during rush hours traffic jams are inevitable. Thus, most taxi commuters require one to two hours to reach their workplace unless it is within walking distance.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

To travel further into the city, the Gautrain would be the ideal method of transportation since it is not much more expensive than taking a taxi, and the new station is about the same distance away as the taxi rank. However, due to the fact that the neighborhood is closed to the north and east, people have to walk around the residential area of Marlboro Gardens, double the time it would take to walk through the area. The Gautrain system runs bus feeder routes; however, these routes deliberately avoid the areas of Marlboro Industrial Township and Alexandra.

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Post-Apartheid Policy

South Africa has failed to devise a policy that greatly addresses or changes the spatial and social inequalities created by apartheid planning. If Johannesburg is to become a world-class city and South Africa a world-class nation, a comprehensive new approach to the problems of housing and spatial planning must be implemented. Post-apartheid urbanism must be a cooperative approach, emphasizing community building through a focus on public functions and shared urban experiences. Contemporary world cities are defined by competitive urbanism. Pitted against one another both nationally and internationally, cities compete for resources, business and tourism. Governments often dispense funding according to what best furthers their “brand” or strategy to attract these capital. This approach favors economic potential, marginalizing the less privileged and forcing them to survive outside the accepted urban system. In South Africa, the ownership structure of apartheid has survived. The valuable areas of the city are accessible to the privileged and the marginalized are restricted to inconvenient and nonprominent urban areas. If underprivileged citizens intrude into spaces where they are unwelcome, they are removed. This policy characterized apartheid, and was seen as recently as the forcible removal of populations from the Berea area, east of the city center, to “clean up” the area for the 2010 World Cup. In 1994, the government promised to redress the injustices of apartheid through the provision of housing for each and every South African citizen; this policy introduced no significant break from the apartheid system of relocating underprivileged populations to the urban periphery. While all races can now move without pass laws or other restrictions, government housing areas are unattractive due to their mono functionality and lack of public service functions. The failure of the government to change the patterns of apartheid leads to the conclusion that the provision of housing should not be their primary goal. Rather, the government should emphasize education and public services that encourage South Africans to improve their own living situation.

South Africa must adopt a policy of cooperative urbanism, addressing the real needs of its cities to reduce inequality and repair social injustice rather than overvaluing economic potential and real estate value. According to Dr. Kurt Iveson, Senior Lecturer in Urban Geography at the University of Sydney, this can be achieved by incorporating three elements into planning policy: allowing progressive entrepeneurism to occupy vacant urban spaces, defining the interests of a city in terms of its disadvantaged citizens, and promoting cooperation by providing help where it is most needed. These goals require the reclamation of valuable areas for the public and the integration of demographic groups based on common urban experiences. The goal of post-apartheid urbanism can thus be defined as a policy emphasizing the creation of public spaces and services rather than housing. The South African government needs to provide a grander vision for its cities and their spatial unity in order to inspire the same qualities in the interactions of its citizens.

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Apartheid Urbanism

Post-Apartheid Urbanism BUFFER ZONES

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Will our future cities to look like a dystopic nightmare? Or can the current trend be reversed?

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“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu—the essence of being human. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world.” - Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus and former Bishop of Johannesburg, 2008

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The Emerald Necklace

Enforcing the potential of the buffer zone typologies to meet the needs of Greater Johannesburg .

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Reclaiming Urban Spaces 240 The Emerald Necklace 248 Post-Apartheid Strategy 270 Currently, mining companies are relocating excavated waste material outside of the city.

THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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Reclaiming Urban Spaces

Johannesburg’s buffer zones occupy twenty-five percent of its total urban footprint. The vast spaces are extremely valuable, and their characteristic low-density and openness could be exploited to retrofit the city with a purposeful network of green spaces. If the municipal government can infuse the buffer areas with opportunities and public services, they can begin to make isolated suburban areas productive, effectively combatting the phenomenon of mono-functional, unequal enclaves. As the original purpose of the buffer zones according to apartheid spatial planning was to separate neighborhoods organized by race, their intention as spatial elements in the urban fabric is obsolete. Rather than serving to divide, these spaces could be used to connect neighborhoods to one another, as well as to anchor these new nodes into the greater urban structure. This project describes the process required for transforming Johannesburg’s buffer zones into a unified, city-wide series of green spaces, or an “emerald necklace” for this so-called “City of Gold.” To this end, the perimeter of the greening intervention in this project is presented on a regional scale, and a pilot area intervention is presented on an urban and building scale in a buffer zone site adjacent to Alexandra Township. This comprehensive plan across multiple scales demonstrates the transformation each existing buffer zone typology would undergo in order to become a part of the Emerald Necklace vision.

To a large extent, the buffer zone areas already comprise a spatial network, and require a rezoning plan to enable the realization an Emerald Necklace. Land must be government-owned in order to prevent real estate speculation, and existing infrastructure and built elements must be thoroughly cataloged to determine a strategic development scheme for the entire network. Once this occurs, the construction of parks and the public services to be implemented in these new urban nodes immediately provide a source of labor for the populations marginalized under apartheid. On a longer-term scale, opportunities for services, education, recreation, and social interaction will encourage people of many backgrounds to make visiting the Emerald Necklace a part of their daily lives. Awareness of the sheer amount of undeveloped and neglected space within Johannesburg, and the enormous potential this unique phenomenon possesses, is the first step in reconceiving these divisive zones as a part of the organizational structure of the city. The buffer zones are currently attractive areas in the city, poised for development. Yet the essential question remains—will the buffer zones be employed to remedy the spatial injustice accrued during apartheid, or will the land go to the highest bidder?

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EXISTING PARKS AND NATURE RESERVES ADDITIONAL AREAS IN EMERALD NECKLACE

5 km

Buffer Zones on the Regional Scale Johannesburg is not a particularly “urban” area by nature; if defined according to a satellite image, the sprawl of highways and suburban enclaves that comprise much of the structure of Johannesburg would not be considered part of a “city.” According to the 2001 Demographia World Urban Areas report, the Johannesburg-East Rand urban area consists of 2,525 km2 of land, which, with a population of 7,550,000, results in a density of 2,900 people per square kilometer. Johannesburg’s density is comparable to that of Houston, Texas; the most dense area in the world, in contrast, is the Bangladesh-Dhaka urban area, with 35,000 people per square kilometer.

Like the fluid changes in density, the pattern of the existing buffer zone network merges into the rural landscape of the Gauteng Region, dissolving at its edges into farmland. The residents of Johannesburg themselves also reflect this mixed rural-urban identity. Many of them cycle in and out of the city as migrant workers, generally remaining in the urban context no more than four to five years and then returning to their rural village of origin. Others immigrate from foreign countries seeking opportunity in Southern Africa’s largest metropolis. With this constant exchange of people entering and leaving the city, the borders of the urban area remain in a constant state of flux regarding both flows of people and capital. The edge conditions, including the transitional buffer zones between the traditional city core and the traditional farming areas, have become valuable for their potential to improve spatial justice in Johannesburg. In the midst of the extensive growth experienced by the city, buffer areas often mediate the relationship between outlying townships and wealthy gated communities on former farmlands.

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The open landscape, traditional farmland, fluidly meshes with the buffer zones.

THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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Existing Green Networks in the City Seen from above, Johannesburg looks more like a park a than a global, metropolitan city. The city has more than ten million trees—double the amount of New York City. Most of the trees were planted at the end of the nineteenth century to produce wood for mining operations, and serving as protection from the dust produced by the mines, which greatly polluted Johannesburg’s air. Although the city appears to have an adequate amount on green space, much of this is not accessible to the general population. Most municipal parks are located in the city center or in the wealthier northern suburbs. Wealthy residential areas are already highly green, because the large plots of residential land have small building footprints relative to their parcel size and support extensive private gardens behind highly secured walls. These gardens on private ground can, at most, be experienced visually by low-income demographics. Due to high transportation costs and the extreme territorialization of space in Johannesburg, township and low-income area residents have extremely limited access to public parks.

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Diepsloot

Cosmo City

Dainfern Fourways Randburg Sandton Meadowlands Orlando Diepkloof Eldorado Park Pimville

Midrand Tembisa Kempton Park

Alexandra Melville

Yeoville Germiston

O.R. Tambo Airport

Alberton Katlehong

ÂŠ COOPERATIVECBD URBANISM

An Emerald Necklace for the City of Gold connects valuable urban areas, including former townships into the urban fabric of the city.

THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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Jacaranda trees are one of the most popular trees in Johannesburg, and often line its streets.

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Jacarandas are also found in township areas; the demand for green exists regardless of economic or social status.

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The Emerald Necklace

Rather than densifying open land, the City of Johannesburg has the opportunity to take advantage of its deterritorialized buffer zones, located between apartheid neighborhoods, to create â&#x20AC;&#x153;productiveâ&#x20AC;? green spaces, including sports, leisure, cooperative gardening, and an emphasis on opportunities for work and education. In this proposal for an Emerald Necklace for the City of Gold, Johannesburg embraces its non-urban nature and promotes a new brand of urban public space. Rather than serving to separate neighborhoods, Johannesburg can begin to transform its buffer zones into public green spaces infused with public functions and opportunities. Current public space is limited to commercialized and semi-private institutions like malls and shopping centers; until this method of social interaction is altered, patterns of interaction between demographic in the cities will not be able to improve. Cooperative greening thus emphasizes the following principles:

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

1. preservation of valuable unbuilt areas; 2. creation of places accessible by multiple urban demographic groups; 3. promotion of social interaction and productivity.

In this proposal, mining zones will be healed through constructed wetlands and parks. Sports serves as the common ground to bring people of different socio-economic backgrounds together, and leisure spaces appeal to anyone who enjoys the outdoors. In certain areas, such as townships, nutrition and productivity are important topics to address in order for people living in marginalized areas to immediately improve their circumstances. Within the green areas, cooperatives would be responsible for gardening, and the government would be responsible for common areas, including both parks and leisure areas. The strategic development scheme would include: 1. rezoning land in the Emerald Necklace areas into government-owned parcels; 2. reprocessing contaminated earth in former mining and industrial areas; 3. connecting existing parks through infrastructural corridors; 4. implementating parks and recreation greening in low-density, abandoned industrial corridors; 5. making zero-interest loans available to gardening cooperatives for initial operating costs and management.

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EXISTING GREEN MINING REPROCESSING AREAS POTENTIAL GREEN AREAS OPEN AREAS

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Reclaiming Land for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Emeraldsâ&#x20AC;?in the Emerald Necklace In the Gauteng region exist 159 mines, forty-four of which are gold mines. Gold mining and ancillary industries provide thousands of jobs in the region, although these industries have become less important than the manufacturing and financial sectors. Seventy-four of jobs in the region are in the service-oriented economy, and today, mining only produces six percent of Gauteng`s total income.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

As of 2012, the topographical buffer separating Soweto from Johannesburg, which is an eighty kilometer mining belt, is gradually being reduced. Mining companies transport reprocessed tailings to new dumps outside the metropolitan area, thus clearing and flattening the sites. Although these mine dumpings are reprocessed, the sites are highly polluted and must be remediated before the land can be redeveloped. Due to the fact that the mining areas have been severely excavated with tunnels up to 400 meters below the surface, significant building development is not possible. To avoid ground water pollution resulting from acid mine drainage, constructed wetlands must be created. These can serve as recreation areas for Johannesburgs residents. The industrial areas that originally served the mines are also transformed into new urban green zones.

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Mining Site Reprocessing The world’s largest gold surface tailings retreatment facility, located in Johannesburg’s former mining belt, is responsible for reprocessing sand and slime dumps. These mounds of earth stretch from east to west along the southern edge of the CBD and contain waste from the stamp milling era of ore processing. Exhausted mining sites are reclaimed and watered; the slurry is then pumped to a processing plant to treat contaminated sand and tailings. The land which is uncovered through the process of removing the tailings can only be reclaimed and developed once it is not longer dangerous for occupation. This is a long-term process, as the mining belt will not be available for occupation for decades. This time to develop an extensive and detailed plan for future uses.

MINES TODAY

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Buildings are constructed.

Sand and waste is treated and transported outside the city.

Wetlands are created. The mixture of water and anaerobic plants reprocess contaminants and heavy metals are removed from the site.

Land above former mining sites is unstable and cannot be rebuilt.

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MINES IN THE DISTANT FUTURE

Buildings collapse due unstable ground conditions.

Trees are planted to clean dust from the air. Wetlands are available for recreational purposes.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Uncontaminated Area

Mining Belt

While the mining belt is being reprocessed, an uncontaminated industrial site near Sandton acts as a pilot project.

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http://places. designobserver. com/feature/ ecologies-of-goldthe-past-andfuture-mininglandscapes-of -johannesburg /25008/ A temporary drive-in movie theater is located atop a former mining dump near the city center.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM At the moment the mines still separate underprivileged neighborhoods from the inner city.

In the future, contaminated land will be turned into constructed wetlands to be reprocessed as part of the green scheme. THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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Linking the “Emeralds” with the “Thread” of Infrastructural Buffers Infrastructural buffers were primarily formed by the dangerous corridors of empty space along the edges of highways or railways. As there was no simple way to cross these boundaries, such buffers were some of the most widely implemented during apartheid to divide townships from more privileged areas. Today, the unoccupied space lining these highways and railways is often utilized by pedestrians as an unofficial greenway.

To a great extent, the Emerald Necklace can be logically and organically implemented by linking existing parks with the infrastructural buffer zones. Safe pathways can thus connect marginalized areas to the greater urban fabric of the city. As infrastructure is the primary means of connecting enclaves and plays such an important role in the daily lives of Johannesburg’s residents, this typology holds particular potential to link isolated residential enclaves.

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INFRASTRUCTURAL BUFFER POTENTIAL PUBLIC GREEN

CBD

5 km

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Spaces along infrastructural networks are often vacant or abandoned.

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THE EMERALD NECKLACE

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Few streets provide pedestrian sidewalks, but every large street has a significant amount of open land along its borders.

Johannesburg will link its neighborhoods in the future by transforming these areas into linear parks, or greenways. THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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Strategic Networks in the Emerald Necklace Landscape buffers are traditionally open tracts of land, which separated urban areas through physical displacement. As they have largely remained open and unbuilt, they can easily become part of the urban greening network. Networking these areas along infrastructural buffer strips would naturally connect spaces not only to one another, but also to the mining belt and industrial areas. The Emerald Necklace scheme provides a network of spaces linked from the outer green ring to valuable economic areas of Johannesburg, like the spokes of a wheel. This is accomplished through greening strategies such as lining major streets with trees. The most important public nodes in the city would thus be linked by this comprehensive greening scheme.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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THE EMERALD NECKLACE

PUBLIC GREEN PRIVATE GREEN SPACES

CBD

5 km

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265

Linking Valuable Areas with Greening By exploiting the presence of multiple buffer zone typologies present in an urban context, valuable areas link through urban greening, thus making them accessible to populations which were intentionally kept apart in the past. Buffer strips in industrial areas serve as spaces for a combination of cooperative gardening, sports facilities, and leisure areas. This transforms a neglected urban area not into a node for separated neighborhoods to meet for recreation, and also into a corridor between the underprivileged areas and the opportunities offered by economically powerful areas of the city. For example, Marlboro Industrial Township north of Alexandra, designated as the pilot project area, links the township to the current displaced city center of Sandton.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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New Greening Existing Parks

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River beds function as a natural buffer zone.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Separating different neighborhoods, as in Soweto, areas of open land present potential development areas.

Initiatives to use this space for sports and recreation, as well as gardening, will be managed by Johannesburg City Parks. THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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Post-Apartheid Strategy

This proposal for post-apartheid links former buffer zones into an urban greening network to connect separated urban areas. The addition of an infrastructural Urban Spine transforms these buffer zones into attractive central nodes and activates neighborhoods to gradually move towards one another. Implementing a greening scheme initiates stitching together of the fragmented urban pattern of the city; an architectural spine then provides much needed public services to neglected areas. After the fall of apartheid, the government’s RDP housing program promised to provide housing to every South African citizen; qualifying low and no-income citizens were promised a house for free. This phenomenon is problematic not only because it is unrealistic to finance—the waiting list for a house is over 30 years long—but shack dwellers are unwilling to upgrade their housing, preferring to wait for their free house. The government is seeking alternative solutions as it is rapidly becoming clear that this program will never be fully implemented. Typically, residents of townships and informal settlements wish to remain in their current residential areas rather than being resettled; however, these areas lack legal services and a platform for residents to gather, to voice their complaints, and to educate themselves. As a transition to phase out the RDP housing program, in this proposal the government is required to provide the structural framework for an Urban Spine. This spine is composed of a steel grid that serves as a covered pathway as well as the structural basis for the construction of public service buildings. While the architectural process and language would be the same for any buffer zone, the program for the built elements of each site would be determined by the adjacent local communities in a participatory manner.

The combination of pathway and a newly developed courtyard typology represents the new architectural expression of post-apartheid urbanism. It signifies not only a government focus on public functions, but a new formal language that departs from the common apartheid building typology that continues to define South African building culture in contemporary affordable housing design to the present day. Johannesburg, with its buffer zones, has the unique opportunity to consider an urban center as public infrastructure in a park, an alternative to the hyper-density experienced by many contemporary cities. This strategy allows those in discriminated areas like townships to reclaim the land that used to repress them, and to have access to what they need most, which is access to public amenities and spaces.

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Diepkloof

Robertsham

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The Urban Spine and its Courts: Levels of Privacy and Adaptable Mutations Courtyards are a consistent feature of vernacular forms of South African residential architecture. The gridded structure in conjunction with the form of the courtyard in this proposal for an Urban Spine suggests a new building typology for a post-apartheid South Africa, moving away from the system of construction that has not altered since the apartheid era. As security and privacy remain such important aspects of design in the local context, the grid and courtyard is an appropriate strategy thatPRINCIPLE integrates a series of protected areas with ever-increasing privacy. OVERALL OVERALL PRINCIPLE

Pathway Structure

Courtyard Typology

Function

FUNCTION FUNCTION

Providing

public

services

COMMUNITY COMMUNITYCENTER CENTER to meet local needs along CLINIC CLINIC PHARMACIE PHARMACIE centralized infrastructure. MARKET MARKET RESTAURANT RESTAURANT BAR BAR MICRO MICROBUSINESSES BUSINESSES LIBRARY LIBRARY ORPHANAGE ORPHANAGE

ELDERLY ELDERLYHOME HOME SPIRITUAL SPIRITUALSPACE SPACE THEATER THEATER CONCERT CONCERTHALL HALL PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCESTAGE STAGE GYM GYM SCHOOL SCHOOL TRAINING TRAININGCOLLEGE COLLEGE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY Upgrading Buffer ARTIST ARTISTSCHOOL SCHOOL CRAFT CRAFTWORKSHOPS WORKSHOPS central hubs of WORKSHOPS WORKSHOPS activity through BRICK BRICKFACTORY FACTORY

Zones as economic practical

training and experience.

Implementation Implementation urbanspace space of ofpublic publicurban

Choice Choiceof offunction functionaccording according to tocommunity communityneeds needs

1. Implementation of a gridded “urban spine.”

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2. Determination of functions and program according to community needs.

Introduction Introductionof ofpublic publicfunctions functions through throughcourtyard courtyardtypologie typologie 3. Determination of building volumes according to needs and typologies.

Courtyard built volumes aligned along a spine.

Public spaces accessible on spine and in courts.

Public vs. private space with courtyard typology.

figure

ground

Private and semipublic spaces between buildings.

Outdoor spaces with three layers of privacy.

Varied levels of privacy with courtyard typology.

levels of privacy (ground)

levels combined

pub vs. priv space ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

levels of privacy (figure)

THE EMERALD NECKLACE

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A township resident watering her plants with the Sandton skyline and setting sun in the background. ©Urban Think Tank, ETH Department. Photograph 2011 by Daniel Schwarz.

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An Emerald Necklace for the City of Gold. - Vision for the City of Johannesburg

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Pilot Project

A constructive strategy connecting neighborhoods of different socioe c o n o m i c b a c kg r o u n d s t h r o u g h public functions.

Buffer zones have already been invaded by Johannesburg’s inhabitants.

Marlboro Industrial Township 286 Public Amenities and Spaces 298 External Influences 314 Residential Factories 320 Urban Patterns 330 Marlboro Greening Scheme 340 Architectural Catalyst 356 The Urban Spine 364 Urban Ramifications 374 Conclusion 380 PILOT PROJECT

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Marlboro Industrial Township

An interaction between the rural and the urban is visible in the township of Alexandra and its northern neighbor, Marlboro Gardens. In immediate proximity to the township, all buffer typologies are present. The interdependency of Alexandra and Sandton, the displaced city center, makes the area extremely valuable. Providing public functions, and thus the opportunity for different urban groups to meet, could lead to a radical new way of encouraging people to interact.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Pilot Project Area: Marlboro Industrial Township

Displaced City Center: Sandton

Traditional City Center: CBD

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Pilot Project Area: Marlboro Industrial Township

Displaced City Center: Sandton

“Wordpress” accessed April 10, 2012, http://www.google. com/imgres?q=http//2summers.files. wordpress.comandsandton.jpg

The township of Alexandra is located just four kilometers away from Sandton City, Johannesburg’s acting city center.

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SANDTON

INNISFREE PARK

WYNBERG

MARLBORO TOWNSHIP

JUSKEI RIVER

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Google Earth 03/2012

The highest building and population density in Johannesburg can be found in Alexandra.

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Google Earth 03/2012

Sandton, separated from Alexandra by the M1 Highway, is characterized by gardens, trees, and swimming pools.

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Pilot Project Area Marlboro Industrial Township was planned as an area of light industry during the apartheid era. Although it is an established piece of the urban fabric separating Alexandra Township from the surrounding wealthy, former white neighborhoods, by its very nature it is a place meant to remain out-of-sight. This abandoned industrial area is occupied by over 6,000 people, however, this is not a commonly known fact.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Buffer zones, neglected and forgotten spaces within the city, must be relinked and reintegrated into the development scheme for greater Johannesburg. Particularly because the area of Marlboro Industrial Township is so near to the acting city center, Sandton, the district is uniquely equipped to serve as an immediately relevant pilot project area for the city. Meanwhile, the buffer zones in the mining belt area further south undergo reprocessing and areas of open land are networked to form the Emerald Necklace. Although this pilot project area responds to specific conditions, the principles can be applied to any buffer zone. Development is primarily based on four principles: 1. activating neglected space through a communal function; 2. providing equal living opportunities for every citizen; 3. developing a sequence of private to public spaces appropriate to cultural traditions; 4. creating a sense of a shared identity and common urban experience.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Former warehouse structures provide accommodation for roughly 9,000 residents.

Squatters either reside in shack dwellings or inside of abandoned warehouses and factories. PILOT PROJECT

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Inequalities in Residential Areas According to the condition of a residence, an inference can be made as to the economic status of the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s owner. The neighborhood of Marlboro Gardens, north of Marlboro Industrial Township, have a hierarchy of dwellings clearly stratified according to income level. Buildings near the township are extremely modest, typically consisting of three rooms and a fence demarcating the property lines. Homes further north and to the center of the neighborhood gradually increase in size and luxury, increasing to two-story structures with lush gardens. The most luxurious urban homes, however, lie across the M1 Highway in Sandton.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Lower-class residential home in Alexandra Township, south of the Marlboro Industrial Township pilot area.

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Economic status of the resdiential areas surrounding the pilot area.

Lower-Class Lower-Middle Class

Middle Class ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Upper-Middle Class Upper Class

Lower-middle class residential home in Marlboro Gardens, north of the Marlboro Industrial Township pilot area. PILOT PROJECT

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Lower-middle class residential home.

Middle class residential home.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Upper-middle class residential complex.

Upper class residential home. PILOT PROJECT

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Public Amenities and Spaces

Shopping centers or malls are often connected to the public transportation network; in Alexandra Township and Marlboro Industrial Township, formal transportation exists only at their boundaries and does not penetrate into the areas. Several main roads in Alexandra are accessible by “local” taxi routes, which use smaller forms of the mini-bus taxi, and terminate at the Pan-Africa taxi rank. These routes are irregular and too expensive for daily use by the residents of these areas. Considering that Marlboro Industrial Township was originally planned as an industrial area, it is not surprising that few public service are located in the area. Within the greater context of Alexandra Township and Wynberg are several schools, health clinics, a large shopping center, and a police station. However, the available public service functions does not even come close to serving all of the area’s inhabitants or fufilling the district’s needs. Only two health centers and nine schools serve approximately 450,000 inhabitants. Residents from Marlboro Industrial Township who send their children to school must accept the long walking distances, which can be challenging to orchestrate. A daily journey to school easily takes an hourlong walk through the township; young children in particular need to be accompanied by adults.

Due to the fact that the HIV rate in the area is far over thirty percent and many residents require treatment, two health centers cannot provide adequate treatment for 450,000 people. However, positive development has occurred in Marlboro Industrial Township, where a small health clinic was opened; another doctor is also active in a small area shopping complex. Sports facilities include the Alexandra Stadium in the center of the township as well as a gym in Marlboro Gardens, which is a significant distance from the township. As with any other service, the city of Johannesburg cannot provide enough institutions for the area, and some private businesses have begun to flourish. One example from Alexandra is that of world-ranked boxer Richard Khunou, born in the township, who founded a boxing center and gym for local use and training.

School Health Center Sports Facility Shopping Center Police Station 298

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM ery iph Per rom f t en vem Mo

s ant abit s inh chool 0 0 s 0 , y 470 ondar c 8 se ics s tion in 3 cl ice sta l o 2p er ent

ic C

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Transformation of an Industrial Area At one time, Marlboro Industrial Township was an active and attractive industrial area; today some businesses remain, some have been replaced, and some buildings have been abandoned. Since the fall of apartheid, the area is no longer a mono-functionial industrial area; squatters have occupied some of the buildings and others have built shacks next to them. Occasionally, building owners charge rent for this “emergency housing.” Where industry blew once flourished, children play on the streets while men and women seek work.

100 m

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Business Residential Church Clinic School / Daycare Abandoned

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

PILOT PROJECT

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Recycling Industry A significant number of businesses located in Marlboro Industrial Township are part of the recycling industry. Large companies, such as South African Waste, have recycling plants located next to micro-businesses that sell used products and building materials. Unfortunately, the businesses in the recycling sector are not yet linked to one another. For example, coordinated efforts between carpentry workshops are tree nurseries that could reuse their woodchippings are seldom found. Organization such as this would engender new possibilities for integrated and mutually supportive ventures.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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Recycling facilities in Marlboro Industrial Township.

The Glass Recycling Company, one of the largest recycling companies in Marlboro Industrial Township.

PILOT PROJECT

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Auto Repair Workshops Although few residents of Marlboro Industrial Township own a vehicle, there are more auto repair workshops in the area than any other type of business. These are often located in spaces such as old garage or factory buildings, or in the backyard of an existing plot of land. Old taxis, small trucks, and mini-buses comprise the vehicle types that are typically repaired at one of these workshops. The role as a machinery depot for recycling parts is also a common undertaking in this specialized sector.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

304

PILOT PROJECT

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Auto body shops and mechanics in Marlboro Industrial Township.

Auto repair workshop for mechanical parts and engines.

PILOT PROJECT

305

Innovative Businesses Coordinating large-scale food production companies, supermarkets, carpenters, and car workshops offer potential models for future entrepeneurship. A tree nursery propagates and grows trees to be sold beyond the local contexxt. New and recycled materials are available in the area to enable construction of new shacks and houses.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

306

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Carpentry, building material supply and production, and painting are common occupations in Marlboro.

Tree nursery in Marlboro Industrial Township. PILOT PROJECT

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Spaza Shops Although the majority of building owners have abandoned the area, many small and microbusinesses have survived or were initiated by squatters. The many spaza shops are a prime example of the squattersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; businesses. These are informal convenience stores that sell everything from food to common household products. Often, the shops are located in front of residential buildings. Their typology and name originate from apartheid times, when townships were mono-functional enclaves and the closest formal shop was located far beyond its borders. The owners of the spaza shops buy their goods at larger establishments and re-sell smaller portions. There are several food production companies in Marlboro Industrial Township as well as several supermarkets, but most of the inhabitants rely on spaza shops.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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PILOT PROJECT

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Several food production companies are located in Marlboro Industrial Township.

Shop owner awaiting customers in front of an occupied industrial building. PILOT PROJECT

309

Traces of Industry For the past twenty years, Marlboro Industrial Township has been declining due to crime, the rising cost of labor, and the possibility of better opportunities. Many businessmen and company owners have left the area. Some promoted their buildings in the townships as temporary or “emergency” housing when no other business or industrial tenant could be found; others simply left the city or even the country without making arrangements for the maintenance of their property. Today, many signs and empty buildings, some in acceptable and some in irreparable condition, serve as a reminder of a time when the area was a vivid part of the city.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Buildings have often been abandoned by their original owners and now function as informal residences.

Signs from former and current businesses serve as a reminder of the past and suggest potential future opportunities. PILOT PROJECT

311

Searching for Labor Unemployment is currently one of South Africa’s greatest challenges and is a primary concern in the areas of Alexandra and Marlboro Industrial Township. Many residents leave the house early in the morning, often by 4 a.m., to travel into Sandton and the CBD to seek work. By midday, most of them are back, frustrated and disappointed that they will have to survive another day without a source of income. If they find a job—often a temporary one—they often must not only support their family in the city, but also relatives living far away in their village or country of origin.

“An estimated eighty percent of the people in Marlboro [Industrial Township] are unemployed.” - Charles, Marlboro Industrial Township Community Leader

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Signs advertising a personal micro-business.

Traffic lights at intersections are popular locations to post advertisements for services. PILOT PROJECT

313

External Influences Marlboro Industrial Township’s residents lack basic amenities, yet the area has gone unnoticed by the government and the private sector alike. Several religious organizations and NGO’s, such as Slum Dwellers International, are encouraging the community to improve their living conditions themselves, and they attempt to finance projects in a joint partnership with the government and private institutions.

100 m

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Clinic Church School

PILOT PROJECT

315

Churches Belief is an important factor in South Africa. Whether it is practiced in a traditional way as in rural villages or whether it occurs in western-style churches, most people retain a strong belief in a higher power. Besides the Protestant and Catholic churches, a remarkable number of socalled “free” or charismatic churches can be also found in underprivileged areas. Not all of them are practicing churches; some are aid-oriented businesses and others provide services such as childcare and primary education. Religious organizations are one of the few ways money is invested in the area of Marlboro South.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

A significant number of churches is present in Marlboro Industrial Township.

Even the churches in Marlboro Industrial Township require private security. PILOT PROJECT

317

Alexandra Renewal Project The Alexandra Renewal Project is part of the South African governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Urban Renewal Program and is jointly sponsored by the City of Johannesburg and the Department of Housing of the Gauteng Province. The budget, set in 2001, was 1.3 billion rand (circa 147 million Swiss francs) to be repaid over a period of seven years. The primary goal of the project was to upgrade living conditions and human development potential within Alexandra. Marlboro South was also included in this program, but thus far any attempt at significant change has been a failure.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Some improvements have been accomplished in Alexandra Township, such as providing households with legal access to electricity and water, building a small public park along the Juskei River, and upgrading housing on the Far East Bank. 70,000 people are permitted to live in Alexandra, but in reality, the figure is closer to 450,000. Since most Alexandra residents are potential recipients of a government funded RDP house, they lack motivation to upgrade their living conditions on their own volition. However, since Marlboro Industrial Township community leaders have begun to work together with Slum Dwellers International, inhabitants have become attuned to their unique situation and wish to take steps to improve their circumstances.

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PILOT PROJECT

“Alexandra Renewal Project” ARP, accessed December 19, 2011, http://www. alexandra.co.za/.

The Alexandra Renewal Project is financed by a joint venture from the City of Johannesburg and Gauteng Province.

Clean-up of the area around Alexandra by Renewal Project community volunteers. PILOT PROJECT

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Residential Factories Since businesses began to leave the area in the 1990s, Marlboro Industrial Township has served as a refuge for marginalized people. The real estate market in Johannesburg gives developers great influence, and lack of governmental control over land allows disadvantaged inhabitants to slip through the cracks of formal society. They often land in forgotten zones like this informal township.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

100 m

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Residential

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Long-Term Temporary Housing Temporary, informal solutions in abandoned industrial structures in Marlboro Industrial Township have slowly become long-term residential housing. Originally, warehouses were subdivided into units to form “emergency housing,” usually by the building owners themselves and one person was designated responsible for collecting rent from all residents. However, some of the buildings with informal tenants are even owned by the City of Johannesburg. After urging from elected community leaders in the area, many tenants have begun to boycott rent until legal utility services are provided by the building owners.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Residential factory in Marlboro Industrial Township.

Approximately 200 inhabitants share this space in an abandoned warehouse building.

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Informal Residents The marginalized community living in Marlboro Industrial Township consists primarily of young residents under the age of forty. Many came to the area either in search of a place to settle after leaving their family homes in neighboring Alexandra, or from their homes in the countryside surrounding Johannesburg. Most of the residents are unemployed and have no activities to keep them occupied on a daily basis. While they often play games or do small-scale craft projects, infrastructure is not availalbe for them to promote their products or market their skills.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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PILOT PROJECT

Residential factory inhabitants pass time by playing cards or pool, doing laundry, and reading the real estate pages. PILOT PROJECT

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Lighting inside a residential factory during daytime hours.

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Dangerous construction of an upper floor in a residential factory.

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Access to Infrastructure Availability of clean water, electricity, and sanitary facilities is one of the greatest challenges facing the inhabitants of residential factories. One water tap provides water for washing, cleaning, bathing, and cooking for the entire community. Inside the buildings, it is dark even during daytime hours and electricity is needed to illuminate interior rooms that lack windows. Utility connections are illegal and residents struggle to legalize them in a way they can afford. Portable toilets are the only access to sanitary facilities for the over 6,000 residents and laborers of Marlboro Industrial Township. The only alternative is the bucket system.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Illegal power connections make electricity available to residential factories.

One of two water taps serving over 200 residents in a Marlboro Industrial Township warehouse.

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Urban Patterns Marlboro South serves as a physical buffer dividing the surrounding residential neighborhoods, which vary greatly in structure and predominant housing typology. The area also exhibits a very different density due to its history as an industrial zone. It has the open space required for interventions as well as existing businesses, which could be reorganized to empower this forgotten zone.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

100 m

330

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Urban space and its qualities vary greatly depending on the neighborhood, even when the street remains constant. Marlboro Gardens streets are lined with shade trees and most residents drive. Only household workers coming from other areas walk along these streets. In Marlboro Industrial Township, the density is lower and there are large, open fields that allow for shortcuts across the rigid block structure. On the other extreme, in Alexandra, pathways lead beyond the original street configuration deep into the townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban infill of shack housing.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Marlboro Gardens street facing Marlboro Industrial Township. 1

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Marlboro South street facing Marlboro Gardens.

2 4 3

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Pedestrian traffic in Marlboro Industrial Township.

Street in Alexandra with the Sandton skyline in the distance.

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Interior pathway in a residential factory.

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Narrow passage in Alexandra.

PILOT PROJECT

335

Urban Patterns in Residential Factories and Townships The density of the townships and the inside of residential factories exhibit similar building patterns. This phenomenon is noteworthy because so much open space exists in Marlboro Industrial Township; people seem to prefer living in a densely populated, community-oriented, and introverted space. Residential factories replicate township patterns of semi-public space.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Arrangement of room units in a residential factory.

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1 2

Arrangement of shacks in Alexandra Township.

2 PILOT PROJECT

337

Shared Space in Informal Urban Areas Particularly the communal spaces found in Marlboro Industrial Township reflect those of Alexandra. In a typical township structure, courtyards provide space for group activities. Equivalent conditions exist within the residential factories or within the fenced area surrounding a given building.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Self-constructed community space in a residential factory.

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Courtyards form the community space in Alexandra Township.

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Marlboro Greening Scheme Integrated into the greening strategy for greater Johannesburg, Marlboro Industrial Township develops in different phases in this proposal, forming a new typology of an urban green space. The city will be characterized by cooperative gardening, sports fields, and landscape areas. A flow of people between Alexandra and Sandton already exists; the greening scheme reinforces this relationship.

ENS

ARD

OG BOR

LIC

PUB

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CO S / T R SPO

SHI

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N TOW IAL

TR DUS

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ENT

K PAR

VEM MO

LIC

PUB

DRA

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AXI

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Existing parks, including Innisfree Park, the Alexandra Cemetery, and Juksei Park on both sides of the area connect it to the greater network of green spaces in Johannesburg. Along with the new developed industrial area, this will lead to a green axis from Alexandra to Sandton. Small-scale cooperative the side gardens permeate the site from the township areas and leisure penetrates from the neighborhoods on its northern edge. Sporting amenities become the connecting element between the two.

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ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

ENI

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Greening Process: Networking the Patchwork City Preservation of open land to link valuable urban areas and to transform divisive land into public land are the primary goals of the Johannesburg Emerald Necklace. By utilizing the in-between spaces that separated neighborhoods, various typologies of greening promote a productive landscape and transform these areas to places focused on education and opportunity. Whether a person is employed and gardens as a hobby or whether an unemployed person gardens when they are unable to find work, gardening improves the quality of life of those in the townships. Recreation and leisure areas for sports and group activities have the power to attract multiple population demographics.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

The greening of buffer zone areas is executed according to the following process: 1. documentation of existing site conditions. 2. reservation of existing open spaces for communal activities (sports, public service locations) in a rezoning plan. 3. demolition of insignificant and structurally unstable buildings. 4. implementation of cooperative gardening in areas designated in the rezoning plan. 5. densification of designated areas on site completes site transformation.

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8 6

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Ground floor of the proposal for a training college.

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First floor of the training college, stretching itself along the pathway structure.

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Section through the training college, its courtyards, and the adjacent community gardens.

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369

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

In the final phase of the development, a new dwelling model is implemented in the form of multi-generational living.

370

PILOT PROJECT

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Volumes are aligned around courtyards and offer accommodation for HIV orphans and the elderly.

PILOT PROJECT

371

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Section through one of the courtyards with another volume elevation in the background.

372

PILOT PROJECT

373

Urban Ramifications

The development of a park between a township and a middle class neighborhood will have ramifications not only for the actual site, but also for the adjacent areas. The provision of work and education will catalyze an initivive for improvement by the residents. Since government policies must change, people will become responsible for their own homes, though the government needs to provide the legal framework for this development. The high density and concentrated culture of Alexandra is its strength; this identity has been constructed by overcoming adversity and a common experience of urbanity. It is a township with a unique history in South Africa, and it residents need to be treated accordingly. This means their current property rights need to be respected. The goal of the new set of development laws will be to maintain the existing population density within the area, but to create smaller building footprints and thus more open space through vertical construction. As the development process will take time, it is important that spaces for public functions to serve the current and future population are reserved in the urban fabric. Thus, each block will set aside two plots to initially remain undeveloped and serve solely as the site of future development of public services.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Within a pattern of four to six blocks, two plots are also emptied in order to form a public square, or a sub-center of activity with a higher level of social control than the street. These squares can been seem as a micro-scale transformation of the methodology utilized to form the green infusion park scheme in the greater structure of a vision for an Emerald Necklace for the City of Gold.

Apartheid Planning

Current Situation

Block Characteristics

Development

Current Density

94m x 315m 11% of surface covered 176 m2 per inhabitant

Densification with rental of backyard shack units.

61% of surface covered 880 m2 residential space per plot

Apartheid Planning

Apartheid Planning Current Situation Planning Development through backyardApartheid renting Development through backyard renting

Block = 94 m x 315 m

11 % of surface built on

170 inhabitants 176 sqm / inhabitant 24 households

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4,200 inhabitants 5m2 residential space per inhabitant (Switzerland: 44 m2)

Current Situation Ideal Post Apartheid Planning Ideal Post Apartheid Planning Current Situation Ideal Post Apartheid Planning

Development through backyard renting 1. Phase Block = 94 m x 315 m 61 % of surface built on 880 sqm out residential space / plot Blocking

Block = 94 m x 315 m 61 % of surface built on 880 sqm residential space / plot

1. Phase 2. Phase Block = 94 m x 315 m 61 % of surface built on Blockingspace out Reserving Public Space 880 sqm residential / plot

1. Phase

2. Phase

3. Phase

2. Phase

3. Phase 4. Phase

3. Phase

4. Phase 5

Switzerland 44 sqm residential space / inhabitant

4200 inhabitants 25 original plots arespace reserved for public sqm residential / inhabitant space within each block Switzerland 44 sqm residential space / inhabitant

Reserving Public Space two plots for public Reserving functionsPublic Space Reserving two plots for Blocking out Reserving Allowance topublic totallyfunctions build up an Reserving outer ring of t two plots forAllowance public funcR 12 m width up to four storys high with 12 m widths 4200 inhabitants 2 original plots 10-20 are % reserved of plot size for public left empty2 for publicplots are reserved 10-20 of plot size left empty for public 10-20 % of plot size left empty for public commercial use on the ground floor commercial original for% public 5 sqm residential /each inhabitant space space within courtyard block and pathway connection spaceinwithin each block courtyard and pathway connection in courtyard and pathway connection in the back of the plots the back of the plots Switzerland the back of the plots 44 sqm residential space / inhabitant

1400 people / ha

Mumbai 2000 people / ha

Kibera / Nairobi 2000 people / ha

Mumbai 2000 people / ha

City of New York 104 people / ha

4200 inhabitants 5 sqm residential space / inhabitant

Kibera / Nairobi 2000 people / ha City of New York 104 people / ha

The blocks create an urban fabric infused with public service centers and interior pathway networks. Post Apartheid Development

2. Phase

3. Phase

Reserving Public Space

Reserving two plots for public functions

10-20 % of plot size left empty for public courtyard and pathway connection in the back of the plots

4. Phase

5. Phase

Future Urban Density

Allowance to totally build up an outer ring of 12 m width up to four storys high with commercial use on the ground floor

Rest of parcels can be built on by 25 % of the surface up to 3 storys

54 % of surface built on 1500 sqm residential space / plot

Block Pattern

Creation of public service centers and inner block pathways.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM 1. Phase

2. Phase

3. Phase

Blocking Out Plots

Creating Connections

Implementing Public Functions

Two plots are saved for public open space.

10-20% of each plot is left empty for public courts and pathway connections at their backyard boundary.

Program for the previously reserved plots is determined.

gelopment through backyard Apartheid Planning Current SituationDevelopment through Current Situation Situation Ideal Post ApartheidCurrent Planning Ideal Post Apartheid Planning renting Development through backyard renting backyard renting Block = 94 m x 315 m

11 % of surface built on 170 inhabitants 176 sqm / inhabitant 24 households

1. Phase Block = 94 m x 315 m Block = 94 m x 315 m 61 % of surface built on 61 % of surface built on 880 sqm residential space / plot 880 sqm residential space Blocking out / plot 4200 inhabitants 5 sqm residential space / inhabitant

Planning

Ideal Post Apartheid Planning

g Public Space

Blocking out

1. Phase

2. Phase

3. Phase

Ideal Post Apartheid Planning

1. Phase 2. Phase 1. Phase Block = 94 m x 315 m 61 % of surface built on 880 sqm residential space / plot Blocking out Reserving Public Space Blocking out

1400 people / ha

Mumbai 2000 people / ha

Kibera / Nairobi 2000 people / ha

City of New York 104 people / ha

2. Phase

3. Phase

4. Phase

3. Phase

4. Phase

3. Phase

4. Phase

5. Phase

4. Phase

5. Phase

4. Phase

5. Phase

Future Density

Block Densification

Block Transformation

An outer ring up to four stories high is filled with commercial uses on the ground floor.

Additional plots can be densified up to 25% of their surface area and be constructed up to three stories tall.

54% of surface area constructed 1,500m2 residential space/plot

4. Phase

5. Phase

4. Phase

5. Phase

Future Urban Density

5. Phase

Future Urban Density

Block Pattern

Future Urban Density Block Pattern

Reserving Public Space Reserving two plots for public Reserving Space % of built on 54can % of on% of the 54 % of surface built on functionsPublicReserving two plots for public functions two plots for public functions Allowance to totally build up an Reserving outer ring of Allowance to totally build outercan ringbe of built on by Allowance totally up an ring ofsurface Restup of an parcels 25 % of to the Rest ofbuild parcels canouter be54 built on by 25 % of the Rest of parcels besurface built onbuilt by 25 Creation of public service centers Creation of public service centers 1500 sqm residential space / plot sqm residential space / plot 1500 sqm residential space / plot 12 m width up to four storys high with 12 m width up to foursurface storys high 12 m width up to fourup storys with up towith 3 storys surface to 3 high storys surface up to 31500 storys and inner block pathways. and inner block pathways. of public original publicplots 10-20 are reserved % of plot forsize public left empty for public 10-20 % of plot size left empty for public commercial use on the ground floor commercial use on the ground floor commercial use on the ground floor nt plot size left empty2 for and pathway connection spaceinwithin each courtyard block and pathway connection in courtyard and pathway connection in of the plots the back of the plots the back of the plots ant

Block Pattern

Creation of public service centers and inner block pathways.

PILOT PROJECT

375

5. Phase

Futur

3. Phase

Public Reserving Space 54on % by of surface % Reserving two plots for Reserving public functions two plots for public functions twoAllowance plots for public functions Allowance to totally build upReserving an outer ring of to totally buildRest up an ringcan of be builtAllowance to of totally up an outer ring of of outer parcels on by 25 % Rest the ofbuild parcels can be built 25 % ofbuilt the on Rest of parcels54 can / plot up to 31500 12 m width up to four storys high with 12 m width up to four storys highup with 12 m width upsurface to four storys with 1500 sqm residential space surface to 3 storys up to 3high storys surface story 10-20 % of plot size left empty for public commercial use on the ground floor commercial use on the ground floor commercial use on the ground floor courtyard and pathway connection in the back of the plots

Switzerland 44 sqm residential space / inhabitant

2. Phase

Future Urban Density

2. Phase

Reserving Public Space

4200 inhabitants 4200 inhabitants 2 original are reserved for public 5 sqm 2 original plots are reserved 10-20 for public % of plot size left empty 2 original for public plots are 10-20 reserved % of plot for size public left empty for public 5 sqm residential spaceplots / inhabitant residential space / inhabitant space within each block space within each block courtyard and pathway connection space within in each courtyard block and pathway connection in Switzerland Switzerland the back of the plots the back of the plots 44 sqm residential space / inhabitant 44 sqm residential space / inhabitant

Ground floor of the proposal for a training college.

366

PILOT PROJECT

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

First floor of the training college, stretching itself along the pathway structure.

PILOT PROJECT

367

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Section through the training college, its courtyards, and the adjacent community gardens.

368

PILOT PROJECT

369

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

In the final phase of the development, a new dwelling model is implemented in the form of multi-generational living.

370

PILOT PROJECT

376

PILOT PROJECT

377

378

PILOT PROJECT

View along an implemented Urban Spine.

PILOT PROJECT

379

Conclusion

Global cities are often characterized by disparity and spatial injustice. The apartheid pattern of prosperous enclaves networked to valuable urban areas, physically excluding the underprivileged of Johannesburg, persists today. To overcome this phenomenon, spaces separating disadvantaged neighborhoods from the urban fabric need to be linked to one another and infused with opportunities for training and education. This network would radically alter the spatial patterns of apartheid. Inequality in the built fabric of a city cannot be changed immediately; altering existing patterns of living and networks of interdependency requires a long and complex process. This is particularly true in a place like South Africa, where less than two decades ago racial discrimination was codified law. The buffer zone apartheid areas, representing the deliberate physical separation of neighborhoods, present a unique opportunity to redress the injustices of apartheid. The government must take a strong stance on the repossession of this land, including former mining and industrial sites. It must prohibit real estate development from dictating cycles of inequality in the urban realm, and must redirect its focus to the implementation of public services and functions rather than the provision of housing.

Post-apartheid urbanism envisions an urbanity where the landscape acts as a catalyst, infusing buffer zone areas with opportunities for employment, education, and social reconciliation. Under apartheid, buffer zones denied non-white racial demographics the freedom of movement—they were spatially restricted to specific areas and required written permission to leave. The same people were also denied the freedom of education—prohibited from pursuing careers other than laborer, household worker, minister, or teacher. Public services and access to work and education are rights due to not only the former victims of apartheid, but to any member of society. The concept of an urban spine acts as a catalyst to reconnect spatially separated neighborhoods, like a needle stitching isolated patches of fabric into an urban patchwork quilt. By connecting formerly forgotten areas into a greater network, the urban greening scheme transforms the buffer zone areas into an Emerald Necklace for the City of Gold, which becomes the most valuable piece of the city. The needle and necklace vision proposes a new urbanity for Johannesburg—and the opportunity to share a common urban experience. Post-apartheid urbanism is a policy that guarantees everyone equal opportunity to the valuable parts of the city—parks, public services, employment, social activities—regardless of race or economic status. If the cities of the future are to combat inequality, they must act now to create a spatially just urban fabric. Otherwise, the urban fabric will continue to disintegrate into isolated and unrelated fragments, and any hope for a collective image of the city will be lost.

380

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Greening in Buffer Zones

Disadvantaged Areas Infused

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM Theoretical Practical Education

Training

Increase of Skills and Opportunity

Township Upgrading and Improvement

Increase of Land Value and Security

Spatial Inequalities Reduced

PILOT PROJECT

381

382

PILOT PROJECT

View towards the relic of the brick factory, the symbol of a productive community.

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

PILOT PROJECT

383

An Emerald Necklace for the City of Gold.

384

PILOT PROJECT

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

If our future cities are to become socially, economically and environmentally sustainable entities, spatial justice and fair distribution of wealth and resources must be the primary goals of a new urbanism. Especially in places with a painful history, healing can be engendered through collective urban experiences, and a common future imagined. - Vision for the City of Johannesburg

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385

Appendix

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM apartheid enclave inbetween inclusion

joburg jozi mzansi nodes

routes ubuntu urbanism zuidafrika

Terminology 390 History 392 Bibliography 396 Interviews 399 Acknowledgements 400 APPENDIX

389

Terminology

ZA - AZ: Zuidafrika from A to Z A ANC political party in power since the fall of apartheid, initiators of RDP housing program anchor point a significant physical location to a person’s daily life and routines apartheid a system that separates people according to race; in South Africa a legal policy of segregating the non-white population into racial categories apartheid urbanism the spatial policy under apartheid to physically separate urban racial groups

B black one of the apartheid racial categories; indicated native African descent in family history

buffer zone an in-between zone of a specific typology (geographical, industrial, etc.) used by apartheid urban planners to spatially separate South African neighborhoods from one another; neglected areas of the city acting as spatial barriers between urban elements Braai Afrikaans word for “barbecue”; a South African cultural signifier

C coloured one of the apartheid racial categories; indicated a mix of heritages in family history comfort zone a map containing the sum of a person’s anchor points; the resulting zone is the area in which they feel secure

E enclave distinct and in contiguous area or group enclosed or isolated within a larger territory

G Gini Coefficient indicator for unequal societies; ranked South Africa second in the world in 2006 with a coefficient of 0,67

H homeland a self-governing “state” for Black South Africans under apartheid law

I indian one of the apartheid racial categories; indicated Malay descent in family history

390

APPENDIX

J Joburg, Jozi, eGoli popular nicknames for Johannesburg

M Mandela, Nelson first African president of South Africa and worldwide cultural icon Mzansi isiXhosa word for “South Africa”; common, affectionate slang term for South Africa

N nodes places for encounter within an urban area

P PWV collective term for Gauteng Metropolitan Region; includes Pretoria, the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and Vereeniging

routes transportation networks and flows of people connecting enclaves

S Spaza shop informal convenience store common to townships; provides basic household items spatial demographics socioeconomic characteristics of a population relative to a physical area

T Taxi rank a queue area where taxis line up to wait for passengers

U Ubuntu Zulu word for “humanity”; represents the spirit of unity and change since apartheid

W white one of the apartheid racial categories; indicated European descent in family history World Cup (rugby and soccer) an important cultural unifier; source of national identity and pride

X Xenophobia a prevalent phenomenon in South Africa due to immigration and lack of opportunity

Z Zuidafrika Afrikaans word for “South Africa”

APPENDIX

391

History

planning history of johannesburg 150 years

Planning History of Johannesburg

Early Development Region Developmentofofthe theJohannesburg Johannesburg Region 1860-1910 1860-1910

1st Boer War 1880-1881 1880-1881

1860

Expansion Racial Lawsofand Apartheid Unrest andofExpansion Racial Laws 1910-1976 1910-1976

2nd Boer War 1899-1902 1899-1902

Natives NativesLand LandAct Act 1913 1913

1890

1920

© COOPERATIVE URBANISM 1867: Diamonds are found in Kimberly; DeBeers opens its first mine. Division of labor in the mines was initialled multi-racial, but after an episode of the plague broke out, hospitals were divided according to race. By the time gold was found in Pretoria in the 1880s, pass laws required workers of Black African origin, or ‘Natives,‘ to live in specific zones and carry identification.

1907-1910: The Union of South Africa is founded, dividing the population according to race: Black, Colored, Indian, and White. No legal rights were given to Black Africans. The Natives Land Act of 1913 legalized physical segregation according to race in the practice of urban planning. Between 1916 and 1981 over 17 million Black Africans were prosecuted for violations under the pass laws.

1886: The name Johannesburg is first mentioned in the context of a plan for a mining village with 600 plots on a 99 year lease. A large square was to be set aside for the government and 12 plots dedicated for the founding of a church. By the end of the year, the first fuel and water shortages are already occurring. In 1894, a bye-law is passed prohibiting ‘Natives’ from using the Johannesburg city‘s pavements. 392

APPENDIX

1914-1922: Unrest amongst mining workers escalates multiple times to violence with police, particularly in the case of rebellion by Black Africans. A precedent for violence is established. In 1923, the ‘Native (Urban Areas) Actss’ is passed, forcing local authorities to take responsibility for the housing of Black citizens. This includes the 1918 established Western Township, built on a brickfield and dump.

Apartheid in Crisis Apartheid Crisis 1976-1994 1976-1994

Apartheid Legalized 1948 1948

New South South Africa AA New Africa 1994-Present 1994-Present

Sharpville Massacre Sharpeville Massacre 1960 1960

1950

Soweto Riots 19761976

Sîx Elected Six Day War Mandela Mandela Elected 19851985 19941994

1980

2010

© COOPERATIVE URBANISM 1930-1940: Houses in the Western Township and in 1926 established Eastern Townships number 2625. Many Black residents lived in Newclare, Sophiatown, Martindale and Prospect Township in heavily overcrowded conditions. By 1940 city housing in townships reached 8700 units, not including 6912 beds in singlesex hostels or 4000 ‘breeze block‘ shelters in what was known as ‘Shantytown.‘

1980: The ANC renounces its call for peaceful protest and begins implementing violent attacks on government officials. From mid-1986 until 1990, the entire country was declared a state of emergency. Violence continues to escalate in the townships and is met with brutal retaliation by police forces. Not until 1991 are the Land Act, Group Areas Act, and Population Registration Act repealed.

1950-1955: Police kill 18 people in Alexandra after a strike is called. A Resettlement Board is founded to supervise the forced removal of Black Africans from the western townships. 60,000 people in the area of Sophiatown are subsequently removed at gunpoint and moved to an area entitled Soweto, for South West Townships. Sophiatown is completely razed and re-zoned into a low-income White area.

Present Day: Since 1994 the number of

informal settlements has increased to over 2700; more than 1.2 million families are living in informal settlements. Government efforts to combat the shortage with housing and local improvements has been partially successful in certain areas and failed in others. The population of the city has increased to over 3 million and occupies an area of 635 square miles. APPENDIX

393

planning in alex and sandton 100 years

Planning History of Alexandra Township and Sandton

Founding Different Worlds 1914-1948

Township Growth and the Birth of Suburbia 1948-1976

Alexandra Shootings 1950

1910

1930

1950

three farms, which were acquired by an rich immigrant family from Hannover, Germany. At the turn of the century, the land began to be auctioned off for country estates. The area became popular for leisure pursuits like hunting and fishing, and developed the reputation of a ‘gentemlan‘s playground‘ and a haven for the well endowed classes.

1930-1969: Sandton continues to grow and develops an economic center as Johannesburg gradually expands northward. Country clubs and golf clubs are founded as a retreat from the Central Business District, which is becoming more and more crowded. Violence in the townships frightens the city‘s wealthier inhabitants, as concerns about security generate a slow movement towards the suburbs.

1912: Alexandra was established in on farmland intented for a White settlement, but considered too far from the city center for its original purpose. This unique Native township was founded prior to the 1913 Land Act and thus Blacks could hold land titles. By 1916 the population had reached 30,000. A management committee was established, but could not collect taxes, and the area rapidly began to deteriorate. 394

APPENDIX

1950: The government decides to abolish all family housing and replace them with single-sex hostels, according to mining traditions, in an attempt to upgrade Alex‘s conditions. The ANC calls for a general strike to protest the intervention, and 18 people are killed by the police. Because of high costs, lack of relocation facilities, and resistance, only two hostels were built, and the scheme was abandoned in 1979.

Master Plans and Civil Unrest 1976-1994

Conurban Polarization Endures 1994-Present

Alex Six Days 1986

1970

1990

2010

© COOPERATIVE URBANISM 1969: Sandton is established as a municipality of the city. While at first the area remained largely composed of small holdings, by the mid-1980s it had transitioned into a commercialized zone. Gated communities and malls, including Sandton City Shopping Centre in 1973 and Montecasino, came to stand for the opulence of Johannesburg, a drastic contrast to the townships on the same periphery.

1990s: This period was characterized by a massive influx of businesses fleeing the CBD after apartheid‘s collapse. Over the next two decades, it became the 2nd largest financial area in South Africa and has a population of over 300,000 in 156 square kilometers. The newly estalished, satirical Sandton Magazine‘s mission statement reads: „to help frightened Sandtonians forget about Alexandra township next door.“

1980: A Master Plan for Alex is proposed, with the aim of transforming the township into a Garden City. Work began, but the Alex Six Days uprising in 1986, where 40 people were killed, permanently halted construction. A nationwide State of Emergency had been implemented by the federal government and Alex was occupied by the Defence Force. Many Blacks were relocated into the new East Bank area.

2000: The Alexandra Renewal Project is launched, causing clashes between residents and companies. Mistrust of outsiders, in particular immigrants, continued. This culminated with xenophobic attacks in several townships in 2008, when 2 people were killed and dozens injured in Alex alone. The current population is estimated to be roughly 470,000 in formal and informal dwellings in 8 square kilometers. APPENDIX

395

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Bremner, Lindsay “Crime and the emerging landscape of post-apartheid Johannesburg,” in Blank: Architecture, Apartheid and After, ed. Judin, H. and I. Vladislovic, p. 48-63 (Nai Publishers, 1999). Brett, James “Socio-spatial Exclusions and the Urbanisation of Injustice: A Case study in Northern Johannesburg,” Political Studies Department, Faculty of the Social Sciences, Supervised by: Professor R. Taylor, University of the Witwatersrand (2006). Burdett, Richard and Sudjic, Dejan. The endless city, ed. Richard Burdett (Phaidon Press, 2007), http://www. urban-age.net/10_cities/_data/data_UAC.html. Cities: People, Society, Architecture: 10th International Architecture Exhibition - Venice Biennale, ed. Richard Burdett (Rizzoli, 2006). Correa, Charles. The New Landscape, Urbanisation in the Third World, ed. Charles Correa (A Mimar Book by Concept Media Ltd. with Butterworth Architecture, 1989). Deckler, Thorsten; Graupner Anne; Rasmuss, Henning. Contemporary South African Architecture, in a Landscape of Transition, ed. Thorsten Deckler, Anne Graupner and Henning Rassmuss (Double Storey Books, 2008). Drakaais-Smith, David. Urban and Regional Change in South Africa (Routledge, 1992). Freund, Bill; Witt, Harald. Development Dilemmas in Post-Apartheid South Africa, ed. Alison Lockhart (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press 2010). “Gauteng City-Region Observatory” GCRO, accessed Dezember 18, 2011, http://www.gcro.ac.za/maps-gis/ interactive-maps/gcr.

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Genske, Dieter D. Degradation, Investigation, Remediation, ed. Genske, Dieter D. (Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2003). Gnad, Martin. Desegration und neue Segregation in Johannesburg nach dem Ende der Apartheid, ed. Kieler Geographische Schriften, J. Bähr, H. Sterr und R. Stewig (Selbstverlag des geographischen Instituts der Universität Kiel, 2002). Hasselberg, Tanja. Parks und Gärten auf Brachen, Umnutzung industrieller Flächen im Ruhrgebiet, ed. Landeskonservator Prof. Dr. Udo Mainzer (Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Worms, LVR-Amt für Denkmalpflege im Rheinland, 2011). “Housing and the Informal City” Research project of 26´10 Architects and the Goethe-Institut South Africa, accessed November 06, 2011, http://housinginformalcityfutureurbanity.blogspot.com/. “Johannesburg Key Documents” City of Johannesburg, accessed January 11, 2012, http://www.joburg.org.za/ index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1478&Itemid=198, http://www.joburg.org.za/documents. “Johannesburg Maps and Data” City of Johannesburg, accessed November 07, 2011, http://eservices.joburg. org.za/joburg/eservices/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Q_wyU9PT03xLy3RL0hXVAQAK231 FQ!!#clkCntrl.

“Johannesburg Development Agency” City of Johannesburg, accessed January 11, 2012, http://www.jda.org. za/developments/township-upgrades/overview. Jürgens, Ulrich. Gemischtrassige Wohngebiete in südafrikanischen Städten, ed. Kieler Geographische Schriften, J. Bähr, H. Klug und R. Stewig (Selbstverlag des geographischen Instituts der Universität Kiel, 1991). Klunne, Wim. “Energy efficient housing” South Africa (2002). Landmann, Karina. “Gated communities in South Africa: A Review of the relevant policies and their implications,” CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Building and Construction Technology (2004). Mabin, Alan. “Suburbs on the veld, modern and postmodern,” ed. Alan Mabin (Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, 2005). Murray, Martin J. City of Extremes, ed. Georg Steinmetz and Julia Adams (Duke University Press, 2011). Murray, Martin J. Taming the Disorderly City: The Spatial Landscape of Johannesburg After Apartheid, ed. Martin J. Murray (Cornell University Press, 2008). Morris, Pauline. “Alexandra Township – A History, Lessons for Urban Renewal and Some Challenges for Planners,” Paper presented at South African Planning History Study Group, Conference: University of Natal (May 2000). Pieterse, Prof. Edgar.“Post-Apartheid Geographies in South Africa: Why are urban divides so persistent?,” Iinterdisciplinary debates on development and cultures: Cities in Development, Leuven University (December 15, 2009).

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Pieterse, Prof. Edgar.“African Cities: Grasping the Unknownable,” Inaugural Lecture delivered at the University of Cape Town (August 26, 2009). Roefs, Dr. Marlene; Naidoo, Vino; Meyer, Mike; Makalela, Joan. “Alexandra: A Case study of urban renewal for the Presidential 10 year review project,” (June 2003). “Slum Dwellers International” SDI South Africa, accessed January 11, 2012, http://www.sasdialliance.org.za/ projects/informal-settlement-upgrading/. “South Africa” CIA The World Factbook, accessed January 11, 2012, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html. Tomlinson, Richard; Beauregard, Robert A.; Bremner, Lindsay; Mangcu, Xolela “Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City ed. Richard Tomlinson; Robert A. Beauregard; Lindsay Bremner; Xolela Mangcu (Routledge, 2003). UN-Habitat. “Housing finance system in South Africa,” ed. Xing Quan Zhang (United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN-Habitat, 2008).

UN-Habitat. “The State of African Cities”, (United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN-Habitat 2008) .

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Interviews

Charles, August and Thapelo. Residents of Marlboro Industrial Township (October, 2011). Chipkin, Prof. Ivor. Director of PARI, Public Affairs Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (October 19, 2011). Deckler, Thorsten. Architect. Co-founder of 26â&#x20AC;&#x2122;10 South Architects, Johannesburg ( October 18,2011). Fitchett, Dr. Ann. Researcher in vaulting and job creation at the University of the Witwatersrand (October 19, 2011). Gotz, Graeme. Director of Research at GCRO, Gauteng City-Region Observatory (October 20, 2011). Harrison, Prof. Philip. former City of Johannesburg employee, Department of Development Planning and Modelling Chair at the University of the Witwatersrand (October 27, 2011). Mabin, Prof. Alan. Professor of Urbanism in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand (October 21, 2011). Pieterse, Prof. Edgar. South African Chair in Urban Policy Director: African Centre for Cities (August 25, 2011).

ÂŠ COOPERATIVE URBANISM

Rich, Robert. Architect (October 17, 2011). Schmitz, Peter. GIS expert at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (October 24, 2011). Van Rensburg, Sandra; Mengi. SDI South Africa, Courc (October 17, 2011).

APPENDIX

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Acknowledgements

We would like to extend special thanks to: Prof. Alan Mabin, University of the Witwatersrand Dr. Ann Fitchett, University of the Witwatersrand Charles, August, Thapelo and the community of Marlboro Industrial Township Prof. Charles Correa, Architect and Chairman of the Indian National Commission on Urbanisation Prof. Edgar Pieterse, Director African Centre for Cities Graeme Gotz and Chris Wray, GCRO Hannah le Roux, University of the Witwatersrand Heinrich Wolff, South African Architect Prof. Ivor Chipkin, University of the Witwatersrand Karina Landmann, University of Pretoria Prof. Lindsey Bremner, Temple University Peter Schmitz, CSIR Prof. Philip Harrison, University of the Witwatersrand Prof. Rahul Mehrotra, Harvard University Richard “Gino” Khunou, Alexandra Township Robert Rich, South African Achitect Sandra Van Rensburg and Mengi, Slum Dwellers International SA Thorsten Deckler, South African Architect Witness, Greenhill Townhouse Security

Ellen Leuenberger Michael Beerli Lara Davis Lindsey Sherman Daniel Schwarz and all the friends and family who supported and encouraged us throughout our project.

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p o s t - a p a r t h e i d u r b a n i s m is an investigation of the urban space in

Johannesburg, South Africa, one of the world‘s fastest growing cities. This publication examines the question: “How can contemporary urban strategies transform neglected spaces in Johannesburg, which once served to divide, into spaces for social and economic encounter?” Maps, diagrams, and photographs document the elements that comprise the city and its intricate network of sub-systems. Through analysis of these complex spatial layers and interdependencies, post-apartheid urbanism proposes a comprehensive design strategy on the urban and architectural scale, emphasizing the potential of the built environment to engage forgotten spaces and alter the enduring fabric of apartheid planning. Spatial justice and societal inclusion are not natural byproducts of a competitive urbanism, but require concentrated and concerted efforts to overcome historical patterns of neglect. Architecture is the essence of this process and a crucial tool for the success and sustainability of our future cities.