Department of Architecture UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
ELECTIVE 06 Protest City
2017
Contents
1. Elective Leaders 0 2. INTRODUCTION 1 3. PART1: THEORISING PROTEST 5
PART2: STAGING PROTEST 55
Flint Shongwe Civic Protest 7
Rhode Lubbe Stand-Up 57
Ngonidzashe Tavuyanangu
Crime to be foreign? 13 Jennifer Sibanda Collision/ Cohesion 17
Liezel Steyn
Exposed 61 Debra Bhungeni Religiously 65
Aobakwe Mathlaku Spithipithing 21 Jabu Willy Maluleka SUPER-market 27
Ntokozo Nhlapho Aganst the Grid 67 Cornel Hugo Dream + Equity 71
Zakkiyah Haffejee PARA-test 31
Markos Themba Beneath the Surface 77
Rehan Vermeulen
Gentri-FIX-ation 35 Blessing Mohape Layered 41 Terrence Matanga #FEESMUSTFALL 43 Portia ‘Nay Nay’ Mabudisa Linear Protest Market 47
Lethabo Mathabathe
Fem[URBANISM] 81 Obakeng Mamosadi Family Bonds 85 Mvuleni Mnisi UBUNTU-ISM 91
Protest City
Elective leaders: Absalom Jabu Makhubu (MUD) Tariq Toffa (MArch)
INTRODUCTION
Tariq Toffa and Jabu Makhubu- Elective Leaders
This book is the story of a journey. Richard Sennett, in his book The Craftsman (2008a), argued that true growth—what Victorian English writer John Ruskin called “the lamp of truth”—developed through encountering some sort of “resistance,” when faced with and engaging a condition of difficulty or strangeness that one’s knowledge or skill had not adequately prepared one for. However, more than simply stumbling upon problems and ‘learning from one’s mistakes’, a “probing craftsman” (Sennett 2008b) did more than that; he or she created such conditions precisely in order to know them. For the academy, its educators and students, the national student protests that first emerged in South Africa in 2015 (and concurrently in many other parts of the world) presented precisely and profoundly one such challenge. To some a challenge, to others a wellspring of courage, it brought into focus a range of fundamental questions about education and the university. In giving ‘voice to the voiceless’, in ‘putting the last first’, it would provide sharp ethical, economic, political and discursive critiques of westernized and corporatized universities.
THEORISING PROTEST | protest by other names Voluntarily bringing together our architectural and urban design training, technical and discursive tools and resources, and collaborating between Design and Theory course modules, in 2017 we named our collaborative studio by the somewhat daring name, ‘PROTEST CITY’. First, our starting point sought to understand the causes of protest, their ethics or their theories of social change that they articulated through collective action. As cocreator of Occupy Wall Street, Micah White (2017), put it:
“Sometimes, the people march. Other times we hold general assemblies, tar and feather opponents, occupy pipelines, go on strike, dance in a circle, riot in the streets or pray together. In each case, behind every act of protest is an often unarticulated theory of social change: a story we tell ourselves about why the disobedient behaviour we’ve chosen will usher in the change we desire.” Second, our primary innovation at this stage was to bring this normative social discourse into a dialogue with students’ own value bases and ethical foundations from their own positionality and lived experiences (which have limited spaces for authentic expression within the academic project). The topicality introduced into the studio emerging from such lived experience was extensive and varied; issues ranged from government, the school system, homelessness, race, feminism, class, ‘black tax’, domestic violence, xenophobia, abortion, bullying, hair, spirituality and environmental concerns.
How would the academic community as a whole respond? For university management, would they attempt to make it disappear as quickly and as cheaply as possible? For academics, would it become a new currency of commodified goods? Or would the academic community identify with its concerns and embrace its relevance? We, the authors and our students, chose the latter. It would mean that we would all become both teachers and students. We would become ‘probing craftsman’ of our designerly—but ultimately unscholarly—disciplines, an approach at odds with the primacy of value it places in the representational image and the product.
This twin approach (normative/social and personal/ experiential) brought the concerns and ethics of ‘us over here’ (in the academy) with those ‘others out there’ (on the streets) much closer together. Within such a convergence, what then was ‘protest’? Within the course of the studio, protest came to mean not the ‘violent’ action of ‘others’, but something much broader and more identifiable, as mobilizations of ethics, values and lived experiences that 1
could take on a diverse number of forms – including an academic one. The picket line thus was no longer in the streets, they extended to the studio, from the loud-speaker to the lectern, both the choir and the classroom.
Rather we relied much more on site and locality, where site was understood not merely a place for ‘site analysis’ and ‘design informants’, but site could itself present a powerful question and a catalytic template for surfacing ‘other’ values and world-views.
Third, we quickly realized that all of these phenomena were very often spatialized; that “no social or cultural phenomenon can be torn from its spatial context” is already a kind of mantra in what some have called ‘spatial turn’ (Warf and Arias 2009, i, 1-7). Similarly, Judith Butler (2015) similarly expressed the importance of the “infrastructural’ conditions” for popular mobilization; that,
The role of site in this context was therefore nonconventional. Rather than site introduced at the beginning of a project and thus occupying discursive primacy of place in the architectural project, we reversed this norm. Site was introduced at a later stage of a process that progressed from discourse, to spatial concepts, to a site context introduced to facilitate and surface the discursive and conceptual terrain. In practical terms, it meant hybridising and reconciling the discursive value base, studying physical space and form on the city and architectural scale, and reading social and phenomenological dimensions of the urban landscape.
“all of us depend on the platforms from which, on which, we speak and act, and that we are not exactly separate from that platform.” These three insights drove our approach in the first quarter of the year. Bringing all the strands together, on precinct and architectural scales, in groups and individually, students were asked to design space that would facilitate for the nature of their causes and ethics. Whether these ‘spaces of protest’ occurred in the conventional or non-conventional sense was entirely in the interpretation and prerogative of the student and topic. These explorations are documented in Part 1 of this book, ‘THEORISING PROTEST’.
Thus subsequent selected sites of the studio in 2017 were the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in the Johannesburg CBD (foregrounding questions of social change, political action, worldviews, lived experience, values, social and familial bonds, gender, and security, comfort and intimacy in urban space) and the University of Johannesburg’s Doornfontein campus, (foreground questions of the place and role of education in the physical and social context of the city). CONCLUSION | our challenge
STAGING PROTEST | the site as a question
Architecture is primarily a discourse that stands on fundamental assumptions of design orthodoxy that are consistently reproduced but rarely examined. Like Sennett’s notion of the “probing craftsman” of “resistance”, where one probes their discipline beyond what it has prepared them for ultimately in order to advance it, in seeking to break new ground the PROTEST CITY studio also plainly revealed obstacles to it. In place of self-interest,
In the development of the approach over the course of 2017—captured in Part 2 of this book, ‘STAGING PROTEST’—we would rely less on analyses of contemporary and historical local and international protests as catalytic elements to a process of surfacing student lived realities, values, voices and questions. 2
self-benefit, profit, competition and individualism— all markers of the neoliberal project generally and in the academy, it was truths, justice, social cohesion, mutual assistance and a sense of service that were surfaced by students, not to mention aspects of humanity so integral to life but typically divorced from architectural discourse like love, respect and compassion. In practical architectural terms it meant the ‘probing’ of the technical, the representational and the product (all values of conventional architectural practice and education) by the foundational, the relevant and the ethical. To what extent can the latter exist within the former? For those concerned with such questions of hegemony, design researcher Yoko Akama proposes a ‘carving out’ of a space for other questions and answers as the most constructive course:
emerge:
“The time has now arrived for … the University to embrace a flexible, pragmatic and humane approach; “… That … the ‘normal’ has changed irrevocably and that a commitment to a de-colonised academic environment is necessary for a new ‘normal’ to emerge. “… A return to ‘normal’ conditions without addressing the many concerns and problems that have been raised by protesting students as well as those raised by nonprotesting students and staff would mean accepting the conditions of injustice that underpin the current education project and its associated institutional culture.” (Buhlungu 2016)
Since all protests are neither sustainable nor desirable as a consistent mode of operation, the challenges is to build a ‘new normal’, a new culture. This ‘carving out’ and subsequent cultivation of a ‘new normal’ to emerge is perhaps our greatest challenge, though the obstacles are immense. The cultivation of an ethical and humane project for education would require the convergence of students trained to be ethically critical thinkers and academic leadership willing to be courageous. At this moment, however, our work as the coordinators of PROTEST CITY remains but one small labour of love; an intellectual compassion, an ethical imagination, a protest.
“… I attempt to carve out a space for heterogeneous practices and world-views that foreground concerns often omitted from design orthodoxy. Design theory from Europe and the US is continuously referenced in scholarship, so perpetuating dominance and establishing an assumed “model of the designer” … that shapes how we consider design, knowledge, and research. (…) [T]he dominant is unable to recognize its own power, privilege and penetration ... To confront this dominance is not necessarily to introduce alternative paradigms that displace it. Rather, it is to enable spaces in which to ask different questions that concern other world-views, like, what if we were to foreground respect, interdependence and responsiveness in design …” (Akama 2017). One of the most powerful and humane messages from the University community during the 20152016 student protests came from UCT’s Faculty of Humanities in September 2016. Its Extended Dean’s Advisory Committee (DAC) under the leadership of Dean Sakhela Buhlungu called for a “new normal” to 3
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PART 1: Theorising Protest What change do you dire? What cause are you most passionate about? These questions are seeds that open our inquiry. They require of us to introspect, to be both the subject and object of our inquiries. From which various research questions germinate. Projects in part 1 hypothesize causes for protest, investigate spaces these would take place and respond with urban frame works and design resolution of some of these spaces of protest. Anchored in a theoretical understanding of the spatial conditioning of protests.
In recent years (2015) students took to the streets in South Africa to protest against the high cost of tertiary education, the colonial canons of knowledge and the outsourcing of university support staff. Scenes reminiscent of the June 16, 1976 Soweto uprising (where pupils took to the street to protest the poor education quality of black learner in townships and the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction), where all over social media as university students at all public universities in the country took to the streets to shut down campuses, calling for fees to fall, decolonization of curriculums and for Rhodes to fall.
There is an understanding that protests occur as a form of expression, whether of dissatisfaction, disobedience, frustration, plea, anger, recognition or to raise awareness. That protests are spatial, that they are public, social and revolutionary.
What can we learn from these actions that to some may seem disobedient and rebellious? Oscar Wilde affirms that “it is through disobedience and rebellion that progress is made”.
The women’s march to Versailles from Paris in 1789 stands as testament of the revolutionary power of women. The march started with the frustration from the French about the high cost of grain, supposedly withheld in the royal store house, and resulted with the King being stripped of his powers. In South Africa, women proved their power in protest, in 1956 protesting against the many apartheid laws aimed at restricting and controlling people of color’s movement and engagement in and around what was set aside as white spaces. 5
MOM,
from previous page: Jabu Willy Maluleke- 03 Diploma on this page from top:Portia Mabudisha- 03 Diploma Rehan Vermeulen- 03 Diploma JoAnn Fredericks- 02 Diploma Ngonidzashe Tavuyanago- 03 Degree Ruvimbo Nyamupanedengu- 02- Degree Blessing Mohape- 03 Diploma Thembeka Mpolweni- 02 Degree Aobakwe Mathlaku- 03 Diploma
IS THAT YOU?
SHOULD ETHNICITY HAZI
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M. JOHNSONS
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DETERMINE MY GRADE 6
Civic Protest Flint Shongwe- 3rd Year Diploma
Protests are usually filled with so much violence. In most instances the violence is very much avoidable. The middle man between the protesters and the powers being protested against is almost always some sort of law enforcement, be it local security guards, police or in severe cases even soldiers of the country. The issue I uncovered is that most of the time the officials (parties being protested against) hide behind the law enforcement without themselves addressing the issues that the protesters bring forth in protests. These officials are almost always kilometers away from where the protest would be happening and they’d be giving the law enforcement orders without knowing what is happening on ground, such as in the case of Marikana.
the country, and ultimately abolish violent crimes and poverty in our context. We could even reach a time where education, (higher education more especially) is made free in our country. The intervention aims at stationing an extension of the department of education (which currently resides in Pretoria) in Braamfontein, at the foot of the Johannesburg Civic Center. The idea is to situate the extension in the basement of the north face of the main building. The façade of the department of education would be doubled up as seating and steps into the courtyard of the building. The repetitive lines have a heavy reference to the brutalist nature of the existing building and its steps that run throughout the buildings outside. In opposition to how brutal the building feels to the passer by, the contrast in my proposed extension however, is that the shadows cast by the façade become brutal towards the Department on Education and the actual steps become something of comfort for the regular passerby. In addition to the department of education, the building program accommodates a public library and a day care center. The library becomes the actual addition of premise to the public wifi that the municipality of Johannesburg has installed at the civic center. These building surround the new courtyard which become the common area between the workers of the department, the children in the library, the users of the library and the wifi and the public at large.
My project aims at primarily bridging the gap between protesters and officials by removing law enforcement in the form of ‘corruptible’ human beings and replacing it with architecture. Secondarily, but more important, is to cause an always present surveillance into the offices of the officials so as to insight the feeling of always being watched so as to insight the feeling that a protest could start much closer to them at any particular time, and that hopefully encourages them to always work better and in the interest of the people. In this instance the authority in power/official is the department of education. The recent fees must fall protests as well as the student march in June 16 1976 were a major driver for this project. We are always losing our youth as a country to not only these protests, but to drugs and other issues. My thinking is that if we could make government more liable for how the education system is run in our country, that we could possibly diminish the levels of illiteracy in
This intervention might not be the cure to all our ills as a country, but I strongly believe it is these kind of spaces that are going to insight dialogue between different role players in situations similar to this one to encourage social change. 7
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Crime to be Foreign?
Ngonidzashe Tavuyanago- 3rd Year Degree
The focus of the project draws largely from the Urban Design Framework, which was centred on the driving theme of social cohesion in Alexandra township. The UDF is based on the idea that the initial wave of xenophobic attacks in February 2015 started in the township. As such it is necessary to find out why specifically this “space� harboured such a heated, backlash against foreign nationals and how architecture could form part of the solution. The UDF proposed a linear market along Rosevelt street which would address the economic struggles largely responsible for the outbreak of the Xenophobic attacks. The market would foster integration and diversity at the same time a source of livelihood. Central to the linear market is the individual design which focused on the social and political cracks that needed to be stitched together. My design proposes a restaurant, open amphitheatre performance space and curio shop. The driving ideology is that these spaces would allow everyone (foreign nationals and locals) to tell their personal story and struggles to create a deeper understanding of how similar our roots and narratives as an African people tie together.
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Collision/Cohesion Jennifer Sibanda- 3rd Year Diploma
“umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu� Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers; and with the rise in the xenophobic attacks happening on South Africa that peaked in 2008, one has to wonder if this is the democracy many fought for, both locally and within the continent. Alexandra township is home to both foreign nationals and South African locals, this presented the opportunity for me to learn and understand xenophobia a little deeper. I now understand that xenophobic attacks happen due to social, economic and sometimes political reasons. Foreigners flee from their home countries to seek refuge in South Africa and in turn try to make a living in their new found home, while South Africans on the other hand feel as if foreigner nationals are taking their jobs and opportunities, which creates a hatred between the two parties involved and is evident in this particular township.
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Roosevelt street is the street that is the most vibrant, robust and densified in Alex in terms of transportation routes for vehicles and pedestrians; businesses owned by foreign nationals and street vendors who are local South Africans; as well as different residential typologies such as houses, flats and informal settlements. One thing that I noticed was that the street itself was divided in such a manner that one side of the street was home to more formal residential typologies and businesses and the other side of the street catered to the more informal settlements and local street vendors. With local residence and business owners seeing foreigners as a threat, foreign business owners have burglar proof bars and high walls for their shops for protection from attackers; but through my intervention I aim to bring the two ‘worlds’ together on a street level so that they can share the space as well as co-exist to help the economy grow. My intervention comes in the form of community centre/multipurpose building that aims to provide a platform for dialogue for all community members as well as revive the spirit of ubuntu. The centre is be positioned on the intersection of 14th Avenue and
Roosevelt Street, which is blocked off vehicular traffic from 15th Ave and 13th Ave and redirected to a different route. This intersection now caters to pedestrian access in order to promote social cohesion. On ground level is a market space and social space where people can interact. The first floor level stretches over from the one side of the street to the other joining the two market space on ground level and caters for a trade and skills center where locals and foreign nations can exchanges and learn each other’s skills in a form of a workshop. From the second floor going higher, this is a form of future proving architecture, where the residence that were removed in order to cater for the new multipurpose building, will be moved.
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Spithipithing
Aobakwe Mathlaku- 3rd Year Diploma
Alexandra is a township where the locals are united by two common factors; their undying love for football and social gatherings (Parties). Looking at this social study as my backbone, my brief was then to design a place of gathering that is both sensitive to its context and local cultures while bringing about social cohesion economically and socially. The name “United Alex” was the main drive in this project but making a further study on what actually happens in these “social gatherings” that take place in the community, I fell deeper and deeper in love with the culture of my context. Spithipithing is a project that looks to gradually decrease the main causes of xenophobia within Alexandra. The main concept is Tlhakanya which is derived from a Tswana word meaning unity/ togetherness and whenever people come together in Alex, there is unique liveliness that takes place, we call it “Sphithiphithi”. This word means “chaos/ fun/ busy” it’s a breathtaking action that is well associated with Alexandra. Through this project, I seek to bring the foreign shop-owners and local community together by enhancing the culture of the locals and the interest of the foreigners within one space. Spithipithing is a space that is sensitive to the needs and lifestyles of its people. The inhabitants of this space come from various backgrounds and different cultures therefore uniting and making them one was to core function of this space. The space acts as a link, breaking the buffer zone between the rural on the west and the urban on the east end side of the Roosevelt Street. Due to the information gathered from the mapping I saw that adults, teens and children have creating their own gathering spaces, we further magnify these spaces in respect to the street. 21
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SUPERmarket
Jabu Willy Maluleka- 3rd Year Diploma
Braamfontein was once a vibrant space with lots of opportunities for street traders. Through the regeneration project the street traders were removed from the space in order to attract commercial retailer. Another key observations from Braamfontein is that buildings have both positive and negative relationships with the public. Buildings with glass facades tend to be more welcoming and draw people to them; where else those with concrete/solid walls are not welcoming and push people away from them. The proposed design aims to bring back the street vendors to Braamfontein by creating more permanent structures and to also design a building that works well with the street traders so that the two cater for everyone around them (wits students; workers at wits art museum; pedestrians; and the taxi drivers as well as the people working in the small shops around my site). The concept is to design a space that is welcoming to the people; this is achieved through a court yard space around which a series of shops at various scales are designed. The design proposes a “super market�. Small shops that are have a relationship with the immediate context. There is a small theatre space that has a relationship with the Wits Arts Centre, two anchors shops at the back to draw people through the small shops and a cinema/ exhibition space on the first floor. 27
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PARA-test
Zakkiyah Haffejee- 3rd Year Diploma
Over 200 000 South Africans sleep on the streets every night. The nature of architecture within the urban framework that we live, sleep and work in today, is categorized by the amount of money in your back pocket. “Cities have always struggled with the tension between the different needs of social classes who share the space.” (Chris Mills, 2015) Defensive architecture, sometimes referred to as hostile architecture or anti-homeless architecture is ‘designed’ to deter ‘unruly or unsightly’ behavior within spaces. These modifications are often too subtle to be noticed by the general public, but are put in place to discourage loitering, sleeping and sitting. By implementing such measures, not only are we making it impossible for the dispossessed vagrant to rest his weary body, but we also make it difficult for the elderly, for the cripple and for the dizzy pregnant woman needing to take a seat, to name a few. My intervention, latches onto a private sector building designed for a certain class of people and ensured to keep others out. It questions levels of public and private interaction and provides spaces for all classes. The parasitic structure is inspired by works of graffiti that appear overnight in protest of certain causes. If defensive architecture is the protest, then by challenging this notion, ultimately, we would we protesting the protest. 31
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Gentri-FIX-ation Rehan Vermeulen - 3rd Year Diploma
Gentrification is a major issue in Maboneng where many people are excluded because of socio-economic differences that exist between the wealthy and under privileged within the community. The purpose of my intervention is to create a research facility that will be used as Hub for the university as a post graduate research opportunity. The aim of this facility will be to investigate and understand the impact that various issues such as Gentrification have on the community and what opportunities are available to create a better understanding of these issues in order to solve them in the long run. This Facility will allow students to interact with various professionals to gain insight on the issues of the time and create opportunities for students to give informed advice to professionals who face the challenge of resolving these issues in their own projects. The Concept behind the form and tectonics of the structure is to create an inviting space using different interpretations of permeability. Permeable space can also be space that can be seen in its totality but not be accessed. The conceptual nature of permeable space creates a conversation between the structure and the issues of gentrification.
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Layered
Blessing Mohape- 3rd Year Diploma 41
The intervention connects the public with the private. My focus was on this being this boundary breaking it down and opening it up to the public. Through investigating they was a high school just on the boundary of wits (John Oirr technical high school). On the boundary I was to create a library in which both parties share information on an educational level and on life in general (transition between the being a learner to being a student). The library would be integrated with the public transport that we were proposing on the UDF. The transport system was for the public and students and its basic aim was to open up the varsities. The library would be this threshold in which this bus system slows down and acknowledges the spaces and the coming to gather of different spaces in one space. In short Not only does the library bring to the 42
school and varsity it also in abled the public to also actively become part of this change of opening up the varsity with meaning and function.
#FEESMUSTFALL
Terrence Matanga- 3rd Year Degree
University of Witwatersrand has been at the forefront of the fees must fall protest. This evolution led to change on how the higher education perceive and handle finance for students who cannot afford tertiary education. The students took to the streets under the hashtag #FEESMUSTFALL movement. The nation witnessed a couple of violent weeks in all the universities in the country. There was and still is a debate around the feasibility of free higher education for all. What if we viewed architecture as having the POWER to bridge the gap to free higher education? What if we open up the campus to the public. The proposed educational centre on wits campus is for the public, it aims to bridge the gap of inequality. Moreover, it memorialises the positive impacts of protest, dating from the women’s march in 1956 and the 1976 student uprising. The building has two levels with science labs, auditorium, exhibition space. The building skin derived from the idea placards used during a protest. On the building facades becoming real-time screens with hash tag movements written on the surface, emergency information, or instructions. 43
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Linear Protest Market Portia “Nay Nay� Mabudisa- 3rd Year Diploma
Through site analysis we found that 13 years ago there was an African a market at the centre of the Rosebank Square before the new mall entrance existed. The B&B that existed at that time asked the council to remove the market so that there is less commotion for the customers to deal with. The market was later moved to an isolated space joined to the Rosebank mall of today. The aim is to bring the market back to the fore, not only to the entrance but to co-exist with the mall. In so doing as it was elaborated in the group Design Framework this will eliminate the social and economical segregation in the Rosebank Square. I aspire for a space where all economical classes will interact and experience the market and the mall itself equally. The market is a protest market because of the position and footprint it has on site. The market’s footprint consists of two stretched paths pulling from one end of the Cradock Avenue which is the Taxi rank and the other end passing Baker Street, joining in the middle at the point interaction thus symbolizing unity. These paths will then be the protest routes when needed. The market sits at the entrance of the Rosebank mall, by that it protests separating economic classes early identified at the mall. With the activity that will take place in the market created by the different classes utilizing the market, whether for retail, shopping, crafting or just passing through it is expected that there will be interaction amongst the people.
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PART 2: Staging Protest value
noun 1. the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something. “your support is of great value” synonyms: merit, worth, usefulness, use, utility, practicality, advantage, desirability, benefit, gain, profit, good, service, help, helpfulness, assistance, effectiveness, efficacy, avail, importance, significance, point, sense; informalmileage “the value of adequate preparation cannot be understated” 2. principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life. “they internalize their parents’ rules and values” synonyms: principles, moral principles, ethics, moral code, morals, moral values, standards, moral standards, code of behaviour, rules of conduct, standards of behaviour “society’s values are passed on to us as children” verb 1. estimate the monetary worth of. “his estate was valued at £45,000” synonyms: evaluate, assess, estimate, appraise, assay, rate, price, put/set a price on, cost (out) 2. consider (someone or something) to be important or beneficial; have a high opinion of. “she had come to value her privacy” synonyms: appreciate, rate (highly), esteem, hold in high esteem, hold in high regard, hold dear, have a high opinion of, think highly of, think much of, set (great) store by, attach importance to, respect, admire, prize, cherish, treasure Can we design spaces and building that reflect our values? How would these spaces and building look and feel? These are guiding questions in the part 2 of our inquiry. Luthuli House is the head quarter of
Africa’s longest liberation movement and South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress. Conveniently located at the heart of Johannesburg, Africa’s Metropolis the building is on the pulse of the people, however the architecture and spaces around it seem to repel the people. How can this building and spaces around it be designed to express our values? 55
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STAND UP
Rhode Lubbe- 3rd Year Diploma
“If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything�. One of the values that had an impact on the design process to make the existing Luthuli House more people friendly. Small changes, which could make that first effort of change. The streets need to feel pedestrianized for the day of protest and can adapt to the rest of the days in the year. To achieve this, things like levelling out the streets help, or simply changing of surface texture to emphasize the protest route. The design is driven to connect the protesters and the users of the building, this allows for the people, the protesters to have a bigger influence. The building itself is designed in such a way that the ground floor is completely open to public. The first floor acts as a platform for the public to interact and become more equal to the users of the building. Throughout the building, voids are created so that the rest of the four floors have some connection to the ground floor, which accommodates the protestors.
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EXPOSED -ɪkˈspəʊz,ɛkˈspəʊz Liezel Steyn- 3rd Year Diploma
verb 1. make (something) visible by uncovering it. “at low tide the sands are exposed” 2. reveal the true, objectionable nature of (someone or something). “he has been exposed as a liar and a traitor” synonyms: uncover, reveal, show, display, exhibit, disclose, manifest, unveil, unmask; Values serve as my morals to tell one if life is heading in the right direction. Regardless if we recognize them or not, values do naturally exist. Like our values that shape us, my design intention is to reveal or better yet, expose the values within. The facades integrate into each other, creating the skin and also creating internal spaces, just like our own values integrate and shape us. The building is designed that the ground floor opens to the public when a protest is happening, a special podium for speakers is designed on the ground floor so that they can address the people who are protesting. The rest of the building is private which accommodates a offices for an Non-Government Organisation.
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RELIGIOUSLY Debra Bhungeni- 3rd Year Degree
Honey bees’ bushveld wild crocodile in direct translation, born from the womb of Tandeka Chahanye now currently called Mrs Bhungeni and fathered by Zephaniah Bhungeni, born 1995, in Kadoma Hospital, somewhere in Zimbabwe. I am raised in a Shona home, but I am told that I am rightfully Tsonga. Culturally I am paralysed. Anything outside of Christianity is all foreign to me, my belief system has shielded me from knowing and understanding my ancestors, African rituals or anything to do with the African cultural society. Never had much but happiness resonated throughout the house. As I look back I realise we were never alone, but I am not surprised, being one of the daughters of a pronounced pastor we always had visitors which my parents made me believe were family. I guess it is true, it does take a community to raise a child. Education has been the one thing my family never took for granted and always taught us to take it seriously, hence my great belief in how education could actually be the answers to all the prayers we have been praying for. Maybe I am being naïve and not looking at the bigger picture – but it could be the key to the freedom the majority has been asking for, and not just financially – but physically, emotionally spiritually and mentally. An inquisitive mind enhances growth.
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Against the GRID Ntokozo Nhlapho- 3rd Year Degree
To achieve this, I needed to reimagine the grid of Johannesburg which is ridgid and uninviting; essentially the city, in response cannot give or receive the love that inspired this project.
The project I designed is centered around the values that I have and live by. My values lie in Christianity, specifically in who Jesus Christ is. I recited a poem about the love of Jesus towards people by reinventing the parable of the prodigal son, the story of the adulterous woman and the piece of scripture found in the Gospel of John chapter three verse sixteen. The reason I chose love as a value is because it is the only force or power that can heal the world. The love of Jesus is patient, kind, does not seek its own agenda and His love puts others first in all things.
In order to break the grid, I needed to approach site with Sensitivity, this was the driving concept behind my design. The sensitivity I explored looked at different types of love: romantic, sibling, parentchild, friend; and in each type, there is a sensitivity, no matter how much or little, that exists. Those layers of sensitivity were what lead to the form and spaces of the architecture.
This specific description was contrary to the site that was given and its function. What my project aims to do is to spread this love throughout the city.
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Dream and Equity Cornel Hugo- 2nd Year Degree
For the design of a dance studio and coffee shop on the corner of Diagonal and Bree street in the Johannesburg CBD, I identified the values of Dream, Originality, Equity, Perseverance, Candour and Thought and interpreted them architecturally. Perseverance is a 24-hour building that makes provision for multiple programmes that can run simultaneously. The building has shaded spaces and seating where people can linger for long periods of time. Dream in a building uses light to inspire creativity. The design is clad in multi-coloured glass panels that cast tinted natural light into the dance studios. Candour is associated with architectural transparency. The floor levels of the building are offset sothat users of the building can peer into the different dance studios. Reason is about creating spaces within the design where people can gather by providing ample seating and large communal tables in the coffee shop. Originality is interpreted as an iconic building that adds a sense of place to the area. This is achieved by the use of vibrant colour and the steel arches that connect with the pedestrianized diagonal street across the intersection.
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Equity is expressed through the rainbow-hued colours as well as the accessibility of the space. The building is perforated so that users can easily move
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through the building to access the shop beyond. These values of architecture are also incorporated into a UDF for the area. It includes added public seating as spaces for reason and provision for people with disabilities to make the street more equitable.
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Beneath the Surface Markos Themba- 3rd Year Diploma
It is difficult to understand how those from other countries discern our culture and way of life. Some aspects we feel are universally accepted, however, these may not. One of the cultural variables is a person’s perception of time. People have their own idea of what time is and give little thought to the possibility that their definition could be different from anyone else’s. Time has a huge effect on interpersonal skills. Our understanding and attitude towards time affects others. If we could fully understand the fascinating dynamics of other cultures, beliefs and values we could learn the vast meaning time has. Time and hope is influenced by what is happening in the city. People are trying to keep up with time. The city is a high stressed environment and people use the space or environment in different times for different purposes. Time and hope are related through movement and space. Circulation is often thought as space between space, but time and hope having connection of function could be viewed more than space… if it captures the experience of the surrounding elements, time becomes tangible. The proposed structure cladding Luthuli House serves to offer direction, connect different spaces and people as they navigate the city. When the need arises, it is a pause space, a covered walkway or even a market space… programmes closely linked to the passing of time and the connection of people to one another.
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FEM[URBANISM] Lethabo Mathabathe- 3rd Year Diploma
Architecture is a highly male dominated industry; which means buildings and the public realm are mostly designed for the convenience of men. It’s about movement, rather than experiencing the building through movement, either visually or physically. Trying to change the way spaces are designed and how the public uses these spaces is what ‘FemUrbanism’ tries to do. The word ‘FemUrbanism’ derived from merging feminism and urbanism. It is about accommodating females and changing people’s perspective of how they look at architecture in an urban context. Through this project, I seek to bring attention to the experience of females of urban spaces, by introducing soft/ translucent materials in a very robust location like the city, maximising views in and around the site so there is a visual connection between the users of the space and with the design, so as to create more safer spaces, more “eyes on the streets” if you may. These elements create spaces that are more generous to its users and its surroundings. FemUrbanism proposes a building which stands out in its context, one that makes a statement, a new landmark just by its presence, one spotted from a distance by its form, materiality and aesthetics. The design starts by moving back into the site to give off more room for pedestrian movement on the southern and western boundary of the site. Programs in the design include a restaurant on the ground floor 81
which introduces one warmly into the space, a health-care facility and an office block section on the remaining floors. In reality, it’s very hard for women to find resources that cater for their daily needs. A healthcare facility which also acts as a refuge centre for them in a very harsh environment was the solution. Creating a public health-care facility for women in an unusual location like the CBD was one way of breaking this fixated norm. Overlooking the waiting area space of the clinic on the second floor is a glass screen overlooking the street which is cladded with large timber slits that allow light to penetrate in the space. This is a pleasing view for either the users of the space or those of the city, a visual interaction with each another.
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Family Bonds
Obakeng Mamosadi- 3rd Year Degree
As we look at our values, my view is through the lenses of my family. How I was raised by my mother, a single parent and the lessons I take to my own family. I feel that as a human being, in order to be known or understood, one needs to be transparent. In order to be understood we need to break down the false representation of ourselves.
Republic. It prides itself for putting people first “Batho pele”. However, this and many other values the party has are not evident in the concrete, introverted and arguably cold building that the party’s headquarters is situated. Its location, in the city center of Africa’s metropolis is ideal but not taken advantage of. I aim to use my understanding of personal values and test these on Luthuli House, the design peals the layers revealing the building’s internal functions, it connects the people with the party through walkways, bridges and programmes. It puts people not just in front, but at the center of it.
My design uncovers a number of layers, which act as a stumbling blocks. Aspects such as relationship goals, the notion of bonding and protection barriers, are values that center me and those I love. The nature of my relationship between my loved is bond relative. The closely related I am, the strong the bond I share with you. Much like my family bonds, architecture can express societal bonds, values if you will. The Luthuli House is the headquarters of the African National Congress, the current governing party of the 85
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UBUNTU-ISM Mvuleni Mnisi- 3rd Year Diploma
A comparative study of African versus Western ideals of society. The collective versus the self. The natural versus the manmade.
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TERM 1 Students
TERM 2 Students
2nd Year Diploma
2nd Year Degree
Eshara Naran Kare Jo-Ann Frederics Nobuhle Ngulube Chris Mari-Botha Lorishan Naicker
Cornel Hugo Noxolo Masuku Vhutshilo Munyembane 3rd Year Diploma
2nd Year Degree
Markos Themba Rhode Lubbe Lethabo Mathabathe Mvuleni Mnisi Liezel Steyn Bunny Bala Kamogelo Malepe
Ruvimbo Nyamupanedengu Thembeka Mpolweni Katlego Malebye Siwe Mathenjwa Elisha Premraj Thato Moloi Mashadi Kekana
3rd year Degree
3rd Year Diploma
Phiko Tshainca Ntokozo Nhlapho Obakeng Mamosadi Debra Bhugeni Thato Baloi
Flint Shongwe Blessing Mohape Ishmael Mashaba Billy Kgoedi Jabu Maluleke Kutloano Phasha Aobakwe Mathlaku Jinnifer Sibanda Rehan Vermeulen Zkiyyah Haffejee Portia Mabudisha 3rd Year Degree Terrence Matanga Ngonidzashe Tavuyanago Jamie Stone
Layout, design and compiled by: Jabu Makhubu 97
Elective Exernal Examiners
Dr Emmanuel Nkambule (University of Pretoria) Althea Peacock (Architect- Lemon Pebble Architects) 98
STUDENT WORK CONT.
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