A Labyrinth of connections [Urban Complexity in Ferreirasdorp]
Figure 1. Aerial photograph showing Fordsburg, Newtown and Ferreirasdorp along the M1 highway. In this image one can see the difference in densities between the inner CBD on the top right hand corner and the outer ‘industrial’ periphery to the bottom of the image. It is also clear from the photograph the different building typologies in the CBD in comparison to those in the periphery. Photograph by L. Krige [date unknown].
Abstract This paper investigates the varying complexities in parts of Johannesburg, with a focussed analysis of Ferreirasdorp in Johannesburg’s Westgate Precinct. Findings from the context will be set in comparison to other urban contexts that make the city what it is, with the aim of identifying specific urban ingredients, to be tested and implemented in my design process at varying scales; Urban, Site and Building. It also looks at complexities that could work better in the city’s context and make it an organically working and living structure. For hundreds of years architects have been faced with the challenge of creating what the residents and builders of Kowloon walled city have succeeded in: an “[…] an organic mega-structure” that is “[…] not set rigidly for a lifetime” (Lambot 1993:sp). Cities should change and morph continually in response to the changing needs of its users. The residents and builders of Kowloon walled city were able to create such an organic complexity. One thing that fuelled this was the fortunate lack of government and architect power. Without the involvement of authorities, people were given the freedom to do with the space what they will. This, I believe is an extremely important tool that most architects often take for granted – we often design cities-accordingto-designers instead of cities-according-to-users. And in doing this, the value of the city – its complexity, is lost, and what remains is a flat and rigid plane that is often not functional to its users. What is interesting is that in the Johannesburg context, these rigid planes are often abandoned by their initial users and the next generation of users make use of the remaining skeletal structures in interesting and innovative ways. These interesting uses begin to model those complexities and start to lead the way in designing future cities.
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Introduction The small town of Ferreirasdorp in Johannesburg’s Westgate precinct has remained rigid throughout the last couple of years. In comparison to Johannesburg’s CBD it hasn’t developed as much or at the same pace as its surrounding neighbours. Population density decreases from the inner city towards Ferreirasdorp, despite it being a transport hub. Currently, Ferreirasdorp is a transition moment within the city – there arre no pause areas within it to keep people within it, instead people move through it passingly. Ferreirasdorp lacks the complexity that inner Johannesburg flourishes in – the networks that weave themselves in, around, over and through each other connecting people, businesses, industries and spaces together, that in turn make the city into an organic living system. This essay will unpack these complexities that are found in the Johannesburg context, that were used in developing our urban design framework for Ferreireasdorp, and lead to a final building design suited for the Ferreirasdorp context.
Complexities This heading is derived from a book by Frapmton and Solomon titled Cities without ground. They developed this book to help people better understand Japan’s complex transport system. In their book, they mention these five complexities: ground, solids, connectivity, activity, and atmosphere. All five of these complexities are relevant to Johannesburg’s context, but our urban design framework for Ferreiresdorp is focussed mainly on the complexity of ‘fluid connectivity’.
Connectivity… Connections in a city form part of that city’s complexity. These connections can either be tangible or intangible. Tangible connections refer to road networks that deal with ground-to-ground connections, or building linkages dealing with solid-to-solid, similar to connections in Japan. Intangible connections refer to economic connections within same industries in terms of trade or exchange, and these can deal with complexities of activity and atmosphere, similar to the Johannesburg context. The walled city of Kowloon was very rich when it comes to both tangible and intangible connection complexities. Its labyrinthine form offered its inhabitants with a maze of networks between living spaces, work spaces and places of trade (see Fig 2). One of the Walled City’s most distinctive and interesting characteristics, according to James Saywell’s article, The architecture of Kowloon walled city, was
Figure 2. Snapshot from the video “Winter 2013. Waterloo Arch. 392 Urban Precedent 16. Kowloon Walled City-HD” showing the complex networks that connected the whole of Kowloon walled city in a maze-like grid. Vimeo, 2013
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that it inhabitants could traverse different structures and navigate the interwoven circulation system of the city fluidly (Saywell 2014:4). In page eight of the same article, Saywell refers to Kowloon’s circulation system as “[…] arteries of different sizes”. This idea of having ‘arteries’ of different sizes, can be used as a principle to designing the future Ferreirasdorp.
…in relation to the urban design framework In our urban design framework (see Fig. 3), we investigated different types of roads within the urban context of Johannesburg. We looked mainly at the roads that came from the inner city through Ferreirasdorp, and into the neighbouring towns of Fordsburg and Newtown.
Figure 3. Our urban design framework showing the study area and the existing roads that go through it. ArchiCad image author’s own [2015]
Our UDF seeks to link these roads by creating a boulevard that runs perpendicular to the identified roads. We noticed that in Johannesburg, four-lane roads have been implemented in an attempt to combat the influx of traffic. During off-peak hours, some of these roads’ outer lanes become parking spaces, narrowing them down to two lane roads – smaller arteries. Sometimes they can become even smaller arteries, where a road transitions into a pedestrian path. This reversible use the road adds to the city’s complexity, and increases user-ship. At site development scale, since all our design buildings are hinged to the boulevard, the intersections along the boulevard are treated in a similar manner – for different uses by different users, which thus creates opportunity for interaction and connection between the different users. The more the city grows and more users come in, the more dense the complexity of these intersections.
…in relation to site and building On the boulevard itself, further interventions have been implemented to increase connectivity. Our boulevard consists of four typologies of road lanes. These add to the complexity of the road in that it caters for different users at the same time, and in some
Figure 4.1 Sketch of site section of proposed design, author’s own, 2015
instances along the boulevard it is more favourable to the one user than it is to the others. When
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designing the site of the design building, one can then focus on that one user group as a steering mechanism towards a final design. The site section and plan sketch alongside (Fig. 4.1 and 4.2) shows how I have implemented connectivity as a principle, not only to the site but the building plan. The building consists of two masses, separated by a pedestrian axis that is a connector to the buildings north and south of the site. The east-west axis is treated differently in that pedestrians will move through the building, therefore the two axes create two different atmospheres that exist
Figure 4.2 Sketch development plan showing plan of proposed design building, author’s own, 2015
alongside each other and thus are influential to one another. The pavements around the building are also treated differently. In our UDF we concluded that all pavements on the boulevard should be 5m wide to cater for public amenities on our building fronts. The pavement to the north of the site in Fig. 3 is 3m wide – it caters for no activity since it is on a busy vehicular road, it is mainly an entrance to the pedestrian axis. To the east, a quieter, less busy road is paralleled with shaded pavements that offer seating in a serene atmosphere. So, from the west (on the boulevard) through the building to the east, the atmosphere changes from extreme to less extreme. Therefore, in terms of building program it is suited that most public amenities be placed towards the west, so that as one moves through the building in an eastern direction, the atmosphere of the building goes from public to more private. Also, as one moves from the ground floor upwards, the building program goes from public
Figure 5 Water colour sketch of proposed building programmeauthor’s own, 2015
to private (see Fig.5).
Conclusion The program of the building supports the site development plan, which seeks to make the boulevard an ‘active’ and therefore public realm. This ties back to the urban design framework, making the
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boulevard a flexible and fluid ‘living’ space, instead of a rigid plane that offers nothing to its users. The roads that lead to and from the city through Ferrirasdorp will therefore form connections between activities on the boulevard and those within the CBD.
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