City service station: developing the public amenity network for the new urban community
Date
2011-10-26
Authors
Hausler, Kay
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Abstract
The inner city of Johannesburg has encountered many changes in
its identi ty, use and level of occupati on. In 2010, downtown Johannesburg
is comprised of pockets of vibrant acti on and producti
on with an ever-increasing industrious populace and residenti al
sector, and therefore ever-increasing pressure on the public services.
With the legal and illegal conversion of countless commercial
buildings for housing, what is apparent is the lack of basic
public ameniti es. While the informal network, clustering around
populated points, sati sfi es minor daily needs, its transient, simplisti
c, repeti ti ve system, does not perform to the extent required
by a residenti al community. These enterprises are neither large
enough to be an insti tuti on, constant enough to be socially inclusive
nor structured enough to be capable of fulfi lling social services.
Concurrently, there exists a series of unuti lised, unproducti ve private
spaces; a dormant network of sites, saturated with potenti al
to fulfi l that which the city is lacking, an effi cient public territory.
[ Taking something the city has and
doesn’t need and creati ng something
city dwellers don’t have, and need. ]
This thesis aims to use unproducti ve ‘gaps’ to create a model for urban
public infi ltrati on; incorporati ng existi ng ameniti es into a complex, hybridised,
democrati c structure. The result is to be the formati on of an inclusive
social service network, provision of basic ameniti es, opportuniti es for
the gathering of an increasing residenti al populati on and the recepti on
and integrati on of a non-residenti al and immigrant populati on, in the city
of Johannesburg.