Devland: a multi-service station in Armadale, Devland.
Date
2012-08-28
Authors
Goncalves, Kevin
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Abstract
Fantastic Devland is an architectural thesis that explores the integrating potential of the Baragwanath Buffer Zone.
I will investigate the nature and role of in-between spaces over time.
Internationally, in-between spaces have received much attention in recent years, due to a broader understanding of ‘local’. The economic decision to unify Europe into the European Union, for instance, meant that previously obscure spaces provincially or nationally became very strategic when considered continentally and as a result, on a spatial level, certain territories gained importance while others lost it (Lootsma, 2002).
In South Africa, the collapse of Apartheid in 1994 and the subsequent creation of the Republic of South Africa implied that, spatially (among other things), the buffer zone as a racially separating device became redundant. It also meant that previously exclusive spaces are to be integrated into inclusive neighbourhoods, accessible to all who are interested in being included.
Fantastic Devland proposes another Armadale, by trying to connect diverse scales, programmes and contexts through the re-interpretation of existing petrol stations on the side of the road.