3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Relieving: reinterpreting the mall, the park and the public space in Sandton(2019) Batev, Minki MagdalenaStress is a reality of life. It can be good and bad and it can be constructive and the destructive. The destructive nature of stress can have a negative impact on a persons physical and mental health. Unfortunately, some stress is unavoidable, therefore a need to manage and alleviate stress is important. There is a general relationship between the built environment and stress. Looking at Sandton, the corporate centre of Johannesburg, it is understood why people experience professional, work pressure. The physical conditions of Sandton potentially further contribute to making Sandton a stressful environment. Sandton City, the mall situated in between Sandton’s corporate buildings, is in prime location with a under-utilised, empty flat roof. Herein lies an opportunity for a spatial intervention where people are able to alleviate constant streams of stress and in addition to improve the physical environment of Sandton to be more restorative and foster well-being in oder to enhance people’s ability to function effectively. This project is proposing that the roof of Sandton City is transformed into a public park. This responds to the need for more natural landscaping and to the need for public space in Sandton. The park will integrate into the mall at the main ‘social’ cores (the Checkers court, the Food court and Woolworths court). Most importantly, the park’s programming will address the issue of stress in the corporate environment by providing a variety of spaces and places for people to relax. This includes a exercise zone, a food zone and an urban escape zone which has a spa and short-stay rentable rooms.Item Urban ritual: a hydro-ritual space for the communities of the inner city(2016) Aserman, Samantha LeeThe heritage and history of a city is often based on urban legend. These stories pertain the cultural rooting of the society that had lived within the cities from their founding and until today. Johannesburg or Egoli appears to have skipped this cultural rooting and instead stems from the political and commercial soil of the gold mines. If we excavate into the gold mining history of the city – and even into the history preceding it - we can find the hidden sacred and cultural beginnings embedded in our society today. Our society has been formed on the continual evolution of the ideas of the sacred and profane through practices of incorporation, salvation and adaptation. As the gold mines in the city shut down, in 1940, the migrant labourers were left in hostels in an unfamiliar terrain and little means to make a living (Potenze, 2015). This means that today, we can still find evidence of the importance of sacred rituals similar to those in the mining compounds. Religions and cultures in Johannesburg, that have been gradually changed overtime, are a result of the incorporation of mining labour, urban customs and western ideas (including religion and technologies). Although the city has clearly harmed the rural traditions, we can still see glimpses of the endurance of the sacred within the profane landscape. The profane is adapted by the different communities in the inner city – as will be discussed with reference to the Mai Mai and Shembe (Nazareth Baptist Church) communities – to express their cultures of the sacred, traditional and religious and to accommodate for ritual practices associated with them. Today’s societies of the inner city are a mix of cultures, religions, God, the ancestors and ritual practices - both sacred and profane. By learning from the way in which these communities continually evolved to incorporate their environments into their traditions, the city too must now incorporate these communities and their beliefs into its structure. If this is achieved, it could ignite a healing process through integration as opposed to replacement or removal of elements of the city or of its society. This report explores ideas of the importance of religion and culture in Johannesburg’s context. As it is an architectural analysis, the response will be a proposal for religious infrastructure and space within the area of City and Suburban, alongside the Kwa Mai Mai market and the gathering spaces of the Shembe / Nazareth Baptist Church. This will promote and retain the cultures, traditions and religions that were brought to the city and used as a tool of survival.