3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
13 results
Search Results
Item The Queer Commons: Interweaving Queer Space into Hillbrow as an urban resource for Johannesburg’s LGBTIQ community(2020) McBride, IanThe role of architecture as an agent for social change is becoming increasingly important in current times. Consequently, sexuality and its relation to space is a relevant theme in the development of a more responsive built environment. In recent decades academics have started to consolidate and bring to light the narrative of LGBTIQ issues with different theories and methodologies emerging as to how space can more appropriately respond to sexuality and gender. This means that the agency of queer space is not only an important recourse for the community it represents but could also be used more broadly as a spatial tool in places of tension and diversity. South Africa has often been applauded for its progressive legal framework regarding the rights of the queer com-munity. However, statistics indicate that there is still widespread targeted violence and prejudice towards sexual minorities. Apartheid planning policy, which segregated people spatially across race lines, has meant that an integrated representation of queer space in the city is still largely illusive. It is therefore necessary to understand the architectural and spatial means by which queer spaces can converge in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg. If there is still widespread prejudice, how can architecture interweave into an urban fabric so that the community can access resources without the risk of targeted violence? ‘The Queer Commons’ is a speculative architectural intervention which proposes a site of civic engagement which interweaves services catered to the growing social and psychological needs of Johannesburg’s LGBTIQ community. The architectural incursion is positioned to reconcile the fact that there is little infrastructure to compensate for the vastly different lived experience of queer individuals who continue to experience discrimination and social isolation. Lack of state endorsement for civil service infrastructure has inhibited the ability to create a meaningful public interface for the queer community in the Johannesburg; therefore this speculative development is conceived as an opportunity to engage with the city’s impetus to define new sites of civic engagement. The proposed research places the site in the multicultural inner city suburb of Hillbrow as an integrated re-imagination of the Windybrow Centre. The transformation of the inner city over the decades has had a profound effect on the social context of its queer community which has in turn also exposed its internal divisions. The architectural proposal interweaves existing aspirations for the activation of the Windybrow site in Hillbrow with a new ‘Queer Commons’ which negotiates between much needed structures of civic engagement in the area as well as an urban resource for Johannesburg’s LGBTIQ communityItem The nature of cities: a case for the reintroduction of nature as catalyst for urban regeneration(2020) Hesebeck, HeinrichThis dissertation on the Nature of Cities investigates the link between the presence of nature as place-making tool and the quality of life and prosperity of urban users. Furthermore, it analyses whether the reinsertion of nature into an existing urban fabric can lead to urban regeneration, human well-being and improved resilience in urban environments currently under pressure from climate change. The research topic focuses on natural and cultural heritage as a catalyst for urban regeneration, resulting in sustainable and productive urban environments. Analysis of case studies and various theoretical positions is used to develop a strategy of implemetation that will allow daily interaction with nature, rather than the divide that currently exists between the anthropogenic and ecological spheres in much of our cities. The proposed study area stretches over the boundaries of the inner city residential suburbs of Berea, Hillbrow and Parktown, Johannesburg. Each one of these suburbs offering different spatial qualities and challenges and representing distinctly varying conditions. As some of the oldest suburbs of Johannesburg they provide valuable natural and cultural heritage that allows a rich background and the perfect canvas on which to explore the importance of the inclusion of nature into our day to day lives. Furthermore, it offers the opportunity to explore the ability of nature’s reintroduction to stimulate local economic growth and increased well-being. The main research question focuses on the role that nature, specifically water can have on urban form and its role in placemaking. It does this by challenging the current implemented response by local council in dealing with natural water sources and storm-water runoff, which in most cases reflects the removal from site by canalization and piping. The aim is to develop a response that will make access to nature readily available to inner city dwellersItem Mitigation of displacement through rent control policy(2018) Tyekela, Yelanda NontyatyamboThe focus of the study was to explore the use of rent control to mitigate displacement in the Johannesburg inner city which forms part of Region 8 and consists of the Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD. Johannesburg's Central Business District (CBD) was in a state of decay and in an attempt to rehabilitate it the City of Joburg implemented urban regeneration. The efforts have however, have resulted in the displacement of low income residents. The rejuvenation of the residential buildings attracted the middle and upper income population into the inner city and landlords responded to their influx by increasing their rents. The low income residents who have been residing in the inner city are as such no longer able to afford the rent and thus forcing them to find accommodation elsewhere. The research asked the following question: Can rent control be used as a method to reduce the displacement of low income residents in the Johannesburg CBD? Establishing whether rent control can be used as a means to mitigate displacement in the inner city is imperative and the research sought to uncover factors that would encourage property investors and developers in the Johannesburg CBD to adopt rent control. Understanding how rent control could be used to mitigate the challenges of displacement caused by urban regeneration in the Johannesburg inner city becomes fundamental. This helps to assist in finding a balance in the dynamic nature of gentrification and displacement in the City of Joburg and the enforcement of rent control to protect the low income residents. This research was conducted using the quantitative approach to explore rent control as one of the methods used to minimize displacement and the marginalization of residents as a result of gentrification and rehabilitation of the inner city from data gathered. The sample groups were 60 property investors and developers from the Johannesburg CBD. Data was collected through the use of closed-ended questions with multiple choice answer options and these were explored using quantitative methods. The results indicate that the monitoring and lowering of expenses associated with rates and taxes could influence the adoption of rent control. The data further revealed that the relaxation of tax could be another motivating factor for the adoption of the implementation of rent control. Investors and policy makers should therefore strive for development that is affordable and equitable and for all parties. The data further revealed the potential of rent control as a means of mitigating displacement in the Johannesburg CBD. It is the researcher’s hope that recommendations made by this study, if implemented will improve the dynamic nature of gentrification and displacement.Item Reframing Urban Design to sequence developing world cities: designing for patterns in Yeoville/Bellevue, Johannesburg(2015-05-12) Abed, Abdul AzizCurrent understandings of Urban Design point towards the fact that it is the art and science of city making. Like other aspects of Architecture, it begins with a site analysis, followed by the formulation of a vision for the built environment and thereafter a process of transforming the vision into reality (Carmona et.al, 2003). Thus, Urban Design is perceived as a discipline that gives rise to the form and defi nition of the full spectrum of forces including social, economic, cultural, ecological, political and aesthetic dynamics (Dixon, 2005). The role of the Urban Designer can therefore be understood as central to a number of other stakeholders such as Traffi c Engineers dealing with vehicular movement, Civil Engineers concerned with structural design, Architects designing built form, Landscape Architects designing open space, Urban Planners formulating policy and the Property Developers involved in aspects of land investment. However, as urban populations grow, become more diverse and fragmented, the function of Urban Design and the role of the Urban Designer becomes questionable (Madanipour, 1996). The past tradition of thought in Urban Design (visual artistic approach) incorporated a fi rm belief in the physical aspects of city making relying on built form as a primary informant. This tradition has, however, been replaced by a more recent tradition (social usage approach) which incorporates a fi rm belief in interpreting phenomena occurring in public space. This served as a response married to the phenomenon of increased population density and rapid urbanisation persistent in the developing city context due to global migration patterns (Watson, 2009). Consequently, in its plight to reframe Urban Design to sequence developing cities, this thesis conducts a comparative analysis between developed and developing world cities regarding national migratory, population density and urbanisation trends and the effects that it poses on regions, cities and localities. In so doing, it progresses to a realisation that increased living densities in turn spills over into the public realm and onto the street edge for retail and social service access purposes. Thus, a greater mix of uses in the built environment is forged. The increased density of people on sidewalks in essence stimulates transport movement as a collector service which structures street connectivity systems around retail facilities and social services. From the analytical fi ndings here, this thesis recognises that there exist relationships between built form confi guration and socio-economic activities occurring in public space. In light of the above, the thesis employs the combination of the visual artistic and social usage approaches to form the making places approach, which can be appropriate for Urban Design in developing cities. After establishing a new approach, the thesis structures the above-mentioned operations into an evolved conceptual framework. Thus, the conceptual framework recognises that time change in developing cities in conjunction with population density and migration cause overlapping relationships between building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across various scales and within the formal, semi-formal/semiinformal and informal realms. With this being the case, the thesis analyses current literature which argues that the broader problem is the fact that the interrelatedness of the above-mentioned concepts is negated in theory. It develops the problem statement further by stating that a lack of the interrelatedness of the concepts contained in the conceptual framework has in turn infl uenced a lack of such in current research and urban design practice in developing cities. This is confi rmed through measuring the extent to which three South African Urban Design practice case studies consider concepts of building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across various scales and acknowledging the lack thereof. As a means of responding to the problem identifi ed above, a set of research techniques is investigated using a Yeoville/Bellevue, Johannesburg site-specifi c case with the aim of assisting designers to better apply the evolved conceptual framework. Simultaneously, the thesis uses Yeoville/Bellevue as a focus area to illustrate the manner in which building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity can be considered across various scales. This essentially progresses into the creation of an Urban Design Framework for Yeoville/Bellevue that strengthens the linkages between housing and social services, retailing and transport/movement through using principles of street connectivity, land use mix and building density creation. An implementation strategy for the Design Framework is then established. Through the execution of the above process the collective consideration of building density, housing and social services, retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across various scales serves as the basis for reframing Urban Design to suit developing cities.Item Polygraph: a palimpsest pigment factory: a colour plant as a recording device for the sedimented scars on Johannesburg's mining landscape(2015-04-29) Vally, SumayyaThe mining that gave rise to Johannesburg as a city has left in its wake pieces of geologically disturbed, disused, and unusable land. These leftover fragments of landscape carry with them, not only memory of the city’s foundations, but scars of the mining processes that now render them unusable - Not only do these vaguescapes have potential for the memory within them to be unearthed, but they are highly polluted, and seek to be reimagined as productive city spaces. The chosen site, an abandoned piece of mineland with a concealed old mine shaft; on the edge of a highway on the fringe of the CBD, is simultaneously highly visible to the city, but forgotten to it. Its positioning is unique in that it allows for the potential for the extraction of the mine pollutants and site remediation to become a highly visible process. Understanding and uncovering layers and traces of the site as means of understanding what is possible on this highly polluted landscape became an important architectural and design generator. The architecture consolidates and reimagines the fragments of ruin, both physical and ephemeral, contained on the site, and curates the users experience through these forgotten traces. Its programme - a colour plant, which extracts useful metallic colour pigments from the contaminated earth, becomes a visceral reminder of these past traces ;and a recording device for the current consequences of past mining activity. The approach is an almost critical speculation. The age of the picturesque landscape is no more. Our effects on the land have depleted the earth and diseased its rhythms. But these unstable consequences hold possibilities that can be engaged with imaginatively; rather than merely re-mediated. How can architecture engage with this instability? The project accepts the presence of rising acid mine water; and imagines a new reality emerging from it. The project is a comment on our own epoch; one where waste, toxicity and radiation are so rife, that they are now a quiet, sinister backdrop to our world. More than an apocalyptic future, this project deals with a dystopian present. The precarious site conditions pose questions for an architecture which can engage with the instability, and not merely withstand it. The architectural concern is to render visible and intensify a consciousness of these traces, to investigate a palimpsest infrastructure. Colour, like architecture is a link between the conscious and the subconscious. It is a mediator between the realms. It holds possibilities for suggesting and molding atmospheres and perceptions. The architecture negotiates all the realms, concerned with past, present and future. It consolidates and makes apparent the traces but it is also developed with an awareness that it becomes part of these traces. It is an intervention which aims to heighten an awareness of the presence of the past in the life of the city; and also as palimpsest infrastructure; as a recording device for the geological happenings of the earth.Item Retrofit repair rethink : redevelopment of the typological suburban retail node(2014-04-02) Bredenkamp, Francois A.Cannot copy abstractItem Desegregating and ameliorating the township: demonstrating Lenasia as a case study(2014-02-20) Daya, PriyaJohannesburg, historically as an apartheid city, was a segregationist city. Today, as a globally competitive city, that segregation is being entrenched by new forms of exclusion. This aim of this thesis is to understand the historic forces that created a segregated city and to understand the current forces that continue to enforce segregation within the city. In understanding these forces, the thesis aims at proposing methods to overcome the segregation within our cities. The thesis is located within the context of the township and focuses specifically on the township of Lenasia. At the international level it explores the idea of modernism enabling social engineering and it also explores the impact that Neoliberalism has had on cities internationally. Within the South African context the impact that modernism coupled with the apartheid ideology resulted in the foundations of city of Johannesburg being segregated on the basis of race. The impact of Neoliberalism on the city of Johannesburg is also explored in order to understand the new forms of segregation that is being enforced within the city. The resulting socio-spatial segregation is explored within the context of the township of Lenasia. The key modernist manifestation that has had a profound impact on the layout of the township is the Neighbourhood Unit. The key neoliberal manifestation that has impacted on the study area is the gated strip mall. Theories aimed at overcoming the shortcomings of the modernist city and the neoliberal cities include: Transport Orientated Developments; Suburban Sprawl; Retrofitting Suburbia; and The Compact City Debate. However David Dewar’s South African Cities: A Manifesto for change was particularly important in terms of overcoming the challenges faced within the context of the developing world where issues of integration, equity and sustainability need to be addressed. Methods of intervention in order to overcome segregation extracted from David Dewar’s Manifesto were extracted and applied to case study township of Lenasia.Item Urban living 101: a platform for [re]introduction into Johannesburg inner city(2014-02-20) Belamant, MichelleOver 800 000 people access and commute through Johannesburg Inner City every single day. (JDA, 2009) Out of this, a certain group of people enter the city with every intention to fi nd permanent residency and work within the city. They mostly come from afar, rural or semi-rural areas and often from neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, with the continuously changing urban environment, it can be an incredibly difficult process to adapt to alone. As such, this can be the best time and the worst time of their lives, fi lled with mixed emotions of excitement, disappointment, fear and anticipation. This is the time where one may manage to truly live life, or end up surviving it. The sudden change in lifestyle, security, social and economic conditions, entertainment and habitat can create situations where the very best will fail in their quest to improve their lives and fall into degenerate lives of crime and despair from which very few will emerge stronger. As I see it, architecture is the science of building, in terms of not only visually inspiring structures but more importantly, structures that can improve the lives of people whilst preserving the environment and assisting in the building of a stronger economy and moral fi bre. I believe that architecture is at the root of civilization itself. However, due to a multitude of varying levels of control implemented into the urban realm of Johannesburg’s Inner City, in order to ensure this change, it appears that parts of the physical environment are being distorted to accept a selected group of city inhabitants, leaving the marginalised group to fend for themselves. In saying this, there thus appears to be a new form of segregation occurring within the city. As such, the social and physical environments are beginning to lose a certain key characteristic of what a city should be – spirit and integration between all of its parts. This thesis therefore investigates a design that strives to create a bridge between Johannesburg’s Inner City and the formal environments where new city-dwellers can fi nd respite and are assisted to achieve their goals without succumbing to the pitfalls that would otherwise await them. The design will ensure that the transition between these new-comers’ old and new lifestyles and surroundings is as painless as possible allowing them to reach their full potential quickly and hopefully removing the risk that they may become a burden to themselves and society. This thesis will focus on the construct of a 21st century interpretation of Godin’s familistère, not necessarily in its structural make up but rather in its funding, management and programmatic structure to fulfi l its mission in a sustainable manner as well as the new idea of connecting these factors into the ‘bigger picture’. (Benevolo, 1971) This thesis will address the fundamentals of target group, services provided, training, temporary living accommodation, optimal time of stay, work ethics, funding and most importantly, the spatial framework required for such integration to occur. The results of this thesis will culminate in a full-scale detailed design of such a construct and propose how it could be achieved spatially for the direct benefi t of those individuals, as well as the indirect effect it could have on the physical make-up of Johannesburg’s Inner City.Item Item