Fetching fietas: Reclaiming memory through Urban Design

Abstract

This Project aims to bridge the gap between an urban context that acknowledges the past with a constantly evolving urban fabric through the lens of memory. The objectives are to understand Apartheid planning and its consequences in terms of forced removals and the impact thereof on the current urban fabric of Fietas Johannesburg. This project will also study the city of Johannesburg’s initiatives thus far and intended, for renewal and upgrading of Fietas to enable a strategy to assimilate the current and evolving urban landscape of Fietas with the memory of its past. The project will be focused on Fietas in Johannesburg, south Africa. The research will focus predominantly on site analysis and overall observations gained from site visits and secondary sources of information such as previous projects, frameworks from the city and existing data such as zoning and land uses etc. This information together with interviews with previous community members (5 interviews in total) will help guide the design development towards a framework that incorporates the past memory of Fietas with its current and con- stantly evolving urban fabric.