Think box: an educational and community incubator to connect communities and the landscape of Benoni

Abstract

This architectural project is conceptualized over layering two histories of paper on Benoni’s landscape. When considering paper as inheritance; the first paper history that is unpacked, takes the form of the authors family legacy– a 65-year-old printing press born during apartheid that represents one form of creative energies translated into a creative industry as a means of survival. The second is the paper history that Benoni inherited i.e.. maps that were drawn, the planning of apartheid on paper, stories that were recorded and the consequences laid on the landscape, which essentially drew South Africa’s unequal paper landscapes. Through this theme the author uses paper as a conceptual driver that filters throughout the project since paper is seen as a metaphor and sometimes a physical representation of the landscape. These unequal paper landscapes take the form of the natural terrain, extractive landscapes, and segregated communities, that locates the chosen site, The Gap. Thus, making The Gap a scar that Benoni inherited, bound by the edges of marginalized, Indian, Black African and Coloured communities. In suspense of development, the architectural response seeks to erode the gaps presence as a divider, into a scar that connects them. Through unfolding and refolding the landscape, the intervention will programmatically function as a shared central incubator that accommodates for a diverse range of creative possibilities for curious minds. The architectural form is seen as public space held together by support structures that house resources for di &erent mediums of creative rituals. These creative rituals include, tinkering, making, commerce, sharing, performing, and re'ecting that foster the germination and exchange of ideas, social cohesion, and provide recourses for skills development that encourages new networks that can in 'uence the future of the larger landscape and the next generation