A breath of fresh of air: dismantling toxicity in a post-industrial landscape in Durban, South Africa

Abstract

Modernization and turbulent power dynamics formed part of the ethos of the 20th century and as a result, saw the eventual boom of various formsof infrastructure and the rise of toxic landscapes. However, early in the 21st century, these infrastructural marvels have become obsolete and extremely dependent on the extraction of naturalresources all to the detriment of any living inhabitants that surround these sites. Dealing with a central theme of toxicity, this research report aims to build an understanding of how toxic political structures have brought about the rise of hazardous industrial landscapes to fuel apartheid modernisation in the South Durban basin. While the remanence of residential apartheid is still very presentin the urban landscape today, a historical analysis of apartheid urbanism was done to document the origins of this spatial practice in order to clinically subvert the effects of apartheid modernism. At the intersection of toxic, politically driven, urbanism and industrialization is where the study area for this project is sited. As is the case with many neighbourhoods established during the group areas act,the people placed in these areas are often left powerless to the powers that dictate their settlements. Therefore, as an act of urban and social rehabilitation, power needs to be given back to people who have been previously marginalized. This then alludes to a diverse reshaping of the communities that their ancestors were forcefully placed in. Accordingly the architectural response seeks to programmatically facilitate the spaces for participatory, design-led change while addressing physical and abstract forms of toxic contamination.