Abstract: I have chosen to design an urban wellness public space in Durban Blue Lagoon. The aim of this research is to understand and find out the use and spatial qualities of public urban spaces that work well. The idea behind this research is to explore how this space can activate and reconnect the Durban Blue Lagoon site, by re-imagining the boundaries of the Umgeni River and how this space can connect to the city. The primary theme for my project is looking at the urban public spaces, buildings and cultural activities on the site that encourage and can attract a diversified public through an environment that enhances social and physical wellbeing. The most effective public spaces are multi-use destinations with many planned activities that create a platform of exchange and where citizens can find common ground and activity zones to relax, gather, learn and play. This theory has informed the design. The proposed site for the programme is in the city, the Durban’s Blue Lagoon recreation area, between the main road and the shoreline. The Blue Lagoon and Umgeni River junction site is close to the city and proposes opportunities for connection and engagement with the Beachwood Mangrove reserve. It is surrounded by water systems on the edges of the site, where the Indian Ocean and Umgeni River meet. Twill reflect on the Umgeni River as a conceptual starting point. The concept for the Urban Wellness Public Facility will reflect on the Umgeni River as a conceptual starting point. The site is surrounded by natural landscapes and greenery, which would further enhance the essence of enjoyment which adds to social and physical wellbeing. The programme integrates an urban wellness public facility with the principal idea of leisure, health and wellbeing spaces coming together. The programme will include an educational centre, urban wellness space, viewing platform and river taxi stop that bring awareness of social and physical wellbeing with leisure and recreational facilities. There are existing jogging, cycling, skating and fishing activities on the site and the existing jogging route will run through the urban wellness space and educational centre. The users will be the general public and tourists who will engage with exhibits, public talks and will enjoy leisure and recreational spaces. / EM2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Urban Design / ABSTRACT In township environments where pedestrian activity occurs out of necessity; and public transport prevails - the main street becomes a magnet for mobility, social encounters and economic exchange. It is the path that connects the settlement to the whole; it disperses and draws in; it collects and connects. It is the image of the township. Streets play an important role within townships as the primary form of public urban space. It is within these spaces that the residents make their own opportunities for a better quality of life. (Jacobs, 1993) explained that by designing the streets, one has largely designed the city. / EM2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning / There is a consensus amidst the planning community that we are currently experiencing a sweeping paradigm shift; which has over the last forty-years gained rapid momentum. Postmodernism is proposed to have prompted a return to ‘the small is beautiful’ and the revaluation of people as the critical and central receptors of the spaces that past and present planners produce. An emphasis on the everyday and lived experience of the urban population is just another symptom in the argument for postmodernism. As perhaps is common with all paradigm shifts, along with the transformation has come a flurry of some new terminologies and a redefining of others. Suburban neighbourhoods have experienced an interrogation of terminology; and epistemological and phenomenological value. The identification of inner-circle suburbs is just one of the many terms to describe a uniquely urban space within the once blanketing term ‘suburbs’. Inner-circle suburbs are often the oldest suburbs in an urban area and are located closest to the Central Business District. A revitalised inquisition in suburban spaces has prompted new and creative ways of exploring the suburbs; with our own locally grown urbanists showing interest and producing knowledge on the dynamics of South African suburban neighbourhoods. Needless to say, this is still a relatively young topic that favours an investigation into spatial form and structure over the significance of the lived practice. This research report is an attempt to coalesce the spatial form and practiced living into a single coherent snap-shot of the lives of northern inner-circle suburban dwellers.

A discourse submitted to the Faculty of Architecture, Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburq, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Development Planning. / Andrew Chakane 2018

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of the City Development Agencies on the regeneration of the Johannesburg inner city. Urban degeneration within Johannesburg has been a major challenge, which has an adverse impact on crime, pollution and loss of revenue. This study will investigate public private partnership city development agencies which play a role in establishing sustainable communities. The City Development Agencies and their objectives are reviewed with the principle intention of establishing how successful they are in achieving these objectives. Interviews with senior management from these organizations provided conclusive evidence about their effectiveness and the state of regeneration. These structured interviews incorporated challenges associated with urban degeneration. Key performance indicators were established to measure the success of the organizational structures. These are reviewed against the data from the interviews and government reports. The results of this study show that organizational structures have a positive impact on the sustainable regeneration process and are structured to foster continuous regeneration. Management, communication and fiscal issues were identified as areas of difficulty Organizational structures are essential for the regeneration process, as they provide a structured platform for managing the process. Proper management, communication and adequate funding will help in ensure sustainable regeneration.

Traditionally the high street serviced residents in the local suburb. The proliferation of entertainment and leisure activities on the high street in suburban Johannesburg has appealed to people in the broader region. These social spaces within the suburb provide a simultaneous interaction of individuals who can carry out their daily activities of shopping, dining and socializing and essentially has contributed to these high streets being successful destination points. Patrons, the foot traffic of the high street, sustain businesses on the high street. Some business owners neglect to implement city by-laws and comply with licensing regulations often perpetuating unfavourable circumstances for residents in the suburb. Noise, petty crime and parking constraints detract from the street's allure. Alternatively, some residents enjoy easy access to the street's activities. Using a mixed method research approach, this research reveals some of the perceptions, regulations and tensions regarding the prominence of entertainment and leisure activities on the high street. Three case studies (7th Street in Melville, 4th Avenue in Parkhurst and Rockey/Raleigh Street in Greater Yeoville) are explored to evaluate the role of entertainment and leisure on the suburban high street.

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / In a world of speed, where everythingseemingly happens in an instant, the context of this thesis is fully engrained in contemporary society. With an increase in pace of life, brought about through technological developments, we are enveloped in a new sense of connection. For the first time, people who are across the world can be reached within the touch of a button. No longer do we wait; no longer do we slow and no longer do we pause. We have entered a societal race that appears to be unending by the pressures of perpetual modernity. Johannesburg is continually growing as a 21st century city as it adapts to new technologies and industries as speed develops the urban landscape. Through investigations into this contemporary way of life of My City and an inherent increase in pace of the everyday, people living in the city are being driven by the mundane. It is within the modern city, that slow becomes a phenomena and an importance of place is emphasized. With little space to take time and appreciate the city amidst this fast-paced way of life, the disconnection between people and place is ever increasingly growing. A virtual gap between real and unreal begins to create a rift between the city and the people. People are pulled into a ‘mobile hello’ where there is a lack of awareness in spaces around the city. The notions of time, movement and pace of life translate into a contemporary condition that identifies the importance that people and the city have placed on the virtual. Thrust by the tension between the virtual and real in every day, people are being pulled into a new sense of telepresence1.This telepresence and the current pace of life translate into a condition that emphasises the need for deceleration as a means of reconnection. By looking at theories around third place as a means of gathering within architectural discourse, the work challenges Johannesburg to prepare for its future by allowing for place of pause amidst this condition. Around the city a sense of timelessness comes with spiritual space, thus the proposed programme of the House of the Spirit becomes a space of accessibility, connectivity and sociability. This space rekindles the ideas of slow, by allowing for people to take pause from the everyday in a common space. The architecture brings about a way to stimulate the past and looking towards a future of our people while dealing with conditions that surround the city in the present and an inherent increase in pace of the everyday, people living in the city are being driven by the mundane. It is within the modern city, that slow becomes a phenomenon and an importance of place is emphasized. With little space to take time and appreciate the city amidst this fast paced way of life, the disconnection between people and place is ever increasingly growing. A virtual gap between real and unreal begins to create a rift between the city and the people. People are pulled into a ‘mobile hello’ where there is a lack of awareness in spaces around the city. The notions of time, movement and pace of life translate into a contemporary condition that identifies the importance that people and the city have placed on the virtual. Thrust by the tension between the virtual and real in every day, people are being pulled into a new sense of telepresence. This telepresence and the current pace of life translate into a condition that emphasises the need for deceleration as a means of reconnection. By looking at theories around third place as a means of gathering within architectural discourse, the work challenges Johannesburg to prepare for its future by allowing for place of pause amidst this condition. Mapping the city draws light activities and places that are preparing for its people. Around the city a sense of timelessness comes with spiritual space, thus the proposed programme of the House of the Spirit becomes a space of accessibility, connectivity and sociability. This space rekindles the ideas of slow, by allowing for people to take pause from the everyday in a common space. The architecture brings about a way to stimulate the past and looking towards a future of our people while dealing with conditions that surround the city in the present. / GR2017

There is a certain gender inequality which has been engraved into the city’s social fabric. This engraving has been done over centuries of patriarchy and has been further embedded through the rise of capitalism (with the centralisation of labour and wealth within the masculine domain). For this reason it may be deduced that cities were developed with ’men in mind,’ One of the most significant remnants of this male dominated past has been the construction of our physical city; Though we have accepted the city at face value and tried to make it as equal as best we can, the truth remains that these environments were not designed with women in mind at all. And so while we now have laws and regulations professing our freedom and equality as women, the truth is that we now live in an age of gender brutality, within a physical environment which perpetuates the old patriarchal norms. But no one is to blame for this inequality. I also do not believe that it could have been avoided. The more important and productive question is how do we go about breaking old norms in a truly sustainable way, to better achieve equality for all? The basis of this thesis has stemmed from the exploration of the above question. What does a truly equal city look like, and how may we go about creating one? To try and answer this question, I have tackled various theories on female integration into the city, basically concluding that now is the time we stop isolating women in institutions in the city, and rather try and deconstruct and adapt existing environments to better cater to the needs of all users, instead. To try and achieve this, the project focuses on the deconstruction and adaptation of the male dominated taxi rank, situated within the larger transport industry, in order to better accommodate the female user.

The basis for this dissertation is to seek and develop a sustainable model that will encourage social sectors to thrive and be re-energised into sustainable, selfsufficient entities. It will explore the role architecture plays in creating resilient societies as well as how, through positive interventions, architects can become re-generative catalysts to provide stability, security, healthy environments and overall well-being. The aim is to design a catalytic educational development in an under-developed area to test how when planning holistically, Architects and their architecture, can inject growth and development in challenged social environments. Using Resilience as a focal lens, ideas of Place Making, Education and Society, encapsulated in Economy, this dissertation will demonstrate how a positive intervention can ultimately lead to a homogeneous resilient place and society.

This thesis aims to study the idea of non-place; a point on the line between a beginning and an end. My site is in the Soutpansberg mountain range in the Limpopo province. There is a rich history of movement in the area, from ancient trade routes, to central African migration, the Voortrekkers, the British ideal of a Great North Road, apartheid homelands and currently, the Zimbabwean diaspora. All of these stages are examples of flux, movement, non-place… I have aimed to take a history of the area and apply its relevance to a scarred landscape that is bisected by the N1 highway. Perhaps turning a non-place into a place; perhaps just giving a non-place some relevance. By placing a large service station, a market and a place to sleep onto this site, I wish to revive what it has always been: a movement route, a point on the line; and once again bring to the Great North Road, something so general and banal, yet something fundamentally etched with its DNA. A place en route in the great space between.