M.Tech. (Architectural Applied Design) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study forms part of the discourse that critiques the current state of colonial museums in a post-colonial, post-apartheid city. The project focuses on a proposed urban vision for the precinct of Joubert Park in Johannesburg and responds to themes of memory, identity, reflection, art and public space. In the process, strategies are investigated to enhance identity in the area using the Johannesburg Art Gallery as a starting point. The gallery is integrated into the public realm, making it more accessible and transparent to its context by introducing pavilions and art installations to the park. These pavilions perform a variety of functions with the main design taking the form of a photographic urban archive. The pavilion archives the city and the people of the park by harnessing one of the current skill sets of the park photographers who are present on site. The project takes the form of a working camera using the principals of pinhole and wet plate photography to tangibly capture and display the happenings and changes of the site and the people who frequent it, over time. Once the pavilion has archived the desired changes in the city it will be dismantled and relocated to a new site to begin its life cycle once more. The movability of the structure acts as a critique on the static nature of buildings situated in cities that are always in flux. By introducing an architecture that allows and facilitates public activity while using people as the subjects for the creation of art by documenting a changing city, the scheme hopes to enhance the public realm by encouraging a collective identity to form. / Hierdie werkstuk is gebaseer op deurlopende gesprekke wat kritiek lewer oor die huidige stand waarin koloniale museums (na die Apartheid era) hulself bevind. Die intrinsieke waarde van hierdie museums het oor tyd verlore gegaan. Die projek het ten doel om op hierdie verwaarlosing te fokus en terselfdertyd die publieke omgewing met betrekking tot identiteit, kuns en sosiale aktiwiteite, op te hef. Voorstelle word gedoen om die vervalle Joubert Park in Johannesburg op te gradeer in n buurt waarop inwonders trots kan wees en sosiaal kan verkeer, terwyl die geskiedkundige verlede terselfdertyd bewaar word. Die Johannesburg Kunsgallery is geidentifiseer as die belangrike spilpunt vir hierdie projek. Hierdie Gallery is sentraal gelee wat dit maklik toeganklik maak vir die publiek. Die oogmerk is om n verskeidenheid kunswerke te installeer asook kamera/beeld-strukture. Hierdie kamerabeelde kan dien as n stedelike fotografiese vertoning van die stad en sy mense. Veranderinge in die stad oor n tydsvlak kan vervolgens so geargiveer word. Die projek se eind doel is om met argitektoniese toepassings, die ou verlede, die hede, en die mense en sy sosiale omgewing, tot voordeel van almal, te integreer. Die sukses van die projek sal bepaal word deur die kollektiewe indentitiet en sosiale integrasie wat bereik gaan word. / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

This dissertation explores Johannesburg's inner-city precinct of Joubert Park. It intends to bridge the gap between the everyday community of the park and the extraordinary heritage and memory of the site. Through a grassroots investigation of 1he existing community, the project looks to empower the everyday person and create a platform for their development, specifically focusing on economy and education in the city. The project makes use of the theories of spatial justice as a tool to analyse and understand the community's relationship with the space they occupy and the social environment in which they exist. Architecturally, the project seeks to use this socio-spatial understanding as a guideline of how to create a spatially just and empowering environment in the inner city. Additionally, looking to establish a model for the development of the existing inner-city fabric that begins to foster a relationship between building, street edge, andl pedestrian. Exploring not just the physical upliftment of the fabric, but the well-being and of the existing community and their needs, goals and aspirations. / Die verhandeling ondersoek die Johannesburg se middestad buurt van Joubertpark. Dit beoog om die gaping tussen die alledaagse gemeenskap van die Park en die buitengewone erfenis en geheue van die omgewing te oorbrug.Deur 'n voetsoolvlak ondersoek van die bestaande gemeenskap, is die projek se doel die bematigi111g van die alledaagse persoon en behels 'n platform vir die ontwikkeling daarvan,daar is n spesifike fokus op die ekonomie en onderwys in die stad. Die projek maak gebruik van die teoriee van ruimtelike geregtigheid as 'n 1instrument om te ontleed en te verstaan wat die gemeenskap se verhouding is met die ruimte wat hulle bewoon en die sosiale omgewing waarin hulle bestaan. Argitektonies, beoog die projek om hierdie sosio-ruimtelike begrip te gebruik as 'n riglyn om 'n ruimtelik net en bemagtigende omgewing te skep in die middestad. Daar word oak beoog om 'n model te vestig vir die ontwikkeling van die bestaande middestad konsepte om 'n verhouding te bevorder tussen die geboue, straat rand, en voetgangers. Ondersoek van nie net die fisiese opheffing van die struktuur nie, maar die welsyn van die bestaande gemeenskap en hul behoeftes, doelwitte en aspirasies. / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

D.Litt. et Phil. (Anthropology) / This thesis investigated how public spheres are spatialised in public space. The public sphere is commonly understood as the public deliberation between people to establish their common interests and the bearing this has on state authority. While it is acknowledged that public space is essential for public sphere development, this link between public space and the public sphere has not been extensively researched. There is also a lack of literature examining people’s experiences of public space in the global south, especially anthropological studies that focus on people’s experiences of and in urban parks. This thesis seek to answer how public spheres are spatialised in an urban park, Joubert Park, in Johannesburg, by asking what the context of the creation for the park is, what rules of access and use exist, and how the management model adopted by the City of Johannesburg and the managing agent, City Parks, affect what happens in the park. South Africa had, and still has, very specific patterns of spatial development and use, shaped through its colonial history, and apartheid. Post-apartheid South Africa holds the possibility of changing the way that space is used, and regulated, from being exclusionary based on race to being inclusionary. Joubert Park is situated in the inner city of Johannesburg, and is the oldest park in the city. At its establishment in 1891 it was situated in a relatively well-off area of Johannesburg. In the 1930s single houses in the area were replaced with art-deco apartment buildings, and served as a first receiving point for European and migrants from other parts of South African. The 1990s ushered in an era of white flight and decline within the inner-city, affecting the buildings around the park. Today the surrounding area is generally seen as decayed and is the focus of inner-city regeneration efforts aiming to build an “African World Class” city. The park is well used by a variety of urban dwellers and is considered by City Parks as a flagship within the city. It has an art gallery, various non-governmental organisations and is patronised by a variety of users, traders, chess-players and photographers. This thesis utilised standard ethnographic practices. Fieldwork consisted of ‘hanging out’ and participating within the park, formal interviews, directed questioning, and archival research. Data analysis proceeded from a combination of framework analysis, arising from theory, and grounded, from within the data. Findings were that although park users say that the park is freely available for all to use, it is in fact constrained by identity markers such as race, class, gender, sexuality and nationality. These factors articulate to produce certain experiences of the park. At the same time that people are excluded from the park, people also exclude themselves. These mechanisms of exclusions broadly reflect South African society, which has been described as socially conservative despite a liberal constitution that was implemented in 1996. The City of Johannesburg has rules and regulations that aim to exclude certain users, mostly poor and homeless people, from the park. Park users resist these rules but their small acts of resistance do not change how the rules are applied. At the same time as enforcing rules, both written and unwritten, on park users, the City ignored its own responsibilities as laid out in by-laws concerning the park. The City’s ideal users are different from actual park users and this causes contestations around space use. Lastly, findings were that there were wisps of public sphere activity taking place within the park, but that this is not sustained in any meaningful manner. Outside the park there are many more recognisable and sustained public sphere activities through protest marches. Park users do not participate in these protest marches despite the fact that the marches are similar to their own concerns. This thesis argues that more loosely regulated public space is necessary for public spheres to develop. This thesis addresses literature in urban anthropology, public space, and public sphere. It contributed to urban anthropology by showing how a small urban park can reveal patterns in the city as well as applying a unified framework developed by Setha Low. It contributed to public space literature by contributing to knowledge of public spaces in the global South. Lastly, it contributed to public sphere literature by showing that the type of regulations in public spaces can inhibit the formation of effective public spheres. Key words: Joubert Park, public space, public sphere, Johannesburg, urban anthropology