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Surreal city escape: discovering escapism within the unaccommodating Johannesburg city fabricGhisleni, Carina 12 May 2015 (has links)
This document is submitted in partial fulfilment for
the degree: Master of Architecture (Professional)
at the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa, in the year 2014. / This thesis explores theories of escapism and applies them to the Johannesburg precinct in the form of a socially
interactive public space. Our day to day banal realities do not satisfy our innermost desires, as a result; we choose to
disconnect from our realties. We often become passive consumers in a world dominated by production, fuelled by
retail advertising and marketing media, and in turn we frequently overlook the shaping of our own social existence and
choosing healthy forms of flight. I feel that our city does not provide opportunities for escape in the form of urban
rituals and therefore a sense of belonging is inadequately specified.
I aim to provide a positive form of escape which supports urban rituals, and thereby define a place within
Johannesburg. A public space enables social interaction and individual exploration and is therefore a temporary from
of escape. Our city is often perceived as dangerous and unaccommodating, but there is vast opportunity within the
precinct due to the many existing connections and vibrant pedestrian life. My chosen site is an existing heritage
building and the active node, Gandhi Square, currently existing divided by a sprawl of busses through which
pedestrians are forced to navigate through. Through the redesign of this space, I intend to encourage a pedestrian
dominant city, and a civic space that enhances public life and further facilitates urban renewal.
My intervention involves 3 elements; an outdoor theatre, the redesign of the Metro Bus facility and a public space to
promote a harmonious transition zone between the two. The contemporary theatre I am proposing forms space
without physical walls, as light and sound evolve to stage events. The theatre functions within the reshaping of an
existing heritage building located on site. It is a flexible space where intense sensory events can occur and carve the
avenues into a socially interactive city.
This engaging atmosphere caters for the collective as well as the everyday encounter, transforming to the needs of
Johannesburg. My intervention will define a place where the celebration of community is lacking and in turn seek to
change the perceptions of our city. Through the experience of the whole, my design facilitates chance interactions in
which mystical moments can be manifested within a public space devoted to civic escape.
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Altered States: a youth centre & safe house for at-risk adolescents in Westbury, JohannesburgKridiotis,Joanne Alexandra January 2016 (has links)
Thesis (M.Arch. (Professional))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2016. / Drug abuse, particularly among younger generations, is
an issue of increasing concern in South Africa. According
to recent reports on global substance abuse, South
Africa was named as having some of the highest rates
of youth drug use in the world. This not only has dire impacts
for local communities and their youth, but has led
to increasing crime rates and unemployment in these
communities. One such community, plagued with youth
drug abuse and addiction, is Westbury, a former coloured
township in Western Johannesburg. Westbury has, in
turn, been selected as the focus area for this thesis due
to prevailing struggles with youth drug addiction, high
rates of drug-related crime and a community outcry
for a solution. This thesis aims to investigate a means
of alleviating degrees of drug use, and other risky youth
behaviours, by introducing an architectural intervention.
This intervention – defined as a Youth Centre and Safe
House – will attempt to address the search for identity
and meaning within the liminal state of adolescence,
and the often risky behaviours that arise as a result, by
providing a sense of ‘place’ and belonging for the ailing
youth.
With the main focus group being at-risk adolescents,
and in order to create an architecture that speaks of the
liminal state of adolescence, threshold and ‘the space
between’ become important design concepts. This
thesis attempts to investigate the movement between
distinct spaces, the experience of transition, and the
physical and psychological effects thereof. The resultant
design proposes an architecture of liminality, where
soft, implied thresholds and a celebration of ‘the space
between’ become the manner in which the liminal subject
can negotiate the built environment and establish a
sense of ‘place’ within it. / EM2017
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The begging asymmetry: management of Inequalities in interactions between street beggars and motoristsTladi, Boledi Moralo January 2017 (has links)
A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA Masters in Community-Based Counselling Psychology (Psychology) in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 15/03/2017. / This research examines the interaction between beggars and motorists at traffic light
intersections in Johannesburg CBD. Drawing on approximately 80hrs of video recorded
interactions, the research primarily demonstrates the ways in which beggars and motorists
produce embodied actions in the management of their asymmetrical socioeconomic
positions, and more so the inequalities consequent of which. The phenomenon in question
takes place in everyday settings constituted by mundane practices and embodied actions. As
such, an ethnomethodologically oriented means towards gathering data served best suited
to this research. A qualitative Conversation Analysis approach serves an apt technique for
analysing the kind of fine-grained focus of the interactional phenomena observed (both
verbal and non-verbal). The analysis has been rooted in the analytic framework of the
greeting, request and offer adjacency pair types The progression of the analysis, as it
unfolds, lends an eye to a particular sequence organization that appears to have crystalized,
and further been reproduced in all of the beggar-motorist cases that have been examined
here. The discussion turns towards unpacking some of the socio-structural implications of
the embodied practices highlighted in the interaction of interest; particularly converging
some of the ideas presented regarding the way in which the beggar-motorist interactional
practices contribute to and maintain what can be seen as an institutionalized form of
inequality. / XL2018
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Globalization--South Africa--JohannesburgRyninks, Guy J 03 March 2016 (has links)
A research report submitted by the Wits School of Arts, Film and Television
Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of Masters in Film and Television.
Johannesburg 2015 / In our modern contemporary time period the vast and rapid expansion of globalisation is stronger than ever, resulting in the shifting of how identities are currently being formed. In Johannesburg there has been major shifts in the socio-political realities of our nation, coupled with globalisation there is a noticeable shift in way identities are formed in our present fractured environment. These shifts are important to acknowledge as South Africa is in the process of changing its image towards of an all encompassing equal state, and so It is imperative to study how these shifts are impacting on identity formation. There are multiple difficulties in a study such as this, initiating a study on a subject/s that is itself incomplete fails to produce finite answers or outcomes. Rather many varying results are produced and compiling this information proves challenging when attempting to comprehend these findings.
It is my aim to understand not only how identities are being formed within the rejuvenating city, but also how the rejuvenation of the city is impacting on the formation of identities. Because of the long-established fractured nature of Johannesburg there has been a fracturing of identities that continues even in the face of the changes that are occurring. However with the changes meant to curb these fractures I question if these fractures are in fact diminishing, remaining the same or is there actually a noticeable change occurring. Initially I consider the history of South Africa as this has evidently impacted on the city, my research is it then focused on Johannesburg, as this is the environment I live in and have formed my own identity in. I also investigate how through the use of auto-ethnography I am able to practice ‘self-expression’ staged upon my personal view of Johannesburg and the fractures I encounter. Because I use auto-ethnography as my autobiographical filming technique I have exclusive control over the film and this proved challenging as I was positioning myself in the film as a form of subjectivity. This created a problem in how I was intending to represent myself along with the fractured landscape of Johannesburg.
My outcome is a self-subjective representation of myself positioned into my environment represented as my personal view. I focus on the fractures I experience within my own environment the suburbs and that of the city, also the fracture between these two spaces and the continuing fracture in my own identity and relationship with the city. My research will allow for an avenue of self-representation on a very personal and idiosyncratic level as to encourage the city to be represented as it is experienced and perceived by its inhabitants. However my production can be seen as being specific to a similar case, that being of my own, but this practice allows for the use of auto-ethnography to represent our own individual perspectives and the subjectification of ourselves as inhabitants of the city from a personal perspective rather than a generalised and broad perspective.
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Fair ground : festival phenomena : an urban park upgrade and transformation of the Southwest Bank of Wemmer Pan in Johannesburg SouthSerrao, Gabriella 07 October 2014 (has links)
“wherever the human spirit is free, people celebrate. All
cultures commemorate what makes them distinctive and
worthy in their own eyes. Periodically, a common humanity
in us all sets aside the work and worry of everyday life
and blossoms into festivity, sometimes even in the face of
cultural domination and economic deprivation.”
(Rinzler & Seitel, 1982, p.7)
Various cultures exist and the display of specifi c group’s values, traditions and crafts in
the form of an event becomes the ‘exciting experience’ longed for by the inhabitants
of the city who crave an outlet from the everyday pressures and routine of life, desire a
sense of belonging, want to express their suppressed desires or share an interest in the
ideals or products being portrayed. These events require space, of various nature and
size, which facilitate its range of needs from culturally relevant locations to necessary
features. Globally, the urban setting has proved to be ideal when computing these space
requirements and municipalities are going out of their way to create or maintain spaces
to host these events for the wealth of social, spatial and economic stimulation they hold.
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Rethinking park spaces in Johannesburg : decolonising the African urban landscape through public space designMavuso, Nkosilenhle Thabo January 2017 (has links)
Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Urban Design to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / The report is an investigation of urban parks as public space in Johannesburg inner-city. It investigates the current situation of a deteriorating degree of public space in Johannesburg due to growing levels of privatisation and incapacity of the public sector to design, manage and maintain good quality, inclusive and safe public open spaces in the city. My research aims at being a radical re-imagining of Inner-city of Johannesburg, through urban design, in how the inner-city can be (spatially) transformed and reconfigured through open public space, as part of the decolonization agenda for African cities.
In my study, I investigate the nature of urban parks in Johannesburg’s inner-city, in an attempt to understand the ways they are being used by different user groups and how this is affected by the way they are physically designed and managed. It presents three chosen parks of study; Joubert Park, End Street Park (North and South), and Nugget Street Park, located in Doornfontein Johannesburg, and look into the chosen park’s connectivity and accessibility to streets and other public spaces.
I assess how the parks’ location and proximity to activities and public infrastructure/amenities (such as housing units, retail outlets, schools and public transport interchanges) affects the number and type of users that use them as well as the kind of activities within them. As part of this assessment will be the issue of safety and security within parks and how current management approaches have been used to address the issue.
I, through my research, question current urban design and management approaches; aimed at achieving increased levels of use and safety in terms of the impact they have had on the city’s public open spaces. Questions are asked on the effectiveness of safety measures such as fences, gates and security cameras and personnel and how they impact on the degree of ‘publicness’ and safety in the city’s public open spaces.
As part of its aim of understanding the nature of parks in the inner-city of Johannesburg, the research reviews existing literature that has been written on public space/public park use and design and the ‘ideal’ approaches to good design and management. It focuses on the ideal of an ‘Open City’ and questions of ‘publicness’ in park use and management.
The notion of decolonising Johannesburg as an African city (in its current neo-apartheid segregatory form) is also interrogated. Questions are asked on the definition of what African urban space is and the principles of its form and function, based on precolonial African city examples. The principle of common space and collective ownership and use is discussed as an essential principle that framed the configuration of african public space, which was lost in the introduction of colonial city formations.
The report1 presents an analysis of End Street North and South Park located on the north and south ends of the railway line along Nugget Street in Doornfontein. It assesses the process in which End Street South Park was (re)designed and upgraded in 2009 as part of the Ellis Park precinct development for the 2010 World cup, and critically assesses the outcomes of its design in terms of both the successes and failures of the upgrade.
In the analysis the report illustrates how though the park’s upgrade reduced violent crimes such as muggings in the park, the park contains illicit activities such as gambling and drug use spots along its edges and corners.
The use of high fencing in the new design and deployment of private security in the park was found not to be entirely solving issues of safety in the park. Although the fence was intended to assist in the management and control of who accesses and uses the park for safety reasons, it contributes towards creating hidden spaces for gambling, drug use and bullying to occur away from the eyes of the public.
The analysis of End Street North Park involves the documentation of the End Street North Park upgrade pilot project that tests a participatory approach to park design and management for safety. The objective of the project was to demonstrate an integrated stakeholder approach to public space design and management that involves sector contributions from different city departments as well as engagement with city residents and other park users in designing a safe, inclusive and sustainable public space though participatory tools and methods.
This set of findings from End Street North and South Parks reveal that park use and safety issues cannot be completely addressed through design and installation of physical safety measures such as high fences, law enforcement and regulation of use by security guards or park managers alone.
The report indeed proposes a radical and aggressive urban design framework and/or strategy towards transforming inner-city Johannesburg’s spatial fabric through urban park and open public space design. Part of this process involves looking into alternative design related ways of dealing with aspects of use and safety in parks as well as aspects of public participation, community co-design and comanagement processes. / XL2018
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The sharing economy in the global South: Uber’s precarious labour force in JohannesburgKute, Selabe William January 2017 (has links)
Submitted in the partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Arts in Development Studies Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, March 2017 / The precarious existence of Uber drivers operating within Johannesburg’s metropolitan area is the primary area of study in which this dissertation has undertaken. Driver precarity, defined in the study as the loss of labour market security in various forms, is argued to stem from Uber’s sharing economy-inspired business model. The analysis of Uber’s business model, substantively focuses on the service’s dynamic pricing model of fare price setting, the implementation of a ‘rating’ system in which to evaluate driver performance and the use of ‘independent contractor’ labour. It is argued that each of these three Uber business practices place drivers in a position of precarity in the realm of their income, employment, work and job security. The study mobilises a qualitative research methodology, enlisting the methods of unstructured interviews on eight active Uber drivers, four autoethnographical observations on real-time work behaviour and document analysis to generate data for analysis. The prevailing argument made regarding Uber’s precarity-creation, is aided through a consultation of Guy Standing’s theorisation on precarity (2011), with Harvey’s flexible Accumulation theory (1990), Foucault’s Panopticism thesis (1975) and Hochschild’s emotional labour theory (1983) broadening the scope of the analysis. / XL2018
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Urban agriculture and access to food: fresh produce for Johannesburg’s urban poorHope-Bailie, Stacey Ann January 2017 (has links)
Masters of Art research report prepared for the Department of Development Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2017 / The current food system is contributing to the food insecurity of the urban poor. Local food systems and other food system alternatives benefit the urban poor in all four spheres in which the corporate food regime disadvantages them: accessibility, empowerment, sustainability and health. This research maps the overlap of poverty and types of agriculture in the City of Johannesburg to locate potential for urban farms to serve and benefit the urban poor. There are many areas where potential for food system alternatives is high, especially where smaller scale farms are growing vegetables in areas where there are many and mostly poor households concentrated over space. By engaging with farmers, from study areas in the City which meet at least some of these conditions, the research not only confirms that the potential identified in these areas is being realised and exceeded but suggests that the potential has been underestimated for all of the other areas of the municipality in which urban agriculture coexists with the urban poor. The combinations and variations of food system alternatives chosen by farmers, in the foodstuffs produced, nature of production and modes and channels of distribution, are evidence of the reciprocal influence of structure and their own agency. By reframing urban agriculture to recognize the diverse opportunities for farmers to do things differently, we can see that many are choosing to do so, and are thus making sustainably produced, healthy fresh produce locally available to the urban poor in ways that are accessible and empowering. / XL2018
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Thank you for slowing down: Slow down. Sit still. Clear your mind. At the Urban Meditation Time MachinePappas, Stephen Nicholas January 2017 (has links)
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 / This research report intends to illuminate the effect of how we can slow down, clear our minds and come to a complete standstill in extremely fast cities. To apprehend these effects the investigation focuses contextually, around the eastern edge of Newtown Johannesburg. This site is juxtaposed within the intensity of major transport nodes. We are living in a world that is accelerating at a frightening pace, and people are not keeping up - there is very little time in one’s day to escape the rapidity, acquire peace of mind and absorb the present moment. This research report acts as a precedent for how future utopian cities can host a space that encourages a meditative-lifestyle of slowing down.
I unfold three theories to help support my investigation; Lieven de Cauter’s theory on capsularisation tells us how man has turned to ‘hyper-individualisation’, closing himself off from the world and creating social barriers. The second theory I look at is non-places by Marc Augé who talks about the in between places we pass through such as petrol stations, bus stops, terminals, etcetera, and how these transient spaces have become more meaningful because one is spending more time in them due to technological advancement. I label these as delayed spaces in my thesis which is the third theory I look at by Fardjadi and Mostafavi. I engage with these last two theories by doing an evaluation on them; these include multi-faith spaces, petrol stations, bus stops, terminals and launderettes. I do so because these are spaces where people slow down and pass through within an ordinary day. I suggest how these activities, that are normally considered mundane, can be transcended through different opportunities to slow down through a meditative life-style. Within each evaluation particular lessons are acquired that are integrated in the overall building design.
At one point in the research report I take a time-out from the design process to question the value of slow architecture. Much of the working world as well as universities have an uncomfortable urgency when it comes to design. There is no time to reflect on mistakes made or gain perspective on the process which leads to quick decisions without much thought, and often lack in creative depth or meaning. I touch on my own design process and thinking as an example to explain why it is important to slow down and review what has been done to be able to move forward with clear direction.
In terms of the architecture for my research report, two specific concepts are unravelled; the first one is movement - how one approaches the building as well as the circulation within it. I used the labyrinth and the notion of time-frames to support this idea of slowing down from speed to stillness which determined my program. The second concept is the ‘consciousness capsules’ which host the main meditative spaces and activities in the building. These activities make up the program and they include a multi-functional gathering space, a communal library to learn about meditation and its philosophy, hand-craft workshops (such as painting, quilting and basket weaving), meditation rooms, collective yoga, a dormitory, and finally a public garden terrace at the very top accompanied by a walking labyrinth. The whole journey through the building portrays a ‘stairway to heaven’ and provides an overview of the city that allows for one to escape the bustle and re-collect ones’ thoughts and immerse in the present moment - as nothing is more urgent today than slowing down. / GR2017
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Contested public spaces: a Lefebvrian analysis of Mary Fitzgerald SquareNkooe, Ernestina Seanokeng 01 March 2016 (has links)
A degree submitted for the requirements of Masters of Arts in Geography
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies / Mary Fitzgerald Square is an iconic public space in Newtown, Johannesburg. In spite of
its iconic status, prolific social history and commercial role in the city, there is very little
that is known about it and its users. In 2009 and 2010 I undertook an ethnographic
exploration of the public space using Henri Lefebvre’s (1974/1991) conceptual spatial
triad, the Right to the City and Elements of Rhythmanalysis frameworks. Through
informal interviews, unstructured participant observation and exploration of archived
newspaper articles, public space governance by-laws, published urban literature and
research, I managed to situate this public space in urban geographical discourse as
contested public space. By means of conceptual analysis, this research found Mary
Fitzgerald Square to be an important public space that is dominated by neoliberal politics
that create struggle for inhabitants to use it meaningfully in the context of everyday life.
The proliferation of neoliberal relations of urban governance have led to a situation
whereby the public space is subjected to private management practices that encourage its
elitist uses and thus prioritizing its commercial exchange-value over its use-value. This
process as the research uncovered, undermines the public space’s use-value and
consequently leads to a subliminal marginalization of ordinary inhabitants who require
and desire it for their varied practices in the context of everyday life.
Urban management strategies like human surveillance, Public Open Space by-Laws,
architecture and planning design, public-private partnerships, and the removal of the
television monitor, discourage creative African youths, skateboarders, the urban poor and
elderly in the city from appropriating Mary Fitzgerald Square. Inhabitants using Mary
Fitzgerald Square manage to do so by overriding and transgressing existing spatial
prohibitions by conducting their social practices in the contested space outside official
policing times. Other inhabitants, through play and creative expression, have devised
alternative means to challenge their marginalization in and uses of the public space in
spite of existing by-laws, changing architecture, and visible human surveillance including
law-enforcement that are conceived in an effort to deter their social uses of it. This
research proposes a return to Mary Fitzgerald Square that warrants a critical discourse
analysis of the public space in an effort to gain a better and deeper understanding of
inhabitants’ everyday life experiences and their political situation in the current city
through the public space. This should enable a sound critique of the production of Mary
Fitzgerald Square in the African metropolis where the abstract struggle between private
interests and public need for the public space materializes.
Key words: Mary Fitzgerald Square, Henri Lefebvre, Johannesburg, Geography, South
Africa.
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