This master's thesis examines the delineation of a community garden centre including technical and applied theory, which is then incorporated into a functional model. The theoretical part focuses on the creation of community garden centre and the characterization of accompanying aspects from sociology, public spaces, environmental education, legislation and other topics. The second part of this thesis examines applied theory, focusing on the conversion of theoretical knowledge into a functional model of community garden centre. The model is created within a unified strategy and according to public demand. The informatical basis for deciding outputs includes local analysis, SWOT analysis and demand analysis.

This dissertation examines the potential dependence of praxis upon poiesis. The relation between praxis and poiesis, or action and work, is complicated by the conflicting qualities and principles of each. This tension, however, illuminates the human being as free and worldly. It is therefore concluded that praxis and poiesis form an interdependent tension that is potentially mediated by the faculty of judging and care for the world. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the framework and significant elements of Arendt's overall project. It begins with an elucidation of the philosophical bias against politics that Arendt critiques. The rest of the chapter explores the unique characteristics and principles that Arendt attributes to each respective activity of the vita activa. This chapter enables the reader to grasp the significance of the differences that Arendt accentuates between activities, as well as the specific characteristics and principles of action and work. Chapter 2 introduces the potential dependence of action upon the capabilities of the work activity. It centres on the relationship between action, the condition of plurality, the public space of appearance, and the durable, fabricated world. The durable world provides both a shared context and shared concern for potential action and the realisation of plurality. But this is problematic considering the extent to which the durable world arises through fabrication. This suggests that action is subordinate to the faculty of work. The problematic implications of such a relationship are further analysed, with a focus on the principles that inform homo faber's view of the world in general, and the relation between this sensibility and public spaces of appearance in particular. The contradictory principles of work and action, and yet the significance of work in building a durable world, will come to light. Chapter 3 explores further the extent of the relationship between action and world. The aim is to provide an exegesis of Arendt's notion of amor mundi, or love for the world, coupled 132 with her emphasis on the frailty of action. Amor mundi illuminates actors' concern with the world as a space for appearance and as a durable world. However, the extent to which political actors may effectively care for the world is brought into question. The faculties of promisemaking, forgiveness, and remembrance are examined as 'solutions' to the frailty of action. But remembrance once again suggests a dependence of action on work. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the relationship between praxis and poiesis in light of the role of remembrance and the tension between freedom and permanence. Chapter 4 builds on the claim that praxis and poiesis must be rethought in terms of an interdependence that reflects the nature of human being as free and worldly. It is argued that it is specifically in the faculty of judgment that this interdependence is mediated. The role of the disinterested spectator is therefore introduced and its relevance in both praxis and poiesis investigated. This faculty emphasises the importance of spectators who judge all appearances on the basis of beauty and meaning, and out of a concern for the world as a durable public space. The relation between judgment, action, and work also illuminates the condition of the human being as free and worldly, and the capacity to care for the world through the activities of both beginning and preserving. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Philosophy / unrestricted

Skaters occupy spaces around the city, and they navigate their surroundings with an analysing gaze that differs from the average person’s perception of the city. They see possibilities in ordinary objects such as a curb, bike rack or planting pot and give these objects a new purpose and meaning. In this essay I aim to investigate and describe how the skaters of Umeå view their city. What are the places they prefer, and how do they value their surroundings. By interviewing skaters and observing the places they roam their experiences as skateboarders and active utilizers of the city will be put into the perspective of public space and the purpose of it as a whole. Can providing skateboarders with environments they enjoy be used as a tool to activate public spaces in the city and thus create more including spaces? The result shows that skaters are deeply investigated into the urban fabric of their city and that there are several places around Umeå in which they enjoy dwelling. It reveals that beyond the physical design and architecture of skatespots, the social structures and the senses of place are values that skaters highly regard. However, some of Umeå’s more central public spaces doesn’t provide the conditions that skateboarders crave, and they give their opinion on how these public spaces can better suit skateboarding. Keywords: Skateboarding, public space, urban architecture, including design

The thesis explores the existing urban landscape of Jeppestown, specifically with regard to the consequences of the hijacking of inner-city buildings for residential purposes. The aim is to reclaim public space from the post-industrial landscape and reconfigure the existing fabric, by means of a fragile intervention so as to connect the social realm with the built fabric. The project accepts the hijacked typology of urban living as part of the context. It is viewed as an existing and ongoing condition, which far exceeds the current capacity of state-funded housing. From this stance, the project aims to provide public services that celebrate the rituals of washing in a meaningful and accessible way. The project endeavours to utilise theories related to African space to address local contemporary urban issues contextually. It uses the rituals of the everyday as a muse for creating eventful public space, an amenity which is becoming increasingly important with the growing densities of South Africa’s cities. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

The township in the South African context is a unique consequence of Apartheid spatial planning. Envisaged as settlements for black labourers on the outskirts of the city, they have become home to many South Africans. Mamelodi was established as an effectively designed township for labourers working in Pretoria, and grew at an exponential rate, leading to a sizeable demand for housing. A mass provision of housing was implemented then and, post 1994 to meet this demand. The same strategy of housing is still continuing through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). This provision of housing has not been complimented by a provision of public amenities and has led to monotonous neighbourhoods filled with housing and no public space. The ever growing community of Lusaka, in the east of Mamelodi, is a community with a landscape of housing without public amenities and public spaces. This neighbourhood has large amounts of people moving in and out, with some people seeing it as a place of permanence and some as a temporary detour. This influx of people and the duality of temporality and permanence creates a very dynamic society, one that the current architecture cannot respond to. The new architecture has to address the above mentioned issues, providing the community with access to public amenities and public spaces that add value to their environment. The solutions derived can be discussed and used to address similar problems plaguing townships around South Africa. / Informele nedersettings in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks is 'n unieke gevolg van Apartheid se ruimtelike beplanning. Oorspronklik in die vooruitsig gestel as nedersettings vir swart arbeiders het hulle 'n tuiste vir baie Suid-Afrikaners geword. Mamelodi was gestig as 'n effektief ontwerpde informele nedersetting vir arbeiders wat werk in Pretoria en het teen 'n eksponensi?le koers gegroei wat gelei het tot 'n groot aanvraag vir behuising. 'n Massa voorsiening van behuising was toe en n? 1994 ge?mplementeer om hierdie aanvraag te voorsien. Dieselfde strategie van behuising word steeds voortgesit deur die Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Hierdie behuisingsvoorsiening was nog nie aangevul deur 'n voorsiening van openbare geriewe nie en het gelei tot eentonige woonbuurte wat gevul is met behuising en geen openbare ruimte. Die steeds groeiende gemeenskap van Lusaka, in die ooste van Mamelodi, is 'n gemeenskap met 'n landskap van behuising sonder openbare geriewe en openbare ruimtes. Hierdie woonbuurt het groot getalle mense wat in en uit beweeg, met sommige mense wat dit sien as 'n plek van blywendheid en ander as 'n tydelike ompad. Hierdie instroming van mense en die dualiteit van tydelikheid en blywendheid skep 'n baie dinamiese samelewing, een wat die huidiglike argitektuur nie op kan reageer nie. Die nuwe argitektuur moet die bogenoemde kwessies aanspreek om die gemeenskap toegang te bied tot openbare geriewe en openbare ruimtes wat waarde toevoeg tot hulle omgewing . Deur dit te doen kan die oplossings wat afgelei is bespreek en gebruik word om soortgelyke kwessies aan te spreek wat informele nedersettings regoor Suid-Afrika teister. Argitektuur is vir die mense / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

Every day the city plays out its spectacle unnoticed. This quotidian context is one which is full of complexity, spontaneity and possibility. It is here that architecture can engage with both the city and its user, space and experience; challenging conventional architectural typologies. It is within public space, that architecture can both enhance and celebrate the everyday. This project investigates all of these aspects within the city of Pretoria and more specifically along Van der Walt Street, focusing on the urban cavity at Munitoria. Surveillance is conceptually used to experience this spectacle, on multiple levels of enterpretation, where the architecture is reduced to support both the concept of surveillance and its experience. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Alkayyali, A 2011, Liminal public infrastructure : a typology of public space for everyday performances, MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11252011-112216 / > C12/4/35/gm / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

Reading allows for the construction of a new world within the mind as one centralises and processes the literature. Flipping from one page to the next the language and the typography guides and informs this spatial construction and directs us through this new world. It creates an intangible architecture of the mind. In the physical realm however, we experience the real world directly and blatantly without the aid of texts and narratives. In this life the relationship between text and space is inverted. Here text and narrative do not inform the construction and tactile experience of space but rather act as a backdrop to everyday life. It seems to go unnoticed. This dissertation aims to emphasise the importance of typography, text and narrative within not only our day-to-day functionings, but also in the architectural realm. It seeks an amalgamation of typography, museum and public space, and aspires to create a place where the seemingly unnoticed typeface can be showcased, propagated and made accessible. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

This dissertation takes as its founding premise that modern subjects interpret and experience the political as somehow alienating or other—as a form of experience that is not fundamental but is only significant as a means to some further end. It is common in late modern societies to think of the political as subservient to economic and social ends, and to make it so. In light of this, my dissertation addresses two major problems: the erosion of distinctly political experience in modernity and the attempt to show how such experience can be recovered. By erosion I mean both the deterioration of the “public space,” a political concept that comes from Hannah Arendt, and the general impoverishment of political discourse. I argue, with Arendt, that political experience is recoverable through articulating a concept of the public space in which the need of creating and maintaining it for the sake of political experience as an experience in which freedom can arise. The dissertation is therefore an interpretation and extension of Arendt’s political thought, with a major objective being to seek a path forward in combating the alienation and instrumentality that, I argue, characterizes contemporary citizens’ experience of the political.

This project aims to create a new, pleasant and lively public space in St. Clara churchyard in the heart of Stockholm. It seems despite of crucial location and unique atmosphere that the church has, the churchyard is not properly used. Therefore, through a consensus approach, public opinions about the project were obtained. According to these opinions and by the help of theoretical resources, new interventions were proposed. Despite of high percentage of negative opinions against the project before beginning of the project, high percentage of responders showed their satisfaction about the project at the end.

“An ordinary day on an ordinary street. Pedestrians pass on the sidewalks, children play near front doors, people sit on benches and steps, the postman makes his rounds with the mail, two passersby greet on the sidewalk, two mechanics repair a car, groups engage in conversation.”….. (Life Between Buildings, Jan Gehl) This mix of outdoor activities in public space is the main concern of design the better condition for daily life in the Älvsjö neighborhood (the area around the Stockholm international fairs center). Enhancing the quality of life and raising the tendency for living in this area, is one of the issues that this thesis is working with. Effort of this thesis is enhancing the quality of life in a neighborhood that has lots of good potentials, for ordinary life, and raising the children.