The city of Johannesburg has battled with the condition of homelessness
for years, identifying a problem even before our emancipation from the
ruthless apartheid construct (Beavon, 2004). Political measures have
subsequently been implemented in order to combat its harsh effects, introducing
various short-term housing policies and theoretical solutions for the
homeless in the city. The temporary housing institution as a body is therefore
representative, for many people, of the first step in the process toward
a legitimate and permanent housing solution. However, the institution as it
exists today, does so in both a social and political vacuum. The great divide
between the temporary solution and the initial rungs of the social housing
ladder give the user little to no option for situational improvement (Olufemi,
1998). These collective spaces for the ostracised community, through their
layered autonomous nature, divorce the user even further from the community
aimed to be reunited with.
The institution as a typology requires investigation, interrogation and reintegration
within existing and enforced political structures. The immediate
accommodation answer needs to be seen both as an independent entity
as well as only part of a greater strategy for a permanent, integrated and
holistic housing solution. The contestation of the institution is not the argument,
but rather a proposal for its deconstruction and ultimate innovative
reconnection through a strategy of layered inversion. If we choose to view
the city and many of its microcosmic constructs through a post-structuralist
or deconstructivist lens, we begin to understand the prevalence of the
disjointed other within the urban whole:
The homeless woman is the city’s marginalised user.
The alleyway; the silent ‘other’ to the prominent street.
The vacant space is the forgotten site.
And if the physicality of structure is the prominent former, the network and
connections existing between built forms must be the secondary within the
realm of architecture.
If we connect the city’s marginalised elements, through the vessel of temporary
accommodation as the initial part of an integrated housing model,
the role of the institution is inverted rather than its function or programme.
Therefore, the ‘exo-stution’ is the folding out and reconnection of the existing
‘in-stitution’ is an answer to the city’s detached collection of limited
- where marginalised user, space and structure collectively connect street,
suburb and city.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15495 |
| Date | 10 September 2014 |
| Creators | Carew, Julia |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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