Abstract
Johannesburg is a city with an ephemeral, transitory quality impassioned with events
that have a beginning and come to end. City planner’s allocated sizable investment to the
infrastructure of open spaces in anticipation for spectacle events such as the 2010 World
Cup, with insuffi cient attention or consideration placed on the future sustainability and urban
management of these areas. With the Ellis Park Precinct as the subject of focus and criticism,
this thesis explores how escalating issues of disrepair, crime and vagrancy in large event
spaces could be addressed through strategic insertions of residential density. The proposed
architectural approach will feature residential typologies placed throughout the precinct in
subtle and almost acupunctural gestures, expressed in imaginative and sculptural forms that
are focused on being designed and implemented in the most sustainable way.
Sporting event spaces are designed to allow for the effective management of mass crowd
infl ux and dissipation for spectacle events, the open space is an absolute necessity for
this to take place. However the urban management of the open space becomes extremely
diffi cult without signifi cant capital investment from the relevant stakeholders. The question
becomes, how can new development be implemented in an unobtrusive and modest form or
gesture that will allow for passive urban management? The study does not seek to change
the architectural poetry and identity of the un-programmed open space, it seeks to augment
the beauty of what is existing. In a similar way that Templehof Airport in Berlin, Germany was
re purposed after it was decommissioned in 2008. In accordance with the objective of unit
11 “Bloody Agency”. The study advocates the implementation of modest housing typologies
that are placed strategically, while seeking to address the shortage of quality rental and
ownership of housing in the area, allowing more opportunities for upward social mobility.
The study addresses the lack of urban management in the area and would directly affect
the people in around the area as well as the relevant stakeholders. Conditions such as
disrepair, crime and vagrancy would be reduced, improving the overall perception of the Ellis
Park Precinct and of the urban fabric of Johannesburg. Events in the precinct would see
an upsurge because the perception of the area is improved. The cleaner the area appears
and the safer people feel when visiting will increase the attendance to large events, which
ultimately will boost revenue fi gures as well as the profi tability of the area. Housing availability
in the area would see an increase, boosting existing property values. This area is situated in
close proximity to the Rea-Vaya bus routes, the Metro train link and the UJ New Doornfontein
campus providing housing that is well orientated in to transportation and educational
facilities ideal for students.
The Major Design Project will be an experimental built proposition that investigates how
urban densifi cation could be implemented within sporting event spaces. This project aims;
to identify the un-programmed open spaces that exist on the edges, boarders, nodes, spatial
voids and transitional zones throughout the precinct; to investigate how built intervention
could be implemented in the most unobtrusive way that does not detract from what is
existing; to assess the fi nancial viability of such a proposition in a real world application
on the site. The imagined built forms will take the shape of compact housing typologies
assembled in many different confi gurations that features a combination of sustainable
materials and building methods, to achieve cost effective designs that allow for maximum
habitability.
M.Tech. (Architecture)