Abstract
that shape culture. These forces do not only influence the
culture of individuals, but also influence a city’s identity, where
individuals are collected and where groups of individuals
choose to become related. Displays of cultural capital can be
observed across the urban landscape — people, appropriated
spaces, buildings and local culture. When these particular
instances exhibit a specific identity, the cultural capital at
play can be described as a manifestation of the ‘embodied’,
an expression of inherent values communicated through
aesthetic, form and event.
Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argues that our
consumerist mindset assists in the formation of both
individual and societal identity, and inadvertently, the world in
which we live. In our contemporary context, this has resulted
in a society that values the dominant culture and world views
of those in control of production (Bauman 2007:28). Architect
and academic Sam Jacob relates this theory to architecture:
“Architecture remakes a small piece of the world in the image
of its creators. It’s the closest you can get to the raw unedited
unconscious sentiment of culture.” (Jacob 2004). As individuals
and collectives, we do not exist singularly in our identity or
fixed in culture; rather we exist at intersections of different
identities and cultures. If the plasticity of culture and identity
allows us to feel part of society in different spaces and rituals
with which we associate, how does a city that is supposedly
fixed in form promote an environment that actively fosters
the production of culture? This proposal extends this line
of enquiry, proposing an architecture that provides new and
relevant spaces within our city where culture can be both
produced and experienced.
The project is sited on two sites in Johannesburg; Constitution
Hill (a former prison, current museum and national
monument, and home to the South African Constitutional
Court) and The Keyes Art Mile precinct (a recently completed...
M.Tech. (Architecture)