Abstract
This major design project seeks to rethink the railway infrastructure that has historically shaped and divided the urban landscape in South Africa. Furthermore, to reimagine train stations as an urban catalyst tool for future African cities and mobilities. For the UN- HABITANT – urban mobility is a key element of sustainable urbanization in response to social and economic challenges in developing countries (UN-HABITANT,2009). African mobilities refer to people’s accessibility and connectivity to the different urban environments and opportunities. Nigel Zhuwaki, a mobility consultant with a transport tech company in Cape Town believes that mobility is a means of increasing accessibility to different aspects within the urban landscape, such as education, health, and economic opportunities – he believes that these are fundamental to a good urban transportation system and the socio-economic advancement for South African people. (Anon., 2018) This research study will focus on the vandalized and abandoned commuter train stations along the Johannesburg industrial mining belt, as a toxic site context and acupuncture point for an intervention scheme. I conceptualize toxicity as the various attributes of decay occurring subliminally, however, the effects of toxicity are evident in the physical landscapes with traces in our societal patterns. During the strictest months of the Corona Virus lockdown period in South Africa train stations were left unguarded, this subsequently led to people vandalizing the train stations, ripping off and stealing the rail infrastructure to resell as scrap materials. More than 80% of the train station in Gauteng have been left abandoned and vandalized (Sadike, 2021), what use to be a functional railway corridor now forms toxic sites of decay within the urban fabric.Today the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is faced with a multi-million plan to refurbish the vandalized rail infrastructure (SABC News, 2021), it is within that my project finds an opportunity to reimagine the redevelopment of the train sta-tions. The chosen site for this project is Booysens train stations because of its morphology, this site is characterised by an abandoned train station which has been encroached by the unregulated Booysens Squatter Camp, an informal settlement which is home to an estimated 7000 shacks ( (Chinembriri, et al., 2019). Booysens site forms part of the many displaced communities in the larger urban fabric of Johannesburg, with limited accessibility to social and economic opportunities. Shereza Sibanda, a humanitarian activist, who is championing the cause for better living conditions in communities such as Booysens, calls this settlement “Africa” because of its diversity as it brings people from different African countries. (Chinembriri, et al., 2019)...
M.Tech. (Architecture)