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High and low territories : portraits of the new vertical

- Le Bron, Chantelle

Authors: Le Bron, Chantelle
Date: 2018
Subjects: Architecture
Language: English
Type: Masters (Thesis)
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/293350 , uj:31895
Description: Abstract: Cities are inseparable from their built form, with skyscrapers acting as a metonym for the urban fabric itself. These vertical figures serve as both the image of the city and the canvas for the application of secondary and tertiary applied identities. Vertical surfaces of cities become a layered canvas for self-expression, opportunism, commercial chance taking, and conscious city branding through the application of advertising billboards, branded building wraps, graffiti and large-scale artworks. The power and influence of these surfaces declares different territories for trade, consumption and social classes, splintering the notion of a specific place through the generic commodification of the urban visual space - a Heineken or Cartier advert is the same in Johannesburg or Durban as it is in Dakar or Tokyo. The consumerist city is now a global condition. This depositing of applied value onto our urban environment disturbs our relationship with an understanding of the built fabric in our cities. In his book The Urbanism of Exception (Murray 2017), Martin Murray states that symbolically, verticality has meant that the developed and developing world is spread out into a fragmented patchwork that severs territories into separate and discontinuous layers. This practice of layering produces landscapes that resemble an extended ‘territorial ecosystem’ of externally alienated, but internally homogenised, enclave spaces located next to, within, above, or below each other (Murray 2017:131). The layering of the building skin and resultant ‘thickening’ of this surface space further emphasises the sealed, isolated nature of the internal environment. Architect and artist Gordon Matta-Clark exposes this condition in his work by sawing and carving sections out of buildings to reveal the interior, things never meant to be seen. The artist Dan Graham (quoted in Bernstein, 2017) states that “Matta-Clark saw his ‘cuts’ as probes . . . opening up socially hidden information beneath the surface”. This approach by Matta-Clark was an attempt to recover lost and neglected parts of the city and open them up for public enjoyment and co-creation. My proposed project employs a similar methodology to Matta-Clark’s ‘anarchitecture’ – a destructive investigation to expose and interrogate the physical and symbolic construction of our consumerist city. This site for the Major Design Project thus becomes the built structure, the applied branded surface and the thickness of the space between and through internal and external velums... , M.Tech. (Architecture)
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The scar : coalescing spaces of production and consumption

- Tatham, Paul Ross

Authors: Tatham, Paul Ross
Date: 2018
Subjects: Architecture
Language: English
Type: Masters (Thesis)
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/293497 , uj:31913
Description: Abstract: The Scar: Coalescing Spaces of Production and Consumption is the culmination of an exploration into architectural language (how we see, draw and build architecture). Through performative drawing, digital projection and tectonic prototyping the project speculates on new forms of consumer convenience in our city. The resulting proposition, a new form of Convenience Store, is not simply a fixed building, but rather a conceptual fabric and transactional space of production and consumption. The project is sited in three public sites in Johannesburg. Each ‘store’ is proposed as an environment for producers and consumers to practice rituals of consumption at a heightened state of convenience – an instantly individualised and immediately accessible state of convenience. Additionally, the work also explores how information produced through the act of consumption can be captured and exchanged, inventing new forms of value and currency. The intention of the proposition is to produce a space where the processes of production and the act of consumption are compressed into one surface (skin, material, fabric). The resulting ‘scar’, the line between produce and consume, manifests as a compressed supply chain; an intelligent surface, a compact manufacturing unit and an observed space. Beyond the functionality of 20th century inventions such as the vending machine and the automated teller machine, the convenience store houses contemporary forms of small-scale production such as 3D printers (where objects can be manufactured) and computers (where information can be exchanged). The project emphasises ‘process’ as a medium for research and discovery, this process is made of two parts: observe and translate. The field trip, films, architectural precedents, collaborative dialogues and other references are seen as inputs for the process, along with my own interests in sensory experience. These are translated into work through active performances (drawings) where the human body is seen as the central device in unpacking and creating architecture. , M.Tech. (Architecture)
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Theatrical tactics : urban praxis and the spectacle city

- Robson, Matthew

Authors: Robson, Matthew
Date: 2016
Subjects: Architecture and society , Collective memory and city planning , Information society , Social media
Language: English
Type: Masters (Thesis)
Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/387121 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/226113 , uj:22854
Description: M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) , Abstract: As technology advances exponentially, the ways in which humans interact socially have become faster, less physical and less “authentic“ - in that authentic exchange is a physical experience and one that can be remembered. We have become somewhat oblivious to how we interact in our city, as previous moments of social exchange have been reduced to a digital interface or synthetic-surface experience. The ways in which we document and broadcast our city are translated through digital media representations like that of Instagram or Snapchat - an unique mobile app that allows you to send photos and videos, both of which only last for a brief moment of time, before they disappear forever. In this technological era experience, memory and intimacy continuously challenge our understandings of space. Humans already possess the ability to inhabit multiple realities and project our social identities into a virtual realm of digitised consciousness, while occupying multiple locations simultaneously through a disembodied presence.
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Unseen infrastructures : migrancy and adaptable human settlements

- Marais, Kobus Pierre

Authors: Marais, Kobus Pierre
Date: 2016
Subjects: Architecture - Human factors - South Africa - Johannesburg , Architecture and society - South Africa - Johannesburg , Mines and mineral resources - Social aspects - South Africa - Johannesburg , Immigrants - Housing - South Africa - Johannesburg , Miners - Housing - South Africa - Johannesburg
Language: English
Type: Masters (Thesis)
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/226305 , uj:22880
Description: M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) , Abstract: Please refer to full text to view abstract
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Unstable territories : an architectural investigation into public open space, identity and xenophobia in Mayfair, Johannesburg

- Strydom, Laura

Authors: Strydom, Laura
Date: 2014-03-26
Subjects: Towers - South Africa - Johannesburg - Design and construction , Public buildings - South Africa - Johannesburg - Design and construction , Public spaces - South Africa - Johannesburg , Architecture and society - South Africa - Johannesburg , Identity (Philosophical concept) , Mayfair (Johannesburg, South Africa) - Buildings, structures, etc.
Type: Thesis
Identifier: uj:4505 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/9844
Description: M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) , Contested territories have strongly contributed to the displacement of people worldwide, resulting in the loss of the right to belong. Considering the boundaries of belonging in Mayfair, a marginalised social landscape in Johannesburg, this architectural response to a social and urban investigation will ascertain whether and how architecture can respond to the global issue of xenophobia. Johannesburg as uitvalgrond has, since its founding, offered migrants opportunities for meaningful participation and self-actualisation. This reiterates the idea that the city’s in-between spaces often allow for a new realisation or actualisation of identity. The author argues that space-and-place-making and identity are intrinsically linked - the one enforcing, defining or denying the Other. The dissertation conceptualizes how architecture can acknowledge Mayfair residents’ unique and evolving post-national identity as a marginalised community in an young democracy. The study suggests how architecture can give form to contemporary African public space that contributes to a sense of belonging for both the Self and the Other in Mayfair. The methods used in this study are: observation through site visits, drawing, on-site interviews and film; mapping boundaries and edges defining various ethnic territories, open space network (utilised and unutilised), mobility, nodes and landmarks, actual land use as opposed to zoned land use and experiential observations; correspondence and discussions, making use of official databases to research historic maps and photographs; examining precedents, and applying all of the above into an appropriate architectural model. Each chapter concludes with a reflection extracting the most important notions from that chapter to be taken into the next section. This dissertation interrogates the importance and the role of architecture and public open space in Johannesburg by exploring new ways of thinking, doing and making in Johannesburg’s present, changing urban condition.
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Urban heterotopias : inhabiting urban archetypes

- Muller, Tiffany May

Authors: Muller, Tiffany May
Date: 2016
Subjects: Space (Architecture) - South Africa - Johannesburg , Architecture and society - South Africa - Johannesburg , Architecture - Philosophy , Cities and towns
Language: English
Type: Masters (Thesis)
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/226062 , uj:22847
Description: M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) , Abstract: This prompting of ‘conscious invention’ and moulding of realities by Walter Benjamin informs ‘unknown’ terrains in Johannesburg. There are hidden terrains existing beyond immediate perceptions and frames of reference and within the in-between, concealed, unexpected and forgotten spaces of the city. This spatial discovery is informed by theories on aesthetics and cultural meaning or significance in architecture. Emergent spatial typologies influence the city and its future, identifying previously unseen territories informed by Michel Foucault’s theory on the relationship between place, as explained in his lecture, ‘Of Other Spaces’. Heterotopias, draws on Foucault’s definition of urban heterotopias as real spaces which are simultaneously mythical and real. Can these be contextualised as Johannesburg-specific spaces? Seeking out peculiarities of ‘city-ness’, forming new means of representation and new methods of practice (or praxis) where these conditions of heterotopia are becoming the norm.
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