URBAN DESIGN PORTFOLIO - ABA ARCHITECTS cc Durban North

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aba

a r c h i t e c t s

angela baker and associates cc | Tel: +27 31 564 1889 | Cell: +27 82 922 0344 | 119 Fairway Beachwood Durban North 4051

| www.abaarchitects.co.za

FLORIDA ROAD Florida Road Hums…… it doesn’t need to be revitalized!

It is a real part of the City…..and is not contrived!

Florida Road is what it is….. because it is a dynamic street and not a “static” space like a square or a plaza or a park……it is central and convenient to get to…… and get through!

The mix of activity and the movement through it at different times of the day, week, month and year provides its energy, flow, activity, eyes on the street and an attractive threshold for businesses!

However, it is going to grow as a result of better precinct management and continual development interest, so it will need reconfiguration form time to time and continual management!

Extract from a Complete Street Concept Plan for Florida Road compiled in association with Markewicz Redman City Green landscape Architects

COASTLINE Coast [LINE]

I am an African_ located on the east coast of Africa, Durban, South Africa, boasts a warm tropical promenade some 8km long. It is home the city’s diversity, from Church of Zion followers performing baptism rituals, to surfers, joggers, cyclists, mum’s and dad’s teaching little ones to cycle, swim skate, outdoor gym users pumping music, cafes, restaurants, rickshaws and swimmers, posers and photographers, ships, paddlers, yachts, and sups. It is just and equitable, affording space to all it. Arrive, enjoy, engage – it is yours. one planet _ “As of May 2020, the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere is the highest there has been in human history” (Conservation International). If there are two things the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us, it is that we are actually just one village - our fates are linked and decided collectively, and that we are capable of radical change in the face of a crisis. In the face of climate change, our responses can no longer be incremental or tentative - the timelines call for bold responses. Embracing the principle of “degrowth” is now an urgent imperative. the proposal _a generic and linear solution. Transforming a busy highway into a public space - linking 30km of coastline for community use and environmentally sustainable activities.

Tactically, 1. activity claims space _ ever more persistently 2. activity holds space _ community opportunities arise out of the claiming of space 3. activity transforms space _ the space is withdrawn permanently from vehicles and supplanted by sustainable endeavours.

Team: City Green Landscape Architects in association with ABA Competition Date 2021

INANDA ADVENTURE CENTRE Some schemes stay on paper, this adventure centre being one of them. Serious fun with containers and tensile structures.

Located on the edges of Inanda Dam, the established Go Durban bike park and kyaking centre provides much needed outdoor sports activities for Inanda’s local youth.

The containerized facility was an exercise in maximizing the potential of temporary structures housing gym, meeting / teaching spaces in addition to food outlets, equipment storage and ablutions.

Project Date design completed 2018. not constructed

POCKET PARKS WHY POCKET PARKS?: Ranging from pocket-sized, left-over spaces to public plazas and riverine systems, the pocket parks legacy programme was initiated by City Architects in anticipation of the 2014 UIA Conference.

Aimed at challenging the status quo, raising awareness around public space, recreation and urbanity, and highlighting issues around sustainable cities, such as food security, water quality and environmental systems, this programme looked at a range of interventions with a view to catalyzing responses amongst Durban’s resident, business and student communities.

WARWICK SKI JUMP: Heading straight for the heart of the CBD. Warwick - Durban’s primary transport hub and the centre for traditional medicinal trade. Warwick takes a pounding on a daily basis. Our aim - to relieve the daily commute and harshness of the environment with a pop-up park right in the heart of the CBD. The Parks Department’s Silverglen nursery, supports the indigenous and medicinal plant trade, by propagating (and training others to propagate) plants that would otherwise be under threat of overharvesting in the natural environment. It’s one of Durban’s best kept secrets, right in the heart of Silverglen Nature Reserve. Over the course of a few days, the Silverglen Nursery was relocated to an incomplete fly-over in front of the English market in Warwick. There for the month of the UIA, delegates, commuters and traders could enjoy a brief respite within the heart of Durban’s CBD, and perhaps pick up a guided tour of indigenous medicinal plants whilst there. All presided over

by Obama’s cries of “YES WE CAN”.

RED SQUARE: Historically a space for debate and demonstration in the 1950’s, Nicol Square came to be popularly known as “Red Square”, This linear park has long since been truncated through the construction of Nicol Square garage on the site leaving a portion of hardened open space at one of Durban’s most highly visible gateways.

As the UIA rolled out the red carpet, this site seemed uniquely suited to a public activation and engagement process. I WISH DURBAN WAS- a UKZN student headed Candy Chang initiative, transformed this pavement area into a nostalgic resemblance of what the square stood for, a place for Durbanites to have their voices heard.

UMTHOMBO FOOD FOREST: Linking into the Shepstone Street linear space, and re-connecting the harbour with Rivertown, the Umthombo Food Forest aims to support the street children’s’ drop in centre in both food provision, as well as providing a space for enticing street children into a sport and surf-filled programme, aimed at reintegrating them with their communities. The food garden also supports local residents, who benefit from its’ produce on an honesty basis. The need for community gardens within our cities being reinforced by other food garden projects along Shepstone, such as the Cool Runnings garden, one of the UIA parallel projects.

Project collaborations were with City Green Landscape Architects, Candy Chang for City Architects and received a SAIA-KZNIA SPECIAL MENTION award in 2016 Project Date 2014

POCKET PARKS

BOTANICAL GARDENS

KWAMASHU STATION TRADERS TRADE “ Informal activity in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 38.4% of GDP…. while employing 78% of the active population”.

(Clem Sunter 2012: Shedding Light on the Shadow Economy) Now those are figures to make one sit up and pay attention. Over THREE QUARTERS of the active population employed informally and ALMOST 40% OF GDP……granted, untaxed, but certainly sustaining the vast majority of households with little or no input from government.

What with our youth unemployment rate currently at an all- time high of 56.4% in the second quarter of 2019 (Trading Economics: South African Youth unemployment Rate), this would certainly seem a sector worth supporting and developing.

KWAMASHU STATION TRADERS MARKET: PROJECT TEAM Architects: City Arch, eThekwini Municipality Project Architects: ABA Structural Engineers: Sookan and Associates Mechanical Engineers: City Architects Electrical Engineers: SNA Consulting Eng Landscape Architect: City Architects Quantity Surveyor: City Architects Urban Design: Tony Markewicz Economists Jon van Coller: Vancometrics Photography John Ivins Project Date completed 2016

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PIESANGS RIVER OPEN SPACE PROJECT

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