THOMAS, L - 214129264

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COGNITIVE REINTEGRATION: A NARRATED AFRICAN SOCIAL HEALTH D EXPLORATION THROUGH DESIGN

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I cannot speak about healing for African people in an African context without speaking of connection. I cannot speak about the Africa spirit without the community. I cannot speak about community without speaking about the cultivated traditions that bind them. I cannot speak about the cultivated traditions without understanding what they aim to achieve. I cannot speak about the aims without speaking about how they serve the people whom they target. One cannot speak about the way they serve without witnessing them being performed in the spaces Africans have created and claimed for that serving.

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Cognitive reintegration: A narrated African social health exploration through design By Luthando Thomas 214129264 Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Architecture at the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design in the FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT at the TSHWANE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Supervisor: Dr MEN Nkambule Co-supervisor: Ms S Patel SUNNYSIDE, PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA

20/12/2021

iii DEPARTMENT of ARCHITECTURE & INDUSTRIAL DESIGN DECLARATION ON PLAGIARISM The Department of Architecture and Industrial Design emphasises integrity and ethical behaviour concerning the preparation of all assignments.

Although the lecturer/study leader/supervisor/mentor will provide you with information regarding reference techniques and ways to avoid plagiarism, you also have a responsibility to fulfil. Therefore, if you feel unsure about the requirements, you must consult the lecturer/study leader/supervisor/mentor before submitting an assignment.

You are guilty of plagiarism when you extract information from a book, article, web page, or another source of information without acknowledging the source and pretending that it is your work. This guilt applies to cases where you quote verbatim and present someone else's work in a somewhat amended (paraphrased) format or when you use someone else's arguments or ideas without acknowledgement. You are also guilty of plagiarism if you copy and paste information directly from an electronic source (e.g., a website, e-mail message, electronic journal article, or CD ROM), even if you acknowledge the source.

You are not allowed to submit another student's previous work as your own. You are furthermore not allowed to let anyone copy or use your work to present it as their own.

Any student who produces work alleged to be plagiarised will be referred to the Academic Affairs Disciplinary Committee for a ruling. Plagiarism is considered a severe violation of the university's regulations and may lead to your suspension from the university.

Per Regulation 4.1.11.1(j) of Chapter 4 (Examination Rules and Regulations), and Regulations 15.1.16 and 15.1.17 of Chapter 15 (Student Discipline) of Part 1 of the 2021 Prospectus, I (full names & surname): Student number

LUTHANDO KEITH JR THOMAS 214129264

Declare the following: 1. I understand what plagiarism entails, and I am aware of the university's policy in this regard.

2. I declare that this assignment is my original work. However, where someone else's work was used, it was acknowledged, and reference was made according to departmental requirements.

3. I did not copy and paste any information directly from an electronic source (e.g., a web page, electronic journal article, or CD ROM) into this document.

4. I did not make use of another student's previous work and submitted it as my own.

5. I did not allow and will not allow anyone to copy my work if they intend to present it as their work.

I further declare that this research proposal is substantially my work. Where reference is made to the works of others, the extent that the work used is indicated and fully acknowledged. This indication and acknowledgement are done both in the text and in the list of references.

Signature

21/12/20 Date

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS A TRIBUTE ............................................................................................................................ vi FINDING THE W ORDS ..................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................viii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... x 1. BEGINNINGS, ONE OF A FEW. ....................................................................................... 1 1.1. Introduction........................................................................................................... 2 1.1. Problem Statement .............................................................................................. 3 1.2. Research Objective ............................................................................................. 3 1.3. Research Questions.............................................................................................. 3 1.4. Significance of Study ........................................................................................... 4 1.6. Research Methods ............................................................................................... 4 1.7. Author’s Notes ....................................................................................................... 5 1.8. Thematic Sequencing .......................................................................................... 5 1.9. A World of Issues ................................................................................................... 6 2. STEMS, WHERE THE NEED. ............................................................................................... 7 2.1. Introduction........................................................................................................... 8 2.2. Literature Review 1 ............................................................................................... 8 2.3. Mapping 1 ........................................................................................................... 12 2.4. Literature Review 2 ............................................................................................. 14 2.5. Literature Review 3 ............................................................................................. 17 2.6. Autoethnography Part 1. ................................................................................... 18 2.7. Autoethnography Part 2. ................................................................................... 21 2.8. Primary Concept ................................................................................................ 23 2.9. Mapping 2 ........................................................................................................... 24 2.10. Concept 1........................................................................................................ 25 2.8. Concept 2 ........................................................................................................... 26 3. HEALING, THE JOURNEY OF. ........................................................................................ 27 3.1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 28 3.2. Literature Review 4 ............................................................................................. 28 3.3. Autoethnography Part 3 .................................................................................... 29 3.4. Case Study 1 ....................................................................................................... 31 3.5. Concept 3 ........................................................................................................... 32 4. PERFOMANCE, EVERYTHING LIES IN............................................................................ 33 4.1.

4.2.

4.3.

4.5.

4.6.

4.7.

4.8.

Introduction......................................................................................................... 34 Literature Review 5 ............................................................................................. 34 Autoethnography Part 4. ................................................................................... 37 Autoethnography Part 5. ................................................................................... 40 Case Study 2 ....................................................................................................... 42 Concept 4 ........................................................................................................... 43 Concept 5 ........................................................................................................... 44

v 5. IDENTITY, WHAT IS OUR................................................................................................. 45 5.1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 46 5.2. Literature Review 6 ............................................................................................. 46 5.3. Autoethnography Part 6. ................................................................................... 50 5.4. Autoethnography Part 7. ................................................................................... 53 5.5. Concept 6 ........................................................................................................... 55 5.6. Mapping 3 ........................................................................................................... 56 5.7. Case study 3 ....................................................................................................... 62 6. MEDIUM, THE LIMITS OF. ............................................................................................... 63 6.1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 64 6.2. Literature Review 7 ............................................................................................. 64 6.3. Literature Review 8 ............................................................................................. 67 6.4. Literature Review 9 ............................................................................................. 68 6.4. Autoethnography Part 8. ................................................................................... 70 6.5. Concept 7 ........................................................................................................... 73 7. OBJECT, FROM WORLD TO PERSON TO. .................................................................... 77 7.1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 78 7.2. Material Exploration ........................................................................................... 78 7.3. Literature Review 10 ........................................................................................... 78 7.4. Concept 8 ........................................................................................................... 81 8. WHOLE, TURNING A PART INTO A. .............................................................................. 87 8.1. Introduction......................................................................................................... 88 8.2. Technical Resolution .......................................................................................... 88 9. BE, A PLACE TO. ........................................................................................................... 93 9.1. Programme ......................................................................................................... 93 9.2. Introduction......................................................................................................... 94 9.3. The Intervention .................................................................................................. 94 9.4. Travelled .............................................................................................................. 95 9.5. Guided ................................................................................................................ 96 9.6. Witnessed ............................................................................................................ 97 9.7. Transformed ........................................................................................................ 98 9.8. Exposed ............................................................................................................... 99 9.9. Remembered ................................................................................................... 100 9.10. Isolated........................................................................................................... 101 9.11. Created.......................................................................................................... 102 9.12. Displayed ....................................................................................................... 103 9.13. Nurtured ......................................................................................................... 104 10. BEGINNING, CLOSING A. ........................................................................................ 111 10.1 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 112 LIST OF REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 113

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A TRIBUTE Thank you, family Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmothers, grandfathers, friends, and all those who belong to my clan.

Thank you, community Neighbours, teachers, coaches, school principals, lecturers, work colleagues, site users.

Thank you, Africans.

Xhosa, Batswana, Bantu, acknowledgments Thank you, Mother Africa.

Special thanks to: Co-supervisor: Ms S Patel Your relentless feedback and time given helped formulate parts of this research that would have never come into being without you.

Main supervisor: Dr MEN Nkambule The amount of attention to detail in which the depth of feedback you gave is inspiring. More so being a fellow African.

Year coordinator: Prof L Laubscher Thank you for providing support when the resources for the craft were hard to come by.

Classmates The multitude of Zoom meetings and discord-critique sessions that gave us all the ability to continue our final year, a needed motivation in the pandemic circumstance we were studying in.

TUT Department of Architecture and Industrial Design The various opportunities and support provided over the years have made a difference to a young African man chasing a dream.

AGAIN, I THANK YOU.

vii FINDING THE WORDS Anthropology Self-Actualization Permaculture SPACE noun. the dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move.

Urban healthy again.

HEALING noun. the process of making or becoming sound or Black Colonization

Holistic

Philosophy

Culture

Pragmatism

Dialect

Positivism

Asylum

Indigenous

Commodity

Segregation

Heritage

Hermeneutics

Autobiography Ethnography Afrocentric UBUNTU noun. a quality that includes the essential human virtues, compassion, and humanity.

Autoethnography Spiritual

Translation

Form

Zeitgeist AFRICAN adj. relating to Africa or its people, customs, or languages. noun. a person from Africa.

Dome Perforated Community

Apartheid

Brick

Commercial

Context Bantu SOCIAL HEALTH noun. our ability to interact and form meaningful relationships with others.

Manhood Coming of age (Stevenson, 2010)

Belong

Celebration

Prototype

viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Colonisation and it's legacy Figure 2: Advent of colonization Figure 3: City segregation comparison Figure 4: Racial segregation mapping Figure 5: Autoethnography to architecture Figure 6: Map 2000 Figure 7: Map 2021 Figure 8: Belonging Figure 9: Context massing forms Figure 10: Reclaiming Form 1 Figure 11: Reclaiming Form 2 Figure 12: Reclaiming Form 3 Figure 13: First concept in context Figure 14: Freedom Park analysis (adapted from GAPP = Mashabane Rose Architects + MMA, 2012) Figure 15: A place of water Figure 16: A place of earth Figure 17: Scales of social performances Figure 18: African performances Figure 19: Map 2012 Figure 20: Map 2013 Figure 21: New artist residency analysis (adapted from Mori, 2015) Figure 22: Concept 2 exploration Figure 23: Performance as a form definer Figure 24: Origin of the Bantu people (adapted from Sun, 2017) Figure 25: City typology relation Figure 26: Neighbourhood typology placement Figure 27: Map 1, 2003 Figure 28: Map,2 2003 Figure 29: Map 1,2,3, 2009 Figure 29: Culmination of experience Figure 30: Ethnic groups Figure 31: Neighbourhood context Figure 32: Neighbourhood context activities Figure 33: Site context Figure 34: Site context sketches 1 Figure 35: Site context sketches 2 Figure 36: Mapungubwe analysis (adapted from Peter Rich Architects, 2010) Figure 38: Isibheqe Sohlamvu, a South African written language Figure 39: Elders as vessels of wisdom Figure 40: Map 1991 Figure 41: Final concept exploration Figure 42: Final concept plan rendition Figure 43: Final concept section exploration Figure 44: Final concept final sketch exploration Figure 45: The African maker Figure 46: African rituals

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ix Figure 47: Initial location of traditional kitchen Figure 48: Typology and envelope exploration Figure 49: Initial structural concept model Figure 50: Initial structure detail sketches Figure 51: Detailed structural exploration Figure 52: Material specifications Figure 53: Technical resolution plan Figure 54: Traditional kitchen section Figure 55: Longitudinal site section Figure 56: Clay workshop plan Figure 57: Clay workshop section Figure 58: Brick edge details Figure 59: Long site elevation Figure 60: African placemaking Figure 61: Bird's eye view Figure 62: Guided eye-level experience Figure 63: Witnessed eye-level experience Figure 64: Transformed eye-level experience Figure 65: Exposed eye-level experience Figure 66: Remembered eye-level experience Figure 67: Isolated eye-level experience Figure 68: Created eye-level experience Figure 69: Displayed eye-level experience Figure 70: Nurtured eye-level experience Figure 71: Ground-floor plan Figure 72: First-floor plan Figure 73: Sections E, A, and F Figure 74: Sections B, C, and D Figure 75: Aerial bird’s-eye view

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ABSTRACT What is an African?

I am. We are. This is.

The flexibility, reliability, opportunity in African social practices, and the spaces and built forms they take place in are explored in this research. To many, African traditional practices are thought of as performed in the open natural landscapes.

This is true for a small amount. However, most traditions and practices, events, meetings, and celebrations, still need to fulfil the basic needs of any form of congregation space. Man must walk, sit, stand, talk, listen, eat, cook, sleep, and perform. According to the tradition, these fundamental human activities and their arrangement require a built fabric that serves them, whether enclosed or open.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of facilities, in post-apartheid cities, designed for African traditions, primarily due to the lack of resources available to the African people and modernisation.

South Africa has a wealth of untapped knowledge belonging to the indigenous people. The experiences and traditions contain social health management techniques held in the indigenous communities’ practices, rituals, and beliefs.

Social health (the quality of the network of interpersonal relationships between either two persons or a person and their community) and psychology are an area of knowledge explored in depth by Western civilisation. However, with the degradation of South Africa’s social health condition, there is a need for new techniques for social health treatment found in indigenous knowledge systems. The indigenous knowledge systems studied in this research are those experienced firsthand by the author. The author has analysed these experiences to extract the impact they had on his views and how they served his social healing needs.

The study aims to take what cannot be translated into words and give it permanence through architecture; to explore ‘Africanacity’ (traces of the African spirit), and to give it existence by claiming urban space; to record the new ways in which the Bantu people live so they can find identity, meaning, and belonging in a post-apartheid city by creating spaces that they can be themselves.

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MOLO THOBELA DUMELA LUMELA SANIBONA AVUWANI AVUXENI SALIBONANI HELLO MHORO HUJAMBO NAMASKAR NI HAO

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. BEGINNINGS, ONE OF A FEW.

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Chapter 1 1.1.

Introduction

The author spent his life walking through the South African streets. Born in the same year that South Africa attained freedom, he had a post-apartheid experience that is still under the influence of apartheid legacies. He moved from rural Transkei to Mabopane township, located in the City of Tshwane Municipality, from the suburbs of Port Elizabeth to the dense apartments of Sunnyside. He spent a minimum of three years to a maximum of 12 years in these places. He is an African man, with an identity as deep as his past, present, and future.

As he looks at his personal story and analyse the complex way the African identity, culture, and history influenced his perception of spaces and people, he has realised that spaces that both allow him to express his individuality and provide healing are hard to find. The author has experienced a spectrum of spaces from those claimed by a single African in his home to those empty city centre parks. He witnessed a wealth of activities, traditions and rituals that have taken place in these spaces. In witnessing and participating, he gained an intimate understanding of peoples and cultures.

Through these experiences, the author realised that there is no identity/belonging without spaces for that identity/belonging to manifest. This state is true for the healing methods that being an African requires, as those methods are primarily social and require spaces for the African and the African community.

Ross (2010: 388) speaks on the social quality connected to the spaces where Africans live: “From birth, many Africans are socialised to be part of a family and community, with rituals, songs, proverbs, fables, and religious ceremonies playing a major role and passed on to succeeding generations through a predominantly oral history.”

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1.1.

Problem Statement

One may say that the existing social health healing processes lean heavily on professionals and not on the spaces in which the healing takes place or the community members of whom the individual is a part. This includes the formation of identity and the opportunities to express it. In South Africa, diverse ethnic groups and experiences require varying healing and identity expression spatial responses.

This need means that the ‘template’ or ‘Eurocentric’ architecture interventions that serve as places for healing in South Africa lack contextual relevance and integration to the needs of the users that they serve.

1.2.

Research Objective

To explore a social health building typology by designing spaces, techniques, and practices designed through the critical analysis of an autoethnographic user experience in the chosen context and users’ habits, needs, and practices in the context.

1.3.

Research Questions

1. How can autoethnography be implemented to convey the author’s social health experiences in specific spaces?

2. What form does social health conditions take in the ethnically diverse context of South Africa?

3. What is the current and theorised view on social health healing and the spatial typologies designed to serve social healing?

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1.4.

Significance of Study

There is an existing database written on African identity, healing, spirituality, and performance, which also extend to interventions in architecture. This study brings a wide range of the indigenous knowledge areas and applies it by creating an intervention that focuses purely on the social aspects of the areas as a solution to South African’s social health needs and segregation trauma.

1.6.

Research Methods

1. Autoethnography allows for the author to events in a level of detail that can only be found by those who experience it. This allows him to not only speak on the traditions and practices as the happen, but on how they serve the people who participate by recording his own experience.

2. Mapping as a data collection tool serves the research by allowing the author to make not only comparisons of locations and typologies that relate to the African within the urban context but places the reader and the intervention within the chosen context by recording the genius loci of the surroundings.

3. Literature review, specific to texts written by other Africans about African traditions and practices, allows the author to access knowledge of other Africans and use their findings to help formulate a contemporary stance on them.

4. Case study takes existing architecture interventions that relate to African social health and analyses how architects working in Africa are defining African spaces within they contexts.

5. Concepts relating to those created as part of the author’s development process with include sketches and models allow the author to explore creating African space in different scales, planes and dimensions in order to record the though process followed and the journey the intervention took in it’s formation.

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1.7.

Author’s Notes

The structure of this thesis has nuances that communicate the underlying concept of integration. One of the examples would be the titles and occasionally the subtitles. They are written in an “incorrect” language form that relates to the difficulty that comes from attempting to translate African knowledge into Western formats.

It would be optimum to write the titles in purely African grammar to showcase the difference in levels of communication and intent of the languages, but that would have made it too difficult for those who do not speak a Bantu language to follow.

Thus, one aspect of the language was chosen in which the most important theme, object, or subject is located at the front/forefront. This may be oversimplification of the African language. However, the technique serves as a reminder that African knowledge and communication is based on a fundamentally different intent than in Western knowledge systems.

1.8.

Thematic Sequencing

The following themes of the research follow a sequencing that moves from one scale to the next, starting from the greater world issue and progressing to the specific material object: Segregation-trauma-healing-performance-identity-custodians-translationmediums-material-resolution

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•

•

•

•

•

•

•

A World of Issues

Africa has a complex network and an overwhelming number of issues that the willing have to tackle to move the continent forward. To attempt to bring all or some issues into a dissertation would take a lifetime to compose, with the highest probability of failure. Thus, this mini dissertation focuses on a narrow part of African socialism as applicable to the context.

The author does not in any way assume that the above most critical issue at hand. There lies above this the issues born of colonisation and apartheid, of land, of failing governments, of self-hate, of resource theft, of poverty and social housing projects, of the digital divide, and the slow destruction of the African spirit among many. What is explored here is simply the area the author is interested in. To present his life, career, and legacy as an upcoming Architect, Writer, African, and Human Being. This will be his eternal fight.

Mental health is still a topic of argument in African communities. Too often, South Africans rest on their spirituality or cultures to solve contemporary issues that require the intervention of contemporary systems. Africans, coming from a place of reservations when accepting Western knowledge systems, are in a state of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They are unable to reconcile what contemporary Africans should know and practice in the modern world. Here there is an attempt to meld a handful of Western and African knowledge systems for social health treatment.

The study focuses on the route of social health treatment to minimise the size of the intervention and allow for a better exploration of the chosen building typology. This means that the intervention will accommodate the spaces and the users as it serves the processes mentioned.

Although the immediate context and its inhabitants will be partly mapped using autoethnographic recording, this information will not be obtained by using interviews, video recording or photographs. This is to protect the identity and privacy of the users.

Because of the diversity of the context, instead of specific cultures, there will be an investigation of the prevalent elements of social expression and cultural practice. This is necessary because South African urban cities have areas of high African diversity, requiring a level of sensitivity to all the Africans using the spaces. This is an expression of Ubuntu, a form of Africanism that includes all people.

African spirituality is not defined here in any way. There are elements of it that are highlighted, and whether specific only to the culture in the context or experienced or not is not always disclosed. This omission may seem the opposite of the intent of this research, but this is due to one of the primary arguments in this research. Yes, there is a wealth of knowledge recorded

on African spirituality, and yes, one can embark on the journey to learn of it: What about those who are not literate;? How does the non-written nature of spirituality appear in everyday living?; Is it better defined not in libraries but by the people who practice it?

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Figure 1: Colonisation and it's legacy

. STEMS, WHERE THE NEED.

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Chapter 2 2.1.

Introduction

This chapter deals with the most formative issue raised when one attempts to deal with the lack of indigenous knowledge systems in the urban areas (which is segregation).

2.2.

Literature Review 1

Trauma, What is our?

Within the research context, particularly in South Africa, one cannot ignore colonisation as the most significant contributor. Most issues surrounding the people of Africa were brought about by the legacy of capitalisation that propagated the colonial system. In the greater context of Africa, the colonisation process that “formally” began in the late nineteenth century. Several European powers (Britain, Holland, France, Portugal, among many) began an era of exploitation in which the African colonies were occupied and used the local populace as labour to acquire the abundant natural mineral resources. Through the partitioning of lands, the powers created colonies using the military power of the colonising countries and the spread of the resources. By implementing government and economic systems, the people were forced either by military/armed force or by the promise of opportunity and progress to function as low-cost indentured labour. This severely handicapped the natural path of growth for the colonies, morphing them into states of mineral supply to their colonisers rather than population serving entities focused on the betterment of the conditions of the peoples. This exploitation continued during the mid-to-late twentieth century, profoundly rooting the colonial systems in the occupied territories. Within the South African context, the colonial system implemented was the apartheid system introduced in 1948 by the National Party government. (Ducksters.com, 2010) The result was the segregated spatial zoning which is common across South Africa.

Contrary to the exploitation colonisation common in greater Africa, South Africa was home to settler colonisation. This form of colonisation meant that most resources were transported to better the metropole systems that the minority-ruling group occupied and some to the British nation. In combination with legislation such as the Native Lands Act of 1913 and the Group Areas Act of 1950, this created a division of people according to race and settled them into povertyfilled zones at the outskirts or outer extremes of the cities. (Ducksters.com, 2010) Thus, creating a high level of urban migration. Thus, a population grouping was created by the apartheid system for migrating to the metropole in search of opportunity and better living conditions.

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The combination of local urban migrants and transnational migrants are the primary users for the context of this research. The trauma from this movement and the circumstance that inspired the research are primary issues that create the need for healing in the African people. The Pretoria site context has a large community of diverse migrant peoples. This diversity is vital to factor in when implementing social and mental health care systems and frameworks.

According to Peck (2021) ”It is not knowledge we lack”. This is perhaps the most lingering of the statements from the ‘Exterminate the Brutes’ documentary series.

Colonisation has taken different forms depending on the context; differences were created by geography, mineral and resource opportunity, and indigenous people. Like the case of African American slaves, the settler colonisation type shared between the Americas and South Africa took the land from the indigenous peoples. (Peck 2021) The peoples were then used as labour for mining and farming by the system of government that matured into the apartheid system. Apartheid was developed five centuries after the first colonisers reached the shores of the Western Cape.

Like the slave system, the government implemented legislation that gave the colonisers the emboldened authority to subjugate and maintain their oppression of the people. In America, the authority was the Second Amendment. In South Africa, the authority was the apartheid legislature. The apartheid government used the Native Lands Act of 1913 and the Group Areas Act of 1950 to segregate and isolate the population outside the colonizers. These areas were located to maximise the government’s ability to suppress the people in them. (Ducksters.com, 2010)

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Figure 2: Advent of colonization

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Figure 3: City segregation comparison

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2.3.

Mapping 1

Where, Finding the The author was walking in the streets of Sunnyside, Pretoria in the year 2021. This part of the city is primarily filled with local and migrant Africans who are urban migrants from other parts of South Africa or transnational migrants from other African countries. Sunnyside is primarily a dense high-rise residential area, with very few open public spaces beyond the streets.

Pretoria is a city that the apartheid government legislation influenced in its formation, such as the Native Lands Act of 1913 and the Group Areas Act of 1950, enforcing segregation of people by ethnicity. (Ducksters.com, 2010) By relocating ethnic groups to areas built for that purpose, the acts achieved segregation, as seen in figure 4, according to the apartheid government’s intent. Due to the Eurocentric application of architectural style, these townships did not cater to Africans or other ethnicities in spatial planning. Most African peoples were still converting from nomadic or tribal farmers to a unified national system when the European powers colonised them.

This ethnology is especially true for the South African tribes, although there are some exceptions, such as the city of Mapungubwe built by the Ndebele people.

That way of living was indicative that they had not reached the point of developing urban planning solutions for dense city fabrics.

These two events, the interruption by colonisation and subsequent disruption by various apartheid legislature, created the city fabric to which the African person has minimal relation. This context continued throughout post-apartheid South Africa as Africans sought to rediscover what being an African means in a westernised post-colonial Africa.

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Figure 4: Racial segregation mapping

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2.4.

Literature Review 2

Placemaking, From story to Fulfilling the research objective requires translating and applying the data gathered through the research methodology and methods. Autoethnography produces a limited quantity of data, and a qualitative research methodology focuses on individuals, requiring a more rigorous implementation method.

According to Denzin and Lincoln (2000: 3), “qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them”. That data of psychology and social health healing practices apply to the information found through the critical analysis of the autoethnography. The healing practices are outside the span of the author’s experience in their applicability. Thus, this research required data gathering from either other persons or the knowledge of professionals or leaders in the field. After which, the author compares the data to what we understand of typology as a concept, and the form it takes in the social health framework explored as limited by the data gathered in the autoethnography and qualitative methodologies of enquiry. Autoethnography has many theorised forms. One effective in this enquiry is “evocative autoethnography” (Anderson, 2006: 387), where the narration carries the more intangible elements of the narrated account.

Autoethnography as a research methodology is increasingly used due to many researchers who have used and critically analysed its validity.

One of the primary arguments regarding autoethnography is its validity in applying witness experience and participatory experience. (Walford, 2004: 408) In other terms, whether the researcher is an insider or an outsider in what they are narrating. The commonly held conclusion is that autoethnography is not contrary to the common belief. Instead, we should see autoethnography as standing between the two states of experience. Autoethnography avoids giving the researcher the undeserved privilege of being an insider and outsider (ReedDanahay, 2009: 29). This dual viewpoint applies to the author’s experience when they speak on in their recorded autoethnographic experience. The author often witnessed the social performance of a group of people that they have experienced in a different context yet had not directly participated. In some cases, their role was closer to an outsider than an insider as the participants communicated in their native West and East African languages, of which the author had no understanding.

These experiences show how, as a genre of writing, autoethnography places the author in the same social context as those they observe (Archetti, 1998: 216) whether the experience was first-hand or not.

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The art of storytelling and narration finds its strength in the level of detail that the data produces. On the other hand, especially in architecture, research investigates and produces social contexts and phenomena. This alignment means that recorded persons’ experiences must be translated and associated with the larger social contexts. To achieve this, the author has to use multiple techniques to depict the relevant experiences accurately and record them. The author will then pick the experiences apart and include only the parts of the experience that have relevant translatable data. Various literature was written about this research methodology by researchers who used a similar research topic. This research will use that literature to translate and gather the data for the researcher and the researched users. This literature will primarily be texts supported by visual graphics and other means.

As applied by researchers as a form of qualitative research methodology, autoethnographers do not want you to sit back as spectators; they want readers to feel and care and desire (Bochner, 1996: 24).

This method is helpful in recording emotion, experience, and phenomena fundamental in social and mental health. However, some researchers have heavily critiqued some aspects of autoethnography. An example of the critique would be from Walford (2004), who says, “If people wish to write fiction, they have every right to do so, but not every right to call it research”. This touches on the possibility of distortion when recording experiences through the user of the lenses through which the experience is perceived. Although this criticism often applies to qualitative research, it is most often relevant to constructivism and phenomenology.

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Figure 5: Autoethnography to architecture

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2.5.

Literature Review 3

Words, From world to First, the author intentionally does not use his ethnic tongue, the Xhosa language, to write this thesis document. He changed all the dialogue recorded in the forthcoming narration into English for two reasons. Firstly, his command of the Xhosa language would make any attempt at translating a failure. Secondly, capturing the true sense of the experience would require him to write almost all the writing in isiXhosa, depriving most readers, as they do not have the ability to read the Xhosa language. Instead, for the critique in this research, the author writes this account as a summary and an attempt to take the elements the author thinks are relevant and translatable.

There are omissions, reductions, and elements of fiction due to the haziness that time births in memories. One day, the author hopes to educate themselves in their mother tongue to write their experience entirely. Some elements require both the European and African peoples’ languages to weave this story together seamlessly.

The author separates himself from the study by writing in the third person in the sections and chapters. This makes it easier to relive some of these experiences and remind himself that he should be attempting to criticise the relevance of each experience as a narrator. Moreover, this story is as authentic as he could write in the limits imposed, both self and other. This is a narration of being South African in South African spaces.

The prejudice, as I have suggested above, is largely traceable to the fact that most of the tales that have been put to print are a poor reflection of the circumstances in which they were told (Okpewho, 2009).

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2.6.

Autoethnography Part 1.

Ours, This land is. Gqeberha, 2000 The boy rode his bike down the road on a warm summer Saturday morning. He was with his brothers, one his age whom he called his twin, the other a few years older. He was riding in a slow, winding ‘S’ path, moving from one side of the road to the other. He kept this slow pace to keep in close distance of his father, who was walking behind. His father had his arms clasped behind his back, occasionally taking rocks off the tarred road and placing them on the side of the road. His older brother came rushing past, another cyclist speeding his way down and up the road. The road rose on both ends and allowed the older boy to gain momentum before streaming down. He became a distant figure as he approached the end of the road. The boy was holding a conversation with his father, although their replies had contemplative pauses in-between. The father was patient with the boy’s endless questions; after all, he had bought the science book that spoke of the stars, galaxies, and planets. As the boy and the father kept the conversation going, his brother kept winding through in the opposite direction, and silently. He was the quieter of the two.

A car came up from behind, the boy’s father letting them know to move to the side and wait for it to pass. The blue sedan slowly drove past at the usual speed in this suburb area. The two boys watched the car pass, and the boy noticed their father staring at their older brother. They did the same and noticed their older brother barrelling down towards them, still in the same lane. The car was in the distance. The car crept but moved fast enough to cause the boy grievous injury.

The boy’s father cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted for the boy to move out of the way. The boy raised one hand and waved, and then turned to the lane in which the boys were stopped. Unfortunately, he had done the turn too late, and the car driver had decided the same thing, opting to avoid the boy, and both now turned into the same lane. The boy panicked. His feet attempted to stop the bike while turning hard towards the edge of the road. The driver reacted by turning back into his lane and coming to a hard stop. The panicked older boy barrelled into a tree on the side of the road.

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“Stay here,” the boys’ father said to the two younger boys and jogged towards the scene. The man in the blue sedan was making gestures from his window at the older brother. When the father reached the scene, he turned towards the older boy, holding his mouth and supporting his bike with his other arm. The father checked him; his knowledge as a doctor showed in the familiarity of his actions in the task. He proceeded to guide the boy to the street, lifting his bent bike for him.

The boy stood by the car and watched the angry gestures of the arms of the car owner and the father. It seemed to be an argument. After a few exchanges, the arm went back into the car, and the blue sedan sped off, turning into a house three blocks down from the scene.

The boy looked at his twin, exchanging curious expressions and turned to watch the father and older brother walking back towards them. As the pair approached and passed the boys, the father and the boy overheard a part of the conversation: “They think that this land is theirs. Remember son, no one owns the land. We sometimes build our house on it and ask our ancestors to protect it and us, but it is never really ours,“ the father said to the older boy as they walked. “Let us go home,” he said to the other two. “They do not want black people here, and we are one of the only two black families in this street,” he continued. “That is why we still cannot do any of the African ceremonies here either. They call the police.”

The boy exchanged another look with his twin as they followed behind the pair.

What does he mean by ‘black’?

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Figure 6: Map 2000

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2.7.

Autoethnography Part 2.

Beneath, The soil. Pretoria, 2021 The man sits on a bench in Jubilee Park. He is contemplative, taking a detour from looking for a webcam for the digital learning that is the new normal of the pandemic. He is an architecture student and is taking a break from the indoors by pausing at the only public open space that seems to function well close to his apartment block on the southern edge of Sunnyside.

On this Saturday morning, the site was somewhat decently occupied, assuming that various users were finding respite from their own indoors. A group of kids are playing soccer on the grass a few meters away, all no older than 12, judging from their size. A group of teenagers and young adults are playing soccer on the paved central area in the direction of the bench. A group of four are using the outdoor gym furniture recently placed in the park. A pair of lovers are having a picnic on the other grass portion on the site’s northern edge, semi-covered by the shade of the trees running along the northern edge. There is a sparse collection of men dressed in overalls sleeping on the small rises. A collection of temporary blanket and timber structures houses a group of four urban refugees against the wall on the site’s eastern edge. The public park is split into two by a four-lane road, and the man looks to the western half across the street. There is a small tent with the ANC political party insignia on it, a group of three sits under it. A group of nine figures are dressed in pure white. The group is a Christian organisation holding a service on the rise on that side. There is a group of young kids playing in the play area.

There is a graffiti-covered public toilet block closed off due to the urban refugees using it as housing.

The man sits for a while on his bench, watching and decides to remove the boots he is wearing. His bench is also on a grass patch. As he removes his socks, he digs his feet into the grass and soil underfoot. It is still cold due to it being late morning.

He sits there thinking to himself. They are all doing so much, and they are alive. If I could join them, what would I do? He sits there rummaging through his desires. I would find any who had begun the journey that aligns with mine and build an amphitheatre or stage to speak. There we would discuss the world and exchange philosophies about the world. I would stand and scream: “I am Xhosa. I am African...” He sits there musing for a while longer. How I miss home.

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Figure 7: Map 2021

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2.8. Primary Concept The driving concept that defines this research and the architecture that is formed from it, is belonging.

The reintegration and affirmation of indigenous identities and the knowledge systems they have, a place in which they can belong, needs to be designed. This designed place requires being a place for belonging and a place for healing from trauma that comes about from the trauma that the apartheid system inflicted on today’s post-apartheid South African city. Today’s indigenous African is a victim of the traumatised city.

Figure 8: Belonging

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2.9.

Mapping 2

The existing forms The prevalent architectural languages of the immediate site context consist of repurposed single-storey dwellings of the brick Dutch colonial home with extensions. It is one of the often-found urban space pockets of low-rise buildings in Sunnyside, with various grouped architectural forms. This variety allows for the possibility of various vertical explorations that, if done well, may relate to the immediate context.

Figure 9: Context massing forms Figure 9 shows the three primary forms: The groups of residential high-rise buildings go from four-six storeys; then two-four storey retail, residential, government buildings; single-storey school buildings; and pockets of single-storey stand-alone residential buildings.

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2.10. Concept 1

Figure 10 shows the first form of dealing with the possibility of creating a form that attaches itself to the modernist monolithic vertical skyscraper, taking advantage of the building’s visibility to make and affirm the indigenous African.

Figure 10: Reclaiming Form 1

Figure 11 shows the second form in which the indigenous form is placed in the three to four precinct colonial buildings common in the CBD, to take advantage of the dichotomy of colonial and indigenous. It also creates a tension between the typology, as it would inhibit the amassing of buildings for government, law, or history and reclaim them in part for the African.

Figure 11: Reclaiming Form 2

Figure 12 shows the third form of working with the affluent one-storey residential areas to which the African has little access.

It would place an indigenous intervention that crosses pre-established boundaries of privacy and isolation and bring African community ideologies to the monotypological eastern suburb.

Figure 12: Reclaiming Form 3

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2.11.

Concept 2

After ingesting the literature and contemplating the segregated form that the post-apartheid city takes, the author explored a conceptual prototype. This prototype is a contemporary cuboid that may be high as three storeys. It is covered in timber cladding as a facade as a sustainable material and consists of spaces enclosed with circular walls reminiscent of South African indigenous architectural forms.

These circular spaces are carved out of a rectangular form such that the interior spaces are not visible, and one would quickly realise after entering the space that it is an African building. Figure 12 shows the concept in diagrammatic plan and section.

The intention is to represent how the Africans today are contemporary in how they live in the city yet come from and define themselves internally through the African beliefs and the cultures in which they were birthed. It would be a monolithic building that takes as much space on-site as public open space.

Figure 13: First concept in context

3

. HEALING, THE JOURNEY OF.

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Chapter 3 3.1.

Introduction

As a follow-up, this chapter deals with African social healing as a journey; a response to the previous chapter’s discussion on the trauma that came from the segregation caused by the apartheid government.

3.2.

Literature Review 4

Path, Healing is my Healing in South Africa has been transformed by the country’s diversity for a long while. The healing and therapy systems have acquired different patterns of diagnosis and treatment of health and diseases through the adoption of other cultures and beliefs, influenced by the political and economic forces that shaped the country's history. (Feierman, 1985: 73) When speaking about healing, we must also touch on those who provide it.

Traditional healers, commonly known as Sangomas, have changed what constitutes their provided services. They are known to cover counselling divination/diagnostics, medical amongst a few. This progression in which they have acquired new traditions over time, taking within themselves new cultures and languages that include both pre-colonial and post-colonial techniques, has allowed them to see themselves as members of a profession with a distinct intellectual tradition. This tradition is still changing critique and modification, acquiring more specialised skills to serve new issues and experiences. (Thornton, 2009: 17) The variety of services that the healer provides, including the life cycle rituals, may require time. This is especially true for the urban South African, who may have had little exposure to these indigenous knowledge systems that are healing focused.

They would have to continuously meet with the healer and be a part of rituals and traditions that form part of the journey that is South African healing. This idea that time plays a role in the healing process can be used to facilitate a healing journey within architectural interventions.

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3.3.

Autoethnography Part 3

Healing, A need for. Gqeberha, 2006 The boy had never seen that much blood before. He had, but only in the action movies, his uncle collected for the VHS player. The wound he was staring at was on the girl’s forearm. She stayed in the house in front of theirs. They had gone to play with one of their friends who stayed a street away. He was the only kid we knew of in the township who had a fish tank with actual fish inside. Somehow while they were playing, she had tripped and stumbled face-first towards the tank and had raised her arms to protect herself on impact. The result Is what they were all staring at now, a 20 cm triangular piece of glass lodged into her forearm folding skin inwards.

There were four boys there, including the boy; one of them, the boy’s cousin, came to his senses first. He told her they needed to take her to her grandfather, helping her walk down the street to her home. After knocking for a few seconds, an older man opened the child’s grandfather’s door. His eyes went wide at the girl's injury, and he called for his wife while tentatively looking at the wound. The four boys stepped to the side while the grandmother who had quickly come to the door, also looked at the wound. “We need to take her to my sister,” the elderly woman said, guiding the girl to the gate. The older man looked at the boy and motioned him to follow.

As they walked down the street, the boy’s cousin, sibling, and friends watched from behind while standing in the middle of the street. The older man asked the boy to explain what had happened. The boy told the story, fear making him stutter as he quickly ran through it. This situation was not good; it never ends well for those involved when a girl gets hurt while playing with boys.

They walked for about a minute into an area a few streets away and entered a yard with a collection of animals. The yard had a strong scent of goat, chicken and sheep mixed with the scent of plants. The group walked to the back of the yard to a square building with a closed-door that the older woman knocked on.

After a minute or two, the door opened, bringing the boy out of a trance that had begun while he was waiting from staring at the blood drops forming on the soil where the girl was standing. A raspy voice told the group to come in, and the boy followed in at the back.

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They entered a room filled with various herbs hung on the wall, rugs on the floor, and a collection of tools, books, and other objects the boy could not identify.

What are we doing here? Doesn’t she need the doctor? The two sisters sat on the girl's side, constantly crying, while occasional pained groans escaped her lips. The boy noticed that the woman they had found there had face paints and dreadlocks, a sangoma. After looking at the wound and gathered tools, the sangoma stood up and placed them next to the girl on the floor. She also began to mix herbs while her sister switched the kettle. Some of the tools were familiar to the boy, like ones his father had at home being a doctor.

The sangoma gave the girl a few leaves to chew on and water to drink in the meantime. The boy sat on the floor next to the older man and watched the sister’s work. The wound was cleaned, the boy cringing as he watched the healer pull the glass out and check the wound. The girls had screamed bot has that happened and when the healer had unfolded the skin out. She had given her more leaves to chew on after. The room had filled with a strange scent of leaves and smoke from incense burning on a stool. The two worked for what felt like an hour in silence, and when they were done, they guided the girl out to the house. They told the older man that she would need to sleep for a while.

In the silence, the older man turned to the boy and asked, “How has your father been? I have not seen him in a while.” The boy replied, “He was here in the morning, grandfather, when he dropped us off. He is fine.” They sat in silence for a few seconds before the elder spoke once more. “My wife’s sister used to study medicine with your father when they were both in university. They were good friends before your father moved to the suburbs. She was also a freedom fighter like him, and when they both left for the struggle during their studies in their third year, she chose to learn traditional healing instead of going back to school.”

The boy looked around after nodding in reply at the plants and other instruments all over the room, including the bloodstains on the clay floor. It kind of smells in here. He thought to himself.

31 3.4.

Case Study 1

Project: Freedom Park, Phase 1 Location: Pretoria, South Africa Architect/s: GAPP + Mashabane Rose Architects + MMA

Figure 14: Freedom Park analysis (adapted from GAPP = Mashabane Rose Architects + MMA, 2012) This precedent, a museum, showcases a form of architecture that deals with remembrance and celebration. The intervention takes the user on a journey using spatial sequencing, the intervention takes the user on a journey through, not only the apartheid history but also, the cultural history, which is seldom recorded. The intervention begins in open exterior spaces and slowly introduces built fabric using large walls and enclosures, ending in buildings with historical elements. On the journey, one often finds an African spiritual space (spaces of contemplation or divination) placed between two spaces of recollection, serving as a reminder and an opportunity to contemplate the memory to which they were exposed.

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3.5.

Concept 3

Healing spaces forms As discussed in the previous pages of this chapter, African social healing, and the techniques it employs requires both time, repetitive exposure, and a sense of progress that comes from moving to the next step. The figures 17 and 8 show how spaces of healing, their custodians, the allocation of interaction and rest, and the sequencing of the spaces to create a journey as required by the healing techniques.

Figure 16: A place of earth

Figure 15: A place of water

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Figure 17: Scales of social performances

. PERFOMANCE, EVERYTHING LIES IN.

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Chapter 4 4.1.

Introduction

The following chapter focuses on performance as an activity of social healing and how performances relate to the spaces and the people who take part in them.

4.2.

Literature Review 5

Performance, The art of There is, culturally speaking, no art for art’s sake in Africa. Every literary work has a social function. Songs, prayers, praise chants, and abuse are placed at the service of the community (Ojaide, 1992: 43).

To speak about performance in African cultures, there needs to be an attempt to bridge the gap between performance as a defined English word, and how that word relates to certain aspects of cultures.

Let us begin with the parts of “performances” that can be broken down to more contextual derivatives, namely celebrations, rituals, and gatherings. These are defined by being markers for change or progress such as weddings, coming of age ceremonies, or communications with the spirits. These activities are easy to define as performances as they are major forms of social interaction that include multiple cast members with various relations to each other.

These performances have layers to them that deal with traditions that are more widely adopted, and from part of the cultural identity of those who partake in them. They are representations of beliefs that cross tribe, clan and nation that have been reiterated and taught by those with named roles such as healers (Sangoma) whom are the custodians of them. The deal with mediums of communications ranging from song, dance, communing, and speech. These performances are what saturate the free digital library that encompasses social media and search engines on the internet.

In some form of irony, they are far more moments of expression than mediums of knowledge in the manner they affect those who are players as spectators. There is more of a reinforcement of the known, more than the teaching of new, as they deal with the moments in which the person/peoples have applied that which is known already. The events serve to reinforce social relationships as much as they serve as reminders of belonging and allow for a management and introduction of social relationships for different age groups as one who takes part in them not does so with different age groups at once, but by being of different age groups within the same type of performance in their lifetimes.

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An oral narrative performance in a traditional African setting is normally a very lively event. There is constant interaction between narrator and audience, with the latter responding emotionally and sometimes challenging the choices – of details and moves – made by the former at appropriate points of the performance. In turn, the narrator is driven to adopt various paralinguistic techniques – dramatic, and kinaesthetic, among others – to supplement the narrative text of the tale and thus record an intricate artistic achievement (Okpewho, 2009).

The more undefined forms of performance, those of everyday happenings, will be the next point of discussion when speaking on performance in definition. These “performances” will include the unrestricted interactions that happen outside of formal events, some of which hare traditions as they are widely done but are not events that are included when we speak of social gatherings. The actors in the performances are those that have a more intimate relationship with each other, which ranges from family to friends to neighbours, were the performance happens more out of opportunity and circumstance. These moments are not restricted to having prescribed space unlike the formerly mentioned celebrations.

In these performances, values, rules, and obligations area communicated and debated by members who are custodians by familial or exposure ties. When a mother scolds a child, a grandfather tells his son an African mythological tale, when a neighbour sends a child to the shop, or an elder asks of the whereabouts of a neighbour’s lover, where a gardener delivers excess vegetables to a disabled neighbour, are all examples that happen constantly in the context of African households. These performances form part of the collection of everyday performances that harbour African knowledge systems which tend to be contextualised far more to the time and place of those who experience them. This gives them the wide variation, and in cases lack of applicability when removed from the contexts they are taking place in.

African knowledge systems run primarily in these two forms of performances, those that are social and have known and defined custodians, and those that are overlook, with variations and applications related to the closer social ties of the people who partake in them. They formulate the way of life that African follow, and in turn the identities that they carry within them as “Africans”.

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Figure 18: African performances

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4.3.

Autoethnography Part 4.

Begin, As we Gqeberha, 2012 The one who was no longer a boy, yet who was not yet a man, sat on a floor rug with his back against the wall. He was naked under the warm woollen blanket that he wrapped around him, his body clean from the recent wash done by the women who were closest to him. He was not sitting alone. He was one of a trio, with a brother a month younger and a cousin a year younger, who were sitting with him. They were in a flatlet, one window and one door the only openings in the 16 square meter room. The room was filled with more than 20 men, a collection of young to middle-aged men who had yet to take the step into marriagehood. The loud buzz of alcohol-filled conversation accompanied the reconnecting and philosophising that this point of the ritual needed.

It was morning, and the ‘in-betweeners’ (Amakrwala) had spent the entire night awake as was required of them. They had walked quite a long distance in the early hours of the morning. They found themselves there at their grandfather’s place, the last place they were before they had been taken to the mountain.

There was a gathering outside, the spaces around the home filled by family, friends, and community members.

The conversations cut off as a man with greying hair walked into the room, looking around at those in the small space. He walked to stand in front of the three ‘inbetweeners’ looking in the face of each of the three in turn. “It is time,” he looked around before walking out the room, followed by the men who had gathered, each glancing at the sitting figures before exiting – those who stayed waited. The in-betweener stood first as the oldest of the three and walked out with a traditional wooden walking cane in hand. There was silence outside, yet the narrow spaces of the plot were filled with men sitting on benches. They sat wrapping around the entire front and sides of the house, spilling over from the front yard.

The in-betweener was both nervous and excited. He had prepared and had been prepared for all this. He walked until he found himself walking out onto the front yard and sat nearest the totem marking the place of speaking. The others followed, seating themselves in a sequence of age on the grass.

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The front yard was full of wrinkled faces with greyed hair, a collection of fathers, husbands, and grandfathers, all the older men of the family and close community.

A figure stood by close to the totem, waiting. It was their granduncle. He would be the speaker and would lead the rituals. He stood waiting for all those who could fill the front yard, men finding any available open area to sit in, whether chairs or paved walkway or grass.

When the area was filled to his satisfaction, he turned to the three ‘in-betweeners’.

He began to speak. He spoke of he who was, who they were, and who their father was. He spoke of family, community, tribe, and clan. He spoke of truth, growth, change, and achievement. He spoke of rights, roles, responsibility, and accountability. He spoke of ancestors, a beginning, an end, and of the journey. He spoke, and the ‘in-betweeners’ listened, as they were taught and warned to do.

This speaking was the wisdom of an entire people they had to remember, so they sat, watching and listening. When the man was done speaking, he introduced another to take his place. That man he introduced stood, walking to stand at the place of speaking, the father of the ‘in-betweeners’. He spoke. Many others followed. Almost all who had begun the journey of manhood and were walking the journey of manhood spoke, and the seated figures listened. Some came and knelt in front of the figures, most placing money into a dish placed there, supporting the beginning of the journey.

The ‘in-betweeners’ had given away all things they owned before heading to the mountains. They had nothing to their name but themselves and a blanket, cane, and animal skin.

The man who had begun the speaking stood and closed the ceremony, his voice echoing at the end. The women who had stood at the peripherals and those who were busy in the house preparing the feast stopped their activities. The eldest aunt of the ‘in-betweeners’ began a loud ululation, and all the other women who could hear joined her. The ululations spread to homes of people who had not come to the celebrations and spread throughout the neighbourhood in celebration. The ‘in-betweeners’’ father sat looking at the three figures, tears streaming down his face while smiling. The one who was no longer a boy was finally a man.

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Figure 19: Map 2012

40 4.5.

Autoethnography Part 5.

Voice, Hear my Cape Town, 2013 The man walked down the semi bustling streets of the University of Cape Town. It was a Friday, and the vehicle traffic was semi-busy with those heading to the city.

He came from his student residence room as a member of College House. He had recently gone to eat dinner at the dining hall and had followed with the second shower for the day. Cleanliness was a requirement of those who walked the journey of manhood. He was dressed formally, the standard and only form of dress for those four months out on the mountain. He wore an earth-tone suit with matching leather accessories and a cap.

It was late evening, and the streetlamps were on, the autumn winds strong currently. He was excited for what would follow. It was one of the few things that still gave him that feeling these days. He had missed his morning lecture intentionally due to an internal struggle he was having. He came here fully intending to pursue a civil engineering career yet dealt with doubts about his path.

One night, the doubts had begun when he had run into one of his fellow college boys while taking a study break. They had spoken in the residence kitchen, and he had followed the student to his room to see his work. His peer was studying Architecture, and an hour later, the man had left amazed that he had missed such a thing. The effects of that conversation cascaded into a landslide that had him missing lectures and assignments, attending lectures in a course in which he was now interested. He thought he had everything in a perfect balance. He would be proved wrong later. He had not yet realised how slippery that slope was.

Right now, he was heading to the only respite he had from those feelings of being lost coming from his academic career. He turned the corner, heading to the park at the centre of the residences in the area. Here trees and streetlights created a romantic ambience of which a few students took advantage. He found his group at the same tree they always met at, a collection of students of various ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds. There were seven of them, mostly women, mostly Africans, who came together every Friday. He had met them through a peer who no longer attended the course. He whispered his greeting as he sat down, folding his blazer onto his lap, placing the blanket he had received after his journey to the mountain. The man who played the guitar could be called the leader if there was a hierarchy here. He was an art student, travelling from the University of Cape Town Hiddingh Campus to the main campus just for this. The group sat listening to him play the background music of a song he had performed in Baxter Hall. When he ended the melody, all the attendees turned to look at the man in his suit.

He had expected this, as today was the day he had agreed to perform for the first time. He had agonised over the piece he would perform, which he had titled Lost.

After a slight hesitation, he stood and began to speak. He spoke of being a dual cultural Xhosa in a diverse city, of only knowing strangers, moving, of a new masculinity, spoke of love, paths, expectations, time, and possibility. He wove his fears, pain, and trauma into words for strangers to hear. For that space of time spanning the one poem that he recited in the company of other artists, he belonged.

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Figure 20: Map 2013

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4.6. Case Study 2 Project: New Artist Residency Location: Senegal Architect/s: Toshiko Mori

Figure 21: New artist residency analysis (adapted from Mori, 2015) By focusing on the space for performance at its centre, this cultural centre building presents African forms of expression as the main attraction. The performance space in is not overtly designed or made into an exterior auditorium and is instead is a simple platform defined by an opening in the roof. This roof flows from earth to earth and is designed to collect rainfall and not simply be a form for decoration. The roof uses available technologies to generate resources through rainwater collection.

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4.7.

Concept 4

Activity, Finding the right The second prototype is the step seen in Figure 22 and is a building form that is not related to the context and surrounding buildings. A circular building form (resembling an African hut) occupies most of the building site. The form is three storeys high, displaying a similar form language to the contemporary examples and the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in Figure 36. By intention, this form does not conform to the rectilinear modernist era colonial forms often found in Pretoria.

Figure 22: Concept 2 exploration

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4.8.

Concept 5

Catering for Performances Performance spaces tend to differ according to their use. African performances typically take place in an exterior spaces and have a large degree of variation in spatial needs; the space should be flexible enough to accommodate all the performances’ forms. Figure 23 shows an exploration of multiple concepts of spaces that can house African performances and rituals.

Figure 23: Performance as a form definer

5

. IDENTITY, WHAT IS OUR.

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Chapter 5 5.1.

Introduction

This chapter deals with the African identity, site and building typologies, forms related to identity, and the activities of African people in a site context.

5.2.

Literature Review 6

Today, Who we are.

The contemporary identity of Africans, most commonly the Bantu Africans, in South African cities often reflects the dualism that has been brought about by colonisation. This dualism, specifically its cultural aspects, is due to the mixture of Western and Indigenous lifestyles and exposures.

Whether they have come from the townships or a transnational Bantu migrant from neighbouring African countries, the young African often experiences a reality that is composed of their familial African culture and the Western common ground culture serving as a basis for communication. Religion often plays a prominent role in this, bridging different cultures through the commonalities of language and lifestyles that beliefs systems such as Christianity can bring. This bridging is true for other social cultures such as music, entertainment, and education.

The contemporary African is both an indigenous African and a Westernised consumer, and within the context of South African cities, they can be conflict that comes from the mixture of those with strong indigenous identities and those who have had very little indigenous culture exposure. This separation, and the trauma that is a part of it, is one of the areas of urban living that influences the forms of healings that city dwellers choose.

Those who are more strongly aligned with their indigenous roots will often choose the traditional healer. On the other hand, those with more western sensibilities and beliefs will use Western healing techniques and resources. This identity-based phenomenon brings into question the availability and accessibility of those healing services in the city. Furthermore, in cases where they are available, who are the people who practice and supply them are.

The African identity that is dual is carried by any African in the city who has its characteristics, but like all forms of identity has those amongst them who are given more credit to housing its African half’s more than others. These people, who can also be dual Africans themselves, are members of a group of people who practices African traditions and techniques and through them have the role of custodians of new and old African identities.

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Figure 24: Origin of the Bantu people (adapted from Sun, 2017)

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Figure 25: City typology relation

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Figure 26: Neighbourhood typology placement

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5.3.

Autoethnography Part 6.

Change, time, and gravel roads. Mabopane, 2003 The car created a path in the brown-red sand as the boy pushed it through, forming a raceway for the other cars to follow. To be accurate, it was not a car. It was a perforated brick that had been broken into two while being transported to a home-renovation site. An RDP four-room house was being extended into a family home. Like the other kids in the street, the boy had taken this one as his own, the half-circle shapes resembling seats in the bricks’ forms. He was alone in the street.

His older brother was indoors playing on the PlayStation console their mother had bought them. The boy in the sand was barefoot. Barefoot is a commonality of township life, with feet hardening against the gravel roads where he now walked.

He had moved from a suburban home and travelled to a foreign place where everyone spoke a language he did not know. He was an outsider here, mannerisms and mindset as foreign to this place as a boy who spoke English or isiXhosa.

A group of boys came running out of a house two plots up the street, bare feet consuming gravel. One of the boys peeled off, swerving from the hard-packed part of the street into the stone-filled sand that the boy was playing in. The running boy jumped up and down, waving in a way that meant ‘follow’ to the boy in the sand. The running boy said, “Ey, English. Let us go. The big boys are playing a soccer tournament by the hills. Let us go.” The boy in the sand took the cars one by one and threw them over the wall to his grandmother’s house. He peeled off running, following the boy on their barefooted adventure. They rarely invited him to play these days, the novelty of his foreignness falling away as they realised he did not understand the norms of the context in which he found himself. They ran for what was to them two shifts of the sun, or about an hour or so.

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They crested the first hill that faced The C where they lived to find almost an uncountable number of people in the open sand area where the older guys played soccer. There must have been boys from C, X, YY, F, and even the E areas.

Four games were being played, and the boys sat on the crest of the hill to watch.

With its height (about an adult’s head height), they could see almost everything.

Here in this place on a Friday, it did not matter what area you were from or what gang had issues with what. Everyone played soccer or gambled on the game results on the side. Older men were carrying sticks and eating sugar cane, ensuring the older boys did not bully the younger ones. Some men are too old or injured to work and live with their families, and their wives spend weeks away from home as domestic workers in the city or distant suburban white areas.

The boys sat there watching until it was time to go back and the sun was setting towards the western sky. If they got back when the lights were off, they would get beaten. Judging by where the sun was, they might barely make it. They ran while mimicking the moves that they had seen on the field. The moves were unique to the Diski form of soccer, where showmanship was just as important as goals. He belonged there for that moment, communicating with his body and emotions rather than the words that only he could understand. As they turned into the street, they saw women calling for their kids by every door, saying it was suppertime. The boy was being called by his older brother, sent by his uncle. His grandmother and mother both worked in the city, rarely coming home. He was a township kid not by language or culture but by the shared lifestyle that all who called this area home.

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Figure 27: Map 1, 2003

Figure 28: Map,2 2003

53 5.4.

Autoethnography Part 7.

The Art of Belonging. Pretoria, 2009.

“You do not belong here. Why don’t you go home?” the gold-toothed boy asked the boy. The question was rhetorical. A dialogue of rhetoric that gave the assailants the confidence to promote whatever violence that would follow. “Do not talk to me like we are friends.” The boy replied, pushing his way through the group of five surrounding him. He was on his way from the tuckshop, a sandwich in his hands, his bag left where his group of friends were sitting.” We’ll find you after school.” The boy ignored them, walking around the brick tuckshop building and walking across the grass field that most of the school kids sat at during break. His friends sat by a concrete table, one of the four available seating areas here, able to keep it due to the group of friends’ numbers and reputation. He arrived and sat, joining them in watching the senior students do flips and dance on the grass. The senior group they were watching were known as the hip hop group and often were found doing such performances during break times. “Are we going to State later?” A light-skinned African boy with cornrows asked the group in general.

“Yeah, it is Friday.” a dark-skinned boy of central African descent replied. They sat chatting about the happenings that would be a part of their Friday afternoon.

School ended as it always did, a group of five boys walking their way from their high school to the city centre, towards the State Theatre as was their plan.

Many students walked in the same direction since the “Hip Hop Heads” had joined the march. They arrived 30 minutes later at the square in front of the building; a crowd gathered four different school uniformed high school kids. They were brought here by the same culture, belonging to those who followed American hip hop. It was 2008 now, the rise of commercial Hip Hop lesser to the underground artists, the digital age belonging to those who could afford the devices needed to access it. In the middle of the circle, the senior boys they had been watching had made a half circle in their red and black uniforms, the other side held by a halfcircle of navy blue. The energy was palpable, the groups of boys finding any position that would give them a view of the centre of the fast-growing circle. A red and black-uniformed boy who had repurposed his school briefcase into a speaker, a result of him applying his electrical technology education, placed it onto the floor in the centre of the circle. He connected an mp3 player and took a few minutes looking for a beat. He nodded, and one boy from each group stepped forward, eyeing each other down. There were adults around who were barely paying attention in most cases, walking their way to their transport home, or attending to the stalls they were vending from. This was the practice of a rebellious youth to their eyes, not a moment of connection that bound boys from different ethnicities, cultural backgrounds in a celebration of a single art. The beat began, and in a few seconds, a group of close to a hundred kids nodded their heads their beats to a lyric-less rhythm, a few raising their hands and moving them to the beat.

The conductor with the briefcase nodded to the boy with the navy-blue jacket, and the boy began his freestyle. The boy who had walked here with his friends closed his eyes, his head bopping focusing his attention to hear through the city noise. I belong here, no matter what you think. He lost himself to the art.

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Figure 29: Map 1,2,3, 2009

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5.5.

Concept 6

Whole, Identity as a.

Figure 30: Culmination of experience

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5.6.

Mapping 3

Who, Understanding the Around this neighbourhood, a dense village-like community filled with various people. One cannot help but observe a diverse mixture of groups. These diverse groups of people are formed primarily from Bantu people: the Nguni, Batswana, Basotho people who own and use the restaurants in the area, the Somalian and Kenyan entrepreneurs who own small retail shops and bars, the Shona people hailing from Zimbabwe who are the primary street vendors, and the West African groups primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo who are the most common consumers of the services and inhabitants of the available open public spaces. Figure 31 shows the flags of the prominent ethnic groups.

There is a constant vibrancy due to the context’s activities: places to eat, buy food and necessities, cut hair, wash cars, and drink. In addition, Sunnyside is a village in which the different migrant groups have taken responsibility for services, such as the small-scale retail shops run by the Somalians mentioned above, which are a part of the local village community in the site area.

Figure 31: Ethnic groups

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Figure 32: Neighbourhood context

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Figure 33: Neighbourhood context activities

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Figure 34: Site context

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Figure 35: Site context sketches 1

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Figure 36: Site context sketches 2

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5.7.

Case study 3

Project: Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre Location: Mpumalanga, South Africa Architect/s: Peter Rich Architects Using true poetics of spatial organisation that complement African beliefs, this cultural centre explores how indigenous building forms can be developed to house African activities better. The cultural centre considers the highly successful intimacy gradients that pre-colonial African architecture used to create places where the various forms of interaction may take place, whether with close relatives or community. Figure 37 shows the analysis of these buildings elements.

Figure 37: Mapungubwe analysis (adapted from Peter Rich Architects, 2010)

6

. MEDIUM, THE LIMITS OF.

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Chapter 6 6.1.

Introduction

This chapter explores the roles of the custodians of African identity and the mediums in which the indigenous knowledge systems are harboured. The chapter explores the limitations and opportunities the techniques and mediums have as well.

6.2.

Literature Review 7

Translation, The woes of There lies an issue of dissolution of the African spirit. Not as a spiritual entity but as a vessel in which all who identify as African can find healing and purpose. Education among African people was primarily taught through what would be referred to as the spoken word. This idea propagates a warped idea of what it means to learn as an African through an unsuccessful simplification of mediums. Yes, most Africans had, during the colonial era, had not built an extensive library of physical texts or records of their beliefs to be easily accessed by all. However, the African wealth of knowledge never needed to be recorded in that way in the first place.

The full extent of knowledge can only be communicated through the intricate weaving of the spoken word, the spaces of rituals and celebration, and the uninterrupted social immersion over a lifetime. Using all the available senses and a library of storytelling that was and is distilled by application. The African passes on their knowledge. The method of passing on knowledge that Africans use makes the knowledge more resilient. This effect is due to constant revision and contextualising as it is communicated in the present. Knowledge is not a book written a hundred years prior, but a story first told thousands of years before, retold through the voices and experiences of those living. Retold through the experiences of the individual, family, community, and people. Retold through the connected story of Africanism and formulated into a knowledge base that can be taught to the next generation. This education is as flexible and relevant as the stories of those who live in them, for time is the tool it uses to propagate and evolve itself for those to whom it is taught.

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[Knowledge] is unable to account for those aspects of literature that differ from the western tradition – elements such as the lack of character delineation, the African conception of time, the ‘loose’ narrative structures, and other features of the traditional verbal art (Iyasere, 1975: 108).

[T]he African writer must somehow meet the impossible task of adapting the language of a foreign culture to the expression of his native inheritance (Iyasere, 1975: 111).

The language of modern African literature, whether written in English, French or Portuguese, is peculiarly African (Ojaide, 1992: 43).

The quotes reflect how the African must meet a struggle for self-representation and expression in this world with western languages at the forefront of academia, especially in Africa. Some place themselves in the in-between to do justice to Africa yet still use the medium others can understand. One example is an African writer who reads as follows: It was the day’s end and Okolo by the window stood. Okolo stood looking at the sun behind the treetops falling. The river was flowing, reflecting the finishing sun, like a dying away memory. It was like an idol’s face, no one knowing what is behind (Okara, 1975:19).

It must also be mentioned that so far, the discussion has centred around translating African knowledge systems into Western languages. However, there exist forms of graphical symbolic representation within the South African indigenous systems that yad yet to be so widely adopted as to call them language which were used as a form of written record and expression. Figure 39 shows one such example.

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Figure 38: Isibheqe Sohlamvu, a South African written language

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6.3.

Literature Review 8

Mediums, The desire for new.

There are very few forms of inclusion that are as socially effective as discussion.

Discussion is the opportunity to be heard and speak that give value to interactions.

When a person is allowed to teach, they value the people they teach and who allow/request their teaching. When a person is held responsible for listening, they are taught that the people around them have value as much value as they have.

This manifestation of Ubuntu, ‘to be a person’, in which the members of a family, group, or community participate in its formation, continuation, and evolution, solidifying social ties. Through the voice, members of the group attain wisdom and are taught of their significance. (Where the voice medium is not available, the teaching is through a mediator and translated for those disabled people.) The social norm of discussion applies to all forms of African ritual or social interaction.

No matter who one is, one has the social obligation to do both speaking and listening, which is how the community maintains itself.

If one ever finds oneself located in or close in the cabals of educated young Africans as they discuss the people, nation, and world, then these cabals often form in urban city spaces and have part of their legacy in the traditions that exist in African community partitioning. The most repeating forms of social interactions are questions on who has written the book, where the author is from, and where the speakers can find it.

There is a movement where the black African no longer wants to read westernised publications on the world and its histories and instead has a thirst for literature from Africans. Due to the scarcity of African content on the everyday digital platforms (a case for cultural exclusion in these platforms can be argued), word of mouth plays a much more significant role in spreading such texts when compared to digital searches.

Thus, there exists the requirement of fusion between the informality of oral teaching and the structure of written literature. This state of fusion means that as this knowledge is being brought into focus by those it serves – the young and old digital members. There might be a movement from purely written translation to the recording of voice through the now-available digital methods that have become more common. This fusion is challenging to achieve. However, the privileged South African has arrived in an era of digital convenience where they can easily record and download information in its primary witnessed form. The question then is not which of the two primary education mediums (oral and written) are preferred, but what medium will be used to carry information in the first place. If the privileged South African can record everything as it happens through the lens of a smartphone, why separate the recording onto a transportation medium in the first place.

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6.4.

Literature Review 9

Community, The custodians of the.

If one goes beyond the age of 50, one finds a group of individuals who have spent their lives working labour jobs such as gardening and mining. One finds individuals who cannot speak the English language, which is the primary language of education in post-apartheid South Africa. These individuals have an infinite amount of life experience to communicate yet lack any such skill to record the experience in written literature. They often do not desire to be recorded in any medium, preferring face-to-face oral interaction. It is a fact that African indigenous knowledge of days past exists primarily in people who experienced it or were taught it through word of mouth.

From birth, many Africans are socialised to be part of a family and community, with rituals, songs, proverbs, fables and religious ceremonies playing a major role and passed on to succeeding generations through a predominantly oral history (Ross, 2010:45).

The aged members of African communities have always played the role of teachers. It is common for them to live in or spend extended amounts of time visiting their children’s homes, even throughout their adulthood. This tradition facilitates the interaction between the young grandchildren and the old. As the parents go to their places of employment, the children spend their days playing under the scrutiny of the elders. The elders act as mediators and educators of good social conduct, stepping in when they see a need in the children’s social interactions. As this is a tradition found as a community structure, whether the young children are on the boundaries of their homes, the street, or in the homes of others, there are always elders supervising, talking with the young children and communicating their acquired life experience distilled into wisdom. Through the elders’ acquired experience and the community system they were also taught under, they develop their knowledge base. They have tested this knowledge base during their lives, and they have the benefit of experimentation in choosing which of the lessons are applicable and relevant. This means that the relevance of the wisdom of the community is maintained through being applied by its members.

The elders often act as translators between the child who is still innocent and is beginning to learn, and the parent who has some experience yet still needs guidance. This helps facilitate a better relationship between the child and parent.

Indigenous institutions of knowledge production, conservation, and sharing such as initiation schools, indigenous games, agricultural systems, dances and songs, storytelling, proverbs, et cetera, remain pillars of indigenous African ways of knowing. The wealth of knowledge that still exists among the elders and other knowledge holders in local African communities demonstrates the vibrant intellectualism to which African researchers and intellectuals should turn (Kaya, 2014:33).

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Figure 39: Elders as vessels of wisdom

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6.4.

Autoethnography Part 8.

A community of brothers. Gqeberha,1999 He clenches his fists at his sides, his heartbeat quickening. The hands on his shoulders hold him back; unnecessary although unknown to the person holding him. He abhors the violence in which he knows he will be involved. Across him, another boy his age mirrors him, fists clenched, fear in his eyes. A man standing beside the two speaks. “If you cannot decide who is going to go to the shop, you will have to do it the other way. You have to learn how to compromise and reach agreements or have the courage to stand behind your decision.” Most people would be surprised at who would walk the 100m to buy a loaf of bread when the conflict was over, yet in the world of manhood in Xhosa culture, those who are younger in their journey in manhood are those who are sent on errands. “Why are you angry? Why are you scared? You both chose this.” The man continues.

The man behind me moves his right hand off my shoulder, pointing it at the boy in front of me. “He refused to compromise, to do his duty, and chose violence. You chose to hold your ground and not let him bully you. Now you must fight.

Remember. You do not hit the face, do not bite, do not use weapons, and you wrestle.” The winner would not be decided by who pins who, but by some other method. The three men surrounding us used a method to determine the winner that we kids did not understand. The men moved the other kids out the way. An aunt of ours sits by the front door watching in silence. “Now, you fight.” The man declares.

The fight did not last long. The kid I was wrestling was a year older than I was and heavier besides. We fought the minute they let us go. We were animals forced to learn control. He made the mistake of holding my arm behind my back, pain lancing up my shoulder. I reacted immediately, shooting my head backwards and hitting his left eye. He screamed and let go. I was pinned to the floor a few seconds later, a knee on my back. “No hitting the face. You, hold him.” One of the boy’s friends came to hold me. The man went to the other two and talked for a minute, walking back to me afterwards and nodding his head. “You are both sitting next to each other and watching everyone else play.” He pointed at me.

“You still fight with anger and fear. Control your emotions.” He pointed at my foe.

“You chose violence when you should have fulfilled your obligation. You are still a child using your fists to solve problems.” He leaned against the fence. “No soccer, and no TV. You will sit and watch them play soccer until I tell you. You are brothers.

We all are. And you will learn to act and treat each other properly,” said the man.

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This man was not related by blood to any of us. Neither were most of the people here. The only family was my half-brother, who was my age, and my cousin a year younger than we were. Complaining to anyone else would not help. Here in the township, we are all one family. Anyone is allowed to uphold and enforce the rules to anyone, as these rules apply to every household. If you refuse that your kids would be held accountable on the street, then the streets would not take care of them. Kids were not hurt on the street. They were hurt by alcoholic parents and sexually abused by relatives behind closed doors where no one knew. Everyone found out when the perpetrators were beaten on the street.

I sat next to the boy I had fought against the wall that belonged to the home two plots down. The other kids put out stones to make the soccer goals that would be used for soccer, and the ball was taken down from the ‘danger box’, a 10x10 meter brick substation building for the area.

The young man was the oldest man around today, thus making him the leader and he climbed the danger box in seconds. He found the enclave where the neighbourhood soccer balls were stored in a place too high for the kids to steal the balls. My partner and I sat in silence until the men called us. The older boys put us into a team and told us to play two versus two diski games from then on, us always on the same team. One of the other kids was already back from being sent to buy the bread in our place, a silver one-rand coin in his pocket as a reward.

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Figure 40: Map 1991

73 6.5.

Concept 7

The third exploration The third and further explored intervention married the two forms described above as shown in Figure 41.

The intervention is a single storey collection of buildings, where circular forms are used to support the spaces, enclosing and focusing on allocating spaces for meditation and contemplation required for the social healing journey.

The buildings meld both the linear and circular forms in the plan, section, and the 3D form to create a defensible collection of structures enclosed by a boundary wall, offering a social healing spatial journey. The buildings have most spaces on the ground floor to maintain some relationship with the earth, where the user is always in contact with the earth as a spiritual element. When a user is taken above the earth through elevation, it is to celebrate the following: the objects one has created or the memories a person has access to that teach them about their connection to the natural elements and to their purpose as recorded by the star map of the individual’s birth chart.

Figure 41: Final concept exploration

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Figure 42: Final concept plan rendition

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Figure 43: Final concept section exploration

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Figure 44: Final concept final sketch exploration

7

. OBJECT, FROM WORLD TO PERSON TO.

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Chapter 7 7.1.

Introduction

This chapter deals with the channelling of spiritual beliefs that relate to materials used for creating objects and built forms including technical explorations.

7.2. Material Exploration 7.3.

Literature Review 10

Crafting, Learning through To form any physical object, one must go through the rigorous process of making it. This allows for a better exploration of how this object may function. This needs to be done as often as possible. Most of all, the art of making, of craft, is one of the few crafts that some Africans use to express themselves and earn a living. It is a form of exploration – a fundamental skill that Africans retain from their past.

To make any piece of architecture, one must choose material and a method. To make African architecture (Architecture made by Africans for Africans using African Indigenous knowledge systems), one must select materials that relate to the user’s beliefs as vehicles for representation, have significance to the user through memory, and promote sustainable living in line with Ubuntu beliefs and cultural practices. The fundamental elements are earth, wind, water, fire, and earth, which are the fabric that Africans and humans mould and transform to form their safe environments. Of the five, none serve permanence as much as earth. So, if one must build an African intervention, one must design and build to use as much earth in close to its purest form.

The exploration of this material and the freedom and restrictions was explored using clay bricks and stone. This allows for sourcing material in situ and adequately communicating the connection that this intervention has with the cultures it aims to house.

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Figure 45: The African maker

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Figure 46: African rituals

81 7.4.

Concept 8

Making, Designing through

Figure 47: Initial location of traditional kitchen

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Figure 48: Typology and envelope exploration

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Figure 49: Initial structural concept model

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Figure 50: Initial structure detail sketches

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Figure 51: Detailed structural exploration

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Figure 52: Material specifications

8

. WHOLE, TURNING A PART INTO A.

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Chapter 8 8.1.

Introduction

This chapter contains the first iteration of the proposal as it was formed through the material and method exploration done in the previous chapter.

8.2.

Technical Resolution

Figure 53: Technical resolution plan

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Figure 54: Traditional kitchen section

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Figure 55: Longitudinal site section

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Figure 56: Clay workshop plan

Figure 57: Clay workshop section

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Figure 58: Brick edge details

Figure 59: Long site elevation

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• • • • • • • •

Programme

Performance platform Administration block Restaurant Consultation rooms Digital library Residential quarters Clay workshop Greenhouse.

9

9.1.

. BE, A PLACE TO.

Figure 60: African placemaking

94 Chapter 9 9.2.

Introduction

This chapter shows the final resolution and how it meets the project aim through the designed spaces.

9.3.

The Intervention

Figure 61: Bird's eye view

95 9.4.

Travelled

The intervention contains a primary path one can walk to have the user experience the intervention as a journey through healing using African social practices and exposure. This is to pay homage to the multiple layers of metaphor and intent encompassed in the spaces. It is a sequence, with the spaces laid out so that the user, whether looking for healing or simply to experience African social practices, can be guided by the built form and those who are custodians of it through the journey. This also speaks to the temporal elements of African beliefs, life is a journey that one must walk, chosen by self, guided by the past, to better the present, and fulfil the purpose that defines one’s future.

The dominant path through the site caters for two types of users of the site. The first user would be the seeker, who requires social healing and thus needs to access the spaces and people who will guide them through this process. The second user would be the ‘Explorer’, who was brought by curiosity to experience the spaces that allow them to bear witness. These users will tread upon the same ground, the main difference being their exposure to different guides.

This path challenges the exclusion that is apparent in all post-apartheid cities and spaces. It has no stairs. Vertical movement is done through ramps for universal access while still maintaining the path’s nature as a path. In addition, all forms of transitions are placed by using guides to facilitate movement to avoid confusing the user.

Figure 62: Segment of ground floor

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9.5.

Guided

To begin the journey, the users find themselves in the building of guidance or administrative block. They will enter an atrium after seeing a glimpse of the African performance space through a perforated brick facade. The users will meet the first guide, who will identify whether one is a seeker or explorer. If a seeker, their information will be recorded, and if they are an explorer, they will be informed of where the next part of their journey will be. In the centre of this building, a centrepiece of art encompasses the purpose of the intervention as a vehicle of healing that both seekers and explorers will have to walk around and see before moving forward.

Figure 63: Guided eye-level experience

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9.6.

Witnessed

From both the street edge of the village and the building of guidance, the most visible space is Witnessed. Africans can hold their ceremonies and performances in this performance space. When it is used, it is vibrant; when empty, it holds the quality of spiritual significance, looking towards the sky, held by the earth.

Figure 64: Witnessed eye-level experience

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9.7.

Transformed

In the ‘Transformed’ the explorer has an opportunity to experience African culture through food, as cultural product, in the restaurant. This building overlooks the ‘Witnessed’: eating as a social activity is one of the primary forms of interaction in any form of gathering and performance. This building houses the traditional kitchen, in which the custodians of the space work in a group to cook as Africans do. They do not work alone but as a unit, manipulating the naturally found elements to turn them into something that people can enjoy.

Here the explorer is but an unconscious partaker in the African culture; they are placed into the hands of the healed seeker as they reach the final step in the journey. The seeker would have passed this place in their journey for another place is required as their next step.

Figure 65: Transformed eye-level experience

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9.8.

Exposed

Exposed is for the seeker and is the second step in their path of healing. First, however, they will pass through an entrance shared with the explorer and where the guide separates them. The spaces found at the ground floor level of the building belong to the Exposed. Next, the seeker meets the diviners, who are experts on healing having mastered Western, traditional, psychological, and spiritual forms of healing. Here through the discernment of the diviner, the user is educated on what it means to pursue meaning, who they are, and what that journey will mean for them.

Figure 66: Exposed eye-level experience

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9.9.

Remembered

The place of recollection is named Remembered and is found on the first floor.

Here on their shared third step, the seeker and explorer may view African performances as they are recorded. Not as written or audio literature, but through Virtual Reality (VR) technology, whereby the person is placed in the performance and ceremony through VR capsules. Here an African historian acts as a custodian and guides the user to their history, if they are a seeker, or any history if they are an explorer. The spaces here offer visitors an opportunity to experience the performances with high immersion, as they take place in ‘Witnessed’, viewed from balconies. This connects the users to both their past and present.

Figure 67: Remembered eye-level experience

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9.10. Isolated The seeker then moves to the place of isolation in Isolated. Here they are brought into the place most cradled by the Earth in which they will share their journey with other seekers while being guided by the custodians. Here the elders dwell, and they play the role of storytellers and social facilitators. There is a shared courtyard for all and isolated gardens for individuals whose access is shared with the custodians. Here the seeker dwells as they constantly exposed to the diviners, the historians, the elders, and other seekers. The seeker will also meet the next group of custodians the makers, the gardeners, and the transformers.

Figure 68: Isolated eye-level experience

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9.11. Created The seeker will have access to the place of creation named the ‘Created’. Here they have access to a clay workshop, where they can take the thoughts and lessons taught and manifest them through the art of making. The seeker will be guided by a clay artisan, who is the custodian and part of the healers.

Occasionally, this process will be shown to the explorers, with the custodian acting as the barrier so the explorer cannot interfere with the crafts.

Figure 69: Created eye-level experience

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9.12. Displayed Here the seekers and explorers meet once more, the seeker at their seventh step, the explorer at their fifth. The seeker displays objects they have made to sell to the explorers. This interaction serves as the first step of reintroduction to the social network after being in isolation. The explorer again partakes in African culture in its contemporary renditions, and the seeker realises the value in their African voice.

Figure 70: Displayed eye-level experience

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9.13. Nurtured When the relevant custodians agree to it, the seeker moves to their eighth step, the place of nurturing in Nurtured. Here the seeker meets the gardener in the greenhouse where the vegetables and fruits are grown. The seeker moves from being under a custodian to interacting with an object and then to nurturing life.

Here they have the responsibility to nurture a living part of the world that is used in the place of transformation, the traditional kitchen in Transformed. This journey reintroduces the seeker to social contribution outside of themselves.

After this step, the seeker then moves to the area of transformation in Transformed, where they will work hand in hand with the custodian while cooking and servicing the community as deliverers of food. This is the ninth part of their journey. As they are educated and healed, they will become a custodian of African knowledge and can participate in the rituals of the place of Witnessed before setting back into the world.

Figure 71: Nurtured eye-level experience

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Figure 72: Ground-floor plan

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Figure 73: First-floor plan

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Figure 74: Sections E, A, and F

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Figure 75: Sections B, C, and D

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Figure 76: Aerial bird’s-eye view

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10

. BEGINNING, CLOSING A.

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10.1 Conclusion The journey must close. The journey here ends that defines this research and the architectural intervention that aims to tell a story and guide a person through a healing journey.

To be African is perhaps one of the more obscure forms of identity in African cities, and it is more so in South African cities being one of the more modernised contexts in Africa. The Bantu identity contains the largest population groups in the South African city context yet lacks spaces that value their practices and traditions. These practices and traditions have had centuries’ worth of iterations to serve the people who practice them. In those practices, the often-quoted philosophy of Ubuntu is found. This philosophy contains the beliefs and traditions of community and togetherness used to heal the people who follow it. Individuals must foster good social health on all levels, no matter their background and wealth. These traditions are woven deeply into almost all social interactions.

This research has conceptualised how this social health and healing quality of African identity can be given form in the city, bringing to a realised form how the apartheid history and pre-colonial histories should be married. This marriage will address the traumas that have created the dissociation that Bantu Africans experience in South African cities. This research is a reminder of the past without placing it in a museum, a critique of the present segregation, and conceptualises a future where the Bantu Africans can call all parts of Africa home. This research does this through an architectural intervention that encompasses the social healing journey that is as contextual as it is symbolic.

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Archetti, E.P. (1998). Reviewed Work: Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social by Deborah E. Reed-Danahay. Anthropological Quarterly, 71(4), pp.215– 217.

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