1

PATTERNS OF AFRICA

STUDENT ESSAYS ON THE PATTERNS OF CO-HABITATION IN URBAN

SOUTH AFRICA

2

3

RUSSIA

SOUTH AFRICA

4

Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Studio «Another Place» Towards the New Patterns of (Co)habitation

Studio directors Anastassia Smirnova David Erixon

Studio tutor Kuba Snopek

Students Izabela Cichońska Varvara Degtiarenko Polina Filippova Margarita Googe Ondřej Janků Artem Kalashyan Anna Kaydanovskaya Filip Mayer

We would like to thank Ksenia Mardina and Rashiq Fataar (Future Cape Town) for all help in organizing the field trip.

We also would like to thank our experts, guides and other people who assisted us: Brian McKechnie, James Ball, Lone Poulsen, Sharon Lewis (JDA), Michael Luptak and Nickolaus Bauer (Dlala Nje), Kiki Doermann (WITS University), Thorsten Deckler (2610 South Architects), Alexander Opper (Marlboro South project), Dustin Tusnovics, Karina Landman (University of Pretoria), Jan Malan (Streetsafe security company), Rashiq Fataar (Future Cape Town), Michellene Williams (Future Cape Town), Edith Viljoen (Future Cape Town), Andrew Fleming (Cape Town Partnership), Ron Haiden (IRT), Yehuda Raff (Coordinator of the Fringe District), Liza Cirolia (African Centre for Cities), Tony Elvin, Vuyisa Qabaka, Leon Kamve.

© Strelka Education Programme, 2013

5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 Russia and South Africa:

Towards the New Patterns of (Co)habitation

8 Field Trip Program

10 Planning

18 (Self)governance

26 Social Housing

42 Gentrification

48 Local Community

60 Interventions

68 Gated Communities

74 Urban Decay

6

RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA: TOWARDS THE NEW PATTERNS OF

(CO)HABITATIONHow different is Moscow to Johannesburg or Cape Town? Can one compare places so dis-tant and different? What can we learn from

South Africa's biggest cities?

In search of a field trip location our intuition drove us as far as south-ern hemisphere. South African cities — drastically different to Moscow, share with her a vibrating energy of ongoing change. In both cases — remains of an ancien régime (USSR and Apartheid) overlap with the emerging new culture. Cities built in the previous era accomodate the new order, involuntarily becoming laboratories for change.

We visited a range of different locations: both lively and decaying neighborhoods, places subjected to gentrification and urban decay, poor townships and wealthy gated com-munities. We viewed and discussed urban projects of different scales and typologies: city development plans, architectural interventions, community projects. We met dozens of people, who actively shape the landscape of Cape Town and Jo'burg: architects and activists, community leaders and politicians, city planners, and private developers.

Tools of our blitz-research are more common for journalists

or detectives, than for architects: we observed, interviewed, photo-graphed, recorded. We visited a vari-ety of neighborhoods, entered apart-ments, talked to the locals.

From all places, projects and people we felt great energy of an ongoing transformation — a feeling so familiar for the dwellers of con-temporary Moscow. Under the sur-face of great differences — climatic, cultural, historical — we detected same regularities, which shape all contemporary megapolises. These new patterns of (co)habitation, iden-tified and named by the students, form chapters of this publication.

Kuba SnopekField trip coordinator,

«Another Place» studio tutor

7

Artificial landscape of Century City, biggest commercial center of Cape Town

Visit to Alexandra, Johannesburg. Meeting the local community.

8

Excursion to Lion’s Head mountain, Cape Town

Visit to the Lion Park, Johannesburg

9

Rooftop of one of the abandoned buildings in Johannesburg CBD

«Another Place» studio in Rand Club, Johannesburg

10

FIELD TRIP PROGRAM

JOHANNESBURGCurator: Ksenia Mardina

CAPE TOWNCurator: Rashiq Fataar, Future Cape Town

07.04SUNDAY

08.04MONDAY

09.04TUESDAY

10.04WEDNESDAY

11.04THURSDAY

12.04FRIDAY

13.04SATURDAY

14.04SUNDAY

REMAINS OF APARTHEID: VISIT TO THE RAND CLUBarchitect Brian McKechnie

URBAN DECAY, VISIT TO JOHAN-NESBURG CBDTour with James Ball

GENTRIFICA-TION, THE AFRI-CAN WAYTalk with Jona-than Liebmann, Founder and CEO of Maboneng Precinct

URBAN CHANGES BROUGHT BY APERTHEIDLecture by Lone Poulsen, GIFA

REBIRTH OF THE CENTER: VISIT TO BRAAM-FONTEIN NEIGHBORHOODTour with Ksenia Mardina, journalist

INITIATIVES OF JOHANNESBURG DEVELOPMENT AGENCYLecture by Sharon Lewis , JDA

MASSIVE URBAN CHANGES: PONTE TOWER AND HILLBROWTour and talk with Michael Luptak and Nickolaus Bauer, Dlala Nje

DINNER WITH TEACHERS & STUDENTS OF WITS

VISIT TO LION PARK

SANDTON – NEW MODEL FOR A BUSINESS CENTER?Tour with James Ball

URBAN INTERVEN-TIONS: MARL-BORO SOUTH EXHIBITIONLecture by Thor-sten Deckler, 2610 South Architects

EXPLORING TOWNSHIPS: MARLBORO SOUTHTour by Thorsten Deckler (2610 South Architects), Alexander Opper (Marlboro South project)

URBAN INTER-VENTIONS IN TOWNSHIPSTalk with archi-tects Dustin Tus-novics and Sarah Calburn

COMMUNITIES OF ALEXANDRA TOWNSHIPTour with Dustin Tusnovics

HISTORY OF GATED COMMU-NITIES IN SOUTH AFRICALecture of Karina Landman, Univer-sity of Pretoria

PRETORIA: GATED COM-MUNITY TYPOLOGIESTour with Jan Malan, Streetsafe security company

DISCOVERING CAPE TOWN CBDTour with Rashiq Fataar, Future Cape Town

SOCIAL HOUS-ING STRATEGIESLecture of Andrew Fleming, Cape Town Partnership

MYCITI INTE-GRATED RAPID BUS SERVICELecture by Ron Haiden, IRT

GENTRIFICA-TION: FRINGE NEIGHBORHOOD Tour with Yehuda Raff, Coordina-tor of the Fringe District

HISTORY OF HOUSING AND PLANNING IN CAPE TOWNLecture by Liza Cirolia, African Centre for Cities

DISCOVER-ING LANGA TOWNSHIPTour with Tony Elvin, Vuyisa Qabaka

MFULENI TOWNSHIPTour with Vuy-isa Qabaka, Leon Kamve

CENTURY CITYTour with Future Cape Town

LION’S HEAD MOUNTAINExcursion

BOULDERS BEACH PENGUIN COLONYExcursion

11

FIELD TRIP PROGRAM

JOHANNESBURGCurator: Ksenia Mardina

CAPE TOWNCurator: Rashiq Fataar, Future Cape Town

07.04SUNDAY

08.04MONDAY

09.04TUESDAY

10.04WEDNESDAY

11.04THURSDAY

12.04FRIDAY

13.04SATURDAY

14.04SUNDAY

REMAINS OF APARTHEID: VISIT TO THE RAND CLUBarchitect Brian McKechnie

URBAN DECAY, VISIT TO JOHAN-NESBURG CBDTour with James Ball

GENTRIFICA-TION, THE AFRI-CAN WAYTalk with Jona-than Liebmann, Founder and CEO of Maboneng Precinct

URBAN CHANGES BROUGHT BY APERTHEIDLecture by Lone Poulsen, GIFA

REBIRTH OF THE CENTER: VISIT TO BRAAM-FONTEIN NEIGHBORHOODTour with Ksenia Mardina, journalist

INITIATIVES OF JOHANNESBURG DEVELOPMENT AGENCYLecture by Sharon Lewis , JDA

MASSIVE URBAN CHANGES: PONTE TOWER AND HILLBROWTour and talk with Michael Luptak and Nickolaus Bauer, Dlala Nje

DINNER WITH TEACHERS & STUDENTS OF WITS

VISIT TO LION PARK

SANDTON – NEW MODEL FOR A BUSINESS CENTER?Tour with James Ball

URBAN INTERVEN-TIONS: MARL-BORO SOUTH EXHIBITIONLecture by Thor-sten Deckler, 2610 South Architects

EXPLORING TOWNSHIPS: MARLBORO SOUTHTour by Thorsten Deckler (2610 South Architects), Alexander Opper (Marlboro South project)

URBAN INTER-VENTIONS IN TOWNSHIPSTalk with archi-tects Dustin Tus-novics and Sarah Calburn

COMMUNITIES OF ALEXANDRA TOWNSHIPTour with Dustin Tusnovics

HISTORY OF GATED COMMU-NITIES IN SOUTH AFRICALecture of Karina Landman, Univer-sity of Pretoria

PRETORIA: GATED COM-MUNITY TYPOLOGIESTour with Jan Malan, Streetsafe security company

DISCOVERING CAPE TOWN CBDTour with Rashiq Fataar, Future Cape Town

SOCIAL HOUS-ING STRATEGIESLecture of Andrew Fleming, Cape Town Partnership

MYCITI INTE-GRATED RAPID BUS SERVICELecture by Ron Haiden, IRT

GENTRIFICA-TION: FRINGE NEIGHBORHOOD Tour with Yehuda Raff, Coordina-tor of the Fringe District

HISTORY OF HOUSING AND PLANNING IN CAPE TOWNLecture by Liza Cirolia, African Centre for Cities

DISCOVER-ING LANGA TOWNSHIPTour with Tony Elvin, Vuyisa Qabaka

MFULENI TOWNSHIPTour with Vuy-isa Qabaka, Leon Kamve

CENTURY CITYTour with Future Cape Town

LION’S HEAD MOUNTAINExcursion

BOULDERS BEACH PENGUIN COLONYExcursion

12

Ondřej Janků, 30 Architect, Czech Republic

PLANNING

New urban wilderness

13

In this article I am not going to write about the history of Johannesburg or that apartheid system gave the city its specific zoned structure. What I found more interesting is to evaluate how the city is today: how post-apartheid freedom has effec-tively opened the cages in a zoo, and now that everyone has been set free how will the inhabitants who are used to being segregated behave?1

Biological science has it that a lion growing up in captivity iden-tifies its territory by the perimeter fence, which stops him from being free. Even if the lion escapes from its prison it does not run far because it is a territorial animal. The fence is a physical expression of the lion’s border between the known and the unknown; between secure and inse-cure2. An element once built as a barrier has became protection. Peo-ple in Johannesburg are territorial by instinct: having grown up with clearly defined borders, they are respectful to other people’s terri-tory. Within these terrorities, groups tend to create their own micro-worlds and sub-cultures. Although these physical bor-ders do not exist any more, the mentality that goes with them does. Moreover, living in separate commu-nities with an exclusive set of peo-ple has become a desire3. Indeed, for many it is the only imaginable way to live because for a long time it was the only option available. Growing up in this situa-tion with a top-down hierarchy of

power means individuals are free of certain responsibilities and that they lose their sense of survival. The extended metaphor of the animal kingdom helps us to under-stand the behaviour of people who after being confronted with freedom now that they no longer have to live in a predefined secure zone. Furthermore, the dichotomy of the familiar and the unpredict-able does not only apply to the situation in Johannesburg but to many other cases. A good exam-ple is Moscow; the Soviet capital and today’s Moscow are two differ-ent cities. Certain freedoms from choice and routines turned into much wilder and seemingly cha-otic scenarios that visibly changed the city fabric as well as its citizen’s behaviour; although, the strongest habits and traditions did continue. From this perspective, the former Johannesburg has experienced a similar transformation to a new urban wilderness. Once the former top-down structure disintegrated4, elements of the system that are no longer stable started shifting the city’s fabric. Some of them became more opportunistic, seeing new gaps to fill. Some were more reserved and stayed in a zone of familiar terri-tory. Either way, they all shared the common knowledge that staying in a group means a greater chance of succeeding then if they worked as individuals.

14

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR AN IMAGE OF THE CITY? PACKS OF SOUTH AFRICAN LIONS: A FEDERATION OF MICRO-STATESAs a result of a post-apartheid shuf-fle, the city has disintegrated into smaller bubbles that are easier to

overlook. Until 1994, the city was never designed as one place – it was ruled by a power that maintained its unity by force. Therefore, its inhabi-tants are not used to seeing this sort of unity. What they do understand is the territory they were given to live within, the border zone and the neighbours. In this case, they have

The Model of Apartheid City

Planning

15

evolved into actors of an urban safari where mankind does not behave as one flock but more as a number of well-organised packs of territorial predators. And indeed, on our field trip we were – as when on a safari tour – unbiased researchers observing the individual areas that were once given freedom but the close proxim-ity of other predators have kept them packed together in dense well-de-fined clusters, otherwise known as Johannesburg. And perhaps it was only with the advantage of viewing it from an outsider’s perspective that we were able to see that it also its had borders and constraints. It was not just a chunk of wild nature. The ‘animals’ there were being territorial within certain constraints imposed on them by the governing body. An administrator that although weak still existed beyond the visible horizon of seemingly free inhabitants.

FOLLOWING THE PATTERNS OF SEGREGATION IS THE FATE OF JOHANNESBURGFrom within the city, all current attempts to overcome the rules of segregation seem to be futile and seems to have almost the opposite effect. Trends in planning are try-ing to deny the past, reconnect and gentrify by using the same practices as those from the previous regime. The city was founded on the prin-ciple of the strict isolation of its inhabitants and one could argue that

following this pattern of separation and self-identification within clusters of smaller units is the only possible future for Johannesburg. Now, after a fall of the former regime, the city is transforming into another unknown realm. Perhaps, as its physical fabric is so connected to its apartheid past, we witness the ultimate end of the city. But more likely, the culture of segregation has never changed and planning trends today are nothing more than a con-tinuation of the past. The present city is more shaped by groups of individuals then by a central power, yet it follows the same principles. I suggest, that the only sus-tainable future for Johannesburg is not to escape from, but to follow the patterns of segregation that people eventually choose. The ultimate fate of the city is to recycle an apartheid past to a new model of sustainable future.

LOCAL IDENTITYJohannesburg has evolved into a union of micro-enclaves with a dif-ferent economy and legislation and is an extreme case of urbanisation as described by Pier Vittorio Aureli in The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (2011). In the book, Aureli interprets a city as a contem-porary urbanisation in which plural-ism and diversity are “celebrated” within the strict spatial logic and enclave. Bound to the regime of the economy, this logic of inclusion/exclusion dissolves the potential

16

dialectical conflict among the parts of the city, and transforms confron-tation and its solution – coexistence – into the indifference of cohabi-tation, which indeed is the way of living in urbanisation. In addition, Johannesburg can be seen as a con-temporary and extreme example of Roman urbs. Apartheid planning served as a symbolic template for the whole inhabited space. It designated a universal and generic condition of cohabitation in enclaves. However, the definition of urbs would not be complete without including Roman civitas as its essential part. Accord-ing to Aureli, civitas is the gathering

of people from different origins who decided to coexist under the same law, which in turn gave them the con-dition of citizenship5. Before 1994, the definition of civitas as a decision of citizens to coexist under the same law was debatable, nonetheless its probably closer to its original mean-ing then if applied on the condi-tion of Johannesburg today. As said before, economy and legislation of individual neighbourhoods, enclaves, townships and informal settlements differs significantly and only vaguely follows laws of the governing body of Johannesburg, which seems to have decreasing influence. If civitas,

Access to and Use of Space. Source: Karina Landman, Lecture: Urban enclosure in South Africa, Pretoria, 2013

Planning

17

as the condition of citizenship fails, Aureli allows us to speculate about the decay of urbs itself and its grad-ual disintegration into a “pre-urbs” form. When EU was first established, the participating states were con-cerned that the integration and cul-tural inclusion might wash away local characteristics that made them specific from the other states. The inverse phenomenon has conse-quently emerged instead: the fear has turned into a healthy compe-tition where local minorities made a much bigger effort to stand out

and show its individual characteris-tics compared to before when they were clearly separated by state bor-ders. Johannesburg experiences an inverse notion: the identity of the city is based on extreme diversity. Any effort to redesign the city as an integrated whole will only lead to its collapse or at least create unwanted tension between individual neigh-bourhoods. Current attempts to unite have not been successful how-ever, connecting by pointing out the differences might be, on the other hand, a way forward. From this perspective, segregation is seen

Access to and Use of Space (same map indicating enclosures). Source: Karina Landman, Lecture: Urban enclosure in South Africa, Pretoria, 2013

18

as Aureli’s confrontation keeping enclaves active and promoting bor-ders between them. If we have look forwards to an alternative future for the city: what will happen when all for-mal and informal settlements will be awarded full rights to the land they occupy? Let’s imagine them as autonomous units. How they will communicate with each other? What coalitions they will make? Will they try to improve life condi-tions in order to attract foreigners to immigrate and foster the enclave? Will they try to become indepen-dent and self-sufficient? Let’s redis-tribute city executive power to the hands of self-governed territories: will this reorganisation lead to a total destruction of the city or to its rebirth?

APPENDIX: THE NEW MAP OF JOHANNESBURGIn Johannesburg, there are several superimposed cities to be found. A map of the city for a white rich man is very different to a map of the same place for his black brother with mid-dle or low income. For a black waiter who works and lives in Hillbrow, the Central Business District does not play any importance in his life. He does not know where it is located and he has no reason to visit it. For a white businessman from Sand-ton, there are certain places that are forbidden to enter like Alex-andra settlement, just two kilome-tres away. What he is familiar with

is the perimeter of his secure zone, which defines the map of his city. The city looks even more peculiar for a stranger. Today, without apart-heid borders we cannot discuss it using the metaphor of “a zoo” how-ever, “an urban safari” where freedom is restricted by rules of nature might still be a good way of describing the feeling to a visitor.

[1],[4] Apartheid system in South Africa: 1948 to 1994. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africa[2] From guided safari tour at Lion Park near Johannesburg, Corner Malibongwe Drive & R114 Road, Honeydew, Gauteng, South Africa[3] Karina Landman, Lecture: Urban enclosure in South Africa, Pretoria, South African Republic, 2013[5] The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Pier Vittorio Aureli, 2011, Chapter 1. Toward the archipelago. Defining the political and the formal in architecture.

Planning

19

A Map of animal territories significantly reminds of the map of a post-apartheid «urban freedom». Source: Joe A Tobias, Nathalie Seddon, Estimating population size in the sub-desert mesite: new methods and implications for conservation. Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320702001064

20

(SELF)GOVERNANCE

Global Nomads

Artem Kalashyan, 30Curator and Producer, Russia

21

We are on a dark road at night sur-rounded by forest. An old “bucky” truck slows down, turns off the headlights, and keeps going some 200 metres, seemingly at random. As we approach undistinguishable thickets of bushes, the driver gets out and tosses them to one side, as they seem to be only for deco-ration to conceal an entrance. The bucky travels a further 500 metres along off-road loops and we stop in a clearing in the woods. Within this area is a small house made from a repurposed shipping container, and a parking lot for two vehicles, a barbeque spot, and some utensils whose purpose is indistinguishable in the dark.

“Is it your land?” I ask. ”No,” comes the reply. “I lease it ille-gally.” I continue my questions, “So, the foliage that disguised the entrance is this for the council?” He says, it’s not and just to keep out “the rest of the world. South Africa is a dangerous country: there are criminals, homeless, and vagabonds walking around, and I am all on my own. Sure, I have something in my sleeve to meet the intruders, but I’m better off with less people knowing about this place. And I’d prefer the Government to remain unaware as well.”

WHY SOUTH AFRICA?Having examined housing in Mos-cow’s suburbia for six months and analysed all sorts of factors influ-encing the living in the region, our

Studio group chose South Africa to see something different. On one hand, it is absolutely distinct: it is another hemisphere, with drasti-cally different climate, with peo-ple of a different colour. On the other hand, the destination is to some extent similar to Russia: as the country lived through a serious political change almost at the same time. Back in 1994, the so-called “Apartheid government” was forced by the oppressed coloured major-ity and the outside civilised world to resign. As a result, the segrega-tion of territories and forced dis-placement according to the race was abolished. The nation got a new Constitution based on equal-ity for all citizens of South Africa, and carried out the first all-nation voting to elect the South-African resistance leader Nelson Mandela, who was previously released from the life imprisonment, to be their President.

LEGACYMy part of the study is concerned with politics and self-government. In order to appropriately evaluate the present moment, you should see the process in its dynamics.

South Africa developed in a way that was dramatically different from the rest of the pro-Western world. Instead of getting rid of anachro-nisms associated with slavery, the ruling class radically enforced racial segregation to preserve the elite’s economic well-being.

22

In the 20th century, the South African government selects the path of development different from the approach deployed in pro-Western world, by radically enforcing the racial segregation. The official apart-heid propaganda was leveraged by the will to avoid an economic downturn associated with the worldwide emancipation.

The policy started by passing the Land Act of 1913. The docu-ment declared white supremacy and vested in the coloured and black people of the country the right to own only seven per cent of the country’s territory, with the rest belonging to the white

minority. The act was followed up by the constitutional restraint for black and coloured people (includ-ing Arabs, Asians, and the people born into inter-racial marriages) to visit the locations of the white population, also exposing them to forced deportation, job inequality, unbearable living conditions, and deprivation of education. Although it happened just 16 years after the victory over fas-cism, the main railway station in Cape Town, one of the major South African cities, was totally rebuilt to segregate the passengers forming three groups for white, coloured, and black. These three groups were to remain isolated in any part of the

(Self)governance

A commercial building just next to Maboneng development, Johannesburg

23

Typical wall with barbed wire in a township

Children playground, Cape Town

24

station, including but not limited to the platforms, rest rooms, ticket offices, and even the entrance.

The end of the century was the breaking point. Predictably, the pro-cess of liberation could not be all smooth. The two worlds forcedly divided into the oppressors and the oppressed went through mixed feel-ings, ranging from awkwardness and guilt to fierce hatred.

If compared to Russia, the pro-cess is similar to 1917 when the Bol-sheviks took over the mansions and brutally murdered the owners. From the psychological standpoint, the state of things in South Africa is similar to the situation in Russian cities built around the penitentia-ries where the freed prisoners may remain in the city after the liber-ation, living together with those who used to guard them. There is a tension in the air, or in psychol-ogy terms, an “unworked” trauma, in which ex-prisoners and ex-guards have neither the guts nor the expe-rience to get over it. They pre-fer to stay away from it, not to talk about it, and not to remember it, if possible.

South Africans try to abstain from it. People, communities, and the entire cities build up concrete fences, use kilometres of barbed wire, deploy surveillance and train armies of security guards. The enforced borders emerge every-where, chaotically fragmenting the habitable space.

“Is it just paranoia?” our group leader asks the owner of the busi-ness providing security services to the community.

“You might be right, but you can hardly not be paranoid when they hold a knife to your daughter’s neck and a pistol to your wife’s head, and then rape and kill both of them,” he says.

SOUTH AFRICA TODAYTwenty years after the abolishment of apartheid, the economic turmoil inherent with the process of healing the country of fundamental social, political, and economic diseases has ended.

Communities of all sizes, pro-tected by a solid outer enclosure, are exercising democratic institutes of self-government, while still strug-gling to interact with each other. It appears that they exist in separate realities.

The long history of segrega-tion has had a surprisingly posi-tively effect on the country’s gover-nance. South African Republic does not have a single capital city: the branches of Government are territo-rially distributed. The State Assem-bly is located in Cape Town, while executive power resides in Preto-ria and Supreme Court in Bloem-fontein. Hundreds of kilometres of defragmented territories between them and inherent longing for iso-lation prevent the development of intra-country relations. Many problems are deprived of attention

(Self)governance

25

from the government, while courts and elections operate legally and independently.

Alexandra, the oldest and the largest ghetto in Johannesburg, quickly manages inner problems and, unexpectedly, seems one of the safest places we have visited. Still, while having the warrant of the Supreme Court ruling, they cannot influence the Government to issue the ordinance of estab-lishing their rights of property to the land and estate where 20,000 people had lived with their fami-lies for almost 100 years. Another example to observe is the case of

Jonathan Liebman, the developer who purchased the entire Johan-nesburg district: he and the City Council are aware of each other but still act independently. In fact, Liebman is building a city inside of the city.

WHAT ABOUT MARK?High population density and cen-tralised government result in sus-tainable structures, which produce positive and negative models at equal pace and momentum. The heaver the structure, the stronger the momentum, and the less likely are the changes.

Informal consultations with South African political elite. One can learn more about the real processes after a couple glasses of wine... or bunch of bottles. From the left: Pam Yako, government consultant from Pretoria, Mohammed Bhabha, one of the authors of South African constution, Thabo Mokwena, South African Government's "gray cardinal"

26

I am appalled by the perversity of the government system in Rus-sia. I have seen a number of cases when enthusiasts with great ideas for changes would come in and turn into government zombies in a matter of weeks.

The denser and more inert the concentration of the govern-mental domain, the more tangible the vacuum where the system is not regulating itself. This is where free agents flee: such reservations attract people who resist the values forcedly imposed on them from the outside, who want to live their way, and refrain from sacrificing their goals in favour of sense of belonging to something bigger, but alien.

I believe that this is the intercel-lular space where the new ideas are born, tested, and when becoming an efficient model, spread out and replace the legacy structures.

In such space, “invisible” to sys-tem-ruled people, lived African “swervers” crossing the country to and fro regardless of the limitations of the apartheid, or European gyp-sies travelling without any respect to borders. Today, their “lucky” suc-cessors are entrepreneurs with five citizenships where double citizen-ship is prohibited, or the owners of movable housing.

Mark Godsiff, who I met in Cape Town’s suburbs, owns a business, has a family, and travels around the

A cell phone shop in one of the townships of Cape Town

(Self)governance

27

world – so to say, lives a normal life. Mark refused to anchor himself by having a proper house. His house is made of a redesigned shipping container and is totally equipped to suit the needs of an autonomous life. It is capable of quickly chang-ing location, saves costs on taxes, land lease, or utilities — it is an ideal place to be.

But it is not about the savvy nature of the owner, and even not about the marvellous extrava-gance of our encounter. The core of this idea is radical distribution of resources to approach new possibil-ities. To refrain from such basic and natural need as the purchase of the house, which makes people develop their careers and feed a large chunk of world’s financial system, allowed the owner to travel free, self-actu-alise, and open new opportunities for his family. He has jumped to the next level where many dream to get to but often are late to do so.

“Do you mind if I make coffee? It got so cold while was waiting for you at the lighthouse.”

“Of course not, but, frankly, I would be happy if you make it for two.”

“Here you go. I hope you don’t mind ants – they are always nesting in the sugar. It’s a tedious job to take them all out, so I’d rather drink my coffee with them.”

“Never mind. I ate a dried cater-pillar a couple of days ago, so ants in a coffee made of rainwater are even exquisite.”

Now, in Moscow I can hardly believe it was not a dream – maybe there was no shack made of a ship-ping container, coffee with ants made of rainwater, and the incred-ible Mark whose son lives is the midst of two absolutely distinct and, at a first sight, disparate social mod-els: a successful manager at a multi-national company; and a hippie liv-ing in a movable house in the middle of the wilderness, enjoying surfing, hunting with friends in a neighboring Mozambique, and observing a sun-rise in a sleeping bag at the Cape of Good Hope.

On my way to the hotel we passed the University of Cape Town, and I asked Mark whether he wants his son to study there. “If Jason wants it, then why not, but he is the one to decide on going my way, or his mother’s, or doing something different – and he must listen to his heart,” he said.

28

SOCIAL HOUSING

Living the Gap

Filip Mayer, 26Architect, Sweden

29

The African National Congress (ANC) won the 1994 election partly due to the promise of social housing for everyone. This, of course, didn’t happen at the rate or to the degree as promised, but still the Government provided 3.2 million homes and 1.8 million1 subsidies from 1994 onwards, giving shelter to over 13 million people2.

Even though the probability of these numbers being accurate is low, it is still an astonishing amount of households built during that time-span. But with a staggering backlog of 2.1 million homes, approximately 12.5 million people without adequate housing, the promise isn’t going to be fulfilled any time soon.

What still needs to be addressed, is the fact that a growing part of the population is not only living without adequate housing, but also falling outside of the sys-tem’s protective net. These are the people earning between R3,501 and R9,000 a month, otherwise known as the “gap dwellers”.

These people are capable of paying for their homes but have an income just above the level for getting a subsidised home and just below the level of being able to take a bank loan. It’s estimated that 11 per cent of the South Afri-can population falls under this category.3

To better understand the sit-uation of the gap dwellers it is important to better understand the effects of social housing policies

effect on the housing and on the cities.

The history of South Africa’s Housing Policy began just before the democratic elections of 1994, with the formation of the National Housing Forum. This was a multi-party, non-governmental negotiat-ing body comprising of 19 members from business, community mem-bers, government and develop-ment organisations. These actors came together to research, develop and negotiate legal and institu-tional interventions that were later used by the 1994 government when it was formulating the National Housing Policy.

The housing market of that time had certain characteris-tics, which to a large extent are still present today, and on which the National Housing Policy was based.

First, there was a 2.2 million housing shortage, with a esti-mated 204,000 increase every year due to rapid informal urbanisa-tion. Together with this, the hous-ing sector lacked capacity in both human recourses and materials to provide the housing that was needed.

Due to complex identification, allocation and development pro-cesses, land has always been insuf-ficient. And the infrastructure and services connected to that land has not been able to even meet the standards of the low-income sector. This has resulted in great

30

difficulties to provide the afford-able households to the targeted population.

By early 1990, the housing sec-tor was fragmented to a degree where there were 15 departments that dealt with housing and more than 60 national and regional state corporate institutions. These were all implementing 20 separate sub-sidy systems. And together with remnant obstructive apartheid laws that needed to be repealed, the system worked incredibly ineffectively.

Nonetheless, a right to basic housing is written into the con-stitution of South Africa and has had an fundamental impact on the National Housing Policy, and does so mostly through two principles (see frame).

In themselves the combined housing strategies were absolutely essential to the process of provid-ing homes during this time. But in effect with the complicated gov-erning system, under-spending and misguided resources allocation there has been a lot of problems with upgrading of informal settle-ments, providing affordable rental housing and most notably provid-ing housing for the gap dwellers.

So what did these laws and regulations do to the cityscape? According to Cape Town based researcher, Liza Cirolia of ACC (African Centre For Cities), exit-ing the 1992-1996 transition from the apartheid system most South

African cities were left with an extremely skewed spacial land-scape and dislocated spacial form.

Resulting in somewhat radial structures, the city cen-tres were inhabited by middle- to

Social Housing

A right to basic housing (Section 26 of South African constitution):1) Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing. 2) The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.3) No one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demol-ished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant cir-cumstances. No legislation may per-mit arbitrary evictions.4Defining the powers of National and Provincial Government and municipalities: • National Government has the power to develop laws that deal with mat-ters that apply at the national level. The focus of these laws is to regulate or co-ordinate activities through-out South Africa, so as to facilitate an effective and equitable housing sector.• Provincial Government has the power to make specific laws for prov-ince in terms of all functional areas including housing. These laws must be in accordance with national laws.• Municipalities (Local Government) have the power to administer matters such as housing and all other related matters like building regulations, municipal planning and service pro-vision. The National and Provincial Governments are required to support municipalities in this regard.5

31

Possible gab dwellers. Very often it will be the people that service the city that find themselves in this situation. Everyone from municipal road workers, police, nurses, fire fighters fall into this income gap 2013, Cape Town, Rosebank.

Vacant subsidised housing. These houses are financially just out of reach for the gap dwellers. 2013, Cape Town, Langa.

32

This example of subsidised housing was extremely unsuccessful according to the local population. They were saying that up to four families lived in one flat of two-three rooms and that conditions were horrible. There were also a lot of statements regarding to the demotivational factor of these building, that people living there had no aspirations and no prospects for the future. Alexandra, Johannesburg.

“Gap housing”, 2013, Chas Everitt International Property Group

Social Housing

33

Shared living room in a subsidised flat building. Theses people were taking a well-deserved break after a hard week of work installing electricity cables for the municipality. They were having a small party with some beer and food cooked in the shared kitchen. Cape Town, 2013.

“Gap housing” with 2 attached shacks for renting purposes, 2013, Cape Town

34

Backyard dwellings in the centre of Cape Town. These living arrangements are utilised nearly in every building typology non-dependent on placing in or outside of the city. Sometimes these dwellings are constructed specifically for people that need to live in a certain area, such as nurses who need to be based close to a hospital or fire fighters close to a fire station. 2013, Cape Town

Social Housing

35

One family flat. 2013, Cape Town. There is also the possibility of redirecting the funds for demolitions, to instead go to incremental but mass upgrading of housing and infrastructure in areas where people are illegally settling, most often the land is already earmarked for them. But perhaps a governmental strategy that would transform the existing patterns of cohabitation the most would be to direct development into densification of the city centres with regard to the poor, low- and low-middle income. To give them access to the city and all its benefits. The existing patterns still follow the lines of apartheid but now together with economical segregation. And due to the residual effects of the previous system, fear and a government that fails to integrate the precarious into the centres the risk is that different social spheres will become even more isolated from each other, and the result is a cumulative vicious circle of disadvantage.

Two toilet structures and an outdoor kitchen. These people were evicted from their informal settlements and are waiting to be transferred to social housing. 2013, Marlboro, Johannesburg

36

Social Housing, 2013, Cape Town

Social Housing, 2013, Langa, Cape Town

Social Housing

37

Mixed forms of living: shacks, private property, low- and high-rise subsidised housing, old and new. These dense and varied textures create incredibly stressed forms of cohabitation 2013, Alexandra, Johannesburg

Population density, 2011, State of South African Cities Report

38

Population density, March 07, 2000, Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council

Social Housing

39

Education, March 07, 2000, Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council

40

Population distribution, March 07, 2000, Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council

Social Housing

41

high-income, most often white people. These spacial forms trans-lated into skewed public and pri-vate investments, where the pub-lic investment in the majority was implemented in the white areas, with private finance following quite linearly.

As seen on the maps the centres have been shielded from densifi-cation, forcing the massing of peo-ple around and in between areas of commerce and strategic business points. Only the area of Hillsbor-ough in central Johannesburg has the properties of the highly dense social housing areas and informal settlements. This is due to the mass flight of white middle- to high-in-come people during the end of the 1980s and subsequent overtaking of the area by low-income people and immigrants after the transition from apartheid.

What this means for the gap dwellers is that they are most often forced out to the suburbs both by the governments regular choice of situating gap housing, if they are so lucky to get a house, and if not, by their financial situation. This has created massive outskirt neighbour-hoods that have little or no connec-tion to the opportunities of educa-tion or work.

For the dwellers that are left without housing, often the only choice is to rent an informal room in a backyard. It’s very common for the people who have received hous-ing to supplement their income by

building shacks on their property and then to rent them out.

The problem with this form of cohabitation is that it completely lacks any sanitary facilities, power or running water and becomes quite a hazardous place to live. And the whole economy surrounding it is informal, giving no security to the sub-letter and reinforcing the dys-functional housing market.

SO WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO THE GAP HOUSING ISSUE? The current housing programme tar-geting the gap dwellers is compiled of various projects administered by municipalities, all of them directed towards delivering gap houses every year. Unfortunately, the amount is extremely low compared to the demand from 11 per cent of the population.

Some non-profit organisations are stepping forward and partnering with the government trying to solve the issue, but without any real effect on the housing shortage.

The Government has created the Social Housing Regulatory Authority that carries that mandate to regulate and invest to deliver affordable rental homes and renew communities. Their plan for the next five years is to build on an average 5,400 social housing units per year. In comparison with the backlog of 2.1 million houses, this won’t amount to any change for the situation

42

for 10 per cent of South Africa’s population.

Another problem is that these subsidised homes do not help the people that want to buy property, instead of renting. People in the municipal authorities of Alexandra were saying that it was absolutely crucial to the feeling of indepen-dence and sense of freedom.

And since the Government insists on hiring private companies to deliver the subsidised housing the process becomes even more stagnant and almost never results in the needed quality of housing (see p.8).

What needs to be done is to create an efficient governmental organ that could start delivering the houses for the gap dwellers. Human-settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale is in the process of estab-lishing such a governmental body, but so far without successes.

For the citizens that feel the need to own a house the Govern-ment could establish a subsidised loaning system directed specifi-cally at the gap dwellers to bypass the obstructive banks, either a full home loan or a system that lev-ies unused land and together with additional subsidies enables peo-ple to build their own homes.

There is also the possibility of redirecting the funds for demoli-tions, to instead go to incremental but mass upgrading of housing and infrastructure in areas where peo-ple are illegally settling, most often

the land is already earmarked for them. But perhaps a governmen-tal strategy that would transform the existing patterns of cohabita-tion the most would be to direct development into densification of the city centres with regard to the poor, low- and low-middle income. To give them access to the city and all its benefits. The existing pat-terns still follow the lines of apart-heid but now together with eco-nomical segregation. And due to the residual effects of the previous system, fear and a government that fails to integrate the precarious into the centres the risk is that dif-ferent social spheres will become even more isolated from each other, and the result is a cumula-tive vicious circle of disadvantage.

In The Freedom Charter, declared by the Congress Alliance and the ANC, it is stated that the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the own-ership of the people as a whole. And since the mining industry rep-resents 18 per cent of the GDP alone, nationalising this industry, over a certain period of time, tar-geting the housing issues, would not only benefit the people incred-ibly, but provide a sense of step-ping seven further from apartheid. But the fact that the Government works extremely ineffectively, tar-geting certain areas for revitalisa-tion based on politicians personal wants and needs. And the fact,

Social Housing

43

that a lot of the power structures effective in apartheid are still in place, makes a national solution an incredibly risky one.

[1] Disempowered, Presentation, Liza Cirolia, 2013[2] http://www.info.gov.za/aboutsa/housing.htm#Subsidies[3] Disempowered, Presentation, Liza Cirolia, 2013[4] http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/theconstitution/english-09.pdf[5] http://www.psdas.gov.hk/content/doc/2006-1-04/Social%20Housing%20in%20South%20Africa%20-%20John%20Hopkins%20-%202006-1-04.pdf

44

GENTRIFICATION

Not Yet Gentrification But New CBD Emerging

Polina Filippova, 21Economist, Russia

45

GENTRIFICATION?“I’ve bought it all,” says a tanned white man as he points to the high tower on the horizon. “All this area from there to here.” We are listening Jonathan Liebmann, one of the most prominent developers of Johan-nesburg in one of the rooftop bars in Maboneng, the neighbourhood he owns.

In a city where people don’t even dare to walk between post-apocalyptical African reality and five-metre fences, Liebmann is developing an area suitable for living in a European manner.

On his travels, the young devel-oper has thoroughly examined prominent neighbourhoods in the West and before starting renovation he had seemingly deduced a formula or a timeline of success: art stu-dios are in avant-garde nice coffee shops, a book shop and a few galler-ies follow. Then, there are stores of sophisticated clothing and furniture by local designers.

This oasis is based in former industrial buildings. The decision to move here came to me immedi-ately — as a chance to feel the vibe better.

Specifically, Maboneng used to be an abandoned area, not formally inhabited. Now, it’s a result of the comprehensive vision of Liebmann, who instead of gratitude is often accused of gentrification.

Regardless of acute symptoms (location in a poor black area, pro-hibition of street trade, etc) the

process happening in Maboneng breaks the main drawback of gentri-fication as it happens in the West: lower income locals or first new-comers – artists, students etc – are not forced to move after rental prices take off. There aren’t any poor artists and students initially.

To save time Liebmann couldn’t wait for a sub culture to bring up its own heroes, so instead invited some stars to move in. Among the artists, looking for space was William Kentridge, the major event of the last Documenta and a favourite with wealthy gal-leries all over the world. Marginal street art in the area is signed by names from Europe and North America.

Despite being attractive, the neighbourhood has a palpable scent of artificiality. It’s as nice as generic: indistinguishable from any other such places. The sim-ilarities of these areas (initially aimed to give freedom to self-ex-pression and to quench the thirst for self-identification in the urban environment) are bearing a strong

Gentrification is the transforma-tion of a working-class or vacant area of the central city to a middle/upper middle class residential and/or commercial use often accompa-nied by evictions of the locals and/or change of the initial social, eco-nomic and physical structure of the neighbourhood.

46

resemblance to orderly-mannered microrayons, edging the majority of modern megapolises.

And here is a negative per-spective appears: a tendency of how planned segregation (formally finished in 1994) transforms into planned gentrification.

What they call gentrification in Africa in reality has nothing to do with the freedom and experimenta-tion phenomena of famous East-vil-lage, Soho and Kreuzberg. Nobody frames it this way but that’s possi-bly the reason why Maboneng, and others are so criticised by refined

There is a whole range of “gentrification tools” identified by developers as successful. Street art is amongst them

Gentrification

47

architects and urbanists coming from all over the world to participate in community’s projects. Gentrifi-cation starts from a grassroots ini-tiative, not from the comprehensive vision.

That is a point for a parallel to be traced between South Africa and Russia, where urban taxidermy is also becoming a universal cure for deliberate transforming of live into lifeless.

Regarding standardisation as a key of sorts, developers, and Lieb-mann among them, are willingly borrowing this clear mechanism, seeing no difference between natu-ral and standardised, live and dead. Gentrification, in this sense, has

become a strategic tool and lost its initial meaning.

A NEW MODE OF BUSINESS-DISTRICTI’m having breakfast at one of the street cafés and observing a black woman in a suit parking her Mer-cedes and leaving with the confi-dent air of a businesswoman. Her Mercedes is the first I’ve seen in the inner city so far.

One of the most important fac-tors behind processes happened in, for example, East Village2 in New York was the proximity of a busi-ness district serving as a source for demand for real estate. But the premises are different in Maboneng.

Once a flourishing business district, after the fall of Apartheid CBD has completely changed its face

48

A core contradiction between clas-sical Western cases of gentrifica-tion and South-African is in the very definition. Maboneng and others are not examples of gentrification at all.

After the decay of Johannes-burg CBD3 in post-apartheid turbu-lence Maboneng comes to the scene as a new model of business district, emerging as a response to structural changes in contemporary economy.

There are different reasons to believe it.

In developed countries, gentrifi-cation appeared as a bridge between old industrial and new post-in-dustrial eras, in a period of transi-tion (the late 1960s in New York, and 1990s in Berlin etc). The first

(industrial) restricted certain pat-tern of living, separating activities: office, house, and shopping mall. The latter (post-industrial) defined on the contrary more integrated model since the development of technologies broke a firm bond to physical place. Work time, structure of employment, accessibility and space organisation – many things changed, and model of multiple use is becoming more and more com-mon. What is even more important: those gentrified areas showed the emerging power of so-called cre-ative economy.

Being incorporated into global system, Africa can’t avoid this shift. Business-centres such as Maboneng

Vibrant art life on the one hand and proximity to the Wall street on the other, have defined the destiny of East-village in New York as a classical example of gentrification

Gentrification

49

accumulate interesting projects both in progressive spheres and handicrafts, and they actually serve as business centres for the new generation.

Apart from that, Maboneng is a place where new work opportuni-ties are being created. The remark-able thing is a structure of employ-ment: instead of attracting local highly skilled people from all over the country come here to work or to become entrepreneurs.

And finally, Maboneng literally provides work places. The majority of space is used for business pur-poses and offices and only small part is residential.

GENTRIFICATION? СOMING SOONPerfectly organised rows of the busi-ness district with all its Starbucks are seemingly opposing to an area like Maboneng but that is how the new face of CBD will more likely look. That’s neither bad nor good in essence, but in a specific case of Maboneng or others, where hybrid business-centres are planted in poor districts, not being gentrified on their own, they will serve as a trigger for natural gentrification of the adjoining neighbourhoods.

I was coming back from an unsafe black district one night, passing the dead CBD on my way: lonely night servants were wait-ing on every corner for strangers to pass by, a street fight, while other lanes are completely empty. It’s an

uncomfortable feeling, I must admit, even in a cab. One would barely dare going out there after sunset. But it is calm in Maboneng and even in the night. Honestly, in cur-rent terms even the absence of phys-ical fences and the creation of how-ever disputable but public space, is a serious contribution to the develop-ment of urban environment.

In a city where safe public space is precious, an attempt to break or at least transform, the perception of a street as a space worth spending more then a couple of minutes — that is worthy and attractive. The demand for this type of living will rise (as it does in Western countries) and those who can’t afford it will gradually move into nearby areas, start developing them and prepare a base for future gentrification.

50

LOCAL COMMUNITY

Constructing Local: Community Involvement

in South Africa

Varvara Degtiarenko, 24Art historian, Russia/USA

51

South Africa is diverse. It has 11 offi-cial different languages, and an inter-weaved heritage of different cultures. From townships to gated communi-ties, from never-ending fences to the silent inner cities on Sundays, South Africa’s very distinct buzzing char-acters are separated by very weak borders. Another Place Studio spent five days in two of its most famous cit-ies, Cape Town and Johannesburg, searching for patterns - elements that repeat with some form of reg-ularity - of cohabitation, or as some say, socio-spatial phenomena. Our programme allowed us to experience the many sides we were looking for. It was wonderful to meet such gen-uine people, and the impressions left with us are deep. Also, inso-much as we can consider ourselves open to new ideas and interpreta-tions, intermingling above or below our own class was difficult. It was hard to move up, though we were given a taste of it during lunchtime at the lively, member’s-only Rand Club in Johannesburg, just as hard to go down, though township residents showed us gracious hospitality while also rightfully questioning our pres-ence there, and what seemed like everything in between. I tried to detect common threads of local community involve-ment in the post-Apartheid city, a topic wide enough to give enough perspective on such a wide breadth of information available. South Africa is new territory for me. This

short text is not an attempt to deter-mine this exact involvement, or to describe the culture, tangible and intangible, of these places. Instead, I will summarise general observations in order to outline an argument for the deeper implications of the fol-lowing trend: that the issue of com-munity involvement is an issue of common identity in a community, and is no less a practical task than determining adequate provision of services for various needs. Just as well, it is closely tied to the relation-ship of an outsider’s point of view on it as its self-awareness of its own potential – branding, in other words. Those leaders, developers, innova-tors, businessmen, initiative groups, agencies, studios and university scholars we met or visited largely considered residents in their proj-ects, whether heavily or in part.

Successful discussions about the search for identity were these that came after productively involv-ing people and communities. It con-cerned infrastructure, housing and political participation, not South African identity as some undefin-able whole. This kind of discussion tries to escape vagaries in the sense that identity is as much an issue as having the means to make ends meet. For example, public art, in general but especially in the urban redevelopment project Maboneng, the rejuvenation project of New-town, or the Fringe district in Cape Town, is viewed as kindling to an area’s improvement and legitimacy

52

– it is encouragement, safety, a sym-bol of the right to exist in a space, and is a first step when funds are tight. Consultations, surveys, or interviews with locals are used with purpose and a means to an end. If a project gathers controversy, as in the case with the Maboneng Pre-cinct’s supposed gentrification, or perhaps a neighbourhood in Preto-ria decides to build an electric fence fortress around itself to prevent crime, the point remains that the effects of image are explored along with socio-economic, infrastructure or security needs.

On Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs there are steps, particu-larly at the bottom, that we under-stand have market prices: biological, physiological, esteem and security needs – food, clothing, a home, entertainment. Others perhaps less obviously so: belongingness, cog-nitive, aesthetic, self-actualisation and transcendence – education, careers, or family. Money, though not listed, plays a significant part in the movement between these steps. Being both an instrument and a unit of measurement of some exchange, it assigns only an abstract numer-ical value on these needs, since any actual relationship, even the most basic, is highly complex. Since money is based on both tangible and intangible values, it’s safe to say that the larger market economy — trade, debt, etc. — is based on needs and values. The advertising indus-try, for all of its various benefits

and drawbacks, has over time made inroads into the study of values and the ways in which humans negoti-ate the defined needs listed in the pyramid. Effective communication strategies result in foundations and cornerstones of trust in the relation-ship with some brand. The fight for this trust, legitimacy and existence also exists in a community whether it concerns the wealthy or the poor, the black or white.

An overarching pattern emerg-ing in South Africa is that notwith-standing the differences between the cultural histories of these com-munities, economic growth and sus-tainability seems to be fused with a need to define the boundaries of some heritage that henceforth con-structs this. Like money, identity is both a tool and unit of measure-ment – a very useful one – of per-suasion. Its existence has value for those outside and inside its context. A community must not simply live but also make history in order to sustain itself economically. Though, of course, not the only component, heritage — in its widest understand-ing, shapes community involvement not only in South Africa, but also in Russia and around the world.

In South Africa, heritage is playing a more pragmatic role in this, even though the sector has not defined itself fully. Though the landmass is ancient, the country is young – its youth a major scapegoat of faulty decisions, as if other coun-tries with governments centuries

Local Community

53

Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. While Peter Rich’s Interpretation Center seems to inspire faith in some for the past and future of Alexandra, for many others it is yet another symbol of decisions made by someone else without local opinion in the equation.

Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Despite the contextual harmony sought for the construction process and use of the Interpretation Centre, it currently stands vacant and is guarded to prevent vandalism, unfinished because of disagreements on the government level. These words are cut into the entrance door.

54

Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. The «Heritage Corner» joint is a popular spot across from both the Interpretation Center on one side and the Mandela Yard on the other. It was started concurrently with the building of the Centre.

Local Community

Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Alexandra, also known as Alex, is known historically for its independent, entrepreneurial, and democratic spirit. Because it was established just before the Land Act of 1913, many in the township owned property, building permanent houses here pre-date informal shacks.

55

Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Johannesburg’s characteristic blue plaque designating a significant site is on Nelson Mandela’s former residence. It has fuelled a «historical» atmosphere in the surrounding area.

Langa Township, Cape Town. Shacks purposed for different services advertise in local styles and copy brands’ logos, not having the resources to display the «real thing.» This barbershop, with lively painted faces with different haircuts, is an example of the way informal structures are enlivened from the bottom up.

56

Langa Township, Cape Town. A map and its notable places. When asked whether the tourism is interesting or useful, or whether they go to the new «Cultural Centre,» locals would tell me that they loved new people coming and were interested in new ideas, but they generally did not make their way to that part of town.

Langa Township, Cape Town. Many of Langa’s homes also pre-date informal settlements, and are marked with unique plaques with the name of this or that famous previous resident. The street just as colourful as this yellow home - there was a excellent noisy wedding happening a couple of houses to the left.

Local Community

57

Langa Township, Cape Town. This notice board near the Guga S’Thebe Arts & Cultural Centre advertises the exhibit An African Story of the Mother City, as well as some other news.

Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg. «Maboneng», meaning «Place of Light,» is an old saying about Joburg but not particularly this precinct. This commissioned art on the wall of a former industrial building, BMW and the trunk fragment of a branded tricycle are some of the juxtapositions seen in this new culture.

58

Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg. Public artwork by Hannelie Coetzee, Johannesburg-based artist. This is another example of the kind of art commissioned for the streets and buildings of Maboneng.

Marlboro South Township, Johannesburg. In one of the industrial buildings in Marlboro South, adjacent to Alexandra in a former buffer zone (natural or manmade border between races during Apartheid), a pool table has been set up. He made the shot, in case you were wondering.

Local Community

59

Mfuleni Township, Cape Town. Blue for the sky and white for the heavens, this church in the Mfuleni township keeps all the spiritual traditions and makes new ones, given the state of things.

Mfuleni Township, Cape Town. Paint is a powerful tool to express uniqueness and diversity. Many shacks and other structures are painted in every colour imaginable. The example of how townships use paint in general is a strong metaphor for issues of ownership in South Africa.

60

old do not repeat history’s mistakes. In the wake of a speedy develop-ment in these two major cities, it is extremely easy to get heritage impact assessments through to build because of the lack of proactivity. When a historic object is in ques-tion, initiatives emerge to preserve it, but there is generally no pre-ex-isting plan. It’s old: it should stay. It is an example of creating tangible culture where it may not be there, or an artificial creation of misunder-stood intangible heritage. The need to preserve is not fully understood why; reasons are fumbled and grap-pled with that go beyond the phys-ical fabric or physical appearance of the building, not necessarily to

preserve it because of its aesthetic properties, but because of that which cannot be easily explained using economics. Of the areas we visited, cul-ture is more genuine, intangible and undefined, in areas where preserving it or focusing on it as a tangible ele-ment is not seen, particularly in the case of townships, whose residents struggle for elemental needs; the things they make, songs they sing, games they play, jokes they crack, home they fix, or person they heal are not encapsulated in the shiny luxury of heritage except in the case of two – Alexandra and Langa, the oldest in the two cities, which are rising in the ranks of history by

Newtown, Johannesburg. On the gates to the repurposed bus factory (housing the Johannesburg Development Agency as well as an exhibition hall and other offices) detailed metalwork makes references to the landscapes and history of Joburg.

Local Community

61

reaffirming their complexity, their right to be where they are based on age-acquired value.

In 2005, the Council of Europe ratified the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society at Faro, which states that cultural heritage is a human right and a collective practice heav-ily connected to economic sustain-ability and a factor in democratic participation.1 South Africa is not a part of the convention, but what this suggests is that the initiatives of heritage sectors have far deeper implications globally. Xavier Greffe, in his contribution to the COE ’s publication Heritage and Beyond, summarised it this way: “While cul-tural heritage may give rise to devel-opment, this is because those of its components described as intangible develop and draw strength across a wide spectrum, within a true cultural environment.”2 A true cultural envi-ronment is driven by an instinct that what is occurring will impact the future. To conclude, as a socio-spatial phenomenon, community identity or local involvement has market share value and could be determined and sustained with an efficacious, for-ward thinking and human-centered communication approach that deals with needs as a complex organism, from heritage to infrastructure — a higher, purposeful and inclusive community branding that under-stands the tangible and negotiates the intangible culture of a place. The cohabitation of communities is

influenced by the image and its con-notations projected — far beyond only lessons learned from advertis-ing. If there is a way to sustain the speed of change in local communi-ties by strategically thinking about individuals, local image and the com-plexities they are valued by, perhaps this can help to build a more plural-istic, innovative, and human-centred global society.

[1] Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society. 27 October, 2005. http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=199&CM=8&CL=ENG[2] Greffe, Xavier. Cultural Heritage as a Vehicle for Sustainable Development. COE: Heritage and Beyond. 2008

62

INTERVENTIONS

Who needs interventions?

Anna Kaydanovksaya, 29Architect, Russia

63

Informal settlements became a very attractive environment for architects, government or just philanthropists with money to make different kinds of interventions. The Alexandra set-tlement in Johannesburg is an exam-ple of all these points, because of its long and unique history as the only “black settlement” kept since 1912. Located close to the city cen-tre, the place is a magnet for all kinds of researchers, developers or just tourists. In the case of Alex (as it is called by locals) the definition of the word intervention can vary, it depends on what to take as the main fabric of the area. According to its history, the settlement was planned; it was based on a regular structure of near-identical, single-floor brick buildings. On the other hand, at the moment it looks obvious, that the place mostly consists of handmade shacks (as all informal settlements), these shacks form a continuous and dense structure interrupted only by roads. So, I am taking this spon-taneous fabric as a basis and all attempts to implant things designed by professionals as interventions. All this actions I roughly divided into three main types, which I call: “helpful points”, long-term redevelopment and experiments.

“Helpful points” is a name for interventions that are usually shown by a single building inside the exist-ing fabric and considerably con-trasting with surroundings. They are mostly built by private investors

who intend to help the community by organising space for their meet-ings and different types of activities. Functionally, it is mostly community or children’s centres that look more like islands of comfort for visitors of the settlement, instead of a new useful part of public infrastructure of the area. We found two examples in Alexandra, very different, but telling a similar story. A religious community estab-lished the first centre. A two-storey concrete building, partly painted and well protected by an electric fence. It immediately raises the question, “Who does it work for?” The kid’s centre (as it is written on the wall) does not look empty, but on the other hand it is definitely not full of children and it does not invite anyone. The second community centre was open. The unfinished steel and Plexiglas house is very well designed and completely empty. We were the only visitors, except a woman who kept the entrance open and provided us with information about the build-ing. This example is even more inter-esting than the first one: the build-ing (though it is almost abandoned) marks the public space, there is an extremely crowded and loud pub-lic life surrounding it but the house looks unnecessary. I see these community centres as useful in the context of devel-oping and fast increasing tourism to informal settlements all around the world (“poverty safari”). These islands of comfort could become

64

very good stops for tourist buses and a rich source of income for their owners.

The second type is projects done by government, that were try-ing to make the environment reg-ular and simply organised. These attempts started together with apartheid in 1948, but they still exist.

During apartheid time the set-tlement was defined as an area for black people, who supposed to work as slaves for white citizens. This situation provoked the first regular intervention: the 1960 government decided to remove all single family houses and to build single sex bar-racks instead. The scheme was can-celled in 1979, though two barracks were built. These buildings are still there and look abandoned.

The second attempt to replace shacks with civilised housing hap-pened in 1990. Some of the inhabi-tants were moved from their shacks to modern five-storey buildings with different types of apartments. The only problem with this is when peo-ple cannot pay the rent; they just don’t have the money to do this, so their illegal status becomes more and more criminal. This programme had to be terminated shortly after it started.

The last known project is to transform the existing area into a rural village. Courtyards surrounded by simple one- and two-storey buildings. All houses are different, probably to simulate the diversity

of the existing lively environment. Looking at the pictures, the existing structure is going to be demolished and replaced by housing which is at least 50 per cent less dense. At present, the project is only a pro-posal, so it is going to meet criticism and competition from other projects in the area.

There are some extreme activi-ties that can be considered as a spe-cial case inside the second type of interventions done by Government.

Since 1994, people from all over the country moved to Johannesburg to work. It made informal settle-ments overcrowded, and Alexandra is no exception. This migration cre-ated the problem of employment and dramatically increased the load on infrastructure. The high density makes maintenance impossible – to start any kind of work a part of the housing has to be demolished and people are relocated into temporary camps (in the best case scenario).

The constantly increasing popu-lation creates a lack of public func-tions. I was lucky to meet people from WITS University currently working on school projects for infor-mal settlements, who kindly agreed to tell me about the process. The typology was designed in 1980 and is still used everywhere without any changes, a simple one-storey barn occupying every empty place. There is no plan to renovate, in case of no available lot, a part of existing hous-ing is quickly demolished, people relocated or just forgotten. Though

Interventions

65

Community centre protected by electric fence (shows one of «helpful points» - first type of interventions)

General view of the settlement, and its illegal electricity

66

Houses survived from the 1912 - the time Alexandra was established (housing typology for the whole settlement with regular plan)

The most typical courtyard for Alexandra: Old houses from 1912 and backyard shacks (usually for renting it out)

Interventions

67

maintenance of underground pipes or building schools are extremely necessary things for the area, local inhabitants prefer to protect their place from this kind of help, what makes interventions even more problematic, though rather useful.

The third type of intervention is shown by independent architec-tural studios (mostly from EU coun-tries) trying to find new solutions and feeling free to experiment with the existing complicated fabric.

The first example is by Dustin A Tusnovics architects. The project tries to react on two main charac-teristic features of the area: strong community feeling (or even local pride based on the powerful history of the place) and the problem of ownership.

Studio intend to keep local her-itage (brick houses since 1912) and use it as public infrastructure: post office, community centre, school and other necessary functions; in this way, all buildings become the property of the whole community.

All shacks (that I considered earlier as the main fabric) are sup-posed to be demolished to clean the existing “mess” and make the ground level open for public activity: open market, public garden, playground, etc. This step also erases the ques-tion of ownership, rather radically.

The project itself looks very ambitious and future oriented. It is a two- to three-storey structure of new housing units, about seven metres high, supported by the forest

of concrete columns. Looking at all this, the first raised question is affordability. From the author’s words the total cost is $28,000 per house (that is about 5.5 times more expensive than the project from Government), in spite of this, the studio participants are convinced about possible realisation: all the concrete work is supposed to be undertaken by the men in the com-munity and once the frame is up, the women will help complete the proj-ect. It sounds optimistic, especially for locals, who look forward to hav-ing this dream on their own plots, though the whole process implies a feeing of togetherness, strong com-munity and shared ownership – a very futuristic model of society.

Of course, the project has many “but” moments and doesn’t fit into reality for 100 per cent; on the other hand the new model of life intro-duced by the studio seems worth a try (but I’m afraid the new six blocks are going to work only for people from another social and economical level).

We saw one further example the day before our visit to Alexandra. The project was proposed by archi-tects from Informal Studio and their students for the Marlboro town-ship, located north of Alex. After the very detailed and deep learning about the area and community, they proposed different ways of reor-ganisation of the existing shacks to keep density, but have much more pleasant and efficient space.

68

This type of intervention doesn’t require the inhabitants to jump into another social and economic level, so it appears that this tiny change became the most humane and elab-orate project I’ve seen so far.

To sum up the situation, I need a small reorganisation of these types, concerning their possible conse-quences. The first one can be kept as it is, the second and the third are grouped together, because they pro-voke gentrification of the area, and (as usually) there are exceptions, that I see as a base for independent development of the settlement.

“Helpful points” is a question-able name. If this alien element in the existing fabric can support the developing system of tourism, the approach is inadmissible. It main-tains, in an artificial way, the exist-ing unacceptable condition of life to attract tourists. Tourism could bring economical growth to the area, but now it seems all the money is going to flow directly to the owners of these islands of comfort.

The two other types don’t seem to intend to provide healthy changes in the place. It is not difficult to see, people prefer to live in such an environment, because it costs them less. They are just not able to pay rent and taxes, so they have to keep their illegal (or criminal) status. All attempts to improve the quality of life there are always connected with the desire to make this environ-ment legal, which means people are forced to pay their taxes. This kind

of intervention makes poor inhabi-tants move from their area outside the city and establish new informal settlements.

Though after 1994 people moved from one socio-economic level to another (it is possible to meet extremely rich and well-edu-cated black people as well as poor whites), different types of environ-ment are strongly separated, and people mix only inside the existing clusters. After almost 20 years of the new political system, the whole city still has the structure of apart-heid, but now it is more of a ques-tion of money than race. The areas are still separated and people from different social levels have almost no chance to meet. It seems this complicated polyphonic system tends to be simpler by moving pov-erty as far as possible from the rich centres, instead of using opportuni-ties of the existing mixed city fabric.

I would also like to focus on two exceptions here that intend to help the community to improve their living environment by them-selves. Including all its disadvan-tages, governmental attempts to maintain basic infrastructure inside the settlement is extremely neces-sary, though many things could be improved and the whole approach become more humane. I am not talking here about the basic needs, such as water, but education avail-able for everyone, this cannot be overestimated. It is a big opportunity to change the situation and a mover

Interventions

69

of the future mixing and intercon-nection inside the city, though the way it is done meets a lot of criti-cism even from the participants of the project. It is interesting, the very important things completely missing in this type of intervention we saw in the project done by Informal stu-dio (the second and the last exam-ple): the dedication to the context and playful design. Seven weeks of research done by professionals and students as well as their work with the community helped them come to this conclusion and how to make the living environment better inside current conditions and doesn’t push people to leave their homes.

70

GATED COMMUNITIES

Cities and Fear: Urban Schizophrenia

as a Pattern of Cohabitation

Izabela Cichońska, 27Architect, Poland

71

If one day you have the chance to travel to South Africa you should visit one of the most unexpected places in the country, the so-called apartheid model city of Pretoria. It is one of the country’s three capital cities situated in the northern part of Gauteng Province.

At first sight it is confusing, complex, elusive, and appears to be fragmented. But if you understand its deepest secrets, then you will understand its nature as Pretoria suffers from schizophrenia.

What characterises Pretoria as a city engulfed by mental disorder? How can you translate language of disease into a socio-spatial noise generated by the city?

Schizophrenia literally means split personality. The etymology of the term has Greek roots: skhizein (to split) and phren (mind). Accord-ing to current diagnostic criteria in psychiatry, the primary symptom of schizophrenia is characterised by a breakdown of thought processes and a deficit of typical emotional responses. Studies show that we can read schizophrenia as a disrup-tion of information metabolism, which is an essential feature of life when an energy exchange occurs between a living organism with its environment.

Based on the idea that schizo-phrenia shapes the personality of Pretoria in the urban language, I will evaluate the representation of the visible dissolution of intellectual functions and emotional responses in the city structure.

A governing body of a munici-pality represents intellectual func-tions that are formed in the nature of the city. They constitute written rules, the law, morality, and respon-sibility for the safety of its residents. The authorities in their powerless-ness give privileges to the society to shape their own urban spaces. Consequently, enclosed neighbour-hoods having an impact on traffic, urban maintenance and leading to further polarisation of the city con-fine the public roads, which should be accessible for all citizens. This form of sharing power shows the fragility of intellectual functions of Pretoria.

Emotional responses represent the social order, values and sensa-tions as freedom or fear. Society is searching for its own utopia where safety and territoriality form the core of a new urban order.

This fragile connection between intellectual functions and emo-tions leads to the appearance of the core symptoms of schizophre-nia, described by psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, where the pattern of cohab-itation drifts between autism and psychosis attacks. The information metabolism of this city, which exchanges infor-mation among all social classes with its environment result in building dialogues, is inefficient. As a result, Pretoria is struggling with the ability to recognise the reality. The capacity to form judg-ments and communication skills deteriorate so much that the

72

Schizophrenic Nature of Pretoria

Gated Communities

73

functioning of the city is seriously hampered. Autism as an expression of emptiness and the lower growth of life, which is manifested by border pathology. I use the term to describe the occurrence where the bound-ary, which separates itself from out-side world, dilates, swells or even expands. It provides foundations for the creation of gated commu-nities, where certain social layers are isolated. These gated communi-ties create a sort of wall of silence and self-control. They oppose the metabolism of information and they try to withdraw from the environ-ment and enclose themselves, living their own lives with their own rules. Those neighbourhoods adopt some characteristics of the Greek polis. Pretorian poleis become independent units of citizens with its inhabitant as rulers, without creating a proper society separated from the state structures with its legal political representation. They live in a defined area and profess similar beliefs in terms of safety, freedom, and defense. However, Greek polis was the formation of urban order driven by creat-ing optimal efficiency of the city, belonging to a national group and by means of dialogue formulating a dike as a spirit of moral order and fair judgment. Fear has never been a motivation to create polis. Pre-torian poleis built on fear would never acquire the lightness of spirit and creativity characterised by the Greek polis.

The artificial freedom achieved behind the walls effectively puts its head in a noose. The persistent fear of danger reduces and weakens social networks and relationships. Social individuals become voluntary prisoners taking the form of dream-ers, powerless observers, and pre-tending to live in a perfect model of society. However, the autistic nature of Pretoria is where values go awry and the community starts to live in a fictitious world. In fact, fences become a symptom of weakness, and freedom is redefined to the bizarre form of captivity. Gated communities are paying for their own protection with the highest value of freedom. Voluntary prisoners and their visitors are constantly registered and under unlimited control of security compa-nies that they pay for. The social isolation from the world and from the exchange of information leads to a schizophrenic emptiness. Therefore, the state of increased autism and the mist of dreams, which magically surrounds the Pretoria, must be dispelled. Pretoria, which buries its own freedom and cohesion, gently decays into small independent communi-ties. This process creates a room for structure of apprehension and anxiety in between them. Conflicts between those outside and inside increase tension at the wall and leads to explosion of aggression. The right of information metabolism is stronger than its autistic tendencies. Finally, the process of breaching the limit depicts the second nature of

74

the city. It discovers new informal settlements in which the crime and aggression reach its apex in the scale of world cities. At this point, the city experiences an attack of psychosis generating assays, anxiety, halluci-nations and delusions. The walls of gated communities are vulnerable to destruction. Pretoria is portrayed in the media as being guilty of the most cruel crime, provoking further societal groups to fall into a state of autism. Nevertheless, the outbreak of psychosis means also a spurt of free-dom. The city of walls gets to know itself; it empowers individuals who can take advantage of the situation to better themselves. If you ever visit Pretoria, make sure you talk to the inhabitants. These are people who do not have the fear, who under-stand the nature of the city as though they were urban planners. The land-scape created by Pretoria is the con-sequence of a schizophrenic defect – horizontal, restricted and at first sight deprived of identity. Despite the sweltering sun you can feel the coldness and indifference. All in all, the presence of the city’s disease expresses itself in fear, while Pretoria shapes not only the physical space for living. The city has the ability to externalise the dark-est emotions and extremes of human imagination manifested by obsession about the property protection where fear and perturbation materialise. The schizophrenic pattern of cohabitation of Pretoria city leads

the structure of the city to extreme conditions, where you can see a clear division between rich and poor, where the social world is deformed and in the spirit of apartheid it becomes black and white. Pretoria city doesn’t realise that it is turning into hell. Today, Preto-ria freezes in the entire spectrum of emotions, immersing itself in the autistic condition dreaming about its freedom. But the longer the city exists, the less fearless it becomes. Who knows what it would become tomorrow?

Gated Communities

75

76

URBAN DECAY

Sentenced to Decline

Margarita Googe, 22 Marketing specialist, Russia

77

Urban decay is the process whereby the city, or part of it, shows the symptoms of depopulation: higher unemployment rates, deindustrial-isation, crime and inhospitable city landscape.1 Also known as urban rot or urban blight, this term is coming from Northern American and Euro-pean cities. With its governmental poli-cies, social and economic condi-tions, Johannesburg in South Africa has been sentenced to this status: it started as a gold-mining city, but for the past 20 years, Johannesburg has reached its highest rates of unem-ployment, crime, social inequality and segregation.2 Abandoned build-ings in the city centre, poor housing conditions, gated islands for white people, slums with outside toilets, and segregated neighbourhoods are the main characteristics of today’s Johannesburg. On the global arena, the city is still seen as extremely dangerous place with post-apartheid hangover. However, Johannesburg is moving towards a new way of development. Along with the “white flight” when more than 800,000 white people left South Africa after Nelson Mande-la’s release from prison in 1990, it’s possible to find projects aimed to improve existing conditions. Not all of them have been completed, and not all of them could change any-thing, but here’s the question: what can be done to change the situation in the city?

We need to define what type of city we are dealing with. The exist-ing image of Johannesburg is more complex than the one portrayed in the media. What if the term “urban decay” is no longer the main char-acteristic of the city that plays an influential role in the economic development of South Africa? The perception of the current situation being dramatic and critical can be traced in every proposed project on city regeneration. Decisions are being made in fear of urban decay. This representation of stereo-typed Johannesburg in the global media can be designated as a pat-tern of cohabitation – a template that was, let’s say, widely promoted outside of Africa – as it has a strong effect on people’s perception of Johannesburg being a city of crime and danger.3 As long as this vision of the city affects the existing situa-tion, this pattern is here to stay, but switching our attention to other pat-terns, may change the spirit of the city. Changing the perspective of Johannesburg having an incurable disease, and instead, considering this as a specific case that needs a par-ticular model, can be a way forwards to future development. Looking for other patterns that are already in the city but covered with the veil of the destructive image of South Africa and creating an environment for their coexistence is one way to make a positive change. This paper attempts to evaluate the existing models as a

78

part of the plan of escape from the shadow of threat and an attempt of understanding the ongoing processes in comparison with Moscow, the cap-ital city of Russia.

JOHANNESBURG 360°As with any city, different groups of citizens see the place they live in from their own perspective. In Johan-nesburg, inequality of income, hous-ing conditions and access to educa-tion colours inhabitants’ views. With these controversial representations Johannesburg looks more like slices from different pies put together, rather than one city. For me, not being a local, it is fascinating to have an opportunity to research this mul-tidimensional city while experiencing every situation. While visiting South Africa we had a chance to meet people from various backgrounds: from city plan-ners to immigrants from informal settlements. Having city tours with experts such as Brian McKechnie and James Ball, both associates at Acti-vate Architects, who work on various heritage and city regeneration initia-tives, allowed us to see the city cen-tre and new business district through the eyes of educated and experi-enced experts who have an interna-tional perspective. Then, having a look around set-tlements with local people we got a different view – the story from the protagonist rather than the narrator. A comparison of working approaches of developers both governmental

and private has showed different degrees of freedom and risk in deci-sion-making: Johannesburg Develop-ing Agency (JDA) is focusing on the city areas that need to be renovated and that were in decline, supporting its economic functioning. As Gov-ernment funds them, JDA deal with their budget carefully and develop a long-term strategy. From the other side, Jonathan Liebmann, founder of Maboneng precinct (an area that is one of the greatest examples of gentrification in Johannesburg), a young entrepre-neur who is leading the projects on city regeneration, working according to his own vision of the city develop-ment, comparing it with other exam-ples from all over the world. Visiting gentrificated areas and being warned by people about our plans to see the most dangerous districts in the city (see Transitional city) and comparing the two, gave us an idea of a city pattern that is even more complex and ambivalent than we expected. Later, comparing it with Alexandra, the oldest township in Johannesburg where the society tends to self-organisation (see Voids and density), we had the feeling of being between different cities in dif-ferent countries rather than simply riding around one city. Activists who worked in col-laboration with the Goethe-Institut for Architecture in Germany pro-vided more parts to the puzzle with their own visions based on different backgrounds and the experience of

Urban Decay

79

Before going to Hillbrow, the most criminal district of Johannesburg, we were warned by the owner of the caffee we had lunch in, who was anxiesly describing the area where local people attack visitors, getting into strangers’ cars and robbing you in the middle of the street. Popular music band Die Antwoord in their video “Fatty Boom Boom” exploitating the global perceprion on South Africa based on white stereotypes. Source: Die Antwoord, «Fatty Boom Boom», Music video and story concept by Ninja and Yo-landi Vi$$er, Produced by Zef Filmz in association with Egg Films, Battalion, and VICE

“If it’s your 1st time in the concrete jungle, just sit back and relax. Everything is going to be ok.” Source: Die Antwoord, «Fatty Boom Boom», Music video and story concept by Ninja and Yo-landi Vi$$er, Produced by Zef Filmz in association with Egg Films, Battalion, and VICE

80

Common burden of regime past: strife for satefy and independence. Private housing, Johannesburg, 2013. Photo: Izabela Cichońska

Common burden of regime past: strife for satefy and independence. Ivanteevka, 20 km from Moscow, 2013. Photo: Izabela Cichońska

Urban Decay

81

working with people from the town-ships. We saw how the energy and ambitions of young people from all over the world is reshaping the city landscape. Meeting with people who still live in shacks without any indoor facilities and then, 15 minutes later driving the bus into the middle of an entirely artificial SimCity with mani-cured grass and trees, an extra large shopping mall, a palace with a huge logo of Vodafone, empty streets and shining car showrooms has changed our vision of the possible plans for cohabitation in South Africa. All of these experiences gave us a chance to see what is going on in Johannesburg at the moment and what changes the city is ready to implement. With this new under-standing, I would like to con-sider the idea of urban decay in Johannesburg. Before the trip to South Africa, we had some expectations about the situation there: the south hemi-sphere is moving into winter and the complex political and social issues seemed so different from what we have in Russia. South Africa appeared to be completely different. However, contrary to our expectations, Moscow and Johan-nesburg have a lot in common; the similarities of two post-cities (post-soviet and post-apartheid) may have a great potential for fur-ther research that is open to new approaches of urban studies in these two cities.

POST-REGIME HANGOVERIssues of racism and discrimination in South Africa are now widely dis-cussed and integral components of the image of the country. Social seg-regation based on racism is turning to segregation based on wealth – one can face the same situation in Mos-cow with its obsession for owning property: dachas (second homes) as one of the first opportunities to cre-ate private space. Ownership is another pain-ful common topic in Johannesburg: due to historical events, all issues with property, housing and govern-mental support have played a big role in the social mentality. There are certain overlapping of the pat-terns between Moscow and Johan-nesburg that shed new light on understanding the cause-and-effect of networks. The burden of a colonial his-torical past of Johannesburg cryp-tically echoes with the Soviet heri-tage in Moscow, but current trends of development already have differ-ent features. In Moscow, it is possible to live next to your neighbour for years without acknowledging them with a simple, “Hello”. In Johannes-burg, people in neighbourhoods (where, as the media says, “Each day, an average of nearly 50 people are murdered”)4, communicate with each other with ease, greeting each other in the street, kids are playing together under the watchful eye of

82 Urban Decay

older people who are selling wares on the street in front of them. The general disappointment and anger within the South African townships has helped to generate grassroots activities, independent funds and emerging local commu-nities. The urge to deal with the sit-uation and a willingness to improve conditions with their own resources, mostly without relying on the Gov-ernment, are not comparable with pressure of constant suspicion, post-Soviet fatigue and disbelief in positive change in Moscow. Having similar stories in the past, two post-regime cities are now seeking their own path forwards: shared experiences of the “extremes” and common challenges of recovery are the features that form a special layer to the complexity of the exist-ing situation. Moreover, it is a ques-tion of values – the legacy of the regime and social change – but can new values be created and if so, how? Today, Moscow is one of the most expensive cities5 in the world but it doesn’t necessarily have a high quality of life6. People from all over Russia move to the capital in search of a better income and education, but almost nobody moves there for the conditions that provide the city, such as transportation issues, the extremely high mortgage and rents, or bad ecology, which does not make Moscow the dream place to stay. Few people consider Moscow as a place in which to stay for the long term and, for example, to bring up a family – according to a survey, 20 per cent

of Muscovites want to move to the suburbs7. Moreover, Moscow as the main transportation hub in the country that accommodates thousands of people every day who are spending anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days there before moving further abroad. Imagine a map that represents all movement in and out from the city and willingness of its citizens to live here for a significant amount of time. It seems that Mos-cow in this sense is transitional city by the general perception, but peo-ple who are brave enough to move here temporarily, spend their whole life delegating decisions of choos-ing the place to stay for the next generation.

TRANSITIONAL CITY? The settlement of Johannesburg began when gold was discovered in Witwatersrand in 1886; this discov-ery spurred a feverish gold rush as fortune hunters from all over the world descended on the area. Within three years this settlement became the biggest in South Africa. The first buildings in Johannesburg were con-structed without any consideration for a future city: it is the world’s larg-est city that’s not located near a lake, navigable river or seaport.8 The min-ers saw their homes as temporary dwellings and were ready to leave them as soon as the resources were gone. The City of Gold, as Johannes-burg was known, was considered as a source of wealth and power, but not as a permanent place to stay.

83

The symptoms of urban decay that are present today overlap with the original idea of Johannesburg being a temporal camp. Once it was regarded as a permanent city, Johan-nesburg quickly began to display fea-tures of urban decline, as the media described it. But is it even possible to say that there is urban decay in a city that is only 100 years old? Is it even right to be concerned with changes that are taking place as the conse-quences of urban decay? What if this is one of the stages of development of the future city, and its transition is just of the first phases of the city’s evolution? The experience of transi-tional status pops up again when the black population was moved from the city in temporal town-ships that, as the first settlement of Johannesburg, remains part of urban canvas. People are keep on saying that the settlements were not considered as “home” and that people perceive this place as tran-sitional when referring to the dis-order and crime records, but time shows that people are still here and from the inside these houses are furnished as homes. The image of Johannesburg as the world cap-ital of crime however, for those who have never been there, still remains. Understanding the model in these terms provokes projects that are led by people from outside that are not always successful. If the place were considered as tran-sitional, projects that are taking

place there probably would have the same vibe. Both patterns of decay and of transition that are present in Johannesburg may be depicted with another story about the decaying heart of Johannesburg.”

VOIDS AND DENSITY One can find a large amount of arti-cles that describes the city centre of Johannesburg. Here is the example: “Many of the high-rise tow-ers in downtown Johannesburg that were once polished and gleaming are now decrepit and filthy, inhabited by squatters, with broken windows and laundry hanging from the formerly fancy balconies. The streets around them are filled with garbage, broken furniture, and abandoned appliances. The businesses that used to occupy the ground floors are gone. This seems to apply to apartment build-ings, office towers, and hotels alike. Unless the owners have somehow managed to successfully barricade their properties, the buildings have all suffered the same fate.”9

The former business centre is now used differently: it is only decaying from the white business-men’s point of view who experiences a loss of control. Designed as an apartheid colonial city, it is chang-ing according to new conditions that are forming in the local society. If there is a purpose to turn Johannes-burg into a vivid place, everything is already appearing; conditions are not aseptic any more – the chem-ical reaction have begun and the

84

city centre is decaying only for the “apartheid paradigm”. Zooming out from the city centre to the suburbs, the “inside-out” model can be seen: Hillbrow that is known as the most crimi-nal district, where blacks began to settle illegally as apartheid laws became harder to enforce, is as dense as other non-central areas unlike the sparsely populated city centre. Hillbrow has a reputation for changes happening organically as not many external projects have been proposed.

This peculiar model of Johan-nesburg and its districts cannot be described in terms of urban decay that was coined to describe North American and European cities that faced the situation of people mov-ing to the suburbs or immigrants who settled around the city centre. For example, Alexandra the largest township in Johannesburg, is the old-est settlement established during the gold rush and shows signs of a strong sense of community. Alexandra is characterised from other townships in that it has always had business

Urban Decay

Panoramic view on Johannesburg

85

structure with its own economy and inhabitants owned land there so during apartheid, private houses were demolished. If comparing with Moscow again, people from Alexandra tend not to hide their plots with fences as we see in Russian capital. There are no boundary walls, but dense housing and a communal area in the street. Left to their own, they show a tendency to self-organisation, increasing public activity, whereas a survey showed that 91 per cent of residents believed the Alexandra

Renewal Project (ARP)10 did not help them in any way.11 There is a lot to learn from how a sense of ownership and opportunity for local markets can give a rise for cohabitation unlike the paternalist projects that echoes of colonial patronage.

CLICHÉS THAT BLUR THE VISIONJohannesburg is like a kaleidoscope that you can watch and see com-pletely different combinations of elements in it. A set of stereotypes that is a significant part of the image

86 Urban Decay

of the city can be read in the projects of urban regeneration; but under-standing the existing models is far more crucial for Johannesburg, rather that maintaining an endless stream of projects that are tasked to solve the problems that are themselves only one view. A pattern that is occurring against the background of “stereo-typed images” can be seen in the city neither bounded by terms of urban decay nor stage of transition. This is a model that is still very fragile: res-idents take a responsibility to create their own space according to their needs. From the outside, it looks like

chaotic Brownian motion but inter-ventions in the forms of projects have partial success, as only ele-ments that exist within the pattern can determine what and how the sit-uation can be changed. Changing this point of view means looking at the city without sadness. City planners need to focus on existing trends and their poten-tial. New understanding of the exist-ing pattern of Johannesburg can bring more explicit decisions, and thus, more significant change to the city. [1] Hans Skifter Andersen, Danish Building and Urban Research Institute, Urban Sores, On the Interaction

Empty office building in the city center and recently opened grocery market with street food sellers. Johannesburg, 2013

87

between Segregation, Urban Decay and Deprived Neighborhoods[2] https://www.osac.gov/pages/contentreportpdf.aspx?cid=10935[3] http://www.southafricaweb.co.za/article/south-african-crime-statistics[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8668615.stm[5] http://www.mercer.com/articles/cost-of-living-2012[6] http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/quality-of-living-report-2012[7] http://www.russia.ru/news/society/2012/10/24/3252.html[8] http://www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2121:melrose-211210&catid=50:visitnews&Itemid=117[9] http://gatesofvienna.net/2007/10/the-death-of-johannesburg/[10] http://www.Johannesburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=177&limitstart=4[11] http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Alexandra-renewal-project-disappointing-survey-20120620

88

CAPE TOWN

89

90

STRELKA EDUCATION PROGRAMME2013