urban scans_corridor cultures_1 collecting_2 scanning_3 imagining

general

project 3 will ‘scan’ an area of 500 by 5000 meters along a corridor from johannesburg cbd to and through rosettenville along von wielligh street, rosettenville road, turf road to main street. you will identify physical, cultural, social, historical and economical layers and variables that make up the realities of each specific piece of urban fabric and reconstruct those narratives.

photographic recordings and other mapping techniques will serve to represent this complex phase together with a proposed research matrix, two existing udf’s for the area and a transport plan in the making. unstructured interviews will be part of the scanning process ‘to expose the researcher to unanticipated themes and to help him or her to develop a better understanding of the interviewees’ social reality from the interviewees’ perspectives.’

(unstructured interviews by yan zhang and barbara m. wildemuth, https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~yanz/unstructured_interviews.pdf)

based on the specific findings, a vision for the selected areas will lead to the next project, an urban design framework for greater rosettenville with emphasis on north south as well as east west connections.

rosettenville

rosettenville/ la rochelle is a suburban area at the southern edge of johannesburg’s mining belt. formerly known as destination for mainly white portuguese speaking immigrants, it has undergone substantial demographic, cultural and economic change since the official fall of the apartheid system. although located in close proximity to the joburg’s cbd, a race course and one of the most attractive water bodies of the greater area, rosettenville seems somehow cut off the metropolitan development. the school of architecture & planning has embarked on a 2 year city studio in and around rosettenville, under the auspices of cubes. 

process

we will look carefully at what is there, now, then ask for reasons why? the task is to detect multiple causes for and behind the current status quo to then envision and implement possible future change: identify actors and agents, rules and (ir)regulations, borders and boundaries, programmes and people, control and exclusion, urban and economic morphologies, landscapes and languages, green space and toxic environments. the project looks at rosettenville/ la rochelle in context rather than an isolated entity and uses the corridor as exiting section from the cbd to the south of johannesburg. the idea is to construct an intellectual urban argument on basis of rigorous visual analysis.

production

1 collecting

base maps:

plan, sections, elevation scale 1: 1000 – 100, print out scale to be confirmed with lecturer

axonometry of selected areas

photographic storyboard and drawings, see template samples:

edge conditions, catalogue

interviews:

5 people per student

work produced in section 1 is collaborative and should be accessible by for work in section 2.

2 scanning

visual matrix, mixed media, follow research matrix:

a -historical development

b- urban + economic morphologies

c- 24/7: timetable + programmes

d- borders, boundaries + movement

e- landscapes, languages + typologies

work produced in section 2 is individual yet complementary to each other re: a full scan of the corridor. each student is responsible for scanning the full lengths of 5km through one theme.

3 imagining

- develop visions for the corridor that responds to the idea of an inclusive city and successfully merges formal and informal components.

- envision mixed-use, mixed-income, non gated (sub)urban neighborhoods to live, play and work with pedestrian access and green spaces in the given context

- consider the development of a public space system that is based on the use of public transport for a maximum variety of city users.

- integrate sustainable urban elements, consider the future of the mine land

- critique the existing udf documents through your vision

- simply ask: what if…

visions have to be communicated in a graphic format (visual narrative).

section 3 is an introduction to the next project.

evaluation

the submissions will be marked as follows:

content  40% 

idea and concept for analysis

scales and layers covered, understanding of subject matter

originality, innovation and relevance of scenarios for vision

techniques  40% 

research, method, process and presentation

presentation  30% 

clarity and quality of the presentation

aesthetics and quality of visuals

language

completeness

weighting

the project is worth 25% of the year mark

sampling, scanning: 20%

imagining: 5%