Browsing by Author "Le Grange, Simone"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    [Co]Building for A displaced community: the conduction of place-making strategies as a means of addressing spatial segregation
    (2023) Davids, Ismaeel; Le Grange, Simone
    The provision of adequately -designed housing alone will not eradicate poverty, and on its own, will not completely change the quality of life of people living in the Cape Flats area. The dissemination of houses has marginalized its recipients and disrupted communities through prescriptive and homogenous development that was brought about through Apartheid spatial planning. The appalling planning of housing typologies and poorly defined residual spaces that make up most of the Cape Flats have resulted in a series of neighbourhoods that sorely lack a sense of place. This dissertation examines the topics of: resilience, claiming the right to space, amenities and place-making in the face of adversity within Hanover Park. My aim is to draw inspiration from the existing infill spaces that subsequently manifests into a speculative design proposal to harness ideas of polyvalency and heterogeneity which will aid in alleviating the cycle of poverty. How can Hanover Park's poorly defined residual spaces within the existing stagnant built form be improved to enable communities to participate in the process of place -making? Further, how can a reimagination and adaption to existing fabric be modified to allow for sensitive and careful expansion in support of creating well-defined public and private spaces? The conclusions drawn from this line of enquiry should lend itself to a clearer understanding of the opportunity that lies within Hanover Park's unheld residual spaces to house the diverse pool of micro-enterprises and activities that transpire in the community. Further, it heroes a system of community-embodied spatial design as an act of resistance to histories of forced removals and displacement.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    CPUT & District Six - Bridging the Gap
    (2023) Mmari, Isaac; Le Grange, Simone
    Through focussing on and contrasting historical and contemporary District Six, this thesis aims to uncover relevant and innovative ways of integrating the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) to the District Six community by means of alterations and additions in order to bridge the gap between its past and its present. Within the context of the District Six Development Framework, this investigation seeks to uncover potential opportunities for both social and spatial integration of the educational institute to the district such that a mutually beneficial relationship is formed between the two. As a means of providing necessary historical context to the document, the first section focuses on the district's contentious history, the urban qualities and principles that allowed it to thrive, as well as its negative relationship with the more recently established CPUT. Next, the document focuses on storytelling as a form of human expression and, through unpacking theories on architectural semiotics and the use of architecture as a storytelling medium, I show how storytelling manifested itself into the built fabric of historical District Six. This, in combination with Richard Florida's theories on the "Creative Class", are used to illustrate the possible significance of storytelling in the future reintegration of the district Six community. The third section focuses on methods of architectural parasitism and alterations as a means of extracting lessons for transforming CPUT's inward-looking architecture into one that allows it to expand it into its surrounding context. Finally, the lessons extracted from precedents of parasitic architecture and architectural interventions, as well as those uncovered in the historical community's methods of storytelling, are combined in order to form the design principles used to further the proposals of the development framework and rewrite the story of CPUT's relationship with its community
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Gymnastics as a tool for social cohesion_reimagining the Sports Facility along Klipfontein Road
    (2023) Smith, Chelsea; Le Grange, Simone
    This dissertation sets to explore and interrogate the role of well-integrated public social space and reimagining the sport facility in a post-Apartheid city. It highlights an issue of access to well-resourced sport facilities as a result of apartheid spatial planning affecting marginalised communities. It will investigate the role of sport and social space in an urban context. This thesis aims to highlight the significance of sport and public space which is integrated into the urban fabric – and use a national gymnastics school as a part of this social integration through an architectural response. The outcome of this research will look to an appropriate architectural response which can promote connections between residents, school goers and commuters through Athlone. It will contribute to a reimagined intensified edge of Klipfontein Road with mixed-uses as an urban proposal. I will explore how a national sports facility can positively add to the urban landscape as a landmark whilst being incorporated into a carefully designed public precinct. My response to the architectural and social aspects of social revitalisation through sport will be developed through the exploratory study of concepts, literature, theories, relevant precedents, case studies and technical studies will justify the appropriate design development.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    How Can We Live Together?
    (2023) Rikhotso, Rhulani; Le Grange, Simone
    The research aims to explore an informal settlement called Hopefield (commonly known as “Kapok”) in Ennerdale. It has been a point of inquiry that sees a need for infrastructural development as well as social engagement to fulfil the idea of a self-sustaining community. The outcomes for the research are that of socio-economic improvement strategies, skilled labour utilisation, and cultural awareness to shift negative narratives associated with Kapok to build upon the positive spatial and sociology-economic strategies that exist within the informal settlement. This intervention has been a lingering thought since my childhood, seeing that I had spent equal time in both formal and informal parts of Ennerdale. It is worth exploring, with the knowledge of South Africa's oppressive history in pinpointing how it has shaped the issues that are prevalent in Ennerdale today, just as much as they are also prevalent in most townships across South Africa.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    On the Periphery: a place of transition on the East City and the redevelopment of District Six
    (2023) Moerat, Firdous; Le Grange, Simone
    Continuing the narrative of the cityboth my relationship and its history, the design dissertation suggests the city to be a place of inclusivity rather than its previously racially divided past. It finds itself at the east periphery where forced removals had divided the dynamic community of District Six and its link to the city centre. The structure of the document begins with the spatial experience of the city ‘edge', having no lived experience of the community, one can only feel the disparity of an once abstraction of place to its now bare land. The document is divided into four parts to introduce the city at the time of its first nations to its present, post-apartheid. Part One explores the city in a linear structure, the work of Linda Graaf suggests that the city, by colonial and imperialism has influenced the spatial formation of the built environment. This is analysed alongside the formation of District Six in understanding its social and economic influence of place and proximity to the city. Part Two collects the spatial every day that made up the social life of District Six. It analyses the architecture which is suggestive by Jan Gehl to be the physical structures that support the everyday to take place. Key elements of the built fabric are analysed for its layers of transition from home to street and also, community to the city. Part Three closely investigates the east periphery where the residential grain had established itself into the city centre and later dissipated by forced removals, creating a disconnection. This part of the design dissertation introduces site and the importance of the site being in proximity to the city and where gentrification is on the rise. Part Four elaborates on the spatial transitions of place across scales. This is integral to the design dissertation as it suggests a place of transition between the city and the redevelopment of District Six. It further explores the concept spatially and suggests ways in which the site can benefit transition beyond its boundaries. It imagines a dynamic place on the periphery where the exclusive and the incoming community share place. This encourages a city that is inclusive for all across class categories.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Pietermaritzburg as an Afrikan City: Re-establishing the Identity of the Central Business District
    (2023) Seethal, Maxine; Le Grange, Simone
    My design dissertation is concerned with the complex history and current conditions of city centres in the Global South and specifically in South Afrika. The central areas in many of our cities, conserve and preserve a colonial and oppressive identity in their built environments, which continues to exclude and restrict marginalised groups from accessing resources, infrastructure and opportunities that cities provide. Since colonisation, architecture discourse has been strongly in favour of Eurocentric narratives and ideologies. As a result, cities around South Afrika continue to hold a legacy which restricts and hinders their development towards becoming more just, inclusive and sustainable for its current and future occupants. Furthermore, our cities still reflect and represent, the Eurocentric infrastructure which we continue to replicate and repair, is unable to respond, adapt or adequately keep up with the rapidly growing population moving into cities. My inquiry looks towards re-establishing the identity of South Afrikan cities and their urban environments, to better embody an Afrikan City in a post-colonial context. In countering the heavily influenced colonial environment, I reimagine the city through an Afrocentric lens with prioritises Afrikan voices, experiences, and histories, as a means of better representing an Afrikan identity in our urban environments. The project is focused on the City of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal. In starting to reimagine and re-establish the identity of Pietermaritzburg's CBD, I consider a mixed-use precinct in the heart of the CBD, which will serve as a catalytic site for urban renewal and act as a pilot site for Afrikan-centred development in the city.