Pietermaritzburg as an Afrikan City: Re-establishing the Identity of the Central Business District

Seethal, Maxine

Pietermaritzburg as an Afrikan City: Re-establishing the Identity of the Central Business District

Master Thesis

2023

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Architecture

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