Complexity + Connection: Looking at Harare Square in a Context of Transformation

Thomas, Anna

Complexity + Connection: Looking at Harare Square in a Context of Transformation

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Abstract

There is a collective harmony that erupts from group dynamics and behavior. We can see this in a flock of birds, a school of fish, or herds of land animals.1 A collective movement and grouping as one, that has the impression of centralized and intentional control as a group, yet all evidence has found that flock motion is the aggregate result of individual actions. Each member of the flock, the herd, or the school is acting on the sole basis of it's own individual and local perception of it's immediate environment.2 “... and the thousands of fishes moved as a huge beast, piercing the water, They appeared united, inexorably bound to a common fate. How comes this unity?” - Anonymous poet, 17th century A bird participating in a flock holds the necessary behaviors that allow the movement coordination required for it to move with it's flock mates. Flocking theory is essentially the behavior gathered from a large group of individual agents that interact with each other to create emergent collective behavior. The same principle can be tied to a community of people. How can we liken this behavior to a community? Group dynamics are almost the silent co-partner that creates a community. Every member of the community is an independent agent, and their actions, movements and contributions have an impact on the greater motion of the whole. As external participants of a community that architects and designers often find themselves to be, it is important to recognize the role that is required of you, and act in a way that uplifts through improvements rather than dictates through change. This is done through a communicative approach, and the communication of what is desired through design is brought forward through a collective interaction whereby participation is essential. So how can we, as the designers of these spaces in which community self organizes, create space that facilitates, contributes, uplifts, and empowers public entities to create healthy urban environments that are able to morph and improve over time. Doing so without altering the organic organization of the social world, but rather nurturing this through physical space. The theory of this project is based off my site of choice, Harare Square in Khayelitsha. Working in this space was an eye opening experience, where the contrast of my own life is so apparent, and the desire to transform this space is one of a delicate yet important nature. Throughout this project it is important for me to realise the impact that architects have within and around a space. It brought about an awareness that I have always known, yet through this project the gravity of it's importance became apparent. That is, as the architect one must not step into these environments with a notion of fixing, but rather with the narrative of contributing to the working systems and elements which are already successful within these spaces. There is a classic image of architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, gesturing towards a scale model, which represents an urban design proposal. It is the quintessential example of a top down approach where the human scale is overlooked and the birds eye view is optimized. In comparison, the image below represents a community engagement approach to design, where members of the public are welcomed in to participate in the initial stages of the design process, in this case a bottom up approach is favored, and the question of design is looked at from the human scale. The question of what human scale is, and what it entails, will be interrogated later on in this paper

Keywords

Architecture, Planning and Geomatics

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