Explorations In Urban Design & Architecture Individual Work Assignment

Explorations In Urban Design & Architecture

Multi-Layered, Mixed Neighbourhoods In Newtown, Johannesburg

Mint Road, Fordsburg

Following our group urban design framework proposal, we were required to choose a site responding to our group analysis. Our design had to respond to the context into which it was inserted as well as relate back to the Open Building concept. It needed to cater for the diverse needs within the area, a selection of occupancy options and affordability levels.

The main intention of Group A's urban design framework was to link Fordsburg Square to Oriental Plaza via Commercial Road and transform it into a fully pedestrianized walkway. This was the site I was going to focus on upgrading for the community of Fordsburg.

The History Of Fordsburg Square & Oriental Plaza

Artist's impression of the events that formed Fordsburg Square and Oriental Plaza © Diana Wolny 2015

From January until 14 March 1922, there was a strike against the gold miners and their employers due to a wage cut per shift for the black miners and retrenching the higher paid white miners for more affordable black miners. The strike became an open uprising where the South African Army as well as the Air Force were called in to bombard Fordsburg Square. These miners dug out large trenches next to the municipal toilet on Mint Road, a building that sheltered them from the army and would later become a heritage building to commemorate this day. The South African Air Force were informed to bomb the square from above but hit the nearby Presbyterian Church on Mint Road, which is now also a heritage building within the area. This day became known as the Rand Rebellion or Rand Revolt.

Today, Fordsburg Square is one of the main areas of Indian culture in South Africa and is an extremely colourful and lively meeting place for the community as well as its visitors.

Fietas was a flourishing community consisting of the Indian, White, coloured and Malay population before the 1970's. It was made up of two suburbs, being Pageview and Vrededorp, and in the late 1970's most of the community was forcefully relocated to other suburbs during apartheid under the Group Areas Act. While bulldozers broke down existing homes and the resident's belongings were thrown onto the streets, some people of the community stayed within the area in informal settlements while the majority vacated the area to places such as Lenasia and Eldorado park while the Indian traders regrouped in the space now known as Oriental Plaza.

Today Oriental Plaza is a successful tenant-owned shopping mall where people from all over South Africa come and do their shopping mainly over the weekends. The shop owners provide their customers with a unique shopping experience with great deals in what ever they are selling and is definitely the major attraction within Fordsburg.

My Concept

The Intention of my conceptual design was to allow pedestrians to have an enjoyable and exciting journey between two historical landmarks within Fordsburg.

I began analyzing Commercial Road by marking out the active retail edges, hard and dead edges as well as informal seating and street trade activities. I noticed that the street traders along this edge did not have a specially allocated area for them to operate their business and were also open to the natural elements.

After defining the areas mentioned above, I then began designing a sheltered space for the street traders that also responded to the active retail edges as well as giving the opportunity to create active edges along the hard and dead edges, not only on the ground level but also at the first level of some buildings.

I noticed that the restaurants and cafeterias along Mint Road and Central Road did not have formal outside seating for their customers and discovered that this was due to the by-laws within those roads. Due to this observation, i wanted to further activate the edges on Commercial Road by adding outdoor spaces for the public to utilize for whatever their needs would be for that time therefore relating back to the Open Building concept.

I allocated areas for outside seating, sheltered street trade and gave the public a green roof to sit on and enjoy the view points towards Oriental Plaza and Fordsburg Square, further linking the two historical landmarks together. A paved area and water fountain area were also added for the public focusing more towards the children occupying the space, giving them areas to play sports as well as a water play area open to the elements.

I also added more trees within this corridor to aid the public in finding their way easier towards each node when approaching the area off Mint Road, Central Road, Lilian Road and High Street. After this exercise, I began cutting away at buildings on the ground and first floors, added volumes above existing one to two-storey buildings and pushing certain building edges out to create an interesting space for the public to move through down this corridor. I opened up part of Fordsburg Square again to commemorate its sole purpose and enhanced the public and green space in that node with the addition of a fountain area in the middle. I moved these traders down Commercial Road to further upgrade the hard and dead edges within the existing road.

I gave the potential for the public to access possible trading spaces on the first floor of certain buildings from the view points in my structure to further deal with the relationship of the lower and higher levels within the corridor.