Thesis Concept

[DIS] ASSEMBLE

How The Concept Relates To Its Users As Well As The Site

Taking the history of Old Park Station’s constant relocation, the main thesis concept is about disassembly and assembly. The graphic below illustrates the dictionary meaning behind the two words chosen which will form the key concept throughout the thesis project, from historical analysis of the heritage structure and theoretical analysis of the main users and their cultures, to the design intentions and formulation of the structures on site.

Disassemble is the act of taking something apart or to pieces. In this case, this act will be in the design of the proposed buildings around Old Park Station, the main anchor on the site, and how they operate as holding spaces around it. Transnet had an intention of transforming Old Park Station into a railway museum but the proposal was not carried through. Developers and architects tried to formulate other proposals in order to activate the structure for everyday use but none have been approved as of yet.

The steel and concrete formation is a contested space where its organisation needs to be disassembled and reintegrated back into the city. Members within the Johannesburg Heritage Trust noted that Old Park Station’s steel structure is the only heritage form that needs to be approached with great sensitivity. 

The concrete plinth that it stands on can be modified as long as it does not interfere with the steel structure above. The concrete form was not part of the original design but merely a platform for the late nineteenth century steel form to rest on. The intervention will use the notion of disassembly within the concrete plinth through its design proposal and programme so that the activities will spill out towards the proposed holding spaces located towards the north and south ends of the site in order for the entire scheme to be activated in a fluid manner in a horizontal and vertical transitional plane.

Assemble is the act of joining separate components or parts of a machine or any other object, which will form part of the design of the built forms and spaces on site. Another definition of assembly is an area where individuals can gather for a common purpose. This definition of assembly will outline the overall intention of the thesis project pertaining mainly to young adults within youth culture, although any other individual who falls out on either end of this age group within society still has the freedom to utilise the spaces within the thesis design proposal.

Activating the site via view points, access points and a thoroughfare will also form part of the assembly hypothesis.

Young adults within youth culture strive to seek some form of sub-cultural identity, often through social excitement and authentic experience, where they can familiarise themselves with and often overlook other designated sub-cultural classes that do not pertain to their personal characteristics. Individuals within youth culture often find areas where they can network with each other as a group, through technological and social systems.

The design intervention aims to unite young adults through various cultural and social activities pertaining to youth culture and subculture, so that these individuals have a space where they have the freedom to express themselves within their own form of identity structures. By initially generating a community-based support structure for the residents of Newtown and then branching outwards to other districts, with the use of the chosen programs and spaces acting as pull factors into the site, the intervention will develop users in their social and physical well being.

The key focus will be to establish a design intervention for users within the young adult age bracket between 18 and 30. Although the design will focus on individuals within this age group, other users that fall under the adult and youth age brackets will also have the freedom to utilise the spaces, granting a flexibility within the space due to its users needs; allowing more public presence to run throughout the site at different times of the day and night and, in turn, generating a sense of security through public passive surveillance. 

By also introducing adults and the youth into the site through the proposed activities, the youth will be influenced by the young adults in their involvement in some of the proposed site programs and the adults will concurrently influence the young adults but the barrier between the adults and young adults will eventually dissipate due to the transition into adulthood as well as possessing similar interests that emerge with age.