INFORMAL STUDIO: R U I M S I G is the third of four intensive 7-week Masters projects to have taken place in year one of the new two-year MTech Architectural Technology programme offered by the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Department of Architecture. This specific project focuses on informal settlement upgrading.
The public exhibition, which opens on 21 September, at Goethe on Main, will summarise the project and its layered and complex process. The collected work on exhibition will portray, primarily through film, the challenging dynamics inherent in the teaching of this course, and the necessary shift required by architects, educators and officials to acknowledge and engage with the informal city and its networks.
The studio in Ruimsig, pictured above, was housed in a building which serves as a community church and meeting place.
(photos and montage by Alexander Opper).
As a pilot project, focusing on informal settlement upgrading, its significance is potentially catalytic as its realisation will exemplify government’s goal of upgrading 400 000 informal households by 2014.
In this context, students collaborated with ‘Community Architects’ from Ruimsig over a period of seven weeks. The collaboration with Ruimsig residents led to the development and illustration of strategies for the sensitive community-driven upgrading and formalisation of the existing settlement. This exercise builds on the inherent spatial qualities of a settlement which has, over a period of more or less 25 years, grown and evolved into a vibrant, dynamic and self-designed place.
The UJ Architecture Masters programme seeks to facilitate collaborations between students and specialists – spatial practitioners selected for their expertise – to inform rich and steep curves of learning through Johannesburg-specific projects.
In the case of the current project in Ruimsig, Alexander Opper, senior lecturer and programme leader for the Masters programme, approached architects Thorsten Deckler (of 26’10 south Architects) and Prof. Lone Poulsen to contribute their experience in the context of earlier work conducted in informal settlements. INFORMAL STUDIO: R U I M S I G is a continuation of Housing and the informal City, a research project initiated by Deckler in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut in 2008 (see http://www.housinginformalcity.co.za/).
The current project in Ruimsig has been very generously funded by the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg. For detailed documentation of the Ruimsig project and process, please visit: http://informalstudioruimsig.tumblr.com/post/8441272867/informal-studio-ruimsig
A little more information about Ruimsig and the project:
Ruimsig is a relatively small informal settlement on the north-western periphery of Johannesburg. It serves as the site for a pioneering studio for architecture students, which aims to highlight the necessity and challenges that come with in-situ upgrading in the informal context.
Partnerships with the community, several NGOs, as well as the National Upgrade Support Programme (NUSP), have been put in place to ensure that the work produced by the students is closely informed by inhabitants’ immediate and long-term needs.
Students, teachers and residents have worked together intensely, in a temporary studio in the settlement, to produce a map towards the sensitive ‘re-blocking’ (or site-specific formalisation) of Ruimsig. Apart from the primary re-blocking exercise, various site-specific strategies, for short and long-term upgrading and sustainable growth of the settlement, were also work-shopped and tested, together with the community.
On the 1st of September, the project outcomes were exhibited to community leaders and residents of Ruimsig, as well as to representatives from the various participating NGOs, NUSP, project partners and officials from the City of Johannesburg.
Goethe on Main address: 264 Fox St, City & Suburban, Johannesburg, 2094.
Directions to GoetheonMain from the M1:
Keep left (east) where the M1 forks onto the M2 towards the City, Durban and Selby. Follow the signs for M2 Durban. Take the Joe Slovo turn-off, keep right. Take the Market Street turn-off, keep right. Cross the traffic lights. Continue straight onto Commissioner Street. Turn right at the first set of traffic lights onto Betty Street. Take the first right into Fox Street. Drive to the top of Fox and turn into Berea Street. Arts on Main is the building complex on the corner of Berea and Main Streets. GoetheonMain is in the white Art Deco building on the Main Street side of the complex.
Safe parking is available on Main Street (on the other side of the road to where GoetheonMain is located).
The exhibition runs until Sunday, 2 October 2011. Goethe on Main opening times:
Tues. & Wed. 10am-4pm
Thurs. 11am-8pm
Fri. & Sat. 10am-4pm
Sun. 10am-2pm
Mon. closed
Project Acknowledgements:
Thanks go to a number of people and institutions for valuable assistance with, participation in and contributions to the various stages of this ongoing project:
Ruimsig Community: The community of the Ruimsig informal settlement, including Dan Moletsane, Dingaan Matia, the community leadership and the eight Community Architects (Irene Mohale, Rosalina Mphuti, Julia Mashaba, Mildred Thapeni, Albert Masibigiri, Jemina Mokoena, Watson Sibara, Alfred Mthunzi.
UJ Students: Dewald Badenhorst, Dean Boniface, Dirk Coetser, Dana Gordon, Zakeeya Kalla, Daniel Lyonga, Julian Manshon, Matthew Millar, Karabo Mokaba, Jarryd Murray, Trisha Parbhoo, Sean Pillan, Taswald Pillay, Miguel Pinto, John Saaiman & Salome Snyman
Lecturers: Thorsten Deckler (of 26’10 south Architects), Prof. Lone Poulsen & UJ’s Masters teaching staff (Suzette Grace, Heinrich Kammeyer, Leon Krige, Alexander Opper, Melinda Silverman & Christo Vosloo)
The Goethe-Institut Johannesburg (particularly Lien Heidenreich and Cara Snyman)
And also: Steve Topham (NUSP); Andy Bolnick (Ikhayalami), Connie Molefe (of the Roodepoort Athletics Stadium management); the staff of 26’10 south Architects (particularly Shameema Davids, Soleil Jones & Anne Graupner); Max Rambau & André Mengi (CORC); Tolo Phule and Lungelo Mntambo (Delite Visual Archives Studios); Pheagane "Jakes" Maponya, Pumla Bafo &Thabo Molaba (City of Johannesburg); Lisa Ngagledla, Nomahlubi Ncoyini & Pricilla Mario (for sharing the expertise of the Sheffield Road community in Cape Town) & Mzwanele Zulu (ISN, Cape Town)