Building Landscapes
Sunnyside, Pretoria
How can architecture create a sense of place to
mend the fracture between cite' and ville?
Introduction - A city’s duality
The dissertation was challenged with finding ways in which the built environment (ville) could be used in more innovative ways in order to improve lived experiences (cite’) in the city of Pretoria. Aligned with the city of Tshwane’s Regenerative vision, to restore the lost character of Pretoria, a city once part of the natural landscape, this project identified ways in which his lost character could be restored and subsequently celebrated.
Research Issues
Urban issue
The fractured city - Pretoria’s positivst city development favourd the build environment (ville) and has had negative spatial and cultural consequences on the lived experiences (cite’) of the city. As a result, space has become physically and socially fragmented and ‘lost’.
Architectural issue
Placelessness - The lost sense of place of the city of Pretoria caused by the fracture between cite’ and ville.
Architectural intention
The intention of the project is to mend the fracture between cite’ and ville by re-establishing Pretoria’s lost sense of place and to create a social, economic and environmental resilient city whilst being sensitive to the history of place.
Theoretical premise
Place-making as a tool to mend the fracture:
Three place-making strategies were used to improve the cite’ in Pretoria and assist in realising the latent potential of the lost character of place caused by Pretoria’s positivist planning.
The three strategies are:
To celebrate the everyday rituals
Reconnect with nature
Use phenomenological experiences
Through fostering a new sense of place through architecture that could evoke phenomenological experiences, celebrate rituals of the everyday and re-establish man’s connection with nature, the architecture was able to mend the fracture between the cite’ and ville on the chosen site in Trevenna, Pretoria.
Conclusion
This dissertation was challenged with finding ways in which the built environment (ville) could be used in more innovative ways in order to improve lived experiences (cite’) in the city of Pretoria. Aligned with the city of Tshwane’s regenerative vision, to restore the lost character of Pretoria - a city once part of the natural landscape, this project identified ways in which this lost character of place could be restored and subsequently celebrated.
Three place-making strategies were identified to improve the cite’ (lived experiences) in Pretoria and assist in realizing the latent potential of the lost character of place caused by positivist development planning.
The first strategy was to create a sense of place by identifying and designing for the everyday rituals and activities that were already taking place on site. It is these everyday rituals that produce social space and contribute to a sense of place and belonging within a city. The architecture therefore needed to become a facilitator for these everyday rituals without formalizing and restricting their functions. Informal trading was identified as one of the everyday rituals contributing to the sense of place in Travenna. Instead of attempting to contain the production of space through very restrictive formalized spaces, the architecture rather became a platform that could support these rituals, by providing areas where the vendors could prepare their food and at the same time have access to skills sharing initiatives provided by the business incubator. By designing a platform for these rituals to take place freely rather than restricting it formally, opened up the possibility for future appropriation and thus improving the socio-economic resilience of the city.
The second strategy focused on designing for phenomenological experiences in order to allow a user to experience deeply and in so doing converting a physical location into a place. The concept of atmosphere consisting of a combination of physical space and perceptual impression, was used to stimulate the senses and allow for these phenomenological experiences to take place. The proposed architecture attempted to evoke these experiences through the new relationship created between the building and the landscape. Immersing the user in the landscape and restoring their spiritual and productive relationship to the river, allowed for interactions between, body, environment and imagination.
The final strategy was to create a sense of place through a strong connection with nature. The place-making opportunities identified in Tshwane’s regenerative vision, was focused on areas with a confluence of nature and city as these areas would celebrate Pretoria’s lost sense of place as a city - part of the natural landscape. This rediscovery of place was identified as an opportunity for unifying man and nature. Inherent biophilic design principles were used in the architecture to elevate the relationship between man and nature form superficial to deeply authentic, thus assuming a role as mediator as it re-establishes man’s connection with the natural landscape.
Due to the qualitative and theoretical nature of this project the success will always be difficult to quantify. However, this project aimed to prove that by applying the above mentioned principles when designing our cities and thinking differently about the built environments we create, some insight could be provided into the opportunities for better lived experiences and subsequent ‘healthier’ cities.
In the end, this dissertation aimed to mend the fracture between cite’ and ville by fostering a sense of place through architecture that could evoke phenomenological experiences, celebrate rituals of the everyday and re-establish man’s connection with nature.