PUBLIC MEDIATOR

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Johannesburg, 2013

Social Development, Theoretical, Architecture

Just as the Berlin Wall separated East and West Germany, the elevated M1 highway, named the De Villiers Graaff motorway after the leader of the United Party who led the opposition during three terms of the apartheid government, is a physical representation which embodies a complex reference to segregation and historical precedent of apartheid in Newtown. “The motorways, conspicuously, did not connect into the vast black ghetto locations. In part they acted as a visual and movement barrier to reinforce segregation”.

The concept for the design proposal (an identity tower) acknowledges the urban constraints of Newtown (physical separation, poor accessibility and lack of visual direction into the space). The identity tower’s intention is to alleviate these constraints by linking the M1 highway, formulating as an urban public transport route, to that of the tower which performs as a landmark (visual beacon), a public podium (drop-off point into Newtown) and a mediator (an object which forms as a gradual circulation) between the horizontal heights. This promotes pedestrian accessibility into the precinct and creates a marker for Newtown. The identity tower is also expected to  create a gateway into the precinct by means of a visual direction indicator and an orientation beacon (like that of the Hillbrow tower). Identity formation and the creation of an urban image is its aim where cultural remembrance and aesthetic reconstruction are a central part in the architectural and urban planning.