Informal Studio Ruimsig

SHEBEEN DESIGN PROPOSAL

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:07:00 -0400

SPAZA DESIGN PROPOSAL

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:46:00 -0400

CHURCH DESIGN PROPOSAL

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:14:00 -0400

WETLANDS DESIGN PROPOSAL

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:02:00 -0400

URBAN FRAMEWORK

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:52:00 -0400

EDGES

MOVEMENT

NATURE

LAND-USE

MAPPING

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:06:00 -0400

GROUP SPAZA

Community Architects: Irene & Rosalina

Students: Salome, Sean, Dean & Julian

Maphita Family

Residents drawing of the house

Students drawing of the yard

Lifeworld map

Axometric of the yard

House plans & interior elevations

Procurement mapping

Family Portrait

Residents drawing of the yard

Students drawing of the yard

Life world mapping

Axometric of the house

House plans and interior elevations

Procurement mapping

GROUP WETLANDS

Community architects: Watson & Alfred

Students: Dana, Jarryd, Mathew & Miguel

Family portrait

Residents drawing of the yard

Students drawing of the yard

Lifeworld mapping

Axonometric of house

House plan ande interior elevations

Procurement mapping

Family portriat

Residents drawing of yard

Student drawing of the yard

Lifeworld mapping

Axometric

Plan & Elevations

Procurement mapping

GROUP SHABEEN

Community Architects: Julia & Mildred

Students: Daniel, Karabo, Taswald & Zakeeya

Family portrait

Residents sketch of yard

Students drawing of the yard

Lifeworld mapping

Axometric

Plans & Elevations

Procurement mapping

Family portrait

Residents sketch of the yard

Students sketch of the yard

Lifeworld mapping

Axometric

Plans & Elevations

Procurement mapping

GROUP CHURCH

Community architects: Albert & Jemina

Students: Dirk, Dewald, John &Trisha

Family portrait

Residents sketch of the yard

Students sketch of the yard

Lifeworld mapping

Axometric

Plans & Elevations

Procurement mapping

Family portrait

Residents sketch of yard

Students drawing of the yard

Lifeworld mapping

Axometric

Plans & Elevations

Procurement mapping

(2009, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:27:13 -0400

(2009, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

(2006, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:26:28 -0400

(2006, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

(2003, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:25:14 -0400

(2003, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

(2000, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:21:52 -0400

(2000, City of Johannesburg, GIS)

A SHORT HISTORY OF RUIMSIG

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:10:00 -0400

The Ruimsig informal settlement emerged in 1986 on land which was once a farm situated on the western edge of Johannesburg. According to the “Household Enumeration Report” authored by CORC (Community Organisation Resource Centre) in October 2010, the farm had been owned by a “while lady known as ‘Ou Messies’” who left the farm in 1986 and then rented it to a Mr Anthony Snybosch. Snybosch then started charging the three families living on the farm rent of R20.00 per month. One of these original farmworkers became a rent-collector for Mr Snybosch, allowing other families to “come and go” on the farm. “This,” according to the Enumeration Report, “was the start of shack farming” in the area.

Sometime after Snybosch started renting, the farm was bought by the Johannesburg municipality and in about 1998 more families arrived and started to build shacks. They were initially charged a rent of R20.00 but this kept increasing until it had reached R120.00 per month. At this stage the settlement consisted of about 58 shacks, a small proportion of today’s approximately 350 structures.

Increased settlement in the area was precipitated by new developments on Johannesburg’s western periphery – the laying out of a new golf course, the development of a new athletics stadium and the construction of thousands of new high-density townhouses which now dominate the landscape. Construction workers hired to work on these projects moved into the area between 1998 and 2000, a period of institutional uncertainty when planning functions in the City had become almost inoperative.

At the time of the enumeration survey (October 2010) there were about 290 shacks in the area inhabited mainly by people who were working for construction companies. This has resulted in a community with a demographic profile skewed in favour of young men (191 male heads of households vs. 50 female heads of households, with an average age of 35 for all heads of households).

Many of these men have significant building and landscaping skills. This is borne out by the sophisticated building techniques and inventive planting evident in the settlement today.

The enumeration survey provides an interesting snapshot of this rapidly evolving settlement. At the time of the survey (October 2010)

· The community numbered approximately 780 people, of which 370 had some kind of work, mainly part-time employment.

· About 30% of the population of Ruimsig is younger than 18.

· About 242 children of Ruimsig attend school – mainly in the government schools located in Zandspruit (Tswlelopele and Masakhane Primary and ST High), 10 kilometres from Ruimsig

· Of the 241 households surveyed there were 43 households with more than one family living under the same roof.

· The highest number of families living in one household was 5.

· One household consisted of 12 members.

· Four households had 7 members.

· Seven household had 6 members.

· The average household consists of three members.

· Less than a third of children in Ruimsig receive social grants suggesting that many children lack identity documents.

· Statistics about household expenditure proved unreliable. However there are number of useful indicators about the ‘lifeworlds’ of residents including: the use of paraffin as the dominant cooking fuel, walking as the major form of transport to/from work, and rental payments ranging between R100 and R658, in the rare cases where people are paying rent (23 households out of the 241 households surveyed pay rent).

· Most residents have not applied for housing subsidies. Of those who have applied, many have been on the waiting list for less than 5 years.

· The period people had been in Ruimsig ranged between 18 years (for the original farmworkers) to two years for the newer residents.

· People of Ruimsig come from diverse areas like Lesotho, Limpopo, North-West Province, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

· Electricity was identified as the most urgent need by those households surveyed.

All information sourced from CORC (October 2010) Ruimsig Informal Settlement: Household Enumeration Report. Drawn up by the Community Organisation Resource Centre, Informal Settlement Network, Federation of the Urban Poor, and Ruimsig Community leaders.

Informal Studio: Ruimsig

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:03:00 -0400

This blog documents research by Architectural Masters students in Ruimsig, an informal settlement on Johannesburg’s western periphery. The work is the outcome of a collaborative project by students in the Department of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) and the local residents of Ruimsig. This project is being run with generous support from, and in partnership with, the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg.

Ruimsig studio – photo T. Deckler

The course surfaces at a pivotal time in South Africa, as the country embarks on a new housing strategy which acknowledges the reality of informal settlements and seeks to upgrade them. This represents a radical departure from the state’s earlier position which sought to eradicate informal settlements by 2014. The initial target of the new strategy is “to upgrade 400 000 shacks in well-located informal settlements within the next three years”.

The project is intended to encourage students to seek out the rich design clues embodied in informal settlements. Through their engagements in Ruimsig (including the establishment of a temporary studio in the local church building within the settlement), students will be exposed to the resourcefulness of making-do inherent in the spatial and social structures of an informal settlement. Students will also learn to look and listen, guided by members of the local community who are assisting them in their interviews and mappings.

This mode of practice represents a valuable counter to the view of the ‘heroic’ architect, able to design successful ‘solutions’ to ‘social problems’. Instead, the most important lesson for these prospective architects is that, rather than imposing their own perspectives, they can learn from the residents of Ruimsig who have successfully managed to design for themselves.

Recognising the value of ‘architecture without architects’, the 16 UJ masters students, paired with eight ‘community architects’, have embarked on a rigorous mapping exercise of Ruimsig. Working closely with the community, the students have developed a clearer understanding of the complexities of everyday life in this particular informal settlement, with the intention of proposing a range of strategies to improve local living conditions. The essential step in this process will be the ‘re-blocking’ of the settlement – a set of recommendations for the sensitive reconfiguration of plot boundaries to provide both security of tenure for the residents and to improve the delivery of essential services for the community (including access to water, sanitation, energy, fire-fighting services and social amenities).

Mapping quadrants and student groups with community architects – drawing M. Millar

The project runs over a seven-week period (18 July – 2 September). It forms part of the curriculum of a brand new Masters curriculum housed in Department of Architecture of UJ’s FADA. This collaborative studio represents the third of four seven-week design projects which make up the first year of the two-year MTech Architectural Technology (Prof.) programme, directed by architect and Senior Lecturer, Alexander Opper.

For the Informal Studio: Ruimsig project, architect Thorsten Deckler (26’10 South Architects) has been invited to develop a studio around these complex themes and challenges. Collaboratively with Professor Lone Poulsen, Alexander Opper and the staff body of the Masters programme, Deckler has conceptualised a studio which represents an urgently needed shift in the education of architects in South Africa. This studio for prospective architects represents the latest iteration of Housing and the Informal City, an on-going research project initiated in 2008 by 26’10 south Architects in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, South Africa. This collective research by 26’10 and Lone Poulsen can be accessed at www.housinginformalcity.co.za

Through the experience of Informal Studio: Ruimsig, students will learn to engage with communities around real needs and challenges of informal settlements; learn how residents have developed place-making strategies without the aid of architects and other planning experts; make suggestions for improving tenure and service delivery; develop a robust urban framework which acknowledge the positive role of self-building; and develop convincing arguments around density, economy, occupancy, flexibility and programmatic complexity.

To this effect a studio has been set up within the settlement where students and teachers are working with local community architects in a process guided by NGOs and grass-roots organisations such as the ISN, CORC and Ikhayalami representing the needs and priorities of inhabitants in informal settlements. A vital component of the course is the linking of theory and practice, ‘clients’ (residents) and service providers (students and teachers) is a process of mutual learning and exchange towards finding implementable solutions for the improvement of life in the informal city.

The results of this project will be publicly exhibited together with a documentary film of the entire process.

Please follow the activity on this blog, for more information on the work in progress, as well as dates and venues of public exhibitions and presentations. For any detailed queries, please contact either Thorsten Deckler (thorsten@2610south.co.za), or Alexander Opper (alexo@uj.ac.za).

Text by Alexander Opper, Thorsten Deckler & Melinda Silverman

MAPPING

The first 3 weeks were spent mostly in Ruimsig actively mapping the area together with eight community architects (volunteer residents from Ruimsig). More about this in the next post…!

Ruimsig community architects – photo A.