Weaving Urban Belonging: Reimagining Urban Space for dignity and inclusivity through placemaking
Supervisor: Tariq Toffah
Research field: Socially Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design
Site location: Maker’s Valley, Lorentzville, Johannesburg
Client/ stakeholders: City of Johannesburg (CoJ), Makers Valley Partnership (MVP) & Victoria Yards
Key words: Culture, Art, Craftsmanship, Afrocentric Placemaking, Circular economy, Inclusivity
Abstract
The mini thesis proposes a mixed-use precinct named Indawo Yethu (Translation: “Our Place”): The Makers’ Junction. Indawo Yethu reimagines an abandoned site at the intersection of Derby Road and Viljoen Street in Makers Valley, as an infill, community anchored mixed-use precinct along a proposed green corridor which connects to CoJ’s Makers’ Way proposal. Situated in a socially fractured urban fabric marked by unemployment, inequality, and urban decay, the project aims to restore dignity and belonging through Afrocentric placemaking and introduces an inclusive typology where people can live, work, play, and learn.
Johannesburg’s inner-east neighbourhoods are home to diverse yet vulnerable populations of artisans, migrants, and unemployed youth. In Makers Valley alone, nearly 44% of residents are aged 15–34, and close to half of these young people are out of work (Statistics South Africa, 2020). Amid these challenges, the area remains alive with creative enterprise from carpenters to welders, textile designers, food crafters, urban gardeners and street vendors, shaping a vibrant informal economy. Indawo Yethu builds upon this spirit, proposing spaces that elevate everyday community life and craftsmanship into catalysts for social and economic renewal.
The project’s material and spatial language draws from the organic organisation of traditional African homesteads, using courtyards as social anchors for making, gathering, and exchange. Soft edges and set-back frontages create gradual thresholds that celebrate the street as a communal space, dissolving barriers between inside and out. A woven canopy structure threads between buildings, shading public activity while symbolising connection and shared identity. The architecture employs earth-toned and neutral materials to evoke warmth, tactility, and cultural authenticity. These tones provide a calm base - a blank canvas for local craft, art, and expression - reinforcing placemaking as a celebration of people, makers, and shared culture. Grounded in circular-economy principles of reuse, repair, and participation, the project aspires to transform Makers Valley into a living urban homestead: a woven landscape of creativity, inclusivity, and hope for Johannesburg’s next generation.
