Supervisor: Dr. Dario Schouland
Research Field: City Making
Keywords: Markets, Residency, integration, urban fabric, social cohesion, empowerment, resilience
Abstract
Marabastad is not just a precinct; it is a scar and a living testament. Once a vibrant heart of Pretoria, it was fractured by forced removals, leaving a legacy of displacement and disconnection that lingers in its soil. Today, it stands resilient but vulnerable, its unique urban pulse—driven by a raw, authentic street market culture—threatened by the dual specters of generic urban erasure and insensitive development. This project confronts this precarity directly.
We see this insensitivity in interventions like the Townlands social housing project. With its fenced-up walls and high-rising towers, it creates a sterile "estate" typology, turning its back on the very community it claims to serve. It stands as a looming, constant reminder to the lower-income people of Marabastad of what they are excluded from, failing to speak the language of the street.
This architectural proposal is a counter-narrative; an act of healing and re-weaving. It rejects the fortress. It reintroduces housing not as an island, but as an open, porous framework deeply integrated into the existing fabric. The design champions the informal and formal traders, weaving their lifeblood into the architecture itself, creating a place where living and commerce bleed into one another.
By fostering true "ownership of space," this intervention empowers residents and grounds the community, giving them "staying power" against displacement. This is not just about building; it's about bringing "eyes on the street" to better security, and creating a destination that invites all of Pretoria back—not as spectators, but as participants. This project aims to restore Marabastad as a celebrated cornerstone of the city, proving that development can honour and amplify a place's soul, not pave over it.
