Citizen Connect : shopfront for government services

Abstract

Citizen Connect : a shopfront for government services with the greatest public interface, is a civic centre for the users of Pretoria City Centre and serves as the headquarters for Citizen Connect branches to be implemented throughout the country. Batho Pele principles: a better life for all South Africans by putting people first, have been put in place to address the service delivery challenges facing a democratic South Africa. Batho Pele, a Sotho translation for people first, and slogan being: Together beating the drum for service delivery, put forward principles such as increasing access, openness and transparency, value for money and providing information to name a few. Citizen Connect brings together National, Provincial and Local government departments, which have traditionally been provided in dissipate locations, in a single location. By providing services that the citizen most frequently uses, the centre offers time saving opportunities but also aims to strengthen the ideals of citizenship when the user is in or around the centre. Citizen Connect is located in the Sammy Marks precinct, a catchment node of movement, public space, business and government, to the east of Church Square, and placed in the Sammy Marks development. The Sammy Marks development occupies an entire block and is in an existing joint public and private development and a convenient location for the citizen. The development has an existing culture of inter-block movement and cross bridge connection. The intervention takes place on the south and eastern portion taking into consideration the proposed hotel and the Lewis and Marks building, with its heritage significance. The intervention spreads into the public domain, creating and strengthening the public sphere by implementing urban quality criteria as space for people. The aims of the intervention are to indicate a new direction for civic architecture, create an architecturally positive environment by exploring interface architecture. Copyright