Feast the city : a new food market to connect the rural and the urban

Abstract

The daily routine of every human is structured by the belly. Not only is food important for survival but also initiates the most fundamental ritual in the everyday, eating. It forms a catalyst for socialising from the essential to the festive level. Architecture of the everyday should be able to accommodate these rituals. By using food and the ritual around the table as analogy, an architecture that is viable everyday can be studied. This dissertation further stresses the importance of the architect as anthropologist, where the designer should be preoccupied with the study of ritual and meaning in a cultural context and so translate it to the built environment. A food market is proposed in the Pretoria Central Business District (CBD). In the contemporary city, supermarkets have dominated the urban fabric. As it is the place where one buys one food, the supermarket becomes the anchor point in the city landscape. With the current global climate crisis, the way people live is questioned, even the manner one goes about to buy food. Supermarkets have dominated the market and let the consumer be isolated from the producer and the rural landscape. Not only has the supermarket cover the interdependency of the urban and the rural but also eliminated the social aspect that surrounds the procurement of food. The opportunity of a vibrant public area is replaced by a place of efficiency. The proposed market should be a means to reinstate the relationship between the urban society and the rural landscape. The opportunity what food creates for social engagement should be activated in this public space. This new market is sited west of Church Square, near the Steenhovenspruit. This area is in a state of despair, with vacant buildings and abandoned land. The only buildings in close proximity are high rise residential buildings; the Kruger Park Complex that is currently vacant and; Schubart Park Complex that is in need of urgent maintenance. A new framework proposes densification of the area to create a new community in the city. This vacant land can be regenerated by initiating a new concept for a food market in the city.