Memoryscape : Reconciling Everyday City Dwellers’ Memory with Pretoria’s Heritage Narrative

Abstract

Museums, much like any other historical establishment, reflect the perspectives or bias of the people who created them (South African Heritage Online, 2011). The socio-spatial contribution of museums in the City of Pretoria (Tshwane) has diminished significantly. Existing museums are not fully integrated or engaged with their physical, social, political, or historical contexts and, as a result, are not freely utilized by all the communities they currently claim to serve. Museums tend to be destinations that are placed outside the everyday conditions and lives of the citizens and, as a result, are on a trajectory to become obsolete. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) took place in South Africa as a means of facilitating healing and forgiveness of past human rights violations during Apartheid. The TRC forms an integral part of South Africa’s heritage narrative of moving away from Apartheid and into democracy. Currently, the TRC is under represented and, as a result, memories are slowly being forgotten. This dissertation embodies the TRC principles of ‘translation’ and ‘transparency’ through a new contextually driven museum typology. The design acts as a translation medium between the Pretoria National Archives and the general public in the same way that the TRC intended to function as a healing medium through which South Africa’s exclusive Apartheid society could be transformed into an inclusive democratic society. The aim of the Architecture is to express this narrative and encourage the continual healing process of this young democratic capital while aiming to free the existing museum typologies and turn them into inclusive, relevant and dynamic avenues of expression and change for all the communities they serve. The vibrant south-eastern corner of the Sammy Marks square block in the inner city of Pretoria is used for the development of a democratic museum that absorbs and translates the everyday nature of the background and its users through the extraordinary lens of the TRC principles. ‘Memoryscape’ contemplates the creation of the extraordinary museum nestled within the hustle and bustle of the city’s daily routine. Memoryscape explores the museum as a multi-layered typological manifestation that gives the TRC relevance and prominence in the current context. The programs of museum, living archive and a forum theatre, act as land- scapes through which the general public and tourists can learn about, experience, express, and record their own memories and experiences on the topic of this society and its on-going journey towards truth and reconciliation. By reclaiming the past, contemplating, express- ing, and recording the present, and projecting towards the future, memoryscape intends to immortalize the intentions and memories of the TRC and what it endeavoured to achieve.