The Art of Urban Generativity : an analytical case study documenting the process and impact of a-formality in Mamelodi East, Gauteng

Abstract

The following study situates itself within the Post-Modern, post-positivist epistemological paradigm that seeks to approach urban informality (and more appropriately, a-formality) within the South African township landscape, not as a problem to be solved, but rather as a generative manifestation of being – and the de facto restitution of prevailing urban inefficiencies engendered through applied Euclidean zoning practices. Specifically, the architectural complexities of urban informality as the embodiment of socio-cultural values, and the efficacy of these architectural complexities to manifest real change within the urban environment.

Theories and methods of Smart Urbanism, Complexity Science, Urban Informality and Urban Morphology are investigated and applied as a means to understand this emerging architectural complexity as a physical manifestation of urban identity and its physical impact on the original urban fabric, given as empirical evidence. A qualitative empirical data collection, followed by qualitative, interpretive analyses of urban informality at various scales forms the basis of the research method.

The neighbourhood consisting of the Khalambazo and White City Sections, in the African township of Mamelodi East, Gauteng, is utilised as a case study to critically analyse and document urban a-formality and emerging architectural complexity. As is discussed within the current study, complex agents of a-formality within the chosen study area are entities informed by contextualised, location-specific human relationships that are temporally and spatially interrelated with each other. Emergent complexity inherent in urban a-formality leads to context-specific multi-functional urban morphological alterations that contribute to urban transformation over time. Positive urban transformation is made possible through the generative adaptability of multi-functional localised complex agents over time.

Therefore, Mamelodi East is a significant case study to understand our Post- Apartheid urban condition, from where we can learn to enact meaningful change that responds to the existing dialogues that have already been established. The analysis and documentation of urban informality within townships, as forms of complex emergence manifest in built form, can enable a deeper understanding not only of the new South African condition but also of the global human condition.