The Receptacle: Cultivating safe space for women at Constitution Hill Precinct, Johannesburg

Abstract

Recent statistics have shown that Violence Against Women (VAW) affects one in three women worldwide. Not only is the issue prevalent at a global scale, it is embedded in the societal fabric of South Africa. Women and girls disproportionately experience public and private environments as unsafe due to the fear or threat of violence against them. Thus, limiting their movement, use and occupation of space. In essence, such instances of violence infringe upon a women’s human rights. In 1996, two years after South Africa became a democracy, it was necessary to manifest physically through architecture the symbolic significance of South Africa’s Constitution. An opportunity for architectural intervention is identified at the Constitution Hill Precinct. The aim is to make more visible and practical advocacy of women’s rights through establishing an association of the Precinct as a safe space for women. The study, through mixed qualitative methods, explores the feminist notion of safe space to understand safety, as both a practical and social construct, is integral to reflect the lived experiences of women. Design principles to guide the architectural intervention are subsequently synthetized from primarily theoretical informants, followed by conceptual, contextual and programmatic informants. The result is the translation of safe space into an architecture of lived experience; where the threat of fear or violence does not intimidate nor limit the occupation and use of space by women; but fosters spaces of empowerment, healing and upliftment. By programming underutilized in-between spaces along the East-West thoroughfare of the Precinct, through a transformative approach towards heritage, the advocacy for women’s rights is made visible and attains an association as a place where women are received and celebrated. Focus is placed on the Western edge of the Precinct to explore social and public programmes in support of women and the community at large. The existing parking lot structures, identified as lost space, are adapted to reflect an architectural intent of safe space and become spaces of meaning and contribution towards the Precinct. Finally, technical resolution of the project stems from the conceptual intentions of the design intervention; expressing a transformative approach between old and new.