Abstract:
In South African townships, the realities of the scarcity of public spaces or poorly maintained and derelict recreational sites, are a continuous phenomenon. Additionally, the scars left from the apartheid spatial planning
resulted in a perpetuated fragmentation in the urban fabric engendering further issues of public facilities’
accessibility. This research-led dissertation, aims to rethink the function of public spaces in townships by acknowledging their multi-layered facets and their transcendence beyond mere services. Through a mixed-method
of enquiry and a pragmatic approach, the study takes on a contextual discovery of the narratives and networks
emerging from the sites; linking to the importance of socio-cultural sustainability in design. The results are then
used to generate a “dispositif”-architecture as a set of architectural explorations, using the polyvalence of the
notions of the in-between and twin-phenomena to articulate recreational spaces at different scales (urban to
human) in a holistic manner. The scope of the research is to explore ways to reveal the agency of recreational
spaces in townships and their contribution towards urban cohesion. The study turns towards the regeneration
of neglected existing cultural and recreational sites to transform them into places with meaning for people rather than afterthoughts of development schemes, so that they not only fit within their context but also showcase
the diversity and values of the community using them.
