Embodying space : Capture Image Gallery

Abstract

The city of Pretoria has a diverse mix of people moving in and around it. This dynamic, ever-changing movement, combined with the city’s cultural diversity, renders it ideal for an investigation into the relationship (or lack thereof) that exists between the moving body and architectural space. The city and its architectural spaces are viewed as static. The human body and its movement is dynamic. These static spaces cannot always accommodate the dynamic movement taking place within and around them. This leads to a lack of dialogue or interaction between the two, causing a tension which is further aggravated by the fact that they are situated within a constantly changing environment. The aim of this thesis is not only to examine the relationship between the city and the human body moving through its architectural spaces, but also to provide the platform for an investigation into the establishment of an active dialogue between the two. CAPTURE is envisaged as an experimental laboratory in the city of Pretoria. It aims to rejuvenate the city’s CBD, as well as to develop and promote arts and culture through the creation of a public exhibition space. It is a design intervention intended to create a space which captures and navigates its users through it, by exposing them to the different functions facilitated within it, as well as to the space and to each other. The introduction of this spatial intervention, informed by the existing pedestrian movement through an identified public thoroughfare, will encourage an active dialogue between the user and the space. Public art, in the form of the photographic image, has been identified as a possible means of communicating the user’s surroundings to him/her. This, in turn, may encourage interaction with, and interpretation of the space.