The street as a stage: an alternative to an arts centre in Mamelodi West

Abstract

The spatial legacy in South Africa has resulted in fragmented urban environments and development in peri-urban areas, such as Mamelodi, is often implemented with a top-down approach. The focus of development tends to be on connecting these hinterlands to the cities with affordable transportation and trying to satisfy needs for basic services and amenities as quickly as possible. This has resulted in the implementation of solutions that are not place specific but instead tend to be generic models implemented on a large scale. The danger therein lies that projects implemented might not be appropriate to communities and could become dysfunctional and underutilised. Part of the process of developing a solution should be the acknowledgement of the everyday in a specific community; the way in which space is produced, appropriated and the everyday rituals. The intention of this dissertation is to re-conceptualise what an art centre could be in the context of Mamelodi West, the historic centre of Mamelodi. Through an understanding of the everyday, what is generally considered a mono-functional program is re-imagined as a diverse intervention integrated into everyday life and ritual. The dissertation proposes one possible means of connecting isolated communities using the commonality of the need for both individual and collective expression of identity to cultivate gemeinschaft; address misconceptions of the value of the Arts and propose a way in which the spatial legacy can be redressed.