Multi-Nodal interchange hub

Abstract

This thesis explores city making, specifically good public space. The City of Tshwane is envisaged “to become the leading international African capital city of excellence…” (TICDRS; 2005: 5). Public transport is identified as being one of the interventions for achieving this vision. The Tshwane Spatial Development Strategy 2010 and beyond state that “the ability to travel from one place to another is a basic requirement of a successful metropolitan area.” The inner city core and the Marabastad precinct represent the heart of the Inner City and its Capital City significance. The main feature defining Marabastad’s character today are the public transport systems contributing to the area as being an intermodal transport node (IUDFM; 2002: 253). This thesis develops a multi-nodal transport interchange hub in Marabastad at the Belle Ombre train station. The program of the building is made up of three parts: Firstly the building defines a new public square in front of the Belle Ombre train station that is also the termination point for the green strip running through Marabastad, as planned in the Integrated Urban Design Framework for Marabastad. This square also provides a spill-out point for all the commutors of the various transport facilties surrounding the square. Secondly to provide formal facilities for the proposed new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and inner city distribution bus system, and thirdly to provide a connection for these new transit systems to the Belle Ombre train station. The building will have a mixed use character with programs such as informal market, offices and transitional housing units. “Transport interchanges have become the agora of the newly democratic state, the place of maximum commercial exchange and social interaction” (Deckler; 2006: 59). Copyright