Towards an architecture of inclusivity : the building edge as the articulated urban connector, encouraging multiplicity and restructuring power relations

Abstract

The City of Tshwane’s story is intrinsically linked to power, due to its role as the administrative capital. The built form of the city centre reads as a palimpsest of the architectural expression of how socio-spatial relationships have changed over time. Today however the spatial fabric is largely representative of past socio-spatial relationships of control rather than of transformation. These heritage buildings have contested memories associated with them. There is a disjunction between government architecture and the architecture of the everyday. This disjunction directly undermines the current government’s desire to make governance more accessible and to provide space for citizens to be participants in creating thriving democratic South African cities, and the capital ofTshwane in particular. This dissertation focuses on how architecture can translate invisible ideologies through built space and form, and investigates how architecture can reflect an attitude of inclusion and transformation. The research question poses: “How can architecture redefine the relationship between government and citizens in the City of Tshwane through introducing a new spatial government typology and succeed in making government more accessible?” A more inclusive architectural typology is explored though a design led investigation into how architecture can redefine relationships between government and citizens; government architecture and the city; and new architectural insertions and contested heritage. Existing heritage, typologies and spatial devices found in the City ofTshwane are reinterpreted to articulate and integrate an architecture of inclusion that simultaneously builds onto the continuum of its history while creating spatial transformation and cohesion with the urban fabric.