Healing Fietas : using architecture as a healing catalyst to revive the lost memories of place and space

Abstract

In addressing the issues of heritage loss, the significance of the past plays an important role in the reconciliation of the present that demonstrates true progress. Most heritage responses, which focus on the commercialisation of pleasant historical narratives, is yet to perceive such progress that shows evidence of improvement from its contentious past.

The dissertation presents an architectural proposal that addresses the issues of historical lost space, that currently burls the link between heritage and progress in the renewal of historical environments that lack physical evidence of its past. By identifying the possibilities within the reinterpretation of time and place, an architectural narrative is generated through different scenarios relative to the story of place as a possible response to the progress of lost heritage.

The intervention investigates the manifestation of multiple social, cultural, and educational programmes within the suburban context of Fietas, Johannesburg. The historical environment of Fietas which currently serves as a constant reminder of loss, has struggled to preserve its historical memory of place, that has now been lost from public awareness. Therefore, the intervention seeks to revive lost memory through new programs that will integrate its immediate surrounding context to ensure its sustainability. The dissertation argues that the narrative of loss relative to the South African historical impact, is an important narrative to include in the preservation of an inclusive historical memory. However, this narrative should not be fixed nor static in communicating the story of place through architecture. The narrative of loss serves as an invaluable informant towards generating spatial narratives that invoke the true story of place.

The architectural exploration aims to enrich the livelihood of the community, through a healing process encouraged by spatial experiences that revives and preserves lost memory, whilst enabling a notion of progress through the reinterpretation of the past that creates new meaning and memory of place throughout the passage of time. The aim is to generate new architecture from the significance of the past that is commonly overlooked in re-establishing a relative continuum in architecture that demonstrates the true progress of space and place from the past.