YEOVILLE STUDIO
Wits School of Architecture courses related to Yeoville
Studio 2010
© Design for planners, 3rd Year Planning students
Claire Benit‐Gbaffou, Yeoville Studio coordinator, December 2010
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Four main themes in 2010
Posters Potsiso Phasha, 4rth year / 3rd year students (Planning)
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Teaching in/for Yeoville Studio in 2010
first semester second semester total
Students
2n years 95 39 134
3rd 12 38 50
4rth 15 16 31
masters 5 5
Honours theses 5
Masters/PhD theses 1
Total 127 93 226
Teaching staff 8 8 16
Housing studio (2nd year Arch)
Kirsten Doermann,facilitator
Mpho Matsipa, facilitator
Level: Second year
Discipline: Architecture
When: First semester 2010
Number of students: 72
Theme: Housing
The course was organised in two phases:
‐ Research on themes related to housing (subdivision, rents, non residential uses of houses and flats, vacant lots…)‐Modelisation of a building for affordable housing on 4 vacant lots (Pope street) based on research findings.
One of the research theme involved a workshop with residents (15 residents, 15 students + staff) – narratives of housing trajectories and drawing of living spaces
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Housing drawing workshop
St Aidans, Yeoville
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1) Residents draws their space and take their own pictures
2) Student creates typologies that will help designing relevant housing models
Housing drawing workshop
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Housing Stories Exhibition – Africa Day, Yeoville 29.05.2010
Planning for public spaces – eating, trading, playing
Claire Benit‐Gbaffou, facilitator
Nqobile Malaza, facilitator
Level: Second year
Discipline: Planning
When: First semester 2010
Number of students: 22
Theme: Public space: eating, trading, playing
Students were divided into three groups/ themes:
‐ African restaurants (creating a database and celebrating food diversity)‐ Teenagers’ spaces of leisure (Sheikh Anta Diop College)‐ Perceptions of street traders in Rockey‐Raleigh Street
Students were requested to develop a research report and a communication strategy towards Yeoville communities
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The youth focus around specific activities
Spaces of soc ial izing are spaces wi th some sort of activi ty associated with them. I t i s prevalent that it is a particular activ ity that brings chil dren to meet i n a certai n place, as shown by the map, and areas chil dren use.
Games rooms
Parks and fields
The youth in Yeovil le from ev idence of spaces used for soc ial izing prove to be very specific i n their choi ce of activ ity, a node is created, the most common of spaces used are games rooms and parks.
Where teenagers spend their free time in Yeoville
Students facilitate workshops with 30 grade 11 learners from Sheikh Anta Diop, Yeoville
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Eating African food in Yeoville
L’Ambassade (Cameroonian food)
Kin Malebo (Congolese food)
Yeo Restaurant (Ethiopian food)
2nd Year Planning Students, 2010
Jozi Fried Chicken (South African)
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Community output (1) – a Yeoville African restaurants
guideCommunity output (2) –
engagement between restaurant owners and the City?
Research output? – Planning and food / informal economies /
planning for informality
Design for planners – looking at public space
Solam Mkhabela,facilitator
Level: Third year
Discipline: Planning
When: First Semester 2010
Number of students: 15
Theme: Learning and Playing, Living and Working, Shopping and Trading
Students were divided into the three themes, asked to choose a few sites linked to their theme and to :‐Observe‐Investigate about their site yesterday, today and possibly tomorrow‐Draw, map, graphically represent their findings‐Draft small scale interventions as recommendations
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Learning and Playing group – The Park and the Library. Observations, interviews, mapping, analysis, recommendations
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Living and working Group – the Housing ads wall
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Advanced design studio
Hilton Judin, facilitator
Level: Honours
Discipline: Architecture
When: First semester 2010
Number of students: 15
Theme: Local / Global connections – Re‐imagining Yeoville
Students were asked to propose an intervention around the idea of local/global connections as manifest in Yeoville migrant economy and social life.
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Re‐imagining Yeoville – 3 dreams
Interactive street media
Online sangoma
Popular movie multiplex
Involving Yeoville residents in re‐imagining
Yeoville?
Africa Day carnival in Yeoville,
29.05.2010
Yeoville Studio is present in the
Library Courtyard
Architecture students built an interactive scale model of Rockey-Raleigh Street; brought paint, various
material so that Yeoville residents could ‘reinvent’ their main street.
The show was very popular with children –have adults lost their capacity to imagine?
Urban design studio (Masters)
Astrid Ley, facilitator
Level: Masters
Discipline: Urban design
When: First semester 2010
Number of students: 5
Theme: Accessible Cities
Students worked on two sites – the Bedford Center and the Sports field.
They elaborated different design models and interventions, sometimes in conjunction with local stakeholders, to increase accessibility of these two spaces.
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Urban design studio (Masters)
Yeoville soccer field ‐Analysis, design,
implementation strategy…
Debating possibilities with Yeoville community
Mid‐ term report presentation, 21 April 2010, Yeovil le. Urban Design Masters students present their ideas and models for two sites, to Yeovil le community leaders, to get their input before finalising their proposal.
Other forms of feedback:
1) Broader public presentation of the models for discussion
2) Events during Africa Week
3) Possible involvement of a design firm pro bono
Urban design studio (Masters)
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Photography
Sally Gaule, facilitator
Level: 2nd Year
Discipline: Architecture – photography elective
When: Second semester 2010
Number of students: 14
Theme: Photography and the Built Environment
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Students engaged in two exercises related to Yeoville:‐They were asked to document Muller street (through street photography)‐ They were asked to do portraits of local activists, picturing them in their
Yeoville environment
Their work was included in broader Yeoville Studio initiatives:‐Muller street photographs were shown in several interactive exhibitions;
‐ Activists portraits are meant to be part of a larger research project on local activism in Yeoville
Wits Students took a variety of photographs of Muller Street, assisted by Muller street
activist and resident Wilfred Dudula.
They photographed homes and buildings, street life, street social and economic
activity…
Muller street photographic portrait
Muller street photographic portrait (2)
A workshop was then organised in Muller Street, to
present a selection of pictures to
residents, who commented on
them.
Residents were asked to chose
(through stickers) which pictures
they liked, disliked and
thought captured the street ‘as it is’.
Analysis of the conversations on
the street, the neighbourdhood, Yeoville, triggered
by the photographs,
were captured in a series of posters.
Yeoville activists portraits
(list to be completed – project to be
complemented in 2011)
George Lebone, YSF Chair, ANC branch deputy Chair
Edmund Elias, SANTRA spokesperson and street
traderMbuyiseni Khosa, CPF
Chair
Aura Msimang, cultural activist and artist
Urban Design (2nd year Planning)
Garth Klein facilitator
Level: 2nd Year
Discipline: Planning – Urban Design
When: Second Semester 2010
Number of students: 22
Theme: Public space: eating, trading, playing
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Students were asked to build on the research done in the first semester (planning for public space) and to imagine design solutions to issues identified in the fields of
trading, eating, and playing.
Tanya Winkler, facilitator
Exploring a variety of trading design interventions for Yeoville
Linear market in a pedestrianised street?
Temporary/ weekly flea market on non-built areas?
Consolidating and legalising street trading in Rockey Raleigh?
Accommodating street trading through: widening the pavement, creating parking, improving the market?
Housing (3rd year Planning)
Sarah Charlton, facilitator
Level: 3rd Year
Discipline: Planning
When: Second Semester 2010
Number of students: 11
Theme: Housing
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Students are asked to explore the links between income generation and living circumstances for low‐income residents in Yeoville, by organising a set of
interviews with people generating an income in public areas in Yeoville: informal recyclers, park photographers, car guards, spaza shop workers, street vendors, etc.
Public space used by interviewees for work:
Pavement Street Park Market
9 interviewees are occupying a portion of a room in a house or flat (more than 1/3 of interviewees). The other portion of the
room may be occupied by someone unrelated.
• ‘I stay with my husband and my kid but we are sharing a bedroom with the other woman. The bedroom is separated by a cloth… ‘
• (street vendor selling maize and peanuts)
9 interviewees (more than 1/3) are paying R650 per month or less (9/25)
Rent per month
(R)Accommodation
0 Shared room in a block in Doornfontein
0 Shared room in a block in Doornfontein
0 Floorspace in someone’s rented room in a flat in Yeoville
100 Part of a room in a house in Hillbrow shared amongst 5
110 Room in a hostel in Vosloorus
300 Part of a room in a house in Yeoville shared amongst 5
450 shared room in Yeoville shared between 2
600 Balcony of a flat in Yeoville
650 Part of a room in Yeoville shared with a women and 3 kids
650 part of a room in Yeoville shared with brother (2 in total)
Students conducted interviews with people working in the street, about their incomes and their living conditions; they
analysed their results in research reports and a short video.
Their research confirmed that Yeoville provides cheap accommodation for some
time, even if in very bad conditions.
It accommodates mostly people who earn a limited income; but also people who earn higher incomes but use it to support their
family rather than in their rent.
Urban Politics (3rd year Planning & Political Studies)
Claire Benit‐Gbaffou, facilitator
Level: 3rd Year
Discipline: Planning – Urban Politics elective
When: Second Semester 2010
Number of students: 17
Theme: City, Politics and Governance
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Students worked in group around various themes related to urban politics in Yeoville:
‐ The governance of the market‐ Street traders’ mobilisation
‐ Establishing a business forum in Rockey‐Raleigh street‐ Church politics and local integration‐The governance of the ANC branch
‐ Community management of ‘bad buildings’
Special focus on trading in Yeoville
Board of Directors
CEO
Executive Committee
General Manager
Operations Manager
Market Manager9 Member Traders
Committee
Market Traders
MTC
Yeov ille Market
Co-Managers
1. Exploring issues in the market governance 2. Understanding the possibilities and challenges of a business
forum in Rockey Raleigh
Shops within shops – are formal shops, formal
businesses?
3. Analysing the challenges of street traders mobilisation
Issues identified were:
-Should the market stalls be allocated on a
temporary or permanent basis?
-To what extent the market integrating foreign traders?
- Do market leaders have a say in the
governance of the market?
Students explored the relationship between street traders block
leaders and bigger organisations (SANTRA, YSF)
Architecture Project (Honours)
Naomi Roux, facilitator
Level: Honours
Discipline: Architecture
When: Second Semester 2010
Number of students: 8
Theme: Yeoville stories
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Students are asked to write a visitors’ guide to Yeoville, including historical information and a set of thematic self‐guided walking tours, on a variety of themes: architecture, political history, music and culture, African diversity.
A series of thematic visitor’s guides to Yeoville, relying on
Yeoville StoriesThis research project was conceptualised and
realised in close conjunction with Yeoville residents from the Yeoville Stories workshops, with the intention of creating a product that can be left behind in Yeoville for future use and additions.
Students have developed a book collecting various aspects of Yeoville histories: Yeoville, A Walk Through Time, as well as series of thematic visitor’s guides to Yeoville: Arts and Culture Tour, Political Tour, African
Palette, and Architectural Walking Tour.
Yeoville Stories – a research project
Naomi Roux,CUBES
researcher
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Sophie Didier,Research director: French Institute of
South Africa
Yeoville Stories is a research project jointly run by Sophie Didier (French Institute of South Africa) and Naomi
Roux (Wits).
Through workshops, art making, mapping, photography and
storytelling, we have been working with a group of Yeoville residents to think about Yeoville as a place of “ordinary” memory and personal
significance.
Some of the questions discussed in Yeoville Stories workshops include:
‐What are the journeys that brought residents to Yeoville?‐Which places in Yeoville mark important memories or events for residents?‐What are residents’ experiences of living in Yeoville?‐What are residents’ hopes for the future, both for themselves and for the suburb?
Yeoville Stories photo‐maps: charting significant spaces
Who is Johannesburg for me?
Johannesburg is like an old woman, a kind grandmother, who took me in and looked after me when I first arrived from Zimbabwe . This grandmother has a beautiful granddaughter, who I fell head over heels in love with: this beautiful young woman is Yeoville, where my home is now.
Wits students theses (completed or in progress)
Matthew Jackson, 2010, Planning Honours Student, Exploring the nature ofinformality in Yeoville: the case of two African restaurants. Completed.
Obvious Katsaura, Planning PhD candidate, Minority groups and communitypolicing – the case of Yeoville and Diepsloot.
Arsene Ngombe Masieta, Development Planning Masters Student, 2010, Urbanregeneration in Yeoville: a study of rent levels before and after building renovation.
Willy-Claude Hebandjoko Mbelenge, Development Planning Masters Student,2010, Exploring relationships between formal and informal traders in Rockey-Raleigh Street, Yeoville.
Eulenda Mkwanazi, 2010, Planning Honours Student: In search of spaces forparticipation in a diverse community – the case of Yeoville. Completed withDistinction.
Potsiso Phasha, 2010, Planning Honours Student, Youth perceptions of publicspace in Yeoville: an Autophotographic Approach. Completed with Distinction.
⋯ Look at our electronic archive on Yeoville Studio website!
Wits staff involved (2010)
Kirsten Doermann
Claire Benit‐Gbaffou Astrid Ley Naomi Roux Zakiyyah Ayob
Neil Klug Nqobile Malaza Garth Klein
Hilton JudinSolam Mkhabela
Mpho Matsipa Tanja Winkler
Alan Mabin Sally Gaule21
Sarah Charlton Hannah Le Roux
Aly Karam
Keshmita Sogan
