Informality:
Johannesburg’s true horizon
My project investigates informal trade in Johannesburg’s inner city. I argue that informal trade, a dominant economy in the inner city, is constantly maligned and marginalised. Through my research, I have sought ways to usurp the dominance of the image of formality in the city with that of radical informality. The city should embrace the opportunity and promise of informality in its urban form.
Informal trade is a major point of conflict in Johannesburg’s inner city. Many of the study participants that I spoke to use informality to make a living for their families by locating stalls near transport nodes with significant foot traffic. To appease existing formal businesses and attract more, the local government has removed informal traders from the inner city at various historical points.
Through this conflict between informal traders and the city, I saw it as important to find a means to support and entrench informal trade in the city, creating a space where informal trade could flourish as a central part of the city’s economic future. This proposition takes the form of a major infrastructural scaffolding that supports and celebrates informality. A food quarter and an arts and craft quarter programme the space as anchor tenants to promote its use.
