The Making of Absence
My project examines the historic inner city area of Ferreirasdorp, a historically rich and culturally diverse place that is today defined by a state of absence and memorialisation. I studied the neighbourhood through the concept of the palimpsest by examining historical traces of communities past, engaging them to define a new present.
Ferreirasdorp began as a town that emerged from the discovery of Gold on the Witwatersrand; thus, cheap labour migrated to the area, creating a diverse and culturally rich melting pot. Today, the area is largely devoid of cultural life and social activity. Instead, it holds a graveyard of monuments to times past.
I proposes not to erase the palimpsest of historical and cultural traces but rather to make the lost spaces and cultures more present by bringing memory and activity back into the site. I do this by studying the spaces that brought different cultures together, permitting cultural exchange in the past rather than enforcing a particular culture back into the space.
My proposition manifests through connected fragments of space that house multiple programmatic functions, allowing for the celebration of multiple cultures in one place, as Ferreirasdorp did in the past. This enables people from different cultures to see themselves reflected and echoed in the new space.
