Johannesburg [Re]Framed:
Redefining urban dynamics for sustainable transformation
The City of Johannesburg Land Use Scheme is a crucial document that defines the boundaries of Johannesburg’s people and determines how the city is structured. This ‘powerful’ document promises to “promote economic growth and social inclusion”. But unfortunately, Johannesburg is now plagued by a multitude of pressing socio-economic and environmental issues that are unfortunately only getting worse (something the scheme has promised to promote but unfortunately is falling short of). The design project studies and critiques the Land Use Scheme of Johannesburg and questions whether clauses within it cater to the needs of the vulnerable or the elite. Located along End Street as the project experimental site, the project utilises the concept of Protopia (a state of gradual improvement over time) that emphasises community engagement, as a lens to identify the clauses that are having a prevailing consequence on the physical site of Johannesburg and are hindering public ability, thus worsening the socioeconomic conditions. It also studies the phantom clauses, ones that extend beyond the textual framework and rather expose a one-sided arrogant perspective on site. The Design Project advocates for a participatory and inclusive vision of urban development and hacks the framework by dissecting the language and structure within these clauses to seek loopholes that may favour public needs. Through a series of propositional tests along End Street, urban strategies are created to alter the framework and question existing polices with an overall aim to promote transformative thinking of city making thus increasing economic mobility and gradually improving the hardship of its people.
