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(En)Countering Archive
Meditating on…Writing In the past few years there have been several new publications, writings, considerations and contemplations around the concept of archive, its making process, meanings, ideologies, manifestations and contestation. This piece is a meditation on what it would mean to contest the ‘archive’ through a post-colonial approach; it contemplates an alternate counter-archive, embedded in…
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Migration as Cosmological Technic
Questions on Cyclical Migration Why do Tswana tribes amongst other tribal groups in Southern Africa cyclically migrate? This is a story of the Barolong Boo Rra Tshidi clan of the Tswana tribe who have now settled in Makgobistad. Makgobistad is a large village situated in the northern part of the North West province, on the…
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Urban development in Northern Namibia: Questions around the displacement of local spatial practices
There was little to no specific interest on the spatial development in northern Namibia towns, how they could be responsive to existing practices, and how existing domestic practices could be integrated into urban development and planning processes.
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The Center, the In-Between and the Periphery
I have a keen interest in cities and the urbanisation process. I can trace this interest to my experiences growing up in an apartheid era black township. I feel this has increased my awareness of the challenges of housing, economic development, and the lack of social integration my home in Soweto has with the rest…
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Surveillance and Civic Institutions: A presence and/or absence
This article has been developed as an excerpt from my Masters’ Thesis Project developed at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, South Africa in GSA Unit 14 GSA Unit 14 reinforces its interest in Rogue Economies – those subversive economic practices, tactics and transactions that shape contemporary Johannesburg in bewildering dramatic ways. As…
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COVID-19 and the concept of “Urban Triage”
Re-Blogged from Point of View by: The concept of ‘Triage’ in medical terms refers to “the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.” Could we apply this term to thinking in urban terms to repurpose elements of the city…
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The Anti-Atlas
This project started with a map, a 1930 colonial map of Dar es Salaam created during the British administration. I couldn’t help but be enticed by the beautifully drawn, meticulous historical maps I found in the library of Ardhi University during our field trip to Dar es Salaam. Fuelled by my interest in stories, I…
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South African Backyard Rentals: A Case for Support
Backyard rental accommodation is a prominent practice within South Africa’s current set of housing options. Despite the immense popularity and prevalence of this form of housing – possibly due to its lower visual prominence in comparison to informal settlements – it has been largely neglected by policymakers and researchers until fairly recently (Scheba & Turok,…
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Community Caution
“ …this project exemplifies community architecture…”, “…the community built this structure….”, “…the community protested against…”, ”..the community agreed with….” When one read these sentences captured in the above picture, hears these When one reads these sentences captured in the above picture, hears these phrases, or even shares these words in your practice or institutional spaces,…
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No Such thing as a Community Centre – Workshops
The first workshop which was funded by the CTIN grant received by 1to1, served our needs to facilitate a shared learning experience between our researchers, who we identified via a social media call and by reaching out to youth activists in our network. We hosted a workshop at the Tshimologong Hub where we unpacked the…
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Challenging Practice @ UJ
Since 2013 1to1 has been teaching in the Professional Practice module of the University of Johannesburg’s Masters program. Each year we have asked the students to submit their work on this platform to grow and deepen these questions on critical engagement and spatial justice in South Africa. Their work is carefully documented and shared by…
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Hactivate: Vrededorp
1to1, alongside a group of former interns and students, set out to develop a mechanism to support recently graduated students of spatial design. Through a series of discussions and workshops the collaboration formed an idea of developing a series of action research workshops that give current students and pre-professionals a flexible and open space to […]…
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Methods of Engagement
The critical practice module at the GSA was held at the beginning of the year, unlike previous years. This allowed us to respond to previous years’ feedback requesting the course be at the beginning of the year – because of the type of commitment the course requires and the course’s tendency to act as a…
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Critical Practice Course – Professional
1to1 has used the ASF UK Challenging Practice course to introduce the principles of critical reflection, systems design and empathetic design for Built Environment Practitioners and Government officials in Johannesburg. Challenging Practice is a short course methodology that exposes practitioners of the built environment to the complexity of working with communities, government agencies and other…
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Guidelines for Engagement
OUTLINE: The 2018 module follows on the success of the last 5 years of the ‘Alternative Practice’ model supported by Architecture Sans Frontieres UK’s Challenging Practice Model in 2016 & 2017. The focus this year was on Guide Lines for Engagement for socio-technical spatial design engagement for practice in South Africa. BACKGROUND: The South African…
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Trying to understand Spatial Inequality in South Africa
Image Reference: Davis, R.J. 1981. The model of the apartheid city according to Davies. [online]http://books.openedition.org/irdeditions/1807?lang=en Workshopping Spatial Inequality in South Africa On 14 February some people* gathered at The Point and discussed some basics around the topic of Spatial Inequality in South Africa. The discussion was mostly anecdotal and involved us sharing our ideas and…
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Tools of Engagement
The 2017 UJ Critical Practice module sought to engage with the principles, practices and practitioners of socio-technical spatial design. The 5 week module took students through various processes and tools to support their learning around these principles and produced a set of principles and codes for practising socially engaged design in South Africa. Socio-Technical Practitioners…
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Socio-Technical Practitioners
Group A: Liz Ogbu Adwao AgeyeiDickson Adu-AgyeiEuradice PaivaNthabiseng Mabena Group B: Theaster Gates Steffen FischerAtusaye MsiskaOrathile Mothoagae Harmony Mapundu Group C: Teddy Cruz Kerry Trebble Steven Moore Daniel Shil Group D: Nabeel Hamdi Kyle Hollis Nipho Mashinini Jody Van Aswegen Group E: Jan Gehl Dean FalconerKa Hei ChowPaul TathamDevon Beetge Group F:…
Jus't Spatial Design ZA
a South(ern) African Socio-Technical Design Support Resource
Jus't Spatial Design ZA 