Space and race : South African "native townships" as corruptions of suburban ideals for political ends
Name
20654640-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
54.82 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
0e07643efc384fadda5ba7c34f9da04c
Author(s)
Margoles, Conrad Henry
Advisor(s)
Lawrence Vale.
Date Issued
1989
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis is about reconciling three main pairs of ideas. First, it is about architecture and apartheid, and the ideological role which architecture plays within a particular political system. Second, it is about the attitudes of individuals involved in designing and building the townships, and the reconciliation of the apparently contradictory ideas of the provision of welfare in the form of housing with the exploitation of labor in the form of separate development. Third, it is about the ideals of the white Anglo-American suburbs (housing the whites) and how townships (housing the blacks) differ from them as a city form . The crux of this thesis is that the white suburban ideal was taken and corrupted to become the black township in South Africa, because of a combination of politics, (post-colonial) philanthropy and fear. The historical reasons for the formation of the townships are to be found in the relationships between the races beginning with the earliest European settlers in the country. The first conflicts were over the right to the land. With industrialization came urbanization and the formation of the policy of apartheid: legislation requiring the separation of the races. Anglo-American suburban ideals were used by the planners and architects who put the government's policy into practice. They built townships based on these ideals in an effort to transfer their values to the black people. They worked as technocrats, implicitly accepting the policy of apartheid and relying on "science" and middle-class suburban ideals to achieve their goals. The ideologies of apartheid have resulted in the political nature of space in South Africa, and theories of urban ideology can be applied to understand the complex situation. The result can be seen in the townships as corruptions of suburban ideals for political ends.
Description
Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 582-588).
Subjects
Architecture.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
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