Memorial as field : problematizing Cape Town's post apartheid void

Abstract

Apartheid cut and divided South African society on the basis of race and ethnicity, segmenting the nation spatially, politically, and economically. Subsequently, this thesis project questions how contemporary architecture can provide a meaningful response to locations of urban trauma caused by racial segregation. Numerous legislative changes implemented by the National Party sustained apartheid for 46 years. During this time, systems of categorization divided the country from an African majority into a plurality of ethnic minorities. Physical artifacts and spatially restrictive legislation became devices for differentiation and separation. Forced removals physically destroyed complete districts ultimately displacing 3.5 million people from their homes. In Cape Town, District Six suffered a similar fate where 60,000 people were forcibly removed to the barren Cape Flats in 1960. This destruction of place resulted in the production of an urban void. The district-wide eviction created a vast change from a densely inhabited urban fabric to an open grassy field leaving a visible scar in the urban landscape. Today, debates continue about how to appropriately use this charged urban space. This thesis investigates how contemporary architecture can respond to the condition of District Six by producing a living performance that engages with the trauma of the place and the memory of what was destroyed through producing a space for active dialog. This project aims to use design to serve both the contextual needs of the local urban fabric and the political and individual memories intrinsically linked to a site. This urban intervention rejects the idea of a memorial as a monumental object and creates, as an alternative, a palimpsest of experiences, stories, memories, and moments to be cultivated, preserved, and re-inscribed in the production of a large-scale memorial fabric. This project proposes an urban memorial that engages with the living city through the creation of mnemonic cues. Horizontal integration with the daily life of the district creates a pixelated memorial encoded and re-inscribed with spaces for memory, engagement, and storytelling.