A social entertainment complex, car wash- and repair shop and day care centre in Central City Bloemfontein
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Date
2014-09
Authors
Brink, Bredell
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
A vibrant characteristic is present in the city of Bloemfontein which is often misunderstood and arguably misplaced in the process of urban formalisation. The rational city grid and subsequent ordered teachings have laid a foundation for functional planning and similar design methodologies which, for the most part, seem to be successful.
Yet certain nodes within the city not yet contemporary formalised, seem to penetrate any form of pre-determined containment. Fragmented within this vibrant event are multifaceted typologies of places and people, densely compacted behind false facades and under arcades with a camouflage and a phenomena of perceived chaos, inflicted on the city by masses of moving things, consequently making them invisible.
The obscurity of this invisible city is often disregarded with avoidance when its unimportant functions are viewed within the scope of the entirety of the urban fabric, only becoming prominent when something new has to be reintroduced.
Its existence could be regarded not as a reaction to formality, but rather a different, more dynamic, form of formality – an informality. An experience which cannot be easily understood from a privileged position, a phenomenological investigation has revealed a glimpse into the inner workings of its vernacular manifestation.
This thesis will attempt to informalise the formal boundaries of an existing urban block with the insertion of an entertainment complex, with subsequent functions as fragments, relevant to the multicultural narrative of places and people of the surrounding context.
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Keywords
Dissertation (M.Arch. (Architecture))--University of the Free State, 2014, Bloemfontein, South Africa, Urban development