Rescripting the permanence of Ramkraal: a skills development centre within the historic ruins of the Ramkraal prison for the community of Batho
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Date
2023
Authors
Coetzer, Leon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Conservation and adaptive reuse projects help to reactivate long-forgotten places and offer a revived space for the growth of the next generation of South Africans. The question is: How can a community-catalysed skills development centre in-between Batho and the Bloemfontein CBD be sensitively integrated and rescripted within a ruin – the Historic Ramkraal Prison in Bloemfontein – thereby inverting the established power structure by activating learning settings aimed at self-liberation? When confronted with culturally significant
and heritage-protected architecture, the usual response is to encompass it in time and turn it into a museum rather than analysing the immediate context and creating a place for growth for communities and people who need it. The proposed design offers a place of self-liberation while both retaining the existing structural fabric and sensitively adjoining new structures to these, in order to rescript established orders and architectural character. The study focuses on adaptive reuse of culturally significant heritage buildings and how the new
can creatively respond to the old. After several failed attempts to preserve the Prison complex — all focusing on preserving the historic physical remains of the ensemble — the proposed design offers a community-centred solution where the preservation of heritage resources as historical beacons ultimately depends on the vitality of surrounding communities.