March 11, 2002
By Lucille Davie
JOHANNESBURG, the city of commerce, lacks the powerful public architecture of Cape Town or Pretoria. But that's about to change. Three major public buildings are under construction in the city, each an attempt to capture the multi-cultural ethos of the country, and each a powerful demonstration of the best in modern South African architecture.
The first is the new Constitutional Court at the top of Braamfontein, to be completed next year, and likely to become the city's most important public space, a "Robben Island for Johannesburg". The other two, almost completed, are museums: the Apartheid Museum in the south of Johannesburg and the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto.
Constitutional Court
Johannesburg's public buildings generally date back to the colonial era, and are built in that style. The Rissik Street Post Office is the oldest, built in 1897. The Joubert Park Art Gallery (1911) is one of the few South African buildings by Edward Lutyens, the renowned British architect of Empire. Other notable buildings are the Institute for Medical Research (1912), the City Hall (1914), Wits University (1923) and the Public Library (1935).
One of Johannesburg's first public buildings was the Fort, built in 1899 by the Kruger government as a bastion against the invading British, and used for much of the next century as a grim and foreboding jail, particularly for African men. The Fort, now considered an historic monument, housed a great many African resistance leaders. Among its more notable inmates were Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The Fort is about to undergo a transformation, incorporated into what its planners hope will be the "Robben Island of Johannesburg", Constitution Hill and the Constitutional Court.
An international competition was held for the Constitutional Court project, intended as a metaphor for South Africa's progressive post-apartheid constitution. Some of the Constitutional Court judges themselves took part in adjudicating the competing entries. Once it got down to the last five competitors, architect Paul Wygers of Urban Solutions said to himself: "I knew we were going to win it."
And win it they did. It's not surprising when one ponders the design: it's a people building, with lots of open spaces, from four towers which will contain a viewing deck and lanterns announcing the Constitutional Court from the north, to a football field and basketball court for the local residents.
"The towers are going to be landmarks. So many of our landmark buildings have been demolished or imploded - like the power station towers in Newtown - that we need to create new landmarks," says Wygers.
Urban Solutions are working together with OMM Design Workshop, a Durban firm, on this project. "Traditionally, court buildings have blank walls, but this building will be different. It takes into consideration the urban design of the hill on which it is placed. It has been designed to be as low as we could get it to fit in with the heritage of other buildings in the space."
The three main prison buildings will remain, and going down the hill will be the Constitutional Court on the east side of the site, with sports facilities below it. In the north-west corner, the defunct Queen Victoria Hospital is already being used as residential space. Running through the complex will be a stepped walkway down the hill, to be called the Great African Steps, to act as an interface between the new and old buildings.
Another open space will run horizontally between the main Fort and the Court, to be called Constitution Square. This has been created by the demolition of the awaiting-trial building. Bricks from this building have been retained and will be used for the inner walls of the Court. The old bars will be used as sunshading devices in the chamber open spaces.
"The building needs to be as active as possible - the Court will not be a monument, it will be a people-inviting place," says Wygers.
The court building will contain an outer layer consisting of a large foyer, the court chamber, a debating chamber, and an exhibition space which opens out onto the Great African Steps. The next layer will consist of the administration section, and right in the middle of the building will be 14 judges' chambers (11 for the Constitutional judges and three for visiting judges). These will be three-storey chambers with open spaces with ponds at ground floor level. They will provide easy access to the court, and to the law library, which will be in the northern wing of the building.
Further west off Constitution Square there will be a coffee shop, bookshops, a tourist office, and the rest of that building will be a shared-facility building with facilities for organisations relating to the Constitutional Court: offices for the Department of Constitutional Development, the Department of Justice, and for human rights, youth and legal aid.
The rest of that building will be taken up with some retail space, exhibition spaces, a museum space, possibly a hotel, and a contemplative space.
The Gender Commission is likely to take up offices in the old women's jail on the south-west corner of the complex. A substation in the south-east corner will remain, but the mortuary, the busiest in the city, will be demolished and moved across the road to the hospital building.
"One of the first projects will be to upgrade Kotze Street to include drop-off spaces for buses. CCTV cameras and 24-hour security will be installed. We will also create a huge viewing deck around the main prison building (which is on an elevated area), so that people can watch the construction and even have a picnic up there," says Wygers.
Total cost for the development is R700-million. This will come from the Gauteng provincial government's development agency, Blue IQ, and the Department of Justice. Local and international donors have also offered money.
"People are coming from all over the world, but particularly Africa, to learn about our Constitution, so we want to cater for that and for them to observe the operation of our Constitutional Court, which, like our Constitution, is an example to the world," adds Wygers.
The Apartheid Museum
Another new public building gearing up for its official opening in May is the Apartheid Museum. Situated south of the city centre, next to the mining theme park Gold Reef City, the Apartheid Museum is attracting international attention.
The building was the result of a "wonderful architectural team", says project co-ordinator and architect Sidney Abramowitch. It consists of smooth grey concrete walls outside and inside, with concrete floors and minimal windows. Inside there are tall halls, circular silo-type inner rooms, smaller low-roofed rooms and two windowless prison cells. The southern outside wall is of rough backing brick and the striking eastern outer wall consists of grey stones stacked in a metal casing, unevenly finished to the top.
"This is a minimalist building reflecting the fact that apartheid buildings were born of incarceration. We wanted to reflect the harshness, crudity and horror of apartheid. We wanted something so different because apartheid was so different," says Abramowitch.
And judging by the response - reporters and museum directors from around the world visiting the Museum - the architects have been successful.
"Major publications like the New York Times and National Geographic have been madly impressed. At the opening in May the BBC and CNN will be here. The reaction to the building and the exhibits has been astounding."
The building is the result of a collaborative effort - four architectural firms are involved: Mashabane Rose & Associates, GAPP Architects and Urban Designers, Britz Roodt Association, and Linda Mvusi Architecture and Design.
"The original concept was prepared by architect Claude Grundman, from Israel, long before the design team was appointed. This then influenced the
ultimate solution," says Abramowitch.
Abramowitch says it is important to consider the space where the building is to be built. "A building should be part of the site, the total environment or the total space. The final architectural forms developed from the philosophy of "Total Environment" imposed on the site now developed as a hill in ancient Africa. The Museum is particularly suitable for this site: halfway between Soweto and Johannesburg, partly industrial and partly Coney Island (the neighbouring theme park)."
One of South Africa's top landscapers, Patrick Watson, was appointed to create a landscape to the west of the Museum that is "a piece of Africa". This consists of a grassy area, including a look-out hill, with pathways leading to a small lake. Indigenous trees dot the outdoor area.
All communities in the country were consulted - from groups in the Richtersveld in the far Northern Cape, including the San bushmen, to groups in the far south, and all ethnic groupings.
The spaces had to carry no special character, says Abramowitch. There are 22 exhibition spaces, a temporary exhibition space, two indoor auditoria, one outdoor auditorium and a long outdoor staircase for use as a lecture space. The finish is mainly concrete, but wood and steel too.
"We have expensive finishes - maple panelling, highly polished wood, with moulded timber chairs, which are very hardy."
The curatorial team was appointed before building was begun, and the building contractor appointed while designing was still in progress, in an effort to meet the deadlines set. "Designing and building happened in parallel."
The Museum has cost R85-million to construct, with a further R20-million committed to running costs by Akani Egoli, costs covered as part of its social responsibility commitment.
A professor of architecture at UCLA in the US said after seeing the Museum: "This is the greatest building to come out of Africa in the last 25 years."
The Hector Pieterson Museum
Further south, in Orlando West in Soweto, is the
Hector Pieterson Museum, designed by architects Mashabane Rose & Associates.
The Museum is on a site shared by the Hector Pieterson Memorial, and although not the site where 12-year-old Hector was shot in the uprisings of 16 June 1976 - it is a block or two up the road - the whole site has been declared a national heritage site.
"The Orlando West community were consulted on what they wanted the Museum to look like. The consensus was that it should look like the township houses around the site, so as not to stand out from them - small, uniform red brick houses," says architect Phill Mashabane.
The community won't be disappointed. The building is in red brick, around two storeys, and in harmony with its surrounds. Almost complete, the interior is dominated by pleasing red brick walls, combined with simple white and black walls, or walls left in grey concrete. Together with large square windows and black steel banisters, the effect is stunning.
Walking through the large rust-red door, the immediate impression is of a cathedral with its double volume ceiling, tall thin windows, stripped wood floors, concrete columns, and tall red-brick walls.
"The main door is in line with the exact spot where Hector was shot - a few blocks west, and further down Vilakazi Road are the houses of South Africa's two Nobel Peace Prize winners - Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu," adds Mashabane.
The Museum is arranged in a series of ramps, moving the visitor higher and higher into the building, which is a series of open spaces that will house pre-1976 events, 16 June events and also places where visitors can record their experiences of the day and see footage of the day shown through massed monitors.
A striking feature of the Museum are the large 2.5 metre square windows at principal points. The first one is at the top of the first ramp. Visible from it is the Orlando Stadium (to which the students were marching on 16 June) and the Orlando Police Station, as well as the red brick houses in monotonous rows in the township. These locations will be marked on the glass of the window. "1976 was like a window - those involved on the day could see beyond their lives," says Mashabane.
Above this is a black steel walkway with a black grid floor, leading towards another window and another view of the township. "We felt that those who didn't resist apartheid - the parents - normally walked on solid ground, whereas this see-through walkway is what the children walked on."
Another window on the west side, up several more ramps, gives a view of the Pieterson Memorial next door, a striking complement to the Museum. As well as the dramatic stone walls and memorial stone, it includes a grassed community gathering space, and an area of thorn trees with charcoal-coloured gravel at their base.
This is a project that has the community at heart, and its location is mapped to account for important surrounding landmarks. "The community is happy with the building so far," says Mashabane.
The final concrete and stone stairway brings the visitor back down to the entrance and a large bare contemplative courtyard, consisting of tall brick walls and black gravel floor. "This blank space is dedicated to those who went missing in 1976," adds Mashabane.
A total of R24-million has been provided jointly by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the Johannesburg City Council for the construction and exhibits of the Museum.
Like the Apartheid Museum, this much smaller Museum has a simplicity which works. Mashabane sums it up: "We wanted to achieve a simple building, but sophisticated in its use and purpose."
