Hilton Judin

As the dynamo of South Africa’s economy, Johannesburg commands a central position in the nation’s imagination, and scholars throughout the world monitor the city as an exemplar of urbanity in the global South. This richly illustrated study offers detailed empirical analyses of changes in the city’s physical space, as well as a host of chapters on the character of specific neighbourhoods and the social identities being forged within them. Informing all of these is a consideration of underlying economic, social and political processes shaping the wider Gauteng region. A mix of respected academics, practising urban planners and experienced policymakers offer compelling overviews of the rapid and complex spatial developments that have taken place in Johannesburg since the end of apartheid, along with tantalising glimpses into life on the streets and behind the high walls of this diverse city. The book has three sections. Section A provides an overview of macro spatial trends and the policies that have infl uenced them. Section B explores the shaping of the city at district and suburban level, revealing the peculiarity of processes in different areas. This analysis elucidates thelarger trends, while identifying shifts that are not easily detected at the macro level. Section C is an assembly of chapters and short vignettes that focus on the interweaving of place and identity at a micro level. With empirical data supported by new data sets including the 2011 Census, the city’s Development Planning and Urban Management Department’s information system, and Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s substantial archive, the book is an essential reference for planning practitioners, urban geographers, sociologists, and social anthropologists, among others.

Set against a social and political urban landscape of segregation and forced removals, Postmodernism and Architecture at the End of Apartheid unpacks postmodernism in the 1970s and 80s as it unfolds in South Africa during the final brutal decade of apartheid. Architecture and apartheid are central subjects of the book– the ways they came to interact simultaneously to both buttress and undermine a country rapidly disintegrating. With battles waged in defence of white minority rule, architects’ turn to postmodernism reflected their disintegrating consciences and commitments in operating in uncertain times. They shared with architects globally a postmodernism steeped in anxiety and despondency summoning forth classical forms and colonial symbols detached from their surroundings. For some of these architects having studied abroad at the University of Pennsylvania, the route to postmodernism was through their mentor Louis Kahn’s bid to begin architecture anew in transforming ancient ruins as a modern concrete and brick order. For others, influenced by compatriot Denise Scott Brown who had moved to the USA, it was learning by way of her “African view of Las Vegas”. Postmodernism and Architecture at the End of Apartheid expands on contemporary discourse in postmodernism and architectural theory, public culture, and urban spatial politics. It examines critical voices of the period – Robert Venturi, Paolo Portoghesi, Colin Rowe, Manfredo Tafuri, Fredric Jameson, Kenneth Frampton – as well as questions of resistance in different forms and mediums, from the literature of Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee to grassroots struggle and community participation. Connections between postmodernism and apartheid are uncovered along with the contributions brought by architects in South Africa to a global postmodernism of newly transformed landscapes of neon strips, corporate temples, and white suburban sprawl amidst townships and growing informal settlements.

Set against a social and political urban landscape of segregation and forced removals, Postmodernism and Architecture at the End of Apartheid unpacks postmodernism in the 1970s and 80s as it unfolds in South Africa during the final brutal decade of apartheid. Architecture and apartheid are central subjects of the book– the ways they came to interact simultaneously to both buttress and undermine a country rapidly disintegrating. With battles waged in defence of white minority rule, architects’ turn to postmodernism reflected their disintegrating consciences and commitments in operating in uncertain times. They shared with architects globally a postmodernism steeped in anxiety and despondency summoning forth classical forms and colonial symbols detached from their surroundings. For some of these architects having studied abroad at the University of Pennsylvania, the route to postmodernism was through their mentor Louis Kahn’s bid to begin architecture anew in transforming ancient ruins as a modern concrete and brick order. For others, influenced by compatriot Denise Scott Brown who had moved to the USA, it was learning by way of her “African view of Las Vegas”. Postmodernism and Architecture at the End of Apartheid expands on contemporary discourse in postmodernism and architectural theory, public culture, and urban spatial politics. It examines critical voices of the period – Robert Venturi, Paolo Portoghesi, Colin Rowe, Manfredo Tafuri, Fredric Jameson, Kenneth Frampton – as well as questions of resistance in different forms and mediums, from the literature of Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee to grassroots struggle and community participation. Connections between postmodernism and apartheid are uncovered along with the contributions brought by architects in South Africa to a global postmodernism of newly transformed landscapes of neon strips, corporate temples, and white suburban sprawl amidst townships and growing informal settlements.

Since independence, African countries have been confronted with the relics of colonial powers and, in southern Africa, white minority regimes. The lingering spectre of colonial history and architecture’s largely hidden, yet pervasive, racist presence haunts these remains. They are a sobering reminder of the everyday bureaucracy of colonialism and apartheid – and of how this history of subjugation and planning continues to shape life in postcolonial societies under global capitalism. These societies have not necessarily changed the built landscape that they inherited. Cities and colonial infrastructure were taken over, repurposed and adapted for radically new societies that had to overcome racist divisions, oppression and poverty. Yet, it has often been the case that only the most obvious state buildings and oppressive administrative apparatuses of power were identified for destruction or as historic sites, memorials and museums. This leaves the lingering presence of oppressive everyday infrastructures, which often remain ignored and neglected when not easily disposed of. In this book architects and historians examine the ways people are rethinking, repurposing and reusing colonial and apartheid architecture and infrastructure. Sporadic campaigns and ongoing disputes around land, gentrification, repatriation and heritage, where different and often conflicting agendas are brought to the fore, have sharpened public awareness of the physical and environmental reminders of this past. Through the research of engaged practitioners, the book seeks to create and foster dialogue around the historical infrastructure of colonialism and apartheid’s daily oppressions.

This book is the first comprehensive investigation of the architecture of the apartheid state in the period of rapid economic growth and political repression from 1957 to 1966 when buildings took on an ideological role that was never remote from the increasingly dominant administrative, legislative and policing mechanisms of the regime. It considers how this process reflected the usurpation of a regional modernism and looks to contribute to wider discourses on international postwar modernism in architecture. Buildings in Pretoria that came to embody ambitions of the apartheid state for industrialisation and progress serve as case studies. These were widely acclaimed projects that embodied for apartheid officials the pursuit of modernisation but carried latent apprehensions of Afrikaners about their growing economic prospects and cultural estrangement in Africa. It is a less known and marginal story due to the dearth of material and documents buried in archives and untranslated documents. Many of the documents, drawings and photographs in the book are unpublished and include classified material and photographs from the National Nuclear Research Centre, negatives of 1960s from Pretoria News and documents and pamphlets from Afrikaner Broederbond archives. State architecture became the most iconic public manifestation of an evolving expression of white cultural identity as a new generation of architects in Pretoria took up the challenge of finding form to their prospects and beliefs. It was an opportunistic faith in Afrikaners who urgently needed to entrench their vulnerable and contested position on the African continent. The shift from provincial town to apartheid capital was swift and relentless. Little was left to stand in the way of the ambitions and aim of the state as people were uprooted and forcibly relocated, structures torn down and block upon block of administration towers and slabs erected across Pretoria. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of architectural history as well as those with an interest in postcolonial studies, political science and social anthropology.

This book is the first comprehensive investigation of the architecture of the apartheid state in the period of rapid economic growth and political repression from 1957 to 1966 when buildings took on an ideological role that was never remote from the increasingly dominant administrative, legislative and policing mechanisms of the regime. It considers how this process reflected the usurpation of a regional modernism and looks to contribute to wider discourses on international postwar modernism in architecture. Buildings in Pretoria that came to embody ambitions of the apartheid state for industrialisation and progress serve as case studies. These were widely acclaimed projects that embodied for apartheid officials the pursuit of modernisation but carried latent apprehensions of Afrikaners about their growing economic prospects and cultural estrangement in Africa. It is a less known and marginal story due to the dearth of material and documents buried in archives and untranslated documents. Many of the documents, drawings and photographs in the book are unpublished and include classified material and photographs from the National Nuclear Research Centre, negatives of 1960s from Pretoria News and documents and pamphlets from Afrikaner Broederbond archives. State architecture became the most iconic public manifestation of an evolving expression of white cultural identity as a new generation of architects in Pretoria took up the challenge of finding form to their prospects and beliefs. It was an opportunistic faith in Afrikaners who urgently needed to entrench their vulnerable and contested position on the African continent. The shift from provincial town to apartheid capital was swift and relentless. Little was left to stand in the way of the ambitions and aim of the state as people were uprooted and forcibly relocated, structures torn down and block upon block of administration towers and slabs erected across Pretoria. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of architectural history as well as those with an interest in postcolonial studies, political science and social anthropology.