PUBLICATION: Final Report, Maboneng Project in Johannesburg, In Situ

31 octobre 2014
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FINAL REPORT: MABONENG PROJECT, JOHANNESBURG

 

 

Anouck DUBOIS, Lara DEL’ARCO PINZAN, Morgan EVEN, Arthur JUSTET, Dickel SCHWEITZER

 

In Situ, l’Association des Masters d’affaires urbaines de Sciences Po

 

http://insitu.asso.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/CoverFbInSitu.png

 

In 2013, a group of eight students and alumni from both GLM and STU Masters were invited to a two-week field trip to Johannesburg. Alice Cabaret, STU alumni and Urban Strategist at Propertuity – the developer of the Maboneng Precinct in South-east Johannesburg –  wanted a more global understanding of what model was developing there, and wondered if there was a specific Maboneng model. The field trip resulted in a double presentation in Johannesburg and at Sciences Po, and in the creation of a report, discussing Maboneng’s Governance, Creative Neighbourhood Model and Social Cohesion issues.

In this report, the first ever made specifically on Maboneng, the Precinct was analysed as a form of “urban utopia”, with the specific aesthetics of a creative communities-oriented model, but also as a space where different social and professional groups would coexist. It emergedas a place with a strong identity. However, the Precinct had a more complex status, since it appeared as an island in a profoundly depressed city center and played with the paradox of an omnipresent, yet virtually unnoticeable security complex. This complexity deepened as it was noticed that Maboneng also played the role of a transitionnal space, acting as a place for richer communities to come and visit the city center (which was for most of the inhabitants of the northern part of the city almost unthinkable up until then), and as a place of opportunities for the poorest communities to climb up the social ladder.

A second trip was organised in 2014, in collaboration with Alice Cabaret, director of the newly created GRIND platform, in order to tackle more precise questions, such as the developpment and organisation of retail in Maboneng and public spaces in the precinct. The mission thus shifted from a logic of study and observation to a logic of action and implementation.

The 2014 InSitu team was composed of five students: Lara Del’Arco Pinzan, Anouck Dubois and Dickel Schweitzer (first year GLM students), Arthur Justet (first year STU student) and Morgan Even (STU alumni).

Summary

Principles and context of the 2014 Maboneng Project.
 
The Maboneng Mission.
The context: Johannesburg, Maboneng and GRIND.
Our mission.
Mission 1: Activating Public Spaces.
 
Activating public spaces: the project.
Focus on alternative urban development processes: tactical urbanism and pop-up infrastructures.
The “Urban regeneration of public space in the streets of Maboneng and New Doornfontein” report is the result of a series of steps presented in the following section.
Practical proposals and some trends to be considered.
Final observations.
Mission 2: Improving retail spaces in Maboneng.
Optimising empty retail spaces: drafting a « pop-up » strategy for Maboneng.
Working for the development of a local grocery in Maboneng.
Final Remarks.
Download the report: http://insitu.asso.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rapport-Final.pdf