kagablog

PROGRAM

LOCATION: ARTS ON MAIN

SATURDAY 18 JULY

BRIEFING: 09:00 – 10:00

WORKSHOP: 10:00 – 12:30

LUNCH: 12:30 – 13:00

ARTS ON MAIN

WORKSHOP 14:00 – 16:00

SUNDAY 19 JULY

WORKSHOP 10:00 – 17:00

LUNCH 12:30

PRESENTATION

FRIDAY THE 31ST JULY at David Krut Projects

TOWARDS CONSCIOUS SPACE – ROSEBANK AFTER THE FALL

This project will tackle the opportunities offered to Rosebank by the advent of the BRT and Gautrain – which we must regard as the most ‘public’ platforms that have been laid down in Joburg, possibly in the last 100 years. These twin developments thus hold critical potential by way of a counteraction to the rapidly privatizing ‘public’ domains of the city, and they merge, crucially, at Rosebank. Rosebank currently shows all the signs of maintaining and amplifying its current fortification – notably, it appears to be entrenching its limiting strategy of ‘quasi-public’ space which is defined, essentially, by Mall type development, and constrained urban access points. The planned demolition of Old Mutual Square is a case in point, as public, historic space is transformed into franchised and controlled space – a huge Edgars store, by which the ‘wall’ of Oxford Road is re-fortified.

The design methodology of the studio will focus around the act of design itself: Enrico takes as his point of interest the identification of certain pivotal moments in the creative thought process. It is undoubtedly true that design-thinking requires an active collaboration between both our rational and our irrational thought processes. Could we see Rosebank, currently, as an extremely limited model of rationality, or even as a historic ideal city? In this sense, Enrico will aim towards experimentation in design thinking: he is interested in looking at creative systems used by actors, by lawyers, by mathematicians and chefs, for example. The aim, here, is to arrive at design proposals which do not in any way re-iterate or re-state the givens, which do not regurgitate the stereotypes: we are looking for design outcomes which may surprise you, and us… Design solutions which are seriously able to re-imagine Rosebank, and which in the process make us able to re-imagine ourselves.