Translating subjugated narratives in post- colonial city texts: The design of a memorial literary resource Centre near Sophiatown, Johannesburg

The reality of a singular narrative is that it at its core it is exclusionary. A singular narrative is undemocratic as it asserts for dominance rather than forbearance. Through the key writings of theorists Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja the built environment can be seen as a communicative text expressing the higher-level concerns and ideologies of that particular society. In the context of contemporary post-apartheid South African the cities previously entrenched colonial ideologies and systems continue to dominate and to exclude other narratives and expressions, particularly those of previously marginalised voices, from the greater expression of the democratic city text promoting a singular widely accepted narrative. This disparity has been a concern for many architects and built environment professionals who have had to grapple with the question of what is a democratic, authentic and cosmopolitan African identity within the registers of public architecture. The realities are that to ignore this question would be to allow the continual silencing and perpetuation of injustice against those who are marginalised by the residual effects of the apartheid regime. This exclusion from participation within the development of urban environments is dealt with in this treatise from the perspective of physical expression and representation in the exploration of elevating various narratives, stories, typologies for example within the same city text to reflect a more cosmopolitan, democratic narrative. Another area the treatise deals with is the spatial dimension in challenging local level colonial entrenchments of spatial injustice that continue to work to the disadvantage of the urban poor through an understanding of how these are distilled from higher levels. The Sophiatown/Westbury precinct in the western areas of Johannesburg is seen as one such area which continues to suffer from firstly the residual effects of apartheid segregationist planning as well as an embedded physically un-commemorated history which was erased from the physical realm of the city text through demolition during the apartheid regime and replaced with a newbuilt fabric and a new community of people as a stratospheric layer covering what used to be a vibrant, multicultural and hence highly anti-apartheid precinct. The treatise deals with the challenging and un-layering of this entrenched spatial injustice which is a concept defined and qualified in the writing of theorists Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja. Ideas and themes expressed by Johnathan Alfred Noble on discovering and expressing cosmopolitan identities and narratives within the South African city text are explored to formulate a non-conclusive modus operandi in the scope expressing suppressed and embedded narratives and liberating them into the story and fabric of the built environment as apart of the wider ongoing conversation of redressing the wrongs of the past in rescripting post-colonial urban spaces. The architectural design dovetails from Nobles ideas regarding expression and representation and becomes like a perforated canvas over the site area which allows the emergent spatial and programmatic conditions of the site to interweave with the characteristics and attributes of the old Sophiatown/Westbury precinct to become a dynamic urban catalyst which liberates the legacy of the area into the physical realm of the city. The study was undertaken through desktop research, literature reviews and first-hand observations and analysis within the qualitative research paradigm.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment, and Technology, 202