Ewing Kathryn
Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics - Urban Design, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Urban Forum (Johannesbg). 2021;32(4):395-413. doi: 10.1007/s12132-021-09436-6. Epub 2021 Jul 31.
Reimagining neglected urban space offers the potential for social cohesion, integration, and connectivity. The intimate, interstitial or fractional spaces of a city represent a key component of social infrastructure in a neighbourhood. The smallest of interventions in urban space adds value and complexity to urban life. However, fractional, yet deeply transformative, urban space is often unrecognised and undocumented. Transformative practice seeks to accommodate, anticipate and represent inclusive public life but requires discovering new content and definitions on to decode emerging processes of incremental place-making in an African context. The narrative focuses on a network of place-making intervention projects as part of an urban upgrading programme in Lotus Park informal settlement, located in Gugulethu, Cape Town. A set of tracings, integrated with theoretical frames, reveal the impact of upgraded urban space through firstly, emerging centres and the (re)making of place on the periphery; secondly, disrupting edges and the co-production process involved in the negotiation of space; and lastly, crafting shadows and interpreting traces of micro-interventions. The purpose is to explore urban space as continually adapting to the intrusions in the city grid to translate (1) innovative modes of spatial production; (2) dynamic forms of local agency; (3) marginal ways of operating; and (4) interconnected and multi-scalar urban processes of everyday place-making. The practice of co-producing and (re)making urban space in Gugulethu uncovers alternate mechanisms for governance, partnerships and operations.
重新构想被忽视的城市空间为社会凝聚力、融合和连通性提供了潜力。城市中私密、间隙性或碎片化的空间是社区社会基础设施的关键组成部分。对城市空间最微小的干预都会为城市生活增添价值和复杂性。然而，碎片化却具有深刻变革性的城市空间往往未被认可和记录。变革性实践旨在容纳、预见并展现包容性的公共生活，但需要发现新的内容和定义，以便解读非洲背景下渐进式场所营造的新兴过程。本文叙述聚焦于一系列场所营造干预项目网络，这些项目是位于开普敦古古莱图的莲花公园非正式住区城市升级计划的一部分。一组与理论框架相结合的绘图揭示了升级后的城市空间所产生的影响，首先是新兴中心以及周边场所的（重新）塑造；其次是打破边缘以及空间协商中涉及的共同生产过程；最后是营造阴影并解读微观干预的痕迹。目的是探索城市空间如何不断适应城市网格中的侵入，以转化（1）创新的空间生产模式；（2）地方能动性的动态形式；（3）边缘运作方式；以及（4）日常场所营造中相互关联且多尺度的城市过程。在古古莱图共同生产和（重新）塑造城市空间的实践揭示了治理、伙伴关系和运营的替代机制。
