Resisting Erasure

This project rethinks the separation between development and conservation to appropriately address historical and ecological landscapes. It deals with the controversies surrounding redeveloping dilapidated graves. This interdisciplinary approach merges an architectural, landscape, and urban process.

The proposed intervention is a low-scale landscape project that seeks to revive the forgotten ecology and history of the Rietfontein 61-ir site in Johannesburg. The project incorporates a design scheme that is informed by the sensitive issues found on site, such as the 6000 unmarked graves of former patients from the neighboring Sizwe hospital. The project aims to draw people into the site through a generous streetscape entrance, providing free greenspace within the urban fabric, creating a moment of pause for pedestrians on this route. The landscaping of the project has multiple functions, including restoring damaged grasslands, directing circulation, screening public and private spaces, and highlighting the location of the vanishing graves. The project is a mixed-use architectural proposition that houses a medical screening clinic, museum, media center, auditorium, and restaurant, informed by the site and surrounding context. The building form/massing is segmented to allow for a visual connection to the landscape beyond and seamless interaction with the ecology. The intervention challenges the separation between development and conservation and proposes an appropriate solution for ecological and historically sensitive sites. The project serves as a memorial space that acknowledges the anonymous individuals buried beneath the surface, and the graves on the site offer access to the personal history of South Africa. The project can be applied to other complex sites, transforming them into usable and relevant space that contributes to the community.