10 may - 17 may 2008
Opening: Saturday 10 May 2008, 5-7 pm

> Hillbrow not just now

 

Hillbrow Not Just Now:
an urban recycling project by 15 Honours students
in the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand

“Now Hillbrow exists as an anarchic and alluring cosmopolis,  a complex of contradiction. Its towering concrete facades and pavements stand testament to the prevalence of fear, crime, poverty and xenophobia. Yet intertwined in its stark rigidity, is a vigour of informality and creativity that truly represents the marvel of urban self governance.

Hillbrow Not Just Now rethinks the existing fabric of Hillbrow as a site and generator for public art interventions. It explores and presents fifteen diverse architectonic strategies that could stimulate social activation and interaction in a challenging urban environment”

The students identified sites in Hillbrow and after documenting the social and structural characteristics through video and photography, constructed propositions around space that in turn led to prototype design.

Special thanks to the Trinity Session The School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Dewfresh, Giovanni's Rivonia, SAB and Paul Gobetz for kindly supporting the project.