Upon arriving in Cape Town, we met with Mokena Makeka, an architect based in the area who has done many well known projects in the V&A Waterfront area. Makeka is not just a high end architect, though. He considers himself to be a socially conscious and aware architect who not only creates elitist spaces, but also makes spaces of inclusion for underserved communities. His work in the Khayelitsha township was government funded and therefore on a much smaller budget than projects he is used to. However, the space feels very much like a high end project, giving the community access to many technological resources as well as a clean and safe space for coming together. Makeka’s work really personifies his moto: Concept, Content, Craft. While on the surface this seems to be a moto that could have very little to do with activism. However, Makeka uses this model for both his high end and his township projects, making sure he pays equal attention to both. To me, craft represents his willingness to think outside the box. Inside the community center in Khayelitsha there were many unconventional characteristics. For example, the doors were made of glass and steel plating that slid to open, but only with a key card, what I presume is an ID card only held by those supposed to be in the building. Through this design, Makeka was able to create a sense of security for those occupying the building while maintaining the sleek feel that the rest of building had with the glass/steel mix doors. While I have not been inside Makeka’s more high end buildings, based on the blueprints and floor plans that he showed us, it was clear that he balanced this same type of security and homey feel in a space while simultaneously incorporating unique shapes and designs. While his work is quite unique in that it is regarded by both the elitist art community and more undeserved communities as amazing, he is not the only Capetonian architect who works in both realms.
Khalid Jacobs is an architect who is also based in Cape Town and has done projects in the city centre as well as the townships. His company, Jakupa Architects prides themselves on bringing a more humanistic economic and ecologically concsious mindset to all of their projects. With architects ranging from experienced designers from elite institutions, to more activist bases architects, their wide range of perspectives is what helps them to accomplish their success. Jacobs gave us a lecture on how the positioning of certain blocks of space in the urban environment can be changed over time to better benefit the people who occupy it. His biggest example of this was with a shopping center/mall that was poorly designed in that it did not promote engagement with the community. Rather, the space acted as a segregated part of the community that was very secluded. This did not benefit the community as a whole and only stood to benefit those who were able to shop the mall. jacobs came up with a way to physically rearrange the placement of streets both on the outskirts and within the shopping center. By doing this, the goal was to create a space for inclusion simply from changing the built environment a bit.
Besides this, Jacobs also showed us some more simple work that he did in Khayelitsha in order to bring about more social interaction within the community. He simply put in a line of trees with some benches. To personalize the space to Khayelitsha, he incorporate little blocks with murals. When entering Khayelitsha one day, I noticed the space and immediately saw how it transformed the old space. Previously, there was just grass and no formal seating area. Now, there was a space to sit and enjoy the trees and murals and perhaps the company of other Khayelithsa residents. He was able to take a gray space and turn it into a more formal hangout space. Both Makeka and Jacobs are examples of how ones profession can easily merge with their socially conscious sides in order to better communities through built space.
Charlotte Mokdessi
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