| INTRODUCTION |
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| Global Studio is an action research program where international interdisciplinary students, academics, and professionals in the city building professions come together to collaborate on community-based projects. Informed by the UN Millennium Development Goals, the program promotes forms of education and practice that will benefit under-served communities and facilitate bottom-up, collaborative partnerships.
While the program has worked in different cities each year in the past, Global Studio 2008 has returned to Johannesburg, South Africa where it was hosted in 2007. From June 30 to July 23, 2008, the program continued selected projects in the township of Diepsloot and worked closely with residents, community groups, and local government to help improve various aspects of daily life.
Global Studio projects aim to:
- Improve people's lives
- Be driven by local people's interests
- Build capacity, and as possible generate employment and income
- Help build confidence, capability, and community spirit, but without raising unrealistic expectations
- Help introduce useful technologies
- Suggest career or training paths
Through mechanisms such as:
- Participatory planning and design
- Realized projects and training
- Identifying useful information, funding sources, and resources.
- Communicating results to local authorities, professionals, educational institutions, and NGOs
2008 Projects
Environment
Housing
Information
Arts and Culture
Future events/presentations:
Global Studio 2008 participants' talks in October to mark World Habitat Day
Global Studio Networking Session: Fourth World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China
Acknowledgements
The Diepsloot community, The University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Pretoria, the City of Johannesburg, and the many individuals who have assisted Global Studio. |
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| DIEPSLOOT |
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| Diepsloot is a sprawling township established in 1995 and home to approximately 150,000 residents. Afrikaans for "valley in the village," Diepsloot was intended to serve as a temporary transit camp. In 2001, as part of the Alexandra Renewal Project, the Gauteng Government relocated around 5,000 families from the banks of the Jukskei River in Alexandra to Diepsloot. The rapid expansion of the township’s population, including refugees from Somalia, the Congo and Zimbabwe, has placed considerable strain on the area’s scarce infrastructure and resources.
Informal settlements are prevalent and an estimated 16,000 families live in shacks assembled from scrap wood, metal, cardboard, and plastic. Access to basic services like sewage, running water, and garbage renewal are inadequate, and about half the population is unemployed. The City of Johannesburg acknowledges that Diesploot is in need of improved infrastructure to service the growing population. Leaking drains and fetid water in the streets are a health hazard, a problem which some local residents are addressing themselves; temperature extremes in shacks can be mitigated with insulation. These are two programs Global Studio has initiated, working with and training local residents, and they offer potential for further development.
The City of Diepsloot can enhance its strong local identity and economic base by building on its cultural and other resources. There are opportunties for Guateng Province universities to support the Dieplsoot community in a range of research, teaching, skill building and knowledge transfer activities which might positively impact the city over the time frame of the Millennium Development Goals , and in the short term support 2010 income generating initiatives. |
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| PROGRAMS |
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July 2-5
Field trip to Durban (View pdf presentation)
Sunday July 6
10-1: Global Studio Orientation Symposium, School of Architecture and Planning
Monday July 7
10-1: Global Studio Orientation Symposium, City of Johannesburg, JIKE Centre
Monday July 7 - Sunday July 20
Collaborative community + studio work
Saturday July 19
7.30: Lecture, Stay City , 56 High St, Berea
“Conflicting Paradigms in Africa”
Rodney Harber, Professor of Architecture, University of Durban
Sunday July 20
11-4: Diepsloot Community Hall and Squatter Camp Park
“Diepsloot Arts in Action” cultural festival
Monday July 21
10-12: Lecture Theatre 1, School of Architecture and Planning, John Moffat Building
“Global Studio 08 outcomes: a case for academic acupuncture?” and exhibition of Second year design charette
Monday July 21
2-4: Council Chambers, Senate House, Wits Film: "Innovations for an Urban World: A Global Urban Summit"
Panel: "Addressing the Vulnerabilities of the Urban Poor: Interdisciplinary Research and Education for Action"
Moderator: Anna Rubbo, University of Sydney
Panelists:
Rodney Harber, Africa Union of Architects, Chair AUA Board of Architectural Education, Research and Technology.
Edgar Pieterse, Director, Centre for Cities in Africa, University of Capetown
Debra Roberts, Deputy Head, Environmental Management, Ethekwini Municipality
Gerrit Olivier, Head, Wits School of Arts
Urban Innovations Summit film & info
Full Global Studio program pdf
Final ppt presentation
(87 MB. right click to save linked file)
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| ENVIRONMENT |
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| The Waterways and Waste Team has engaged in a series of projects addressing wetland rehabilitation, drainage systems, and refuse collection. After investigating Diepsloot's floodplain in 2007, the team has continued its work in this central area to help transform it from a polluted barrier into a healthy ecological and community spine. Making strategic physical connections across the floodplain, between the informal and formal settlements within the township, will be a catalyst for this transformation.
The team has worked with Diepsloot community members to upgrade their drainage systems, collaborated with Pikitup to establish comprehensive Diepsloot refuse collection, and worked with architecture and civil engineering students from the University of Witswatersrand to create prototypical designs for pedestrian crossings and public access areas along the floodplain. In addition, the team has proposed and discussed a phased plan for the ecological remediation of the wetland system with the City of Johannesburg Region A, as well as the City’s Departments of Stormwater, the Environment, and Parks. This plan could provide opportunities for a healthier environment, recreation, urban agriculture, and sites for public buildings. |
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| HOUSING |
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| The Housing Team extends work from 2007, with technical improvements and a stronger training component. With the extremes of temperature found in Johannesburg, a single and often damaged sheet of iron for walls and ceiling provide little protection, and in many cases allow water to penetrate. Insulation can make an instant difference in a family’s life. As Helen, a resident in Alexandra said last year. “ Las night I only needed one blanket, the night before I needed four’. The implications for simple and inexpensive measures for health and well being are clear.
Shack and housing improvement is a project, which teaches people how to waterproof and insulate their shacks, and in Dieplsoot has mobilised a community of mainly women in Extension 7. They have analysed their own shacks, and requested materials and guidance to carry out repairs from the Global Studio team. A youth group has also been mobilised and are currently gaining skills to improve shacks. The Community Development Worker has identified beneficiaries, and these include a woman who is ill and has six children. Diepsloot shack dwellers could benefit substantially if this program were scaled up, and Service Providers could train community members in all areas of Diepsloot where there is a need. In addition there is potential for architecture and construction students from Johannesburg universities to be trained, and in turn train trainers. |
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| INFORMATION |
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| Access to information is a vital component for any community. It is through daily communication and a constant exchange of information that a community becomes informed of local events, educational and job opportunities, health and government services, and other community issues. The sharing of local knowledge allows residents to empower each other, take advantage of government services, and become more effective agents in their communities.
Considering tools for information-sharing as a crucial infrastructure system, the Information Team has investigated ways in which overall local communication networks can be improved in Diepsloot. After conducting a community survey on information accessibility last year, the team has spent this year working closely with the newly formed non-profit Diepsloot Community News. Examining their current newsletter, goals, and needs, the team has helped develop skills, capacity, and networking contacts through meetings with local radio organizations and journalists, as well as collaborative development of their business plan. The group has also explored and established additional means of disseminating information. This includes the installation of community chalkboards and the production of a resource guide of research into developing a local radio station and communal cell phone text-messaging technology. |
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| ARTS & CULTURE |
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| Through effective nurturing and development, local arts and culture can significantly contribute to the quality and enjoyment of life, job creation, income generation and poverty alleviation in Diepsloot. Large numbers of creative groups exist in the areas of music, performance, dance and visual arts. However, the opportunities offered are not fully exploited, especially amongst the residents themselves despite their rich and diverse cultural heritages.
The major challenges facing Diepsloot is inadequacy of relevant creative capacity to produce and circulate cultural goods and services in forms that can be readily consumed; weak cultural infrastructure and institutional capability; and the lack of access to finance and technology. Through community participation the Global Studio 08 observed, and then suggested, that an art and cultural networks is an essential first step to sustainable cultural industries development. Following the creation of an interim Diepsloot Arts and Cultural Network, and working with Global Studio, the arts community has been able to organize and participate in a cultural celebration event dubbed "Diepsloot Art in Action". This event has mobilised and brought together stakeholders for the first time in the more than 25 arts and culture groups in Diepsloot. |
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