Development in the Golden Olden East
Characteristic 1: A building should be placed on the street
boundary to ensure enclosure and definition of the street
space. It is much more enjoyable to walk along a welldefined street than along a street with buildings placed far
away with the street space defined by a ‘sea’ of parked cars.
Characteristic 2: A building should have a mix of uses to ensure vibrancy and
variety in the area. It is much more enjoyable to walk in an area with a vibrant
atmosphere, than in a single-use area that is “dead” at certain times of the day,
week or year.
Apartments on
upper storeys
Parking on first few
storeys
Hatfield Studios – residential
Hatfield Studios (left) and The Fields (right) both placed on
street boundary
Photo: Google Maps street view
Photo: Google Maps street view
Apartments on
upper storeys
Characteristic 3: A building
should have a transparent
and active interface on the
street. The interface refers
to the transition between
the public and the private
domain. It is much more
enjoyable (and safer!) to
walk along a sidewalk
that has retail activities,
shop fronts and coffee
shops on the ground floor
defining the public space,
than along a building with
stretches of dead walls,
electrical infrastructure and
vehicle entrances with no
pedestrian interest on the
sidewalk.
The Fields – active interface
Commercial on ground
floor
Parking in basement
The Fields – mixed use
Photo: Google Maps street view
The Fields sidewalk – active space
Hatfield Studios – dead interface
Hatfield Studios sidewalk – blank
space
Characteristic 5: A building should contribute to a good
quality public environment with well-designed paving,
landscaping, public art, water features, and a diversity of street
furniture. An acceptable public environment is much more
than paving and a few trees!
Characteristic 4: A building should support
and facilitate pedestrian and cycling
permeability through the precinct on
street level. It is much more comfortable
to reduce walking distances to amenities
by using shortcuts through a block (with
well-designed courtyard spaces as opposed
to alleyways) than to be forced to use longer
detours around a street block designed
originally for travelling by car.
Public walkway through the Fields from
the back of the block to Burnett Street
The Fields – a good
quality public
environment
Hatfield
Studios
The
Fields
Walking distance from back of block to Burnett
Street – imagine all the UP hostel residents who
could have walked through the Hatfield Studios
site and supported any commercial endeavours
on the ground floor if it had been provided for.
Image: Google Earth
Characteristic 6: Vehicle movement should be facilitated (forced!) to slow down
through a TOD precinct, giving priority to pedestrians and cyclists.
It is argued that the changing of Burnett Street into a one-way (racing) street, marks
the point where the potential of Hatfield as the City of Tshwane’s TOD precinct par
excellence, was killed. The Fields was setting the trend. It was pushing the boundaries
of good architecture with excellent urban design. Hatfield Studios followed in the
footsteps of the City’s transport engineers in breaking Burnett Street’s character
down in one (introverted) development.
Good architecture is much more than a well-designed building
on the inside with a few (colourful) decorations on the
outside. A good building responds positively to the challenge