Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa December - January 2014 | Page 54

ARCHITECTURE

BY ADRIAN MASEROW

Revolutionising City Life

The buildings of tomorrow are mixed-use

A

MA Architects subscribe to the vision of
designing urban catalysts as they promote a
visionary 21st century architecture through
mixed-use developments that will leave a significant
impact on the future of South African cities and,
in particular, Sandton. The International Congress
for Modern Architecture (first organised in 1928,
by Le Corbusier and delegates) saw architecture as
an economic and political tool that could be used to
improve the world through the design of buildings
as part of innovative urban planning. The common
purpose which incorporates mixed use buildings and
precincts achieves the highest goals of integrated
development. These precincts have been successfully
developed in South Africa (The Waterfront, Melrose
Arch, etc) and yet the trends in Sandton seem to lose
the critical impact that such development brings.
As architects we understand the impact of
shopping densities, office floor plate efficiencies,
homemaking spaces and places of instruction, all
within urban place making imperatives. Mixeduse development is either contained within a single
structure (horizontally or vertically) or within
multiple buildings located within a precinct. We
must actively include places of work (offices), with
places to live in (hotels/ homes/ apartments),
with shopping centres and retail nodes, places
of relaxation and play (from parks and squares
to bars, theatres and galleries), the Civic realm,
transportation hubs (stations), educational facilities
and other programmes. Separate use zoning
disconnects with the principal of diversification and
healthy and efficient urban development from its
full potential. The result is that these developments
diminish their ambition and result in unsustainable
environments. With the complex issues around
mixed-use developments we can engage more fully
with an active urban context. Now we are drawn to
the urgent recovery of something lost. The mindset of

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single purpose programmes which configures much
of Sandton must actively be changed to compact and
integrated developments which form a part of the
economics of sustainability.
Until recently the architectural profession has
pursued seemingly rational approaches to solve
problems without relying on valued traditional urban
typologies. This isolation limits broad investment
opportunities. The monotonous built reality causes
the urban fabric to fragment through the separation
and division of function and spatial democracies have
sadly been lost. Development which encourages the
connections of a wider web of spatial relationships
must now be promoted. According to the author
Peter Buchanan, “this pursuit is driving evolutionary
change in architectural design and the environments
in which we live”. He elaborates on the urgent need
to provide frameworks for mixed-use developments
that communities may connect to and flourish in.
The current needs of property development and
design therefore require a significant adaptation of
focus through a change of vision. We may well have
reached a tipping point where the impact of mixed-use
synergies has become paramount.
Strong pedestrianisation of an entire area and
diverse functions manifest highly valued place making
nodes. Collaborative methodologies draw inspiration
from multiple inputs which are integrated with the
principals of densification and sustainability. The
impetus of architecture lies as much in the creation
of aesthetically stimulating physical settings as the
sheltering of people within them. Our culture of
spatial configuration does belong to a complex sociopolitical creation in South Africa. We have learnt that
adjacent spatial locations and functional experiences
can be choreographed in a layered set of rituals and
actions, all of which reinforce a life lived to the fullest.
Mixed-use property development inaugurates

December January 2013/4 SA Real Estate Investor

a regrounding of architecture in the dynamic and
living networks which return to holistic place
making. The urban ethnographer Suzanne Hall
has researched how multiculturism operates on the
level of streets and shops. Her book “City, Street and
Citizen: The Measure Of The Ordinary”(London
Routledge) examines how social diversity is reflected
and expressed within everyday settings based on
human activities and encounters. This has relevance
to Sandton’s architectural studies and similar
ethnographic techniques can fashion innovative and
holistic design solutions.
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