" Providing the right kind of housing requires an in-depth understanding of people in the community or surrounds."
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" Providing the right kind of housing requires an in-depth understanding of people in the community or surrounds."
– Hariwe Johnson, Masters in Architecture graduate.
The red dots highlight bad buildings in the Johannesburg CBD.
transferred fraudulently from previous owners to the current owners,” she explains.
Some of the identified buildings are City-owned and Rammala admits that this may have been because of internal mismanagement. The City has about 500 buildings that have been identified as bad.“ As of 30 December 2017, the GFIS are investigating about 265 cases. The number fluctuates as more cases are brought in and others are resolved,” Rammala explains.
In his thesis titled‘ The‘ Dark’ City: Critical Interventions in Urban Despair’, Masters in Architecture, artist, designer, researcher and project manager, Hariwe Johnson, is against calling the buildings‘ bad’ or‘ hijacked’ as,“ this criminalises the buildings and the people that live in them”.
His thesis led him on a journey that studied the buildings and occupants to create a sustainable and decent place for current and future residents. Although his research focused on the buildings, he used a property located on the corner End and Kerk streets in Doornfontein – called‘ Dark City’, as a basis.
When looking at the redevelopment and renovation, Johnson states that a different approach is required.“ Some of the principles can overlap. To design for a building that already has services, and rental structures, this would need a slightly different approach.”
UNDERSTANDING BAD BUILDINGS
According to Johnson, the state of housing in the central business district( CBD) is due to history, migration, politics, violence as well as economic, racial and social issues. Much of the inner city has,“ experienced constant cyclical repurposing moving from light-industrial / typically residential to‘ slum’ like conditions at least six times over the past 130 years since the birth of Johannesburg,” he says.
One of the aims of providing housing is to ensure that the area is well located for people to work, live and play. The inner city is a prime example of such a place. Although there are many bad buildings( with many having been redeveloped for secure and affordable housing) in the city it is not all of them that make financial sense for conversion.
Liaison officer, Pressage Nyoni, from commercial property development financier, TUHF, explains,“ It is buildings which don’ t necessarily make financial sense to convert or which are‘ bad’ or hijacked buildings which are not necessarily taken up as development opportunities.
“ There are many dynamics involved in redeveloping a problem property,” says Rammala. Dynamics related to those who occupy. Some are unemployed and can’ t afford good liveable conditions. It is enshrined in the constitution that everyone has a right to housing. In understanding this law, the City understands responsibility that it can’ t evict occupants and not have alternative accommodation.“ The City has not been evicting, it is the private owners that are. We work with property owners towards a common end goal for both parties,” she explains.
As part of their investigation, Rammala’ s unit not only looks at criminal activity, they also profile occupiers to understand socio-economic facets and status. They try and come up with a holistic approach to deal with the problem.“ In order to turn them around, we need to know who is staying there, what their means of survival are, and so on. This data assists in ensuring that once the property is redeveloped, the housing department will be able to do necessary allocations where applicable,” she says.
During Johnson’ s research, he found that people who occupy the building are ordinary people who are looking to make a better living for themselves and their families. Some of them are from various parts of the country. While few criminals are found, and roughly half the inhabitants are South African. Additionally, in a lot of these buildings there are no rental structures.
“ No-one owns a floor, in some buildings, there are community members on each floor. Community members have generally been living in the building the longest,” he explains.
LEGAL PROCESS
Rammala shares that in South African law, an offence under property hijacking isn’ t constituted and on the other hand,
AFFORDABLE
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