Paranoid Urbanism- Enclaves In Johannesburg
Shiuan-Wen Chu
Political/Racial Upside-Down, and Hit-and-Run Urbanization
1994 election turned the white's positions in political, social, and economic realms upside-down; accompanying the challenge of white's status is insecurity about the future. The increasing crime rate across the city caused an exodus of major first-world investment. Africans, previously banned from living outside of townships or 'homelands', started to move to the rest of the city. (image 01, 02) While blacks 'invade' and disperse across the city, chasing whites who escape further north, the speed of this spatial exodus is always caught up by developers.
Most businesses migrated from downtown to the northern suburbs so as to be far away from the 'deteriorating' downtown and 'dangerous' Soweto. Within 7 years, a whole new suburban city, Sandton, was built speculatively in the north: new office blocks, new financial centre, new malls, and new houses??. (image 03) Most of these developments are walled and themed environments.
Paranoia and Enclaves
In Johannesburg, crime is the common public discourse that affects all races and classes. Stories, hearsay, anecdotes, mass media reports, even jokes amplify the threat of crime. Especially amongst the middleclass, insecurity about the future, phobia of being the object of hostility, and fear of losing possessions build up to absolute intolerance of the 'others' and dramatic magnification of self-defence. The long oppressed paranoia of the unknown 'others', that was subdued under the protection of Apartheid, now suddenly breaks out. Architecturally, the excessive self-defence, the aggression to counterattack, the urge to re-assume power, and the desire of temporary mental escape from the unpleasant context resulted in one logical resolution: fortified enclaves. (image 04)
The collective psychology of paranoia, amongst the middleclass of the city, inspired the architectural typology of the enclave; while being in violent Johannesburg, one can still be physically protected and mentally secured. Enclaves answer to the Johannesburg middleclass physical and psychological need for defence.
Physical Strategy of Enclaves
The violent situation was completely taken advantage by the speculative development sector; highly secured 'cluster homes' and 'office parks' were launched, displaying extreme measures in combating crime. Fortification is the enclave strategy for physical defence. Important items of fortification are automatic gate with remote control, gatehouse with security guards (image 05), electrified fencing, surveillance camera, immediate armed response from private security army (image 06 and 07)), lighting throughout the property, panic buttons, burglar bars, built-in sirens, watch dogs, and spikes, broken glass, razor wire topping the walls, etc. Most of the enclaves have a single entry point; each time one intends to enter, personal details and motives are recorded by security guards. (image 08)
The characteristics of enclaves- mono-functional, enclosed by walls, and introverted- allow them to be placed anywhere without contextual reference. The walled and armed environments, injected with all imaginable programmes- public or private, are located randomly in Johannesburg's dry and boring landscape like oases in the deserts. Traditional public spaces, such as parks and squares, are less and less used since they are more likely to be exposed to crime. Emerging semi-public spaces with casinos, shopping malls, entertainment centres, gyms, golf clubs, take the full advantage of enclaves to conduct access control, in order to secure the commercial and communal environment.
Psychological Strategy of Enclaves
While fortification provides physical protection, mental security is satisfied by the architectural styles of the enclaves. Behind walls, all building typologies are European and historically styled (image 09), resurrection of Victorian, Tudor, Mediterranean, Medieval, and Georgian themes as backdrops allude to safety and moral correctness through which an unpleasant context can be psychologically denied. Theme park is the unconscious architectural strategy; super-reality and ultra-heavenly worlds serve for escaping the real context into an imaginary one. Escapism drives the mental picture of the reality into an interface between 'somewhere else' and 'here and now'.
The surrounding barren geography and the violent context pressurise the architecture of Johannesburg to provide extra lifestyle to trap the inhabitants from emigration. Every house has a lush garden, Bar-B-Q place, swimming pool, or even tennis court. Dainfern, the biggest estate enclave in Sandton even has golf course and clubhouse in the territory. (image 10)
Johannesburg's 'bad' taste is, however, a mediocre one comparing to that of Los Angeles. The mediocrity lies in the embarrassment and fear of the wealthier. Showing-off can cause undesirable and predictable consequences. This embarrassment and fear leads to the repressed desire for hedonism. This repression, therefore, results in the mediocre vulgarity. Taste for architecture best reflects this embarrassment: one lives in a Mediterranean villa, goes shopping in Italian mall, works in Tudor Mansion, recreates in Caesar's Palace, but all styles and gestures are hidden behind fortifications. (image 11)
The Weird Beauty of Johannesburg
Paranoia, as a collective psychological disorder, is significantly determining the new developments of Johannesburg. Enclaves, the fortified theme environments, are where middleclass Johannesburgers live, work, and play today. Fortification of enclaves, providing physical safety, is turning Johannesburg into a landscape of surveillance; historic and European styles of the enclave architecture, as psychological escape, is rapidly transforming the urban experience into a giant theme park. However, without fear and paranoia, large part of present Johannesburg does not make sense.
Living in Johannesburg is one of the most thrilling urban experiences. Beauty of living is always celebrated, and weird fun is perpetually 'squeezed out' under the pressure of the violent context.
Note1) Basic Composition of the City
Johannesburg, officially known as Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Region, is the economic centre of South Africa, with a population of between 3,8 and 4,5 million people. The city, or rather a series of spaces, stretches approximately 60km from north to south and 30km from east to west.(image12)
Apartheid planning has left behind a fragmented city of zones and voids. Zones are reserved for mono-functions; voids are buffers separating different zones. Downtown Johannesburg situates at the centre of the metropolis as the financial centre of the city. To its immediate south are the industrial zone and the gold mining reef, serving as the void separating Soweto from the rest of the city. Soweto, at the southern periphery of the metropolis, is South Africa's best known township with a population of 2,5 million people. Like many other townships, Soweto was laid out as dormitory compounds housing black labourers that work in downtown or white suburbs. To the north of downtown are the white suburbs, such as Sandton and Randburg. Further north is Midrand, a newly developed business, industrial, and residential centre, linking up the sprawl of Greater Johannesburg to Pretoria, 70 km north from Johannesburg downtown. (image12)
Note2) Paranoia
Paranoid personality 'makes mountains out of molehills' and is always ready to counterattack at the slightest hint of potential threat. There is an ever-present fear of losing the power of self-determination. Psychologist Dr. Kraepelin notes: 'the patient feels himself on every occasion unjustly treated, the object of hostility, interfered with, and oppressed.' This disorder makes the patient excessively self-defensive or aggressive.
Note3) Enclave
Enclaves are territories wholly within the boundaries of another.
Research Material
1. Postcards
2. Advertising pamphlets picked up at traffic intersections
3. Visiting house-sell show
4. Local home and garden magazines
5. Snap shots and videos
6. Ariel photos
7. Film: Joburg Stories
8. Hilton Judin and Ivan Vladislavic (1998). Blank- Architecture, apartheid and after. Nai Publishers, Rotterdam.
9. Mike Davis (1998). City of Quartz- Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Chapter 4: Fortress L. A., pg 223-263. Pimlico, London.
10. Mike Davis (1998). Ecology of Fear- Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Chapter: Beyond Blad Runner, pg 359-422. metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
11. Sebastian Ballard (1998). South Africa-Handbook. Footprint Handbooks, Bath.
profile
Shiuan-Wen Chu
She was born in Taipei,Taiwan in 1973 and moved to Johannesburg,South Africa at age 18.
She studied architecture at the Witwatersrand University,Johannesburg,and came to the Berlage Institute to converge the Mind,discover "the other side",and challenge her inherited position.
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