3.3 CASE STUDIES: DURBAN'S RESPONSE TO THE NEEDS OF THE
3.3.2 Strollers Overnight Facility
3.3.2.2 Description and Analysis of the Building Environment
3.3.2.2.1 Location
Figure 3.24: 3D view showing immediate context of Strollers in relation the city blocks and activities. (Google Earth, 2013)
Within the broader context, Strollers is well located near to the Durban train station, markets and bath house allowing for ease of transport and the ability to find employment, this location supports the needs of pavement dwellers. Yet within Mansel Road the facility is poorly positioned at the end of the road where the ground floor, small commercial outlets do not have a regular flow of customers; the customers are found closer to the entrance of Mansel Road, where the main markets are.
Analysis of the position in terms of Complexity Theory reveals that the position works on paper in an abstract plan, but not in the complexity of the relations in the environment which should take account of the movement of people.
CONCEPTUALIZING A NURTURING INNER CITY ENVIRONMENT INFORMED BY THE N EEDS OF STREET LIVING:
Towards a multipurpose dream centre for the pavement dwellers of the Durban CBD.
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84 | P a g e The large waste dump close to the entrance of Strollers with its unpleasant odours floating through the air, show that in this particular case there has been little consideration for the lives of the individuals. In the Theory of Living consideration of life is fundamental at every point, and the challenge for architecture is to speak to the important diverse issues and their impact on human well being. The waste dumb arouses "feelings" of discomfort (Robinson, 2012: 348) in the users of Strollers and works against the environment's attempt to be nurturing.
Figure 3.25 & 3.26: The empty commercial facilities on the ground floor can be seen on the left and the large waste dump close to the entrance of Strollers on the right (Author, 2013).
3.3.2.2.2 Response to the Needs of the Pavement Dweller
The Strollers Overnight Facility is a good initiative, yet for a number of specific reasons the building does not respond to the needs of the people. Consideration of these points increases our understanding of what constitutes a nurturing environment.
The architecture of the curved roof of Strollers responds to the curved roofs of the markets in a positive manner that links the building to the context. Although the building is large, there is an attempt to have the feeling of a human scale development by building low lying roofs over the external work space.
85 | P a g e The architecture attempts to link Strollers to the context through the roof, which provides an emotional secure orientation to the pavement dwellers. In contrast, the users of the internal work spaces are overwhelmed in the courtyard by the large four story volume. There is an attempt to design on the humanistic dimension with its focus on the human scale. Yet from the Critical Regionalism perspective the building does strike one as out of scale for the situation and its use.
Figure 3.27 & 3.28: The Strollers overnight facility, on the left, utilising the context of the market's barrel vault roof, on the right, attempting to fit in with the area. (Author, 2013)
3.3.2.2.3 Night Accommodation, Work and Communal Needs
The bedrooms are very small with one window for natural light, ventilation and shared bathrooms. There are long dark corridors that link the rooms together with large spaces for fire hose reels that provide space for crimes to be committed: "these crimes included pulling people into the rooms off the corridor and then assault" Dean Mahomed stated. The work spaces have no windows and only a garage door for access; the garage provides both poor natural light and poor ventilation. There is not enough space for all the washed clothing to be hung up and dried, and the occupants are forced to hang up their clothes on the fence and walls.
CONCEPTUALIZING A NURTURING INNER CITY ENVIRONMENT INFORMED BY THE N EEDS OF STREET LIVING:
Towards a multipurpose dream centre for the pavement dwellers of the Durban CBD.
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Figure 3.29, 3.30 & 3.31: On the left one can see the long dark corridors, in the center the poorly lit work space is observed and on the right, washing is hung on the fence across the road. (Author, 2013)
Strollers provides economic opportunities, in the form of shops and small service industries, primarily the sowing of pillows. Strollers also provides pay public toilets, pay showers, pay lockers and pay laundry facilities.
Figure 3.32 & 3.33: On the left the Strollers' living space lacks human scale and supportiveness. The bedrooms are mathematically worked out to squeeze the occupants in. (Author, 2013)
Strollers caters for physical space and provides for the measurability of space and yet the shelter, work and communal space do not speak to the architectural space as lived space, which for Pallasmaa (2005:63-64) is the emotional. The building's lived space lacks a supportive feeling
87 | P a g e which is fundamental to the nurturing of a particular building. The space must speak to augment movement, touch, hearing and feeling (Peter Kivy cited in Robinson, 2012: 339): the dark corridor projects an emotion of darkness.
3.3.2.2.4 Affordability and Management
Both the shelter and work spaces are too expensive for the large majority of the Durban pavement dwellers to utilise. As noted, long distance traders choose to trade at night rather than pay what is seen as expensive accommodation. Others choose to sleep under the overhangs of the surrounding building, hence returning the area to a similar state of pavement dwelling before Strollers was built. Thus the Strollers is too expensive for the pavement, and some pavement dwellers choose to remain on the pavement.
Management felt that "the prime management task is to collect rent and to keep the building clean". There was no mention of providing services to cater to the needs of users, such as skills training, business planning and life orientation provided by the Grameen Bank, to support the individuals using the facilities (www.garmeen-info.org).
3.3.2.2.5 Suitability for the Strollers Overnight Facility
SEWU and eThekwini Municipality reduced the prime need of the traders on Mansel Road to a place to sleep and a place to work. Yet the rural traders do not choose to sleep in Strollers, preferring the cheaper pavement accommodation. The initiative was plausible, however Strollers attempt to solve human needs through only an architecture of bricks, which can never be achieved. This is a demonstration of Niebuhr, (cited in Jacobs, 1965: 123) who terms the salvation by bricks as the belief that a good building can solve social conditions and the human predicament. The architect Dobson reflecting on the fact that the traders choose to continue to sleep on the pavement rather than pay for the accommodation felt that “The establishment of Strollers missed that aspect” (Dobson, 2007). The accommodation need of rural traders has not been met by Strollers.
CONCEPTUALIZING A NURTURING INNER CITY ENVIRONMENT INFORMED B Y THE N EEDS OF STREET LIVING:
Towards a multipurpose dream centre for the pavement dwellers of the Durban CBD.
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