Architectural modernism and apartheid modernity in South Africa a critical inquiry into the work of architect and urban designer Roelof Uytenbogaardt, 1960-2009

Roelof Sarel Uytenbogaardt who died in 1998 was, and remains, an important and influential figure in the disciplines of architecture and urban design in South Africa. As a prolific practitioner and academic at the University of Cape Town his influence has been far-reaching. Making use of previously unexamined archival material, this study examines - in detail - the extent of this influence. Importantly the thesis seeks to situate Uytenbogaardt’s work in relation to the rise of apartheid and speculates about the persistence of modernism in contemporary spatial practice. Through examining both the conception and reception of Uytenbogaardt’s buildings and urban plans, the work locates modernist approaches to design prevalent in architecture and urban design as products of apartheid modernity. The controversial and contested nature of Uytenbogaardt’s works provides space for critical analysis and this is evident in the uneven reception of his projects. Architects and urban designers revere him as a ‘master’ while pubic sentiment has very often been strongly negative. This is most strikingly evident in the case of the recent proposed destruction of one of Uytenbogaardt’s most controversial works, the Werdmuller Centre. Constructed in the 1970s after forced removals in Cape Town’s suburb of Claremont, since 2007 architects and urban designers have argued passionately for its retention as an example of ‘timeless’ modernist heritage. Through this and other examples, the thesis explores the complexities presented by professional practice in architecture and urban design in the context of designing buildings for designated publics under apartheid. It argues that the work of practitioners and academics such as Uytenbogaardt is intimately linked to the social crisis of apartheid and that the resultant relationship is one of the complex and interrelated crises of modernist design that persist in post-apartheid South Africa

The imperial landscape at Cape Town's gardens

Bibliography: leaves 123-127

Camp Lwandle: Rehabilitating a migrant labour hostel at the seaside

In southern African narratives of migrant labour, hostels and compounds are represented as typical examples of colonial and apartheid planning. Visual and spatial comparisons are consistently made between the regulatory power of hostels and those of concentration camps. Several of these sites of violence and repression are today being reconfigured as sites of conscience, their artefactual presence on the landscape being constructed as places of remembrance. In this trajectory, a space of seeming anonymity in Lwandle, some 40 km outside of Cape Town, was identified by the newly established museum, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, as a structure of significance. The migrant labour compound in Lwandle, of which Hostel 33 is the last remnant, was designed by planners and engineers and laid out as part of a labour camp for male migrant workers in the 1950s. This article explores the ambitious project initiated in 2008, by the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum (and funded largely by the US Ambassadors Cultural Restoration Fund), to restore Hostel 33. Although Hostel 33 was not a very old structure, having been built in 1958/9, nor was it easily considered to have conventional architectural significance, its material presence in present-day Lwandle represents a reminder of the conditions of life in the labour camp. The article traces the work entailed in the restoration process through paying attention to both the built fabric and its materiality, and by giving an account of the explorations into finding ways to restore the hostel to the museum through making it into a site of significance. In place of the centrality of the building as the object of restoration, the work shifted to considering how the hostel could function most effectively as a stage and destination for the Museum’s narrations of the past. Retaining and maintaining Hostel 33 was less concerned with the fabric as an empirical fact of the past, than with its projection into an envisaged future for museum purposes.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Love and loathing in Cape Town

Today, the platonic forms of the modernist, Corbusian-inspired Werdmuller Centre, by South African architect and urban designer Roelof Uytenbogaardt, stand against a background of decay in a neglected corner of Claremont, Cape Town. Controversial ever since its construction in the 1970s, the building is again the vortex of a dispute. It has been subject to a process of consideration for “heritage worthiness,” drawing public attention in the post-colonial, post-apartheid present to the contemporary significance of Uytenbogaardt’s work. Cape Town has been nominated World Design Capital in 2014, and the Werdmuller Centre, standing almost in ruins, exemplifies many of the tensions that exist over the presence of modernist design and buildings in the contemporary city. Occupying a site considered to have commercial development potential by its owners, its proposed demolition is opposed by architects who argue that the Werdmuller Centre deserves to be classified as “heritage.” As the building’s future hangs in the balance, the debates that have emerged since the announcement of intentions to demolish have become heightened in 2013, revealing the contested nature of modern architecture in post-apartheid South Africa.Die platonischen Formen des modernistischen, von Le Corbusier inspirierten Werdmuller Centre des südafrikanischen Architekten und Stadtplaners Roelof Uytenbogaardt heben sich heute von ihrem verfallenen Umfeld einer vernachlässigten Ecke von Claremont, Kapstadt ab. Das seit seiner Erbauung in den 1970er Jahren umstrittene Gebäude ist erneut in den Strudel einer Auseinandersetzung geraten. Als Gegenstand eines Evaluierungsverfahrens seines Denkmalwerts hat es die öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit der postkolonialen Post-Apartheid-Gegenwart auf die zeitgenössische Bedeutung Uytenbogaardts Arbeit gelenkt. Kapstadt ist 2014 zur Welthauptstadt des Designs ernannt worden und das fast zur Ruine verfallene Werdmuller Centre ist ein Beispiel für die Spannungen, die es angesichts von vorhandenem modernistischen Design und Architektur in der gegenwärtigen Stadt gibt. Es steht auf einem Gelände, das aus Sicht der Eigentümer gewerbliches Entwicklungspotenzial besitzt. Der vorgeschlagene Abriss wird von Architekten abgelehnt, die empfehlen, das Werdmuller Centre unter Denkmalschutz zu stellen. Die Zukunft des Gebäudes ist ungewiss, die Diskussion ist seit Bekanntwerden der Abrisspläne 2013 lauter geworden und zeigt den umstrittenen Charakter moderner Architektur im Südafrika nach dem Ende der Apartheid.Hoy en día las formas platónicas del Centro modernista Werdmuller, inspirado en Le Corbusier y obra del arquitecto y urbanista surafricano Roelof Uytenbogaardt, se erigen con un trasfondo de decadencia en una esquina olvidada de Claremont, Ciudad del Cabo. Polémico desde su construcción en la década de los 70, hoy el edificio vuelve a estar en el ojo del huracán. Se ha evaluado si es «digno de ser considerado patrimonio», llamando la atención del público del presente post-colonial y post-apartheid sobre la importancia contemporánea de la obra de Uytenbogaardt. Ciudad del Cabo fue elegida capital mundial del diseño en 2014 y el Centro Werdmuller, prácticamente en ruinas, es un claro ejemplo de muchas de las tensiones existentes sobre la presencia del diseño y los edificios modernistas en la ciudad contemporánea. El Centro Werdmuller ocupa un solar cuyos propietarios revindican su potencial comercial. Los arquitectos se oponen a su demolición, y sostienen que el Centro Werdmuller merece figurar en el patrimonio de la ciudad. Mientras el futuro del edificio pende de un hilo, la polémica surgida desde el anuncio de las intenciones de demoler el edificio se intensificaron en 2013, poniendo de manifiesto hasta qué punto es cuestionada la arquitectura moderna de la Sudáfrica posterior al apartheid.De nos jours, le Centre Werdmuller, œuvre de l’architecte et urbaniste sudafricain Roelof Uytenbogaardt, à la forme platonique et moderniste inspirée par Le Corbusier, tranche avec son environnement, un quartier délaissé et délabré de Claremont au Cap. Ce bâtiment, à l’origine d’une controverse lors de sa construction dans les années 1970, est de nouveau au centre d’un débat. Le processus d’évaluation pour « intérêt patrimonial » dont il a fait l’objet a attiré l’attention publique de notre époque postcoloniale et post-apartheid sur la signification contemporaine du travail d’Uytenbogaardt. La ville du Cap a été nommée Capitale mondiale du design en 2014 et le centre Werdmuller, presqu’en ruine, est emblématique des tensions existantes à l’égard du design et des bâtiments modernistes dans la ville contemporaine. La démolition du Centre Werdmuller, situé sur un emplacement considéré par ses propriétaires comme ayant un potentiel commercial, est contestée par des architectes qui soutiennent le fait que le bâtiment mérite d’être classé. Le futur du bâtiment est encore incertain et le débat en cours depuis l’annonce du projet de destruction s’est intensifié en 2013, révélant le caractère contesté de l’architecture moderne dans l’Afrique du Sud après l’abolition de l’apartheid.Il Centro Werdmuller dell’architetto sudafricano Roelof Uytenbogaardt, dalla forma platonica e modernista ispirata al design architettonico di Le Corbusier, si staglia oggi su uno sfondo di decadenza in un angolo dimenticato di Claremont, a Cape Town. L’edificio, oggetto di controversie fin dalla sua costruzione negli anni Settanta, si trova ancora una volta al centro di un dibattito. Da quando la possibilità di dichiararlo patrimonio culturale è stata presa in considerazione, ciò ha attirato l’attenzione di un pubblico post-coloniale e post-apartheid sul valore contemporaneo dell’opera di Uytenbogaardt. Cape Town è stata nominata Capitale mondiale del design nel 2014, e il Werdmuller Centre, quasi in rovina, riassume in sé molte tensioni che esistono intorno alla presenza di design e edifici modernisti nella città contemporanea. La demolizione del Werdmuller Centre, eretto su un sito che i proprietari ritengono abbia un potenziale di sviluppo commerciale, è osteggiata da alcuni architetti che rivendicano che il centro meriterebbe di essere catalogato come patrimonio culturale. Il futuro dell’edificio è ancora incerto e il dibattito emerso dopo l’annuncio delle intenzioni di demolizione si è intensificato nel 2013, mostrando la natura conflittuale dell’architettura moderna nel Sudafrica post-apartheid

Colonial today

Across the world, colonialism produced a substantial built legacy that in many cases continues to mark post-colonial urban landscapes. This theme issue addresses the ambivalences surrounding the position of colonial architecture as heritage in the present day, questioning the common assumption that architecture produced under colonial rule constitutes, by definition, a “dissonant heritage”. Presenting cases that highlight the myriad ways in which colonial architecture is re-used, re-appropriated, embraced and at times contested, the contributions gathered here argue for the important role research in architectural history has to play not only in resituating edifices in the historical contexts that produced them, but also in unpacking the contemporary narratives constructed or even “invented” about colonial built heritage