ARCHIcafe 9: Deep Africa

The politics of civic space / civic architecture

The Museum of Apartheid by Noero Wolff Architects is better known as ‘the museum of the peoples struggle’ (Osborne and Sanders, 2008). It is a place that offers a deeper understanding and appreciation of the country, the darkest days, the struggles and the heroes. It depicts the rise and fall of the apartheid government: the racially prejudice “white” government that had turned 20 million people into second-class citizens. It is the story of decades of murder, violence, torture and terrorism that ended with the rising of the human spirit over adversity.

It is located in what is called ‘The Red Location’ in New Brighton, South Africa, which contains its own stories and history of defiance campaigns and armed struggle (Osborne and Sanders, 2008). The name of the location originates from the corrugated iron barracks that line the town, brought from a nearby concentration camp, now rusted and turned a deep red.

In this building the architects have attempted to investigate a way of making civic architecture in an emotionally charged post-apartheid situation. (Apartheid Museum, 2008). It is an approach to memorialising the past to offer a cultural experience to visitors. There is an immense importance in such a project, as it is an offering of some kind to the community of pride and dignity in the wake of such a past. It brings the white government into exposure, the past into the light and offers hope and a new beginning to the people. It offers this hope through displaying the culture of the black people as something relevant and to be treasured in the present.

The architects have used an industrial aesthetic to communicate to the people. It is not a typical imposing modern structure that a museum typically seems to be; often towering over visitors with importance, pillars and embellished concrete grandness. It is a typology that the people can engage with and understand; like the workplaces in the town the spaces and materials reflect this modesty. I like the honesty and intention of this gesture. The architect is not only thinking about building ‘context’ but also of the people that own, use and work in the town and the heroes of the apartheid struggle.

Although the museum is well received and offers opportunity for employment, a precinct for social and cultural interaction I feel there is a negative to the many positives the building offers. There is such a bold, raw energy that the memory boxes, the rooms, the exhibits and the performances display. People come from around the world to see brutality, murder and political controversies on display in this town. Is this what the people that live in the town asked for? Did they want their town (despite its troubled past) to be suspended in this memory of how not to play out history, of how not to treat each other as people? Despite the obvious revenue from tourism, trinkets and ’poverty style’ nick-knacks, were they asked to be on display in that town, was their choice? Or perhaps just the 3 million budget and an architect with honest aspirations…

References:

Apartheid Museum. (2008). A short history. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/HTML_APM/shortstory.html

Osborne, L., Sanders, C. (2008). The Constitutional Court of South Africa. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from Queensland University of Tecnology, Blackboard Academic Site: http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_35883_1