Manifestation of political power and identity on the built environment : designing of a new Port Shepstone civic centre.
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Date
2011
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Abstract
Architecture and political power have long been interrelated throughout history and weaved into
the fabric of the built environment. Politics in the past was preoccupied with the expression of
power; however, there has been a paradigm shift in favour of the expression of identity,
particularly national identity. Local as well as international precedents reveal the extent to which
past regimes have manipulated architecture and urban design in the service of politics.
Exemplary to this is South Africa, a nation in transition emerging from Western colonization and
more recently, the Apartheid regime. It is a country still haunted by ghosts of the past and the
spatial organisation of the ‘Apartheid city’. However, South Africa post 1994 is not without
examples of contemporary architecture which is a reflection of an “open democracy” in efforts to
facilitate renewed interaction and hope in politics and civic architecture. Germany, also emerging
from an unsavoury past has embraced the concept of democracy in its political systems and
architecture. As a result, the built environment is a record of past together with the present
thinking existing in unison, creating rich and meaningful places and spaces rooted in the history of place and time.
Description
Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.
Keywords
Civic centres--KwaZulu-Natal--Port Shepstone--Designs and plans., Democracy and architecture--KwaZulu-Natal--Port Shepstone., Architecture--Political aspects--KwaZulu-Natal--Port Shepstone., Theses--Architecture.