Empowering youth ‘Placeless-ness’ in coloured communities through architecture: towards an integrated cultural youth centre in Greenwood Park, Durban.

Abstract

“Placeless-ness” amongst youth is the wondering of youth in spaces often unclaimed or unoccupied. Its presence represents the existence of spatial inequality or exclusionary spatial characteristics in Coloured communities. A non-inclusive urban formation has pushed the youth to the periphery, often feeling unwelcome and lost in their homes and civic spaces. This exclusion has forced the youth to create self-determined spaces on the fringes of their community. As a result, the presence of placeless youth is often associated with a sense of social decay defined by the worst traits linked with the Coloured community, including drug and liquor abuse and gang-related behaviour. The primary purpose of the research is to explore the ability of a building to reflect the concerns and aspirations of the youth while creating a constitutive link between placeless-ness, the youth and architecture. The idea is to create a built environment that can engage youth through the theories of culture and empowerment and the concepts of mentorship and co-production. The research is approached from a qualitative perspective. All relevant literature is critically engaged to determine plausible solutions to youth placeless-ness. Precedents are reviewed in an attempt to find real-world solutions, their application and implementation, along with society’s response to an architectural intervention. The case study is of the site, an area with very little public documentation. Through the process of observations and interviews, an indepth understanding of the Greenwood Park community was formulated. The research attempts to demonstrate the lack of autonomy and space the youth are given within their community. The youth’s choice to find space on the street results from current city planning methods, which have created streets unfit for human consumption. Ironically, the street's unclaimed nature makes it the most democratic and equitable space available within the city. The street becomes a point of youth empowerment and reclamation. It possesses the opportunity for the creation of a healthy psychosocial space. A call for a youth cultural centre within the Coloured community of Greenwood Park, which acts as an extension to the streets, is required. The centre will be a part of a broader satellite intervention that aims to be strategically placed throughout the community creating points of value for the youth at their point of reclamation; the streets.