Bong’s Place

Macassar, Western Cape (South Africa) 2019

University of Cape Town (UCT) (South Africa)
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) (South Africa)
Aachen University (RWTH) (Germany)
University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf (PBSA) (Germany)

The small project is based on the initiative of a non-profit Studiolight in Macassar. Together with the UCT and the CPUT, Cape Town, and in cooperation with the RWTH University and PBSA /HS Duesseldorf the project was carried out as part of a DAAD-funded summer school abroad.
In 2018, local youth designed and build a temporary exhibition installation for a photographic exhibition in several local spaces in Macassar. The aim of the exhibition was to imagine a contemporary cultural space in the underserved community by connecting locally made spaces through storytelling practices. Out of the exhibition emerge the need the build a permanent place to continue an ongoing community storytelling project.
In 2019, forty students from South Africa and Germany joined forces with the non-profit to identify, design, and construct a storytelling space with the community. The collaboration was hosted in several local spaces in Macassar. During phase of the summer school, research was done through a series of field trips, interviews, architectural ethnographic drawings, community meetings, and design projects that focused on connecting emergent common spaces at an urban scale. Well-known resident Thomas Adonis’ shack, known by locals as Bong’s Place was identified as a local common space that could be used as a space for storytelling and to be rebuilt to test local building ideas and techniques at a 1:1 scale in phase II.

designbuild X change www.dbxchange.eu

Client
Macassar Storytelling Community


Collaborators
Studiolight; CS Studio Architects; imagine structure GmbH; Diana Ferris, Willie Bester


Stakeholders
Community contractors: Thys Abrahams, Pieter Davids, Danny Kleinsmith, September Wilson
Community storytellers: Mandela & Kariema, Elton Abrahams, Charlton Abrahams, Thomas Adonis, Enith Adonis, Stephanie Alexander, Giovanni Alexander, Eileen Booysen, Jan Booysen, Saul Claasen, Rosaline Etson, Hester Geduld, Boet Hendry, Shirleen Hopley, Willem Saaiman, Elcardo Samuels, Paul Swartz, Mario van Wyk, Danny van Wyk, Ruben Wilson
Macassar Secondary School
Sponsoring + support: DAAD, Studiolight, imagine structure, Wurth, Hire It, Maitland


Tutors
UCT: Clint Abrahams, John Coetzee, Shafiek Matthews, Katie Ewing
CPUT: Hermie Delport, Rudolf Perold
RWTH: Bernadette Heiermann,Milica Lopicic ,Anna Weber, Kirsten Doermann
PBSA: Judith Reitz, Thomas Georg Schaplik, Franz Klein Wiele, Nora Mueller


Students
UCT: Mila Ashton,Luke Erasmus,Sharon Ho,Britanni Kahn,Caitlin Lewis,Sabunada Mlengeya,Aphlele Ndluvo, Thando Ndluvo,Kaushal Punchoo,Sanele Sikwana ,Jodia Steenkamp, Jason Versfeld, Mogamat Waggie
CPUT: Jedidia Baloyi, Blaine Filander, Uwais Hamman, Firdous Moerat, Siphokazi Ntshingana, Olivia Schneeberger
RWTH: Mascha Creutz, Felix Heusch, Mira Leven, Leander Ostgathe, Hannah Reckenthäler, Nora Reintgen, Marc Thuir
PBSA: Abdurrahman Özgürcü, Maximillian Brockerhoff, Malte Durstewitz, Kira Eckinger, Ronja Griesing, Marlene Haas, Anna-Sophia Korb, Julian Kunstler, Jana Quinker, Leonie Reiner, Tillmann Sammetinger, Montana Schulze, Nina Sohnemann, Helen Terlinde, Hanna Wäschle, Yucui Zhao

Research question
How can cultural exchange initiatives leverage local common (shared) spaces to help forge cultural production in communities with limited access to state public facilities?


University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, South Africa, Aachen University, Permanent, Initiated by institution, Architecture, Months, 11-50, Undergraduate, Sponsorship, Postgraduate, +, Extra-curricular, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town Univ., Students with tutor