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Stress and Wellness in the Architecture and Ci Es of Soweto

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Stress and Wellness in the Architecture and Ci Es of Soweto Stress and Wellness in the Johannesburg, and New York City - Hilary Sample Jay Siebenmorgen - - - 49 Sandton 1,500 ppl/km2 Alexandra Alexandra 143,270 ppl/km2 White Avg. Johannesburg 2,690 ppl/km2 Former Mining Areas Soweto Soweto 8,100 ppl/km2 Hillbrow Tower Sentech Tower Carlton Centre Ponte City Apartments Marble Towers Michelangelo Tower Kwa Dukuza Egoli Hotel Trust Bank Centre Absa Center Standard BankTower Southern Life Centre 1971 1962 1973 1975 1973 2005 1985 1970 ? 1968 1973 Racial Zoning of Current Johannesburg Johannesburg, 1987 Population Density White Asian Coloured 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Black Controlled Kyalami Kyalami Boulders Ivory Park Boulders Ivory Park Rabie Ridge Rabie Ridge Fourways Fourways WoMeN’s Woodmead Woodmead HosTel Rivonia Rivonia Sandton (North Suburbs) & Honeydew Honeydew Alexandra Marlboro Randburg Randburg Marlboro Sandton Alexandra Sandton Alexandra Lombardy East Lombardy East Rosebank Rosebank Roodenpoort Roodenpoort Kilarney Kilarney Auckland Park Auckland Park Yeoville Yeoville Hillbrow Hillbrow Meadowlands CBD Meadowlands Dobonsville Westgate Dobonsville CBD CBD Orlando Orlando Westgate Zola Mofolo Phefeni Diepkloof Zola Mofolo Phefeni Diepkloof Dube Alexandra Township Dube Baragwanath Crown Mines Baragwanath Crown Mines Protea Glen Senaoane Protea Glen Senaoane Pimville Southgate Kliptown Pimville Southgate Protea Kliptown Soweto Rockville Protea Rockville Lenasia Lenasia NobuTHie HosTel MAdAlA Orange Farm HosTel Orange Farm Length of Trip 1 Dot = 500 people Possible Connection Hospitals Destination Destination Destination 0 5 10 0 5 10 0 5 10 Jozi Economic Activity Prevalence of HIV, total (% of populaon ages 15-49) 2006, 17.3 2010, 17.3 Sandton (North Suburbs) & 18 2004, 17.2 2008, 17.2 Alexandra 2002, 16.6 2005, 17.3 16 2000, 14.8 2003, 17 2009, 17.2 2007, 17.2 2011, 17.3 1999, 13.3 2001, 15.9 14 1998, 11.4 12 1997, 9.2 10 CBD 8 1996, 6.9 6 1995, 4.9 Soweto 4 1993, 2.1 2 1994, 3.3 1991, 0.8 1992, 1.3 0 1990, 0.5 Prevalence of HIV, total (% of population ages 15 Prevalence of HIV refers to the percentage of people ages 15-49 who are infected with HIV. Hospitals Destination *Data from World Bank online. http://www.worldbank.org/ UNAIDS and the WHO's Report on the Global AIDS 0 5 10 Epidemic. Catalog Sources World Development Indicators STRESS AND WELLNESS IN THE ARCHITECTURE AND CITIES OF SOWETO, KINNE WEEK COPENHAGEN - JOHANNESBURG JOHANNESBURG, AND NEW YORK CITY Redefining the relationship between site The Intersection between Urban Health and studio by studying public health in and Architecture was organized that three cities. brought together architects, urban planners, city officials, and public health This past spring eight graduate students experts to discuss architecture and the traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, as city’s role in stress and wellness. Among part of a new initiative between the school other things, this process raised the need and an international design firm. Their joint to rethink the relationship of the distance mission was to gain a new understanding separating site and studio. of stress and wellness at the intersection If social equivalency is understood as of urban public health, architecture, groups that share similar conditions, and cities. This on-site research and typically a measure of one’s health, exploration of Johannesburg, at a time then it was possible for the studio to when architectural education is becoming uncover situations of social distance. To more immersive, extends work from the further this typological study we asked studio to the site and back again. students to explore the relationship Johannesburg served as a unique to stress and urban form in New York and uniquely stressed environment to and Copenhagen in comparison to study, presenting a possibility for the Johannesburg. The layering of public greatest invention towards wellness. The health crises in Johannesburg from epidemiological term “social equivalency” the legacy of Apartheid, AIDS/HIV became an important concept for our pandemic, and poverty, coupled with lack observations of built form, constructed of infrastructure, decaying buildings, and since the end of Apartheid. We focused an increase in the immigrant population, on three particular areas: Hillbrow in makes the city ideal for observation and Central Johannesburg, the Bara area in-depth fieldwork. Above all, health, as within Soweto, and Alexandra. a subject is revealed to be extraordinary Prior to the trip, students and faculty alike local today. struggled to gain access to data we found This condition requires intensively local in maps and statistics. But remote access architectural types to respond to needs to information is limiting, with a majority of through inventive programs. By learning key documents found only in archives and about the multifaceted problems of urban libraries that are yet to be placed online. stress, the studio found glimmers of Therefore the students learned about the optimism through a variety of wellness- city, in part, through close readings of related responses—from commingling Google Maps, select bibliographies, and housing and building repair guilds, to data collected by international agencies. shelter and sanctuary from gender- Throughout the semester, this research based violence, a taxi rank with an was augmented by faculty organized assembly hall, and a new city center that lectures which featured topics such fosters education and public space. By as apartheid era activism, the social interfacing on the ground, the studio as a effects of the AIDS/HIV pandemic, and collective, was able to experience social contemporary public health research equivalencies, even if their living and strategies. Similarly, a symposium entitled housing contexts were radically different. Design Research in the Studio Context.
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