IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A
Abstract
The research is a hybrid of a social and architectural investigation of the Surat Hindu Association and their development of three buildings. Personal accounts of community members’ cultural and functional living built habitats from the 20th century in the Indian Quarter in Durban, South Africa is transcribed. In addition, due to a lack of recorded histories of marginal societies in colonial and apartheid South Africa, an autoethnographic account of the researchers personal perspectives of experiencing these childhood spaces has been captured. Digital photogrammetry has also been undertaken as a third method of recording. The three methodologies have been integrated into a written and creative format to produce an archival resource of preserving the heritage of a migrant community. Real historiographical and ‘real’ fictional accounts, archival photographs and documents also provide intangible context to the built artifacts. Important architectural and development lessons of socio-spatial networks, economies and capital as means to establish and develop a cultural and material heritage are learnt.
Sushma Patel is a professional architect, urban designer, researcher and academic at the Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. She has an interest in the urban socio-spatial landscape of cities of the global South and South Africa in particular. Her key expertise lies in urban design, social housing and architecture. She has 25 years of practice and teaching experience. She has written widely on issues of urban density and the economy of architecture. Her work also centres around people in the built environment. More recently, she has been working on heritage documentation.
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Thursday 29th June, 2023