1. Wits School of Architecture and Planning
YEOVILLE STUDIO 2011
Wits School of Architecture and Planning
Courses related to Yeoville Studio
Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Yeoville Studio coordinator, January 2012
© 2nd year Architecture Students, Photography – Saunders street portrait

2. Teaching in/for Yeoville Studio in 2011
first semester
second semester
total
Students
2nd years 30 23 53
3rd 19
4rth 13 10
Honours theses 1
Masters class 4
Masters/PhD theses 3
Total 43 56
104
Teaching staff 2

3. Participatory Design – Street trading stalls
Level: Second year
Discipline: Architecture
When: Second Semester 2011
Number of students: 8 (subgroup of a class of about 70)
Theme: Trading
Kirsten Doermann,
facilitator
Aim: to design and construct a structure that accommodates various kinds of
trading and caters in particular very small and informal businesses. The structure has to be mobile/ easily de-mountable, robust, water resistant, durable, light (transportable by one person) and aesthetically pleasing.
Three phases:
Research: Analysis and study of existing street trading units, outdoor equipment and luggage designs. 
Workshops with Yeoville street traders: one initial to discuss project and find out local needs; one intermediary to test prototypes and amend them
A selection of the best prototypes was built and showcased at the final Yeoville Studio exhibition (Nov 2012) 9

4. The initial workshop and the project were publicised in the local newspaper, Yeovue News
Yeoville Recreation Center, Students presented their models in two design workshops with about 50 Yeoville street traders, co-organised with local activists.

5. Participatory design - an incremental process
The final models were built and presented in Yeoville recreation center, 28 Nov 2011.

6. Photography – Street portrait and activists
Level: Second year
Discipline: Architecture
When: Second semester 2011
Number of students: 15
Theme: Photography and the Built environment
Solam Mkhabela, facilitator
Students engaged in two exercises related to Yeoville:
They were asked to document Saunders-Natal street through street photography (4 different groups on different themes)
They were asked to do portraits of local activists, picturing them in their Yeoville environment
Their work was included in broader Yeoville Studio initiatives:
Natal-Saunders street photographs were shown in several interactive workshops-cum-exhibitions, and in a video (Youtube);
Activists portraits were included in a larger research project on local activism in Yeoville, and showcased in YS final exhibition 15

7. Natal-Saunders portrait - Four groups of students work on different topics in the street:
-Landmarks
-Threshholds
-Building-People-Plants
-Spaza shops

8. Exhibition and workshop on Natal-Saunders street, 19. 11
Exhibition and workshop on Natal-Saunders street, , facilitated by students.
Residents were asked to select their favourite picture (orange sticker), their most disliked picture (yellow), the one they found the most representative of their street.
Residents’ comments were captured in writing and in a video. Commented pictures were presented in YS final exhibition in Yeoville.

9. Local activists portraits – a selection
Maurice Smithers (YBCDT Chair and YS partner)
&
Angelina Motsepe (Yeoville street trader activist)
© Alistair James & Kamal Ranchod, Yeoville Studio 2011

10. Land Management - Absentee landlords
Level: 2nd Year
Discipline: Planning
When: First semester 2011
Number of students: 23
Theme: Land management
Neil Klug, Facilitator
Students engaged in two exercises in relation to Yeoville:
-to prepare research seminars on: absentee landlords, expropriation, alternative land registration systems and land tenure options.
-to broadly examine the problem of absentee landlords and their planning implications as well as coming up with possible recommendations based on international case studies 18

11. Urban Design (2nd year Planning)
Level: 2nd Year
Discipline: Planning – Urban Design
When: First Semester 2010
Number of students: 22
Theme: Public space: eating, trading, playing
Garth Klein, facilitator
Postiso Phasha, tutor
Students were asked to take three themes of and workshop physical interventions
Investigate participatory design and to translate these themes into urban design interventions. The interventions needed to identify appropriate participatory design methods based on these themes.
Students were asked to make use of design principles related to the ARPL2015 course and to ground design interventions in research undertaken through
reading and precedents – especially emphasising the role of the public
realm and community space 18

12. Different student projects
-Green rooftops intervention
-Analysis and interventions of restaurants
-Analysis of design principles based on theories of place, linkage and figure-ground (Trancik 1986)

13. Yeoville Building Stories
Level: Third
Discipline: Planning – Politics & Housing
When: Second semester 2011
Number of students: 19 in Politics / 10 in Housing
Theme: Housing politics: building and housing unit management
Claire Benit-Gbaffou, facilitator
Groups of 5 students studied each one building in Yeoville (5 buildings were included: a middle class building, a renovated building, a building under renovation – emptied-; a ‘bad building’; a shared house).
They had to work at the building and at the housing unit scale to understand the organisation and management of space, power relations, financial flows, individual and collective strategies and tactics.
Margot Rubin facilitator 12

14. From research…
… to design
… to communication
… to recommendations

15. Mpho Matsipa, facilitator
Urban regeneration
Level: Fourth Year
Discipline: Architecture – Research elective
When: Second semester 2011
Number of students: 10
Theme: Urban regeneration
Mpho Matsipa, facilitator
The aim of the course was to engage critically with the processes of gentrification in Johannesburg through intensive and comparative fieldwork in two sites: Main Street Life (Jeppestown) and Yeoville.
The research was divided in 4 parts:
Enclave urbanism
Building biographies
Key institutional players
Urban voices 9

16. Integrated Planning Project
Level: 4rth Year
Discipline: Planning
When: First Semester 2011
Number of students: 13
Theme: Spatial Development Framework for Yeoville
Garth Klein facilitator
Students were asked to design and represent a set of spatial visions, interventions and policies for the Yeoville - indicating the nature of development to be fostered based on specific sectoral issues, based on a particular normative position, developed in reference to other cities (here Maputo, Mozambique). They wrote a report that illustrates and documents a developmental path for Yeoville
Abdul Abed, teaching assistant 18

17. Intermediary research results and interventions proposed by students were presented to Yeoville Studio partners (YBCDT-YSF)
and their comments integrated into the final spatial development framework.

18. Comparing dynamics, branding and definition of ‘the other’ in Yeoville (moderate gentrification) and Jeppestown (Main street life – active gentrification)

19. Yeoville Activists Stories
Level: Masters
Discipline: Planning – Politics, Governance and the City
When: Second semester 2011
Number of students: 4 / 2
Theme: Local leadership in Yeoville
Claire Benit-Gbaffou, facilitator
Students were requested to portray different types of local leaders & activists in Yeoville (7 in total), as a way to reflect on local leadership, individual and collective agency, processes of building political legitimacy and political networks and modes of action.
They used various ethnographic methods to unravel different aspects of local leadership – interviews, observation, study of schedule of activists’ activities.
The result of their research was converted into posters presenting each activist, showcased in the final Yeoville Studio exhibition. 12

20. Nofumene Multiple Positionality
Pastor Humphrey
CPF
Baptist Tabernacle
ADF/YDF
SA Council of Churches
Hope Care Centre
ANC Youth League
ANC Member
Melville Councillor
BMF
UNISA
Black Forum
MK Veterans
10 Monday
11 Tuesday
12 Wednesday
13 Thursday
Worked in office assisting community members with queries:
1.) Two Queries into the owner of a building.
2.) Query into proposed jobs for the construction of a new Police station in Yeoville.
3.) Query into who to contact for refuse removal in Yeoville.
Attended court to support CPF deputy chairperson who was arrested for attempted rape. Case postponed due to the lawyer not being available.
Attended court to support CPF deputy chairperson who was re-arrested on another count of attempted robbery. The Dept. Chairperson is denied bail.
Attended meeting with the Yeoville Liquor Traders Forum.
Attempted to post bail for the dept. chairperson went to Sun City correctional facility.
Civil Society
Nofumene Multiple Positionality
State
Business
Party
Provincial Secretary of South African Women in Mining
Former executive member of ANC
Currently Inactive member
Zizamele NW Projects
South African Municipal Workers Union
Analysing weekly activities
Sketching multiple positionnalities
Mapping political networks
Translating results into community-oriented portrays of local activists

21. Wits students theses (completed or in progress)
Abdul Abed, Urban Design Masters student, Participatory design for integrated trading – the case of Yeoville. In progress.
Obvious Katsaura, Planning PhD candidate, Minority groups and community policing – the case of Yeoville. In progress
Eulenda Mkwanazi, 2011, Urban Studies Masters Student: Local leadership and urban change – portraits of two activists (Yeoville / Dobsonville). In progress
Mamokete Matjomane, 2011, Planning Honours Student: Spaza shop keepers, the city and the community. The case of Yeoville. Completed with distinction.
… Look at our electronic archive on Yeoville Studio website,

22. Wits staff involved (2010) Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Studio coordinator
Simon Sizwe Mayson,
Studio administrator
Henia Czekanowska, webmaster
Mpfundzo Malada,
IT support
Neil Klug
Kirsten Doermann
Garth Klein
Gerald Chungu
Mpho Matsipa
Solam Mkhabela
Margot Rubin
Abdul Abed
Postiso Phasha 21