Denver Desk-Top Study Reflection

The process of a desktop study of Denver, Johannesburg has been insightful and research intensive from a third person perspective. While the process has proven to be useful, from this distanced perspective, it has also proven to be difficult to focus attention towards the levels of the built environment and the methods of negotiation that happen, as I feel that this requires a personal hands-on experience with the site and its inhabitants.

The lower levels of the environment, where there is individual or group agency, will require on-site experience, mapping and data gathering - and as such will be done at a later stage and cannot be reflected on.

Some of the assumptions made in this portion of the process, tackle the notions of Permanent vs. Temporary and Higher Level vs. Lower Level. This has been done through our analysis which resulted in hypothetical decisions from a Higher Level - specifically looking at what could be permanent and integral infrastructure, and what would be more beneficial on a larger scale to be removed - which will be taken to site to compare with the forthcoming Lower Level analysis and resulting Lower Level decisions.

There appears to be an unplanned organic growth to the site. With infrastructure, such as the storm water channel, defining growth, while the growth defines other infrastructure, such as roads/footpaths. This engages with the Open Building ideas of Interconnected vs. Independent, Control vs. Chance, and Planned vs. Unplanned.

There also seems to be a mix of shared and individual land use, both separated and converged on various parts of the site. This idea should inform the Higher Level zoning decisions, with the Higher Level decisions being able to enhance this specific character of the site, while making it more efficient. Open Building principles like Entangled vs. Disentangled and Long Life vs. Short Life should also play an integral role in these Higher Level decisions, as users will change throughout the life of the buildings or spaces.

 

Concept

Infrastructure and Agency

Agency is the capacity of an agent - a person or entity - to act. This capacity does not imply a specific moral dimension to the ability to make the choice to act, therefore moral agency is a distinctly different concept. In sociology, an agent is an individual that engages with a social structure (Wilson and Sphall 2002).

Looking at agency in infrastructure, within a neighbourhood scale context in Johannesburg, one could see the prevalent Trolley Pullers as infrastructural agents. These agents are also transient as traverse the context of the neighbourhood collecting recyclable goods. If they were provided with the necessary tools and incentive to collect the fallen leaves as they walk their daily routes, one would be integrating a new infrastructure into an existing one - thus increasing efficiency.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the elementary physical and/or organisational system required for the functioning of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. It could be generically defined a system of interconnected elements that provide a framework for the support of a structure of development (O'Sullivan and Sheffrin, 2003:474).

Infrastructure is typically referred to as the technical structures which support a society, namely roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, etc., and can be further defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions" (Fulmer 2009:30).

From a practical perspective, infrastructure promotes the production of goods and services, all the way through to the distribution of complete products to markets. Rudimentary social services, such as schools and hospitals, also benefit from infrastructure.

'Hard' infrastructure refers to the physical networks necessary for societies/neighbourhoods to function, whereas 'soft' infrastructure refers to institutions which are required to maintain the economic, health, and cultural and social standards of a country, such as the financial system, the education system, the health care system, the system of government, and law enforcement, as well as emergency services.