Public Space and Everyday Culture: Photo-stories of Fractional Place-making in Urban South Africa

Abstract

To understand the concept of public space within the African context, we need to unpack the terms ‘public’ and ‘space’. Public space can’t be seen in isolation from the action that takes place within the urban space, the everyday culture that influences public life. The opportunity lies in reviewing the idea of public space from a conventional meaning into one of understanding the fractions of space as co-produced, negotiated, and occupied places in constant change, driven by a continual process and not a desired end-product. In some instances, the fractional space is connected and creates a mesh or network of social infrastructure; in others, the spaces remain individual and active. The short essay offers a series of photo stories to reveal the concept of fractional urban space. The images illustrate a switch in foreground concepts versus the background realities and actions in urban spaces experienced in fragile neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa. Four spatial frames are interpreted. Firstly, fractional space is described. Secondly, a space of practice remarks on a strategic, and transformative project as a lesson for incremental area-based development. Thirdly, a space of exchange, reveals the social function and production of space within an extraordinary and overlapping micro-space of the city. Fourthly, a space of learning, reframes a critical pedagogy of engaged teaching and learning beyond the academy, co-designed and situated in a ‘real’ public space project. The images offer reflections of fractional urban space in context.