Project Title: 

Project Location: Pretoria

Project Focus Area: Architecture 

Supervisor(s): Dr Calayde Davey & Christo van der Hoven

Project Description: 

Access to basic goods and services and social interaction is a vital foundation for a cohesive urban environment (Miciukiewicz & Vigar 2012). Urban mobility enables access to resources and also shapes the daily encounters and societal experience within the city (Miciukiewicz & Vigar 2012). Urban mobility can then be seen as transport and access to goods and services but also as an important component of connectedness to different human networks and spaces of social integration (Miciukiewicz & Vigar 2012). Places such as transport interchanges, bus stops, underground trains, and buses are public spaces where individuals and groups can establish and negotiate meanings, cultures, and identities (Miciukiewicz & Vigar 2012).

The country’s public transport system has many problems, and some of these issues can be traced back to the spatial planning policies that were put in place prior to South Africa becoming a democratic country. This has resulted in people residing far away from cities, where the majority of job opportunities are available. This project looks at how we can spatially integrate public transport systems in Hatfield in a way that can foster social capital. Social capital is defined as the networks, norms, shared beliefs, relationships that facilitate cooperation and collaborative action for mutual benefits (Bhandari and Yasunobu 2009). This can be achieved through implementing an interchange hub. An interchange hub is an area where people and cargo can be moved between different transportation modes. They usually consist of different types of transportation facilities such as train stations, bus stations, bus stops, trams and airports (SMMR 2023). But how can we design an interchange hub that meets the needs of the people of Hatfield. This project focuses on  middle-income case study of Hatfield, City of Tshwane, South Africa.