Research project sees students engage with communities
UKZN students took to the streets in a research project recently, to engage with people using a footpath in Berea.
UKZN Humanities students engaged with the public in a research project in Berea recently.
Masihambisane, A walking city personified, was an innovative interdisciplinary research action engaging place with a community in motion.
This project further expands the research findings from the first inter-disciplinary study undertaken in 2014 between UKZN Architecture and UKZN Drama and Performance Studies to conscientise students to ‘other’ ways of learning.
The area that was chosen was the footpath from Umkhumbane in Cato Manor to Warwick Junction in the Durban inner-city, which is traversed by approximately 7000 people daily, connecting the township to the place of work and transport in the city.
The footpath is along King Dinuzulu (Berea) Road, along the southern side of the freeway. It is a harsh exposed footpath that is not acknowledged in any formal way along its entire length as a mobility route by city authorities. There is limited lighting, limited walkway space, poor surface, and congested crossing points, no pick up points or ablutions.
This route is however acknowledged by the NPO, dala: art and architecture for social change, who has engaged this space and the people who use it (inhabitants and traders) for 14 years.
Working with Mr Doung Jahangeer of dala and UKZN lecturers Bridget Horner from Architecture and Dr Miranda Young-Jahangeer from Drama, Masters 1 Architecture Students and Applied Theatre students conceptualised creative interventions built and performative, to highlight the significance of the route and the daily activities that occur along it.
“The interventions highlighted the lack of public amenities and encouraged people to make use of the ‘new’ in-site amenities the students had provided. The day proved to be a highly successful engagement exercise with the transient and fixed community as well as an insightful learning exercise for the students who engaged directly with the people who traverse the space through their daily practice,” said Horner.
This project was supported by the Santam and a Blue Skies grant from Urban Futures at the Durban University of Technology (DUT).
