Light Haven: a recreation centre for the new Doornfontein precinct

• Main Author: Gomes, Angela Bastos
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/11753

The city and its ‘in between’ spaces should be a safe haven for its inhabitants, yet the Doornfontein precinct, is still considered ‘unsafe’. As the precinct consists mainly of housing and manufacturing of furniture, decoration of interiors and fashion industries spaces, the recognition of the need for public safe amenities exists. This thesis aims to explore the issue of safety through architecture and, ultimately, help improve the current situation in the Doornfontein precinct. In addition, this thesis explores how its end product, the building, should ideally conform with the principles of ‘defensible space’ within the constraints of a city context and its particular tight rectangular street grid layout while, simultaneously, giving it back and making it easily accessible to the people using it thereby making it an active and public space with a clear sense of order. The intended building design is to fit between the highlighted edges of the historic paths and modern circulation axis of the site which in themselves dedicate an hierarchy of activities within a part of town which is witnessing its revival, the appropriate height of the building and its activities, function is key factor due to design as these determine the success of the project surveillance.