In Formality entails the redevelopment of the railway terminal of Westgate and the immediate surroundings. Set in the business centre of Johannesburg, the station is a key component in the link-up with Soweto. As a traffic interchange, it concentrates the informal circuit in a formal context. The design seeks to give shape to the complex relationship the informal city sustains with the formal.

Since the abolition of apartheid, the formal city in South Africa has transformed into an entirely new landscape. The informal has taken the city by storm in the shape of street trading and taxis. This illegal participant has become a steadily more significant factor in public urban life, putting both open space and private investment under tremendous pressure. But for many in a developing new South Africa this is the only means of income. The informal circuit represents something like 40% of the Gross National Product.

In this proposal, a new station and a deck to receive taxis, buses, goods dispatch and street trading, form the spine of a growth model that taps into urban reality and the potentials of the site. Along the deck, formal and informal functions are able to grow organically and in stages. Growth can be further stimulated by the arrival of two large parking garages which make the complex more accessible to a larger public. A minimum number of rules guide the growth, so that there is no question of a final stage being reached. The maximum level of growth is fixed by the presence of a former gold mine that has left the ground relatively unstable. Building heights are restricted accordingly. This 'problem' is treated more as a local characteristic. Within the building envelope of the 'inverted gold mine' is a mall-like complex where the vitality of the informal trading is deployed as a valuable element on a par with the formal developments.

Place of education: Rotterdam
Specialization: architectuur
Tutors: Jacob van Rijs & Harmen van de Wal