Founder of Local Studio a company trading in architect and Urban design Thomas Chapman, has invested his efforts and resources towards causing social change using clever architecture in Johannesburg. Thomas said they are lucky that there exists an ‘ugly’ city in Johanesburg because it offers an opportunity to cause change
“We’re lucky to have a poorly planned and ‘ugly’ city that welcomes change,” says Thomas Chapman in a recent architectural forum. Chapmap has chosen the South African city of Johannesburg as his canvas, trading in the brown hues of “spatial injustice” for impactful cultural spaces fitting of the unique people who call the city home.
Since it was established in Brixton in 2012, Chapman has been driving Local Studio toward new and better directions for African architecture and design through innovations in public space design, community participation and alternative construction methodologies. Their angle of approach focuses first at how a project influences a public space, the drawing line between private and public. The studio also puts into consideration the needs of the society and they single out those needs that the project can address.
He added that their main focus is on projects that cause significant social change. “We’re not really interested in projects where there’s pretty much no chance of social impact,” says Chapman.
The studio has been involved in a number of projects in and around Johannesburg such as the design of an affordable housing tower in Braamfontein, a pedestrian bridge in Westbury, and the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre, a new cultural centre situated in Sophiatown .
The centre is home to the Sophiatown Remembrance Screen, one of Chapman’s most recent projects. Combining aspects of architecture and memory, the screen offers the former Sophiatown residents to memorialize their former homes.
Close to 65,000 residents were forcibly ejected from the area by the infamous Apartheid regime. The traditions, culture and sense of community established and cemented by the people who dwelt in the area is slowly being restored.
