Un-structuring Museums: reclaiming agency and space in the Company Gardens

This dissertation explores the impact of colonial museum-making methods on the communities which they serve and the human body. Based on this research it then proposes alternative approaches to museum-making in a post-colonial context. The inquiry begins with an exploration of the history of museums in within a European, and then a South African context. It then goes on to look at the physical effects museums have on the human body and how people choose to engage as a result. This entry point ends with a summary of what people may need to be physically able to better engage with museums. The dissertation then goes to identify the Company Gardens as a site area and looks to its narrative as a guide to design. Based on this process, emerges an architectural intervention of an indigenous botany library and museum that aims to share the narrative of indigenous plants and Khoisan-based plant knowledge through its design. Initially, this dissertation aimed to find a fixed framework and approach to de-colonial museum design. But through the research process it becomes clear that there is no fixed approach to de- colonial museum design but rather it is a context-based process. This project becomes about reclaiming a previously colonised space and regaining agency of narrative. It attempts to disrupt colonial continuities that are still present in the Company Gardens.

Grantor

School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Phiri, Sarah

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Le, Grange Simone

• Design Dissertation

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38106

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38106