Rituals of health : new healing spaces for Khayelitsha district hospital

The intention of this thesis was to challenge how we, as architects are appropriating new formations of space within the city. The research began as an exploration into how a contemporary African city space could be envisioned, a future trajectory of design thinking that challenges normative systems of design. The diverse nature of South African cities should have an architecture that responds to its lived reality and one that reflects cultural difference. This exploration was narrowed down to view a need that ran across cultural lines. I chose to do this through looking at various health systems that prevail in our current society. The challenge was to critically seek out new ways that one could accommodate for various cultural beliefs while viewing these various health practices. These explorations were carried out in two sections - the first section looks at our current condition and what the prevailing health systems are in our society, as well as the challenges these various views on health pose. The second section focuses on a spatial understanding of how these systems are carried out in our city and seeks to analyse the various spatiality's of healing practices. The idea is to search for how new spaces of healthcare could be realised that reflect cultural difference, rituals and practices and which respond to a South African condition.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Gray, Zara

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Carter, Francis
• Coetzer, Nic
• Noero, Jo
• Steenkamp, Alta

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17127

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17127