Electric City is the proposed redevelopment of the Aberdare Factory complex into a mixed-use development, which will consist of factories, housing, an art gallery, a school and a rooftop park. The challenge in the project lay in the fact that the large factory spaces needed to remain functional as such, while the site needed accommodate […]
The entrenched local community of Cyrildene lobbied the city to create a plan to limit the spread of Johannesburg’s emergent Chinatown. The area, over the last 25 years has seen the South African Chinese community move from the historical Chinatown in Ferreirasdorp to establish shops and restaurants on Derek Avenue, which is the main street […]
Bramley Precinct consists of 250 residential units, communal facilities, a school and retail space. It involves the redevelopment of an existing old age home in Bramley into predominantly high-density housing, as well as a mixed-use precinct. The project is significant because it is one of the first developement projects within the Louis Botha Corridor of […]
The WITS Gateways project illustrates an agenda of Local Studio to promote the development of more pedestrian public space in downtown Johannesburg through the reimagining of pedestrian entrances into a university campus as ‘filling stations for pedestrians’. Johannesburg scores significantly under on the UN Habitat recommended quota of 15m2 public open space per capita […]
The Little Mogadishu masterplan has been initiated by the city at the request of local residents, who would like to limit the spread of the emergent Somali immigrant precinct in Mayfair and Fordsburg. The area has seen an incredible informal densification over the last ten years, which has largely taken the form of house-shops and […]
The Westbury Housing Project arose out of the precinct plan Local Studio had proposed for Westbury from which the NMT links and the Westbury Bridge have been completed. When beginning work on this project, Local Studio immediately recognised the problematic layouts of the walk-up apartment buildings haphazardly placed in the centre of the township. The […]
The project was initiated in 2010 by Silvio Rech, who proposed the idea that the inner city, particularly Braamfontein, needed more pedestrian public open spaces to compliment the increasing residential densities and to create a precinct heart. The Grove was the first of these implemented projects and involved the demolition of a three storey building […]
York House comprises an event space, an outdoor cinema, a co-working hub, an action court, a bar and a braai area. Local Studio were appointed on this project to look at communal spaces in a housing development that consolidated all eight buildings in a city block. The housing concept of the work had already been […]
Winstead Gardens consists of 110 housing units, an action court and a coffee shop. This work involves the densification of a well known modernist apartment building in Parktown, which had been run down and neglected for 20 years. The project seeks to double the number of residential units through a restructuring of existing building, rooftop […]
Project 35 is a middle-income housing development, which tries to break the trend of gated communities in Northern Johannesburg, by creating defensible public spaces through well-considered edge development. It comprises 500 residential units, a mosque, a community centre, retail space and offices. Local Studio acted as urban designers on this project as well as designing […]
The Campus Square Bridge is a controversial project because it demonstrates the manner in which the national government uses infrastructure as a political tool. It is thus highly questionable whether grade separation is the best solution for pedestrian safety at this particular intersection. A previous architect had proposed a perfectly circular bridge for the site, […]
The Westbury NMT Framework is one of the first precinct interventions linked to the Empire/Perth Corridors of Freedom strategic area framework, which looks to significantly increase population densities, access to public transport and access to employment. Westbury is one of the poorest coloured townships in Johannesburg with formal unemployment rates well below the national average […]
The Sophiatown NMT framework continues the NMT links from the Westbury framework. Historically, Sophiatown and Westbury were disparate areas with huge differences in income, reinforced by the industrial and open space buffer zones on the main road. The new link makes it very easy for pedestrians and cyclists to cross buffer zones and the main […]
Westbury Pedestrian Bridge comprises a pedestrian bridge with access to a BRT station, an amphitheater and a park. This project forms part of a broader precinct plan, an NMT network, also conducted by Local Studio in the area. Initial research established that the on-grade crossing between Coronationville and Westbury was extremely dangerous for pedestrians, particularly […]
