Bridging the divide.

Nyanga Junction, a recently completed retail centre at an important transport node on the Cape Flats, is a pioneering venture in the normalisation of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa. Black Capetonians identified the commercial potential, approached consultants, negotiated a 50 year lease of the site, prepared documentation to achieve financial institution support and involved the local communities in decisions that would affect them. The procedures adopted and the inclusivity of the process augurs well for non-racial enterprise in the country.

At Nyanga Station, located in the great residential sprawl of the Cape Flats, road and rail draw close together. Over 350 000 people pass through this junction daily. A busy dual carriageway and the railway link the city and the Central Business District (CBD) with the rapidly urbanising mix of formal housing and informal settlement that is Khayelitsha. Typically, both railway and taxi commuters return laden with goods acquired in the city to the dormitory suburbs, which are chronically undersupplied with facilities. The investment potential in the area was identified some four years ago by a local entrepreneur, Z. L. Combi. He approached a development economist, Sam Montsi, who was aware of the problems faced by black entrepreneurs dealing in the established business community. Montsi believes that the two parties should be exposed to each other, so that attitudes are confronted and business expertise and local knowledge can be traded. The two men set up a venture with businessman Beki Tshabalala and the development process began.

Empathetic professional consultants were approached initially on a speculative basis, formalised when finance was secured. Documentation, which included broad design concepts, was presented to financial institutions. Among other things, these early presentations had to allay fears of a perceived high risk area - Nyanga, to the east of the railway line, was a hotbed in the endemic taxi wars and Manenberg, to the west, known for its gang warfare. While socio-economic factors supported the potential of the locality (strategically sited among 650 000 potential users), extensive consultation With local civic and political organisations as well as with existing traders was undertaken. Although in some quarters there was suspicion that the introduction of major retailers could threaten local businesses, this perception was countered by the view that business expansion could bring prosperity to the area, create employment opportunities and enable money to be spent locally. The developers decided that 40 per cent of the equity would be made available to local black investors.

The clients required a building of approximately 12 000 [m.sup.2] to include retail space for a range of tenants, from major national retailers to regional operators and local informal traders. Nominal leases were to be provided for those already trading at the site; they were viewed as emerging entrepreneurs and their participation was encouraged. Medical, dental and optometric consultants were also to be accommodated. An affirmative black labour policy was to be pursued by the contractors. Although the budget was tight, both clients and consultants were adamant that the building was not to be second-rate. Instead it should be able to compete with other centres and provide an environment which could bridge the traditional divide (reinforced by buffer zones of road and rail between the black communities to the east and the mixed-race, Cape Coloureds living west of the station).

The site chosen for Nyanga Junction lies between the station and the road to the west, a narrow strip 900 m long and varying in width from 28 m to 34 m. The north-south orientation was a strong design informant, since the site is exposed to the south-east in summer and the rain bearing north-west wind in winter. The resulting linear building, inserted between railway and road, is not over-scaled. Three sections may be distinguished. Single level approaches at north and south ends (the latter accommodating the 1800 [m.sup.2] premises of the anchor tenant) ramp up several metres to the level of the station platforms. Lined by shops along the eastern edges, these approaches are raised, veranda-like, above the busy road, with views out towards Table Mountain across the Cape Flats. Throughout, there is the animating bustle of the street. The south approach is particularly successful in engendering a sense of place. Here the site is wider and allows for an additional sheltering roof to lift out from the basic tube of a building. A transitional space, initially open, then roofed and finally enclosed, it is articulated by the structural steelwork, in turn tied into the 6 m building module. A direct movement pattern is strongly evoked.

The building has yet to experience the Cape's wet winter and this will test the architects' responses to the findings of wind tunnel studies. Among these responses are curved wind scoops fashioned from profiled steel roofing material fixed along the exposed western edge of the building. Internally, their concavities provide small lock-up trading stations. Both northern and southern approaches funnel into the double-height section of the building. An important planning constraint was that the upper floor should be level with the existing bridge over the railway tracks and also with a raised footbridge, newly constructed by the local authority, across the road on the west side. The respective positions of these bridges necessitated a staggered routing on the upper level. Crucial to the success of the centre as a bridge (between communities, between commuters and station and between shoppers and shops) is the pivotal intersection of axes. Yet this critical juncture has not been resolved entirely satisfactorily. The southern approach opens into a double-height volume, designated as a market hall. The potential of this space, illuminated by wall-height glazing on the west side, is inhibited by clusters of oversized trading kiosks. The movement impetus which feeds into the space leads up a broad stair to the level above, but it is not channelled effectively on the ground floor. The break in this movement axis has affected trading at the north end of the building and opportunities for meeting, resting and savouring the atmosphere are not fully explored.

The 390 m long shed is held and unified by the roof structure. The over-arching roofing system composed of curved, high tensile galvanised steel decking requires no preforming. A three-dimensional system with integral knee bracing, using standard truss solutions, is employed to bridge the 25.2 m span. The steelwork design (the result of repeated modelling studies by the architects), incorporates no extraneous members and while detailing is robust, with particular attention devoted to junctions and fixing methods, the temptations of gratuitous techno-industrialism have been resisted. Another unifying factor is the consistency of architectural language and the expression of building components, which have a logical legibility within the overall modular rhythm. Restraint has also been shown in the choice of materials - essentially raw shuttered concrete and steelwork, galvanised or painted grey, interspersed with red concrete blocks. Commendably, no themed retail environment has been attempted inside.

The architecture is clearly the outcome of brief, site, locals skills base and budget, driven by open-minded and forward-looking clients. The centre is fully let and commercially successful, but perhaps more importantly, the process of Nyanga Junction's making provides a viable and inspirational blueprint for development in the new South Africa.