(Stakeholders
at the launch of phase one of Without Walls projects)
(Pic by Illa Thompson)
The Alliance Française de Durban is
re-igniting its Alliance Without Walls project, with a symbolic launch of Phase
One of the project held on June 20, 2019.
The first phase is demolishing the
perimeter walls around the Alliance Française de Durban’s Windermere Road
property and replacing them with a walk-through art gallery called ‘The Stoep’.
Step one is removing the gates and wall on Sutton Crescent, opposite the park.
In 2016, in response to innovative research
on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), the Alliance
Française de Durban ran a competition to challenge the city’s leading
architects to Imagine a World Without Walls.
The shortlisted architects were Paul Wygers, Amanda Lead and Jeremy
Steere. Paul Wygers, of Urban Solutions was appointed and the first phase of
the ambitious plan he presented to transform the premises at 22 Sutton Crescent
received planning permission a few weeks ago.
(Deborah
Ewing: President, and Vincent Frontczyk,
director of Alliance Française de Durban. Pic by Illa Thompson)
Vincent Frontczyk, Director of the Alliance
Française Durban says: “The bravely-initiated project to break down existing
concrete security walls is an effort to create more open visible integrated and
engaged public spaces. This initiative is part of a broader Durban-wide project
entitled Imagining a City Without Walls to promote new ideas and design
practice that will positively impact on safety and security; social cohesion;
community engagement; urban design and improved neighbourliness.”
Prof Monique Marks, Director of the Urban
Futures Centre at Durban University of Technology (DUT), who has been on the
project team along with Prof Tinus Kruger of the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) from the outset, explains the thinking behind the
City Without Walls Initiative: “It started with a hunch. For many years I have
been completely overwhelmed by the high walls that South African suburbanites
have created around their dwellings. They have always struck me as confronting,
offensive and aesthetically unappealing. But, more than this, I couldn’t shake
the feeling that these walls, which were supposedly created to make people
safer, were actually having the opposite effect.
“As a criminologist by training, I’ve
worked with police officers and security guards over many years. So I reached
out to a member of the Durban Metropolitan Police, Chris Overall. This marked
the start of a journey that has taken us through very different suburbs and
very different ways of thinking about security – and that will see the Durban
chapter of a global organisation, Alliance Francaise, literally break down its
walls,” he adds.
President of the Alliance Française de
Durban Deborah Ewing invited guests at the function on June 20 to begin the
process by symbolically taking hammers to the wall. “The front of the building
will then be turned into a work of art by local artists and we will redouble
our efforts to raise funds to transform the rest of the wall into a unique
gallery that will provide a creative and inclusive space for visitors from
Durban and around the world.”
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