How can Johannesburg’s inner city be made more liveable and sustainable for its communities? This was the objective behind What’s the Plan?, a multimedia exhibition launched by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) at the Gauteng Institute for Architecture in the Maboneng Precinct in August
The exhibition showcased a 15-year journey to reshape and re-energise the inner city. “We’re committed to facilitating relevant, thought-provoking public engagements around inner-city development,” said the exhibition’s curator, Maria-Paola McGurk. “We have tussled with the questions of who is the inner city, how do we involve such a diverse community in a meaningful dialogue and where do we start? We decided to prioritise the voices of those who are committed to regenerating the city from within; not the whingers or whiners, but those who are courageously and determinedly shifting the inner-city landscape.”
At the exhibition and in the accompanying booklet, the JDA encouraged city officials, investors, community members, planners, consultants and students to reflect on 15 years of inner-city engagement and to share their perspectives on how they see it in the future.
What’s the Plan? included aerial and ground photographs, maps, scale plans and architects’ drawings, to capture four distinct phases in the shift from a strategy based on attracting investment to one that focuses holistically on liveability, economic sustainability, the urban poor and the needs of inner-city communities.
