South Africa’s first architecture mega-event,
AZA 2010, offers a range of rich walking tours of Joburg with unique insights into the history and architecture of the city.
AZA 2010 – which runs in Johannesburg from 21 to 28 September – will bring architecture back to the public domain with exhibitions; performances; films; a student congress; and a star-studded multi-disciplinary conference.
The general public has also been included in the seven-day event thanks to a variety of events and exhibitions across Johannesburg, including poetry readings; city walking tours; live music and drama performances; and photography and architecture exhibitions.
The walking tours include:
• Fietas: Fietas is made up of two small suburbs - Pageview and Vrededorp - and used to be a multiracial area until the late 1970s when most of the residents were relocated to far away suburbs in the apartheid scheme of separating the races under the Group Areas Act. The two-and-a-half hour trail is led by former residents and includes the nearby Braamfontein cemetery. (Saturday, 25 and Sunday, 26 September. Bookings on 082 447 8080. R80 per person.)
• City Centre Walking Tour by Atelier Altshuler: More than 50 sites are highlighted in a city that is vibrant with activity. The selection of items includes a mixture of old and new structures that provide clues to the development of Johannesburg from a late Victorian and early Edwardian town, to a neoclassical and early modern city, to a modern and art deco metropolis, to a late modern and post modern megalopolis, to a current old and current new metropole. The tour lasts three-and-a-half hours and starts at Museum Africa in Newtown. (The walk is conducted from 14:00 to 17:30 on Saturday, 25 September and from 09:30 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:30 on Sunday, 26 September. Cost is R100 with a reduced price of R80 for students. Bookings on 011 442 7584)
• Constitution Hill: See the art and architecture of the area with tour guides Jane Lane, curator of the art collection of the Court and Paul Wygers, architect from Omm Design Workshop, architects of the Court. (The tour starts in front of the Court building on Saturday, 25 September at 15:00 and on Sunday, 26 September. They take 90 minutes. Cost is R150 which includes drinks and refreshments at the bookstore afterwards. Booking with Melissa Kruger on 074 5666 704. Constitution Hill is situated on the corner of Hospital and Sam Hancock Streets in Braamfontein. Parking is available in the basement and on the site with access from Hospital and Joubert Streets.)