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Transparency as Metaphor
Image by Raymond June
"SARAH NUTTALL: Why do you think they [Constitutional Court] chose this site [Constitutional Hill], given the heaviness of its history and its proximity to one of the least safe and, in some senses, one of the most traumatic parts of the city [Hillbrow]?
MARK GEVISSER: They explicitly liked the symbolism of building the home of the Constitution atop or within this place of oppression — to put the Constitution into a historical context, to show that it was a consequence of a long and difficult struggle. And second, the current court is both activist and evangelical: they want to be of the people, with the people, and in the people. That’s important to them, given the constitutional values of transparency and accountability. So they wanted to be right here, slap bang in the middle of Hillbrow, with all its social problems, rather than in, say, rarefied Sandton. An international competition was held for the design of the court and won by an exceptional, a truly exceptional team of young South African architects. And then we were brought in to try to figure out how to give this place meaning; how to interpret it as a heritage site, a tourist site, a place of education, as a place that people could use." – Mark Gevisser in conversation with Sarah Nuttall (2008): 321
Pictured here: the Constitutional Court’s public foyer. Johannesburg.
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