Alternating Currents of Power: From Colonial to Post-apartheid Spatial Patterns in Newtown, Johannesburg

Abstract

Turbine Square in Newtown, Johannesburg, stands as a metaphor for the changing fortunes of the inner city during the 20th century. Four buildings occupy this site, flanking a small open space. One is the Johannesburg branch of the new South African Reserve Bank (1996); the others are the Boiler Houses (1928) and (1936) and Turbine Hall (1929) that generated electricity for Johannesburg until 1960. The former, completed in 1996, represents one of the first public works of the new democratic South Africa. The latter, icons of Johannesburg in its colonial phase, stand derelict and, until recently, were occupied by squatters. In this examination of Newtown, some social, political and cultural histories of Johannesburg are traced in relation to the city's transition from colonialism to a post-apartheid city. How the spatial layout and symbolism of the built environment form a component of that transition is a theme of this paper.