In several of my previous blogs, I have looked at aspects of Wits University, which has been my home-from-home since 1976 when I was a First Year architecture student. These have included green roofs, the Flower Hall, re-use of buildings, Universal Access, decorative details, and the doors of Hillman Building, where I still have an office. But today I want to step into the past, to explore how the main campus of Wits has evolved, in many ways mimicking the architecturally hybrid city of Johannesburg.
The University evolved out of the School of Mines, based in the CBD next to the original railway station, in a stately building that still exists. In its new guise, it moved to the site of the present-day East Campus in Braamfontein, perched on a ridge which is the watershed of the Witwatersrand (water flows to the south into the Orange River and into the Atlantic Ocean, while water on the north flows eventually into the Indian Ocean). The original three buildings formed a dramatic composition, strung out along this ridge, with "Central Block" (now Robert Sobukwe building) forming the symmetrical centrepiece, and the identical Science and Engineering buildings to each side.
This must have been a dramatic sight from the Westcliff Ridge running parallel just to the north, and has many similarities with the design and positioning of the City Hall building in the city centre, which shares an axis of symmetry with the old Rissik Street post office and the formally laid out Library Gardens.
Shortly after the original three buildings were completed, two more were added directly in front of the Science and Engineering blocks, but set slightly to each side so that the initial array of buildings would still be visible from a distance. Each of these newer buildings was designed in a somewhat different style - the Biology building being inspired by the Italian Renaissance and the North-west Engineering block taking inspiration from the Egyptian neoclassical repertoire. |
| A photo dated 1930 from the Wits Archives |
These two later buildings set the scene for all subsequent ones, each with its own idiosyncratic design style and detailing. This has close parallels with the rest of the city, where each new building followed its own rules, within a very relaxed set of building by-laws, which seem to have been more concerned with fire safety and sanitation than aesthetics.
A decade after the original three buildings, following a devastating fire in the Central Block that gutted the original library, a new library was built with an endowment of money and books from William Cullen, who was director of the Modderfontein explosive works.
While the design, materials and detailing of the library pay homage to the original three buildings, it is located at some distance and is set at right angles to them. This building is set in much closer to the original line of symmetry which terminates in the portico of the Central Block, and is the starting point for the incremental enclosure of the Library Lawns, which evolved over many decades.
As with the Biology and newer Engineering buildings, each of these later buildings was designed in the most avant garde fashion for its day, creating a compendium of styles that are a miniature history of architecture of the last 100 years. Here I am reminded of my recent visit to Gandhi Square in central Joburg, where the sides of the public space are lined with neoclassical, 1960's minimalism, and neo-Brutalist examples, all jostling for attention.
And just as the city spread out and grew in a largely organic fashion, with each suburb laid out to its own rules and often awkward street junctions as a result, Wits campus expanded in a somewhat haphazard way. An example is the Hillman Building, which is just tucked behind the original Engineering building, with a narrow gap between, and quite a cramped relationship with the Central Block. This pragmatic siting can be seen with many of the newer buildings, with minimal spaces between, and loosely arranged on a grid.
There are a couple of exceptions to this "pack them in" approach, one of my least favourite being the newest engineering building, originally the Chamber of Mines and now the ARM Building. This is located on the West Campus, with a very prominent view across the pedestrian deck over the M1 motorway, although an awkward relationship with the sloping terrain. This is reminiscent of the extensions to the Joburg Art Gallery, not surprisingly by the same architects. While lip-service is paid to the historical context in both cases, there is a sense that the new building wants to be "centre-stage".
This is in contrast with the Science Stadium complex - a brilliant reuse of an existing show-ground structure and its companion TW Kambule building with its crazy angles and volumetric playfulness.
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