meeting dialogue | informing the commons of difference - bo-kaap Part 0 Project 2004 Naomi Rubbra University of Cape Town | South Africa my thesis investigates the inter|intra district integration of a fractured human-urban landscape where interstital threads + new marks = woven seams, webbing together a many placed place.the endeavour is a dis-establishing and subverting of prevalent binary polarities of linear continuums towards a locked and crossed spatial matrix through the tools of space|programme|psyche.the move is toward a multi-directional relationship wherein pluralistic, heterogeneous terrains oscillate between city-democracy, wherein borders function as collective public realm, and local-democracy, where community heart and uniqueness is reinforced. in a synergistic and symbolic complexity, the plane of the earth is the core social institution and oscillation reference. 'meeting dialogue|informing the commons of difference' investigated the complexity of urban transformation and regeneration under post-apartheid conditions. toffa's project staddles the subjective|objective divide, speculatively merging local need with global imperative. the result is an imaginative projection into a possible future for a traditionally muslim innercity neighbourhood under threat of gentrification. the project owes its success to his incisive readings and precise mappings that provided the research base for design intervention. consequently the project contributes value through its formal and programmatic innovation, establishing a transformed urban-landscape wherein architecture might directly contribute to resolving historic conflict and sustained difference. Tutor(s)