| The thesis, sited in Gaborone, Botswana, explores ways of reintegrating street vending, an alienated yet inevitable element, into a site that is otherwise designed to exclude it. The complex urban site is made up of a train station, bus and taxi ranks, commercial buildings, and civic buildings. These are the formal elements that are always considered to define the architectural and spatial design of the site. Then there are the street vendors, the informal element that continues to permeate the site despite a continued attempt by city and government officials to evict them.;After examining and exploring the relationships that exist between these elements, architectural and urban design strategies are devised. The design of market stalls and the repositioning and redesign of the train station, as architectural pieces, are used to frame and create an urban square, used by vendors and the general public as a common meeting place. |
