Johannesburg architects Jeremy Rose and Phill Mashabane recently won the Robben Island architectural competition
Yvette Gresl
In postapartheid South Africa Robben Island has taken on a dual significance. It is a contradictory symbol of extreme political subjugation and, in the words of Ahmed Kathrada, the “triumph of the human spirit”. Nelson Mandela, as a symbol of the individual’s ability to transcend relentless political oppression, has by association transformed this most sinister of prisons into a universal symbol of hope, peace and reconciliation.
Robben Island’s position as a postapartheid icon dominates the landscape. The grim structure that was the maximumsecurity prison and the lime quarry, where many of the imprisoned endured forced labour, speak volumes about the now public histories and experiences of those incarcerated during the apartheid regime.
Robben Island’s historic, ideological and cultural significance was central to the brief for an international architectural competition for the Robben Island Millennium Structure and Freedom Pathway. The competition, organised by the Robben Island Museum, aims to present the public with a memorial to the histories and experiences of its occupants. The competition was recently won by Johannesburg architects Jeremy Rose and Phill Mashabane of MRA.
The brief described the Freedom Pathway as a route connecting the major points of historical interest on the island, from the harbour to the maximumsecurity prison, the lime quarry, Sobukwe House, the village and the lighthouse. The pathway is envisaged as a journey, allowing the visitor to pause and contemplate the histories and experiences that have passed over the island. The Millennium Structure is one of the major stops on the Freedom Pathway route. The museum incorporated into the structure is envisaged as a continuation of the pathway.
It is intended that the Millennium Structure include an exhibition and museum space, an auditorium, seminar rooms and refreshment areas. The site selected for the structure is located below the lighthouse on the south side of the island. A major feature is the breathtaking view of Table Bay, Cape Town and Table Mountain.
A clear requirement of the competition was the restrained integration of the Millennium Structure with the landscape and existing structures on the site. Robben Island is a World Heritage site, so sensitivity to the built and natural environment was a prerequisite.
MRA’s design has fulfilled the competition requirements with immense subtlety and complexity. Shifting from the convention of the museum as an imposing, intimidating structure, MRA chose to sink most of the building into the landscape. The building is integrated into the landscape by the use of materials that blend with the existing natural environment, such as dry stacked black stone and strandveld grass the stone matches that found at the slate quarry nearby and strandveld grass grows on the site.
The integration of the building into the site speaks of both ecological and conceptual considerations. Conceptually, the excavation of the landscape to accommodate the building evokes historical excavation. This excavation can be the physical act of marking the historical site and the unearthing that follows. It can also be the metaphorical excavation, the “unearthing” of memory.
The Millennium Structure will accommodate an archive that will document, record and screen the personal testimony of those incarcerated on the island during the apartheid regime. This archive will be located in the basement of the scheme. Though it is situated here for purely pragmatic reasons, it seems symbolic of the subterranean space as a metaphor for human memory, particularly memories that have been hidden or suppressed.
The way in which MRA has integrated and structured the view across Table Bay into the conceptual and physical design of the building is equally compelling. MRA has constructed a visual and conceptual connection between the island, the Millennium Structure and the view of Cape Town. As the visitor approaches the building large mounds of earth deliberately conceal the view. The visitor’s movement is directed around the lighthouse and down a flight of grassed stairs to the lowered entrance court. The structure’s location in front of and below the lighthouse highlights the lighthouse’s status as a historical landmark. As the visitor progresses through the building the view is gradually revealed and framed by a large window.
The progression towards the view is conceptualised as a metaphorical journey from darkness to light, from a period of political oppression to liberation and empowerment. This journey is constructed as an experiential narrative of significant events in South Africa’s recent political history.
The narrative begins with Mandela’s release and ends with the experience of the first democratic elections. It is MRA’s intention to reimagine the euphoric and highly charged moment of the 1994 election in the moment that the visitor confronts the view (and by implication the light). While metaphors of darkness and light are not exactly new, the articulation and experience of these metaphors architecturally and spatially transcends the clich.
One of the strongest features of the Millennium Structure is the way in which the dual significance of Robben Island’s apartheid and postapartheid history is incorporated into the experience of the building. Robben Island’s paradoxical status as a symbol of oppression and despair, hope and survival is embedded within the visitor’s experience of the spatial organisation of above and below, internal and external, and darkness and light. The structure is a space that pays homage to the past while looking forward to the future.