Showing posts with label Spaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spaza. Show all posts
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Spaza: 0011
Click on photo to enlarge.
The hawker's setup is essentially a deconstructed spaza. She has found a floor. The tree functions as a roof.
Two re-purposed bread delivery-trays hold her wares, which in turn rest on an easily dissembled trestle table. A standard cooler box sits at her feet. An upturned Coke crate functions as a makeshift seat for her customers. (The crates are often used as seats in informal businesses and spaces.*)
Bread trays. Coke crates. Cooler boxes. Three mass-produced objects that are ubiquitous in the so-called informal economic sector. They're popular for good reason - they're light, sturdy, cheap or free, portable, and easy to clean.
*The cheapness and availability of Monobloc chairs and high plastic stools has resulted in the crates not being used as much anymore.
Wikipedia on Monobloc:
"The Monobloc chair is a lightweight stackable polypropylene chair, often described as the world's most common.
Based on original designs by the Italian designer Vico Magistretti in 1967, variants of the one-piece plastic chair went into production with Allibert Group and Grossfillex Group in the 1970s. Since then, millions have been manufactured in countries including Russia, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Morocco, Turkey, Israel and China. Many design variants of the basic idea exist.
The Monobloc chair is named because it is injection moulded from thermoplastic polypropylene, the granules being heated to about 220 degrees Celsius, and the melt injected into a mold. The gate of the mould is usually located in the seat, so ensuring smooth flow to all parts of the tool. The chairs cost approximately $3 to produce, making them affordable across the world.
Social theorist Ethan Zuckerman describes them as having achieved a global ubiquity:
The Monobloc is one of the few objects I can think of that is free of any specific context. Seeing a white plastic chair in a photograph offers you no clues about where or when you are."
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Spaza: 0010
Another example of a spaza constructed from corrugated sheeting. The scrap metal on top of the spaza helps to prevent the roof from being blown away by the wind.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Spaza: 0009
Spazas are typically housed in prefabricated or repurposed structures - e.g. the shipping container from a few weeks ago. Here we see examples of original constructions, spazas built from corrugated metal sheeting. Metal sheeting is arguably the most important building material in South Africa - both in townships and so-called informal settlements, where it is used to build shacks. Much like shacks, spazas built from sheeting range in size and design.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Spaza: 0007
The cement stoep is built around the date tree. Shade is essential in a humid, subtropical city such as Durban.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Spaza: 0006
It's somewhat unusual for a freestanding spaza to be painted white. This one perhaps takes its colour cues from some of the prayer flags. Judging from the unusual dimensions, the spaza also appears to be an original construction and not a prefab or a re-purposed container. The fence in front of the spaza is a interesting mix of symmetry and asymmetry.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Spaza: 0005
Of note here is the serving gap that is ingeniously built into the fence. The gap - by design - is just large enough to pass a loaf of bread through. Bread, milk and cigarettes are arguably the basic trinity of spaza shop items.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Spaza: 0004
A hallmark of township architecture is remixing. On the right, a basic apartheid-era council house. On the left, a remixed council house - now with a balcony and a spaza shop.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Spaza: 0003
The service window is flanked by date trees and one climbs up what resembles a bamboo staircase. The act of buying your bread and milk becomes a brief tropical holiday.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Spaza: 0002
The spaza muddies the line between the private and the public. Here the idea of the fence is subverted; instead of keeping out, it invites in.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Spaza: 0001
Click on photo to enlarge. Two spaza shops alongside each other - which is a bit unusual. Also interesting is the two categories of shops shown: 1. the shop that forms part of the house; 2. the shop that is an external structure. Spaza shops are called 'tuck shops' in some Durban areas. This is perhaps because in Durban slang the word 'spaza' oftentimes means 'cheap', 'lousy', or 'poor quality' - a connotation that shop owners understandably don't want to associate with.
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