Mr Jhono Bennett

Research summary

Summary:

The praxitional nature of my work has allowed me to manage an array of tactically built projects, local and international teaching roles as well as several multidisciplinary action-research projects in the field of urban development and participatory design. I have used teaching as a grounded form of praxis that has allowed me a sustainable means to operate 1to1, while fostering an important space to write, publish and ask critical questions through action-research and reflective learning in design-research. 

Doctoral Abstract:

South African cities remain among the most highly unequal urban areas in the world. Driven by the tacit logics embedded in their unjustly designed and built form, socio-spatial biases endure in contributing to how these inequalities spatially manifest. This inter-scalar dynamic remains in place decades after the implementation of many social and political reforms that sought to undo the legacies of previous regimes and move away from a post-Apartheid and post-colonial city paradigm. 

The socio-spatial practices that led to these asymmetries were not an impassive by-product due to centuries of segregated development, but were embodied, drawn, designed, and caried out by built-environment practitioners -  singular and collective individuals - who were socio-politically, technically, and ethically situated in South African cities and towns. This observation highlights an important, and under explored, dimension of inter-positional agency between the singular spatial practitioner, the collective disciplines, and the inter-scalar socio-spatial systems they are located within.  

Through the research question, What could a reparative approach to spatial practice in a post-post city contribute towards addressing the embedded tacit biases of embodied socio-spatial design in South Africa?, the dissertation has adopted an attitude to knowledge production that aligns with collective efforts of Southern and Feminist scholars in developing more locational and situated forms of research through the emergent principles of Southern Urbanism. It takes seriously how local knowledges are actioned through concepts such as anecdote and how they are situated  both in and beyond the study sites.  It is from these principles that the initial finding of a reparative design practice approach has been created. 

A practice-orientated set of creative research methods have been developed through digital and physical interface mediums. These include visually driven explorations through site-writing, reflective animation, and online-media design. They have been guided by reflective, cross-locationally ethical, and positionally critical investigations into the embodied tacit-values uncovered through participatory engagements with a ‘constellation’ of South African spatial-design practitioners. 

Through a transferable methodological lens for similar spatially unjust contexts outside of South Africa, the dissertation ultimately seeks to offer an additional partial perspective on concerns around locationally specific spatial-design practice. It does so  by carefully documenting, co-developing, and proposing a responsibly propositional practice-orientated approach to repair that engages with the inter-scalar and inter-positional dynamics of how through the situated socio-spatial contextualisation of spatial-design practice within a post-post city.

Teaching summary

Current Focus:

I am a Unit Tutor in the BSc Architecture Programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Through a carefully developed pedagogical model,we have established a learning framework that guides students through the various systems of exchange between themselves, the objects they use, thespaces they inhabit and the built environments they practice within. Employing craft in making, digital analysis in scanning and fabrication, the unit is looking at DIY/Self-Build practices across Greater London and through a self critical socio-spatial lens of making : reflecting. The unit has been established as a means of  opening up the urban discourse around the socio-technical systems of making with and for communities of building practice in the UK and potentially abroad. 

We have developed a studio model that focuses on the on the relationship between physical making, digital analysis and the interactions between people and their shared spaces  through 1:1 methods of reflection and production. The learning framework we have established guides students through the various systems of exchange and the relationships between themselves, the objects they use, the spaces they inhabit and the built environments they practice within. By looking at DIY/Self-Build practices across Greater London and engaging through the socio-spatial lens of me:us, the unit opens up the urban discourse around the socio-technical systems of making with and for communities of building practice in the UK and potentially abroad. These ideas are developed from more than 15 years of research, teaching and practice between South Africa, the United Kingdom and abroad from what I am framing as a Southern Urbanist Practice lens.

Background:

In 2010, myself and several colleagues formed a non-profit entity that aimed to develop a more grounded and socially driven practice for built environment spatial practitioners in South Africa. We named it 1to1 - Agency of Engagement as a means of reflecting the critical and action-based engagement we wanted to support in a ‘one to one’ manner. We started this organization with the hope that we could change the way that South African cities are seen, made and managed towards a more spatially equitable future by focusing on supporting grass-roots social capital through large scale, systemic design approaches. 

The last 8 years has seen myself and these colleagues working towards this goal through various built projects, local and international university teaching as well as several multidisciplinary research projects in the field of urban development and participatory design. The role of teaching began as a means of engaging students while providing a sustainable means to operate 1to1 and ask critical questions through action research and reflective learning. This period oversaw my own development as a teacher in both the undergraduate and postgraduate departments in South Africa as well as Sheffield, UK and in Ahmedabad, India. A key period of learning was through the University of Johannesburg that sought to re-define the narrative on African Architectural research and launched the Graduate of School of Architecture. It was here while supporting Unit 14 (https://www.gsaunit14.com/) and Unit 2 that I developed my own style of pedagogical structure, reflective methods and techniques and my own approaches to addressing the intersectional aspects of teaching in an systemically unequal society. 

Publications

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