But what about the PEOPLE who make up the place?

Ethnographic research & use of space

Durban is ethnically diverse, with a cultural richness of mixed beliefs and traditions. Zulus form the largest single ethnic group. It has a large number of people of British descent and has the most Indians of any city outside India (Municipality, 2011). The influence of Indians in Durban has been significant, bringing with them a variety of cuisine, culture and religion.

With The Workshop, all cultures are evident throughout all the parts of the area. The group that dominates the most however, are Black people- not only from South Africa but from all around Africa. They mostly utilize the area as residents and as vendors. The Workshop is filled with different stalls, tents and stands of people selling a lot of diverse products and services. There are some frenchises around the area and a lot of cabs and taxi’s situated all around The Workshop.

We have identified our primary target market as the vendors in this area. The secondary target audience are the people who reside in this area and the consumers who come to purchase good and services from the people offering them in this area.

The space is largely used as a market area. People trade all sorts of things from food to, clothes, hair extentions, muthi, cosmetics etc. As stated above, people also reside in this area. There are flats situated all around The Workshop that people not only live in, but a lot rent out the flats to businesses like salons, tattoo parlours and boutiques. The Workshop is again, a very diverse area.

Sustainability initiatives created by people who utilize the space

“Sustainability” is often defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Foerster, 2010).

Sustainability is often used to refer to an expanded measure of accounting that measures not only the economic aspects of a business, but also its social and environmental impacts (Fox, 2011).

People around the Workshop seem to all be business minded. They sustain small and creative businesses like hair salons, boutiques, shoe cleaning stalls etc. A place like this helps Durban sustain it’s culture as the different stalls and shops all have the authentic Durban feel. As Africans in this area, the residents all seem to add to the rich culture Durban is made of.

The only other sustainability initiatives evident are the New Durban Central Library Exhibition & Research Hub or as locals call it, the library truck, put up by the Municipality of Education around the Workshop area. This is a registered library that people can register as library users and take out different books to read.
The 15000sq.m New Durban Central City (NDCC) Library constitutes an investment of approximately R500m by both local and provincial government with planned completion in 2018. A project of this magnitude has clear catalytic spin-offs for the City physically and as a Centre for knowledge sharing, culture and learning.   To be located in the ‘heart’ of Durban’s CBD, the NDCC Library is seen as a catalytic instrument for the regeneration of the Inner City. It is also important to the Municipality that it demonstrates environmental sustainability through engaging principles, practices and processes for its delivery. This sustains the idea of education especially since the people who visit and live around this area are not usually the most financially stable and having access to free books would uplift their want to education.

The City’s Art and Living Cultures Unit has allowed the centre to become a hive of free, live entertainment by running an “open mic” project which gives aspiring musicians and artists a chance to perfume live for audiences at the amphitheatre, right outside the main entrance to the centre. The open mic currently caters for musicians and poets, with an exception of a few drama groups, and provides a unique opportunity for local groups to market themselves and showcase their talents direct to the public. 

This area in The Workshop helps young, talented locals get the exposure they need to showcase their talents. It also helps them create somewhat of an income as spectators normally donate money to them The Workshop is also home to Durban Youth Radio, a favourite of many city teens.

There are currently no great initiatives around this area especially from the government- which we as innovators need to help create. This is a very culturally rich and diverse area and so much can be done for it. A lot of locals take pride in and engage themselves with this area and if productive and sustainable initiatives are put in place, we can have this area to admire and be proud of for decades to come.

Suggestions on how people can use this space more effectively

The Workshop is filled with people day in and day out, this is a very central place for people and it is their basic place to go to get their needs and wants. For the people that stay in the area The Workshop is where the rank is for them to get to school and work, and on weekends it is where they hang out see their friends and go out for breakfast lunch or supper or just to catch a movie.

Since people are always utilising this space, it is only right that they use this space in a more effective and way that will contribute towards sustainability, sustaining the space and place.

Better management practices.

People who are part of the outside market, the venders who are selling all types of different goods need to have better management practice, as they litter most of the time and leave plastics lying around their work space, they need to be aware of this and make sure it is cleaned and picked up at all times as it is causing pollution. They need to also be aware and stop producing negative environmental practices. This could be done by starting up a recycling movement in that area and every time you recycle you get a bit of money, that would then give them motivation to keep their area clean. A lot of people also end up peeing at the rank, and the rank also smells so if you are caught doing this you relieve a fine and in that way people will stop. 

They could be seminars for vendors, educating them on satiability and how to run a sustainable business learning and knowing about the basics in order to install sustainability in the area.

Vendors could partner together or join teams or forces in order to create space. Vendors could share one big tent where by each vendor sells their own products. One vendor could sell their shoes, the other could sell watches, the other jackets and so on creating sort of one store that has everything. This could minimise the litter by the vendors who have joint tents could put a collect effort to make sure they work space is always clean, also by introducing recycling this could make them really want to shape up their working area.

The vendors could have a system whereby they stock is stocked in one big tent once again that is creating space and order. The vendor’s stock is all over the place and it is all wrapped in different types of plastics which ends up flying away causing more and more pollution and the vendors end up not caring and leaving the plastic flying around. If the vendors could come together to try and put their stock together and remove plastic maybe invest in shelves or other material that they could use to keep their stock safe and clean. Or they could still use their plastic but team up together to always clean it up in order to keep their place and space clean.

The target audience are the consumers and the residents. The can part takes in adding value to this area which is their area by keeping it clean at all times, the biggest problem about the workshop is that it is not clean so they can try as a community to do cleans at least once a week to keep their environment clean.

Safety plays a major role as well, as people think that The Workshop is not safe, but If the community could come together and create sort of neighbourhood watch for crime that happens around the area so that people feel more comfortable knowing that they have some safety. Different people can volunteer at different times to drive around or walk around The Workshop being alert of any possible crime that could happen.

How we would create a culture of innovative thinking

In order to create a culture of innovation in the workshop innovators needs to think outside the box for strong and creative ideas, the ideas need to be innovative and different and it needs to draw people in, making them interested and making them take park in the culture of what is going on around the area.

My partner and I have decided to come up with a campaign, this campaign will be called Asisebenze , which Is translated to lets work in English.

This campaign is all about bringing an innovative culture to the workshop. This campaign believes deeply in sustainability as well as running eco-friendly businesses and educating people about being sustainable and good business ethics.

Asisebenze wants to launch quite a few projects that they want to do for The Workshop, which will also create an awareness for The Workshop for more and more people to know a little more about it and what’s it about.

Asisebenze wants to touch everyone who is around the area of The Workshop from the vendors, to residents to consumers, building an innovative culture for everyone who is part of the area.

Projects in the campaign

1.        Clean ups

2.        Recycling

3.        Tours for tourists

4.        Workshops for the vendors on how to run a sustainable business.

Clean ups.

Clean ups will be a project that is launched by the campaign, it will be the people of the area that will contribute to be a part of the clean ups, where by once a week they go around The Workshop as well as the rank cleaning up all the litter that is around the area as well as sweep the streets to keep their area clean and environment clean.

Recycling

Recycling will also be a part of the campaign where by, Asisebenze will partner with recycling companies and will encourage the vendors to recycle in order to keep their area clean at all times. Vendors will also get money monthly based on how much litter they have collected and this will make them want to be a part of recycling and collecting the plastics and papers and sweet rappers.

Tours for the tourist

Tours for the tourist will be a mover’s bus transporting tourist all around the workshop to show them the historical buildings, show them the railways that the rains use to use, show them the Anglican church and many more landmarks, this will also show them how the Durban Railways Station has transformed from being a train station to being a mall and a market.  This will be on Tuesday Thursdays Saturdays and Sundays, and it will be from 8 am– 3pm each tour being an hour long.

Workshops

Asisebenze campaign will also launch workshops, in which it will strongly encourage the vendors to attend the workshops which it will be teaching them about how to run a sustainable business, showing them where to start and how to make this sustainable progress, it will teach them the basic ins and outs of running a business and how to keep it running and keep it eco-friendly and sustainable in the long run as well.

This campaign will launch on the 04 January 2017 as the new year starts the innovation culture of The Workshop can also start changing It and growing it more a bit by bit as the new year starts., by the middle of the year these projects will be working a lot better faster and they will be more effective and by 2018\ 2019 The Workshop will be sustainable with educated vendors and it will be a clean environment and a happy environment, and this could even draw in the people that don’t  go to The Workshop in to want to see the workshop and go the and experience the culture and the different types of people that unit together.