Yeoville Studio (2010-2012)

Yeoville Studio was a two-year community-oriented research and teaching initiative, driven by a collaboration between Wits School of Architecture and Planning, and civil society organisations in Yeoville between 2010 and 2012. It had three aims. Firstly, it sought to train students to engage with communities in understanding and producing the city. Secondly, it produced innovative research through a multidicisplinary approach grounded in, and focused on, a specific neighborhood. Thirdly, it produced applied research that is of relevance and use to partnering local communities or stakeholders.

The Yeoville Studio was supported by Wits University’s SPARC programme, the School of Architecture and Planning and CUBES, and the French Institute of South Africa-Research (IFAS-Recherche). Apart from the impact that Yeoville Studio had on the neighbourhood, a lasting legacy is the

• a dedicated website and
• the book Politics and Community-based Research: Perspectives from Yeoville Studio, Johannesburg, edited by Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Sarah Charlton, Sophie Didier, and Kirsten Dörmann (Wits University Press)

This edition of the City Studio was directed by Claire Benit-Gbaffou.