'Mapping' Westfort Village at Pretoria Tshwane
This publication is a report on a working visit by a team of heritage experts to the settlement of Westfort, near Pretoria.
Working visit
The village-type settlement of Westfort, near the city of Pretoria, originated in the late nineteenth century as a leper colony. Part of this colony was designed in 1897-1898 by Dutch architects Sytze Wierda and Klaas van Rijsse, and it comprises a wide range of South African/Dutch architecture. The colony was closed in 1997, and today around 4,000 people are living in the area under appalling conditions. During the working visit, options to revitalize Westfort were studied and the area’s cultural-historical value was assessed. The visit formed a starting point for further study.
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Text: Professor Marieke Kuipers (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands/Delft University of Technology)
With contributions by Jean-Paul Corten, MA (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands); Job Roos, MSc (Braaksma-Roos Architects/Delft University of Technology)
Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Amersfoort, 2015