An Imperfect Circle: An Investigation into the Variations and Contrarian Phenomena of Several Unique Intrusive Ring Roads
Wherever the circles of car infrastructures are drawn onto the map of the city, invisible fortress walls arise. Disguised as arteries conveying essential life blood - but still as inaccessible as the stone walls that once guarded the town – the volatile nature of circular traffic belts surroundin...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Architektúra & Urbanizmus |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://architektura-urbanizmus.sk/2025/03/19/an-imperfect-circle-an-investigation-into-the-variations-and-contrarian-phenomena-of-several-unique-intrusive-ring-roads/ |
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| Summary: | Wherever the circles of car infrastructures are drawn onto the map of
the city, invisible fortress walls arise. Disguised as arteries conveying
essential life blood - but still as inaccessible as the stone walls that once
guarded the town – the volatile nature of circular traffic belts surrounding
a city makes them a site of contradictions. Decisive circular traffic
interventions inserted into the periphery of the historical core of a city
not only separate the old and the new, but equally the meaningful and
the mundane. Moreover, the concept of a circular route on the edge of
the old town holds a different interpretation on the European continent
than in the British Isles, and especially in the southern African context.
The numerous settlements under the influence of the Anglosphere have
different interpretations to the development and design of the ring road
concept. In the South African urban context, several variations of the ring
road exist – and in the capital city, Pretoria, it is both the site of decisive
interventions and abrupt isolation. What makes this intervention unique
compared to its counterparts in Europe and Britain?
This paper investigates the southern African interpretation of the nonnavigable ring road as an imported planning model. In 1948, the town
planners and the national government approved the Pretoria Traffic
Plan, acting on the recommendation from the report published by the
British town planner, Sir William Holford, and subsequently set about
the dedicated goal of modernising the capital city. One of the principal
recommendations of this report stipulated the regulation of traffic
through the city, which proposed the removal of vehicular traffic from
the historical city centre in favour of a more complex alternative system
to the existing road network of Pretoria. This ring road underwent
several variations, but its contradictory effect forever changed the urban
tissue – and thus became both the site of linkages and segregation. |
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| ISSN: | 0044-8680 2729-8752 |