An existing informal pedestrian route next to Durban’s busy N3 motorway gets a roof structure made from the gutted shells of old cars, acknowledging the everyday practices of local commuters.

When visiting Durban for the first time we met Doung an artists/architect focusing on post-apartheid spatial practices. Doung showed us the highway which is the main entrance point into Durban. Parallel to this lies a pedestrian path that connects the townships in the Westto Warwick Junction, a knot of underpasses and overpasses, tunnels, train and bus station, where a massive and bustling informal market lives and breathes. This is what best represents the African city. So thousands of people walk up and down this path, in and out of the city, a dirt path that meanders along the highway, between lanes, through green patches, under bridges, to the overwhelming sound of the moving cars.

Our site was one of these green patches, a leftover triangle between the highway and the exit roads. The site was very active as it was a meeting point for many flows of movement. There was a informal stop for the mini taxis on one side, the pedestrian path on the other, and also a meeting point at the highway level for hitchhikers going west. Together with Doung we decided to acknowledge all these forms of informal transport and make a physical manifestation of this; to create a station for informal traffic, a hub, a rest stop, a shelter.

Drawing on the reality of the overpopulation of cars in the African city, we built the roof out of car bodies, removing the chassis and recovering the shells. The roof would become also a symbol and landmark for the informal movements. Again, recognizing the everyday.

Sourcing cars immersed us in the back stage of the city. The scrapyards and small industries that hide away in the outskirts collecting and salvaging all they can, keeping the material flow alive and to a certain extent, sustainable.

This brought us to Chatsworth, an Indian township outside of Durban, a manufacturing ecology populated with small industries, workshops, scrapyards and hardware stores. A machine of permanent hustling and improvisation. Together with a team of panel beaters and all around craftsmen we recovered and renovated our car shells.