Completed in 2001, this 6000sq.m linear museum, semi-buried in the landscape, traces the origin, development, implementation and final triumphant conquering of South Africa’s notorious apartheid system.

The brutal narrative, experienced relentlessly along a linear route embellished with video footage, audio interviews, huge images and powerful artifacts, forces the visitor to confront the truth about the human rights violations that took place during this period in South Africa’s history.

Before being separated into ‘white and non-white’ entrance doors, visitors are dwarfed by seven pillars standing in solemn sentry at the entrance to the museum. Conceived as the seven pillars of the constitution, these 18m high concrete pillars with the words “freedom / responsibility / equality / reconciliation / diversity " pinned to their smooth towering surfaces, act as resilient beacons visible from a long distance away. They speak of a message never to be forgotten.

The concrete roofed perimeter building forms an impenetrable edge to the street, concealing the indigenous landscape, planted roofs and narrative museum spaces, the interior of which becomes lighter as the narrative moves towards the realm of the New South Africa.

The building leads you via a ramp up to the roof presenting a view of the city from the south across a foreground of mining wasteland with mine dumps and headgear before plunging into the belly of the story down a circular stair.

Off-shutter concrete soffits, floors and columns are used internally to set up a basic visual language for the museum, a minimal palette of finishes against which the narrative is off-set. The exposed services in the high concrete volumes create a raw, industrial quality suggestive of some of the darker spaces associated with incarceration and detention that further supports the harsh, relentless exhibit narrative.

Mesh cages are used as exhibit devices in the interior of the museum, separating visitors from one another through the various narrative chambers, indicative of a population segregated. Moments of respite from are offered via glimpses into the landscape through strategically placed windows. Visitors are reminded however, that while they can see the landscape, it remains deliberately out of reach.

Externally, the appearance is suggestive of the texture of the highveld, it’s mine dumps and resilient mining headgear structures. The use of natural plaster, stone and gabion baskets with rusting frames completes this pared down, industrial contextualism.

Mashabane Rose Architects I GAPP Architects and Urban Designers I Britz Roodt Association I Linda Mvusi Architecture and Design