Johannesburg

Constitution Hill's Creative Uprising Hub (at Transwerke)

  Cnr Joubert St and Kotze St, Braamfontein ,   Braamfontein          +27 11 381 3100     more than a year ago
Over the hill at the opposite end of the vast Constitution Hill precinct is Transwerke, a once-grand Art Deco building that used to be a maternity hospital and later nurses accommodation. Since the 1980s Transwerke has stood vacant and dilapidated, its broken windows eerily empty. Driving up Joubert Street at night you may have even wondered if it was haunted.

Fortunately, in 2016 the building was taken over by the Gauteng Provincial government by Constitution Hill, and slowly work began on rescuing it from dereliction.

Currently, the ground floor interior has been upgraded and is now home to 17 Creative Uprising studios where 60-odd creatives work in everything from digital design, to fashion, fine art, and film. The building will be renovated a floor at a time over the next five years, and eventually, there will be 80 creative (non-residential) studios available for subsidised rental with tenants having an option to barter services.
 
A courtyard inside the Transwerke building. Photo by Gail Wilson

Supporting the vision that to truly make creative hubs successful also requires capacity building, Transwerke has a space called Let's Get Formal. At this ingenious "room of requirement" (our reference rather than theirs), creatives can get practical guidance on how to get to grips with what are almost always the greatest barriers to any small creative business – the minefield of paperwork and bureaucracy.

It's a long walk down from the Old Fort and the Constitutional Court to Transwerke and there are still many spaces waiting to be activated along the way. Although on our recent visit professional graffiti artists were already out in force enlivening the pathways with newly commissioned murals. As Transwerke is renovated and gains more tenants, it is envisaged that this 'dead' space beyond the Court will finally come to life, frequented by the many creatives working in the precinct, as opposed to occasional lone tourists looking for the museum entrance.

 

Website

Social Links:

Email

info@constitutionhill.org.za

Open

Open 09:00–17:00.
Holiday Dates – Closed Dec 25, 2022, Dec 26, 2022 & Jan 1, 2023

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