The Red Location Museum stands closed in Port Elizabeth

The Red Location Museum in South Africa stands now, abandoned and silent. Opened on 10 November 2006 as a tribute to the struggle against apartheid, it is situated in a shack settlement that is one of the oldest townships in Port Elizabeth.

The building was designed by Cape Town-based architect Jo Noero of Noero Architects, whose work drew inspiration from the literary work of German-born professor Andreas Huyssen, whose work focuses on the idea of memory and history. The museum’s design challenged traditional notions of museum design, inviting visitors to actively participate in the experience and navigate through it as they please, with no set path.

The museum was made of 12 corrugated iron boxes, each 6 x 6 x 12 metres, and housed an auditorium, library, art gallery, a memorial space honouring local heroes of the liberation struggle and offices. The use of boxes was inspired by the boxes that migrant workers used to keep their treasured possessions when they were away from their families in rural areas.

However, in October 2013, after protests from Red Location residents over housing issues, the museum, library and gallery were closed. It has remained closed since. The residents demanded that the government fix their poorly constructed homes, which had been declared structurally unsound. In 2013, the government and the community reached an agreement to demolish and correctly rebuild 288 houses. The work was not done, and repair costs for the building were estimated at R12-million, a cost that has not been met.

The museum's accolades, including the World Leadership Award for Public Architecture in London at the World Leadership Forum, the Royal Institute of British Architects International Award, and the Dedallo Minosse Presidents Award from Italy, remain on its record. The Red Location Museum stands today as a tribute to the struggle against apartheid, located in an area that once housed a Boer concentration camp before becoming an urban settlement for Black people.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons