
SE[CURE]ING BOYS TO MEN. The design of a contemporary rites of passage tailoring facility for at-risk boys in the Pretoria CBD

DEAN SMUTS
Tshwane University of Technology
This project focuses on at-risk boys and emphasises the importance of a guided and tailored transition from boyhood to manhood. The project addresses the lack of institutional structures for at-risk boys and recommends a tailoring facility in the Pretoria CBD as a solution. Theories defining rites of passage and liminality were developed to present an appropriate architectural typology tailored for at-risk boys transitioning from boyhood to manhood.
The architectural intervention includes tailoring the architecture to tailor the at-risk boy which, in turn, will result in the tailored man. The objective of the proposed design is to provide a structural and functional facility that facilitates the rites of passage or transitioning process from boyhood to manhood by implementing the artisanal methods of teaching the art of tailoring.