Unmasking KFC

Investigating Speculative Realities

Liam Wepener

BArch Hons 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Naadira Patel
Unit Leader: Sarah de Villiers
Unit Assistant: Nothando Lunga

UNIT 18^︎︎︎
Hyperreal Prototypes: Supersurfaces

This proposal investigates speculative realities of sites of consumption in post-colonial cities, particularly those emboldened through fast food franchises. This is done through a process of collage, digital and hand-built model mimicry to analytically deconstruct and then reimagine what this project claims as ‘supersurfaces’ of high consumption or extraction. The work also deliberately employs processes of collation and layering of ‘data’ visualisations over spatial ‘unpackings,’ to show how seemingly unassuming architectural moves have mass-scale dark influences on our communities and cities. The new visibilities of these forces at play are relayed and antagonised through the use of irony, narrative and satire. The research and speculative response is undertaken in spaces embedded in Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and the Durban CBD. More specifically, this major design project aims to investigate Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) as a well-established and well-camouflaged participant in the process of mass capitalism and globalisation. The project questions the revealed tactical psychological manipulation and strategic adjustment meant to exploit consumers.

Keywords:
Mimicry, Heterotopia, Capitalism, Globalisation, Extraction, Subtraction

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