ONE of Johannesburg's most restricted and hated buildings is about to become one of its most open and people-friendly buildings - The Fort and prison.

The Fort

The country's new Constitutional Court is being constructed on the 100-acre site which houses The Fort, the former men's "native prison", the women's prison, the newer city mortuary and old Queen Victoria Hospital, between Kotze and Hancock Streets in Hillbrow.

The building is to become an open, people place with free access to several walkways running through the complex, a public square, and a football field and basketball court for local residents.

The construction site is already busy - the foundations of the court have been laid, with two storeys of the accompanying judges' chambers already in place. The neighbouring shared facility building is rising steadily, all overhung by two active cranes.

Work also already begun on the new Constitutional Court

The Fort was built in 1899 by the Paul Kruger government. Instead of facing outwards to protect the town from invasion, its cannons face directly into the rapidly expanding town, where Kruger's enemies, the English-speaking 'Uitlanders', lived. A second bastion in the eastern corner protected the road north to Pretoria, Kruger's base - an acknowledgement of Kruger's mistrust of the British. But the Fort never played a significant military role, and after the Boer War it was used as a grim and foreboding jail, which still housed prisoners until 1983.

The Fort incarcerated many anti-apartheid activists, among them Mahatma Gandhi, Nobel Peace Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli, human rights lawyer Bram Fischer, and Nelson Mandela. All entered the prison through The Fort gates, into the foreboding search and delousing room immediately inside the gates. From there the black prisoners were taken down to Sections 4 and 5, some to the solitary confinement cells. White prisoners were held in the cells just inside the gate.

Womans Prison

The heritage of the site has been respected, but some demolition has been necessary: the awaiting trial building has been largely demolished - four two-storey stairwells remain in a horizontal line spaced 30 metres apart - to make way for the Court. Four towers are to be constructed on top of the remaining stairwells, creating landmarks for Johannesburg, giving a view of both the city and the northern suburbs.

Bricks from the awaiting-trial building have been retained and will be used for the inner walls of the Court. The old bars will be used as sunshading devices for the chamber windows.

Besides new buildings like the Court - which is being built on the east side of the site, with judges' chambers, a library and an exhibition space, alongside it - an open space called Constitutional Square - an space between The Fort and the Court - is being constructed, with the Great African Steps, a walkway running down the hill, which will act as an interface between the new and old buildings.

West of the steps will be another new building, housing a coffee shop, a tourist office, and a share-facility building with offices for the Department of Constitutional Development, the Department of Justice, and offices for human rights, youth and legal aid. The rest of that building will be taken up with some retail space, a small number of offices, possibly a hotel, and conference facilities.

The women's prison with its elegant, round double-volume entrance hall will be used temporarily as exhibition space for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Long term, the Commission on Gender Equality will be taking up the space.

The original impressive Fort entrance in Kotze Street is to be restored as the entrance to the complex, with its whitewashed, arched reception rooms and delousing room to be converted into a documentation and archive centre, as well as a tourist office. It will house another temporary exhibition for the Summit.

Kotze Street is being upgraded to create drop-off spaces for buses. CCTV cameras and 24-hour security are to be installed on the street and across the site.

The prison cells immediately inside the gate are to remain as they are for the moment, while a decision is made as to their future. Also in limbo are Section 4 and 5, the "native prison" and solitary confinement cells.

A Heritage, Education and Tourism Committee has been set up to help work out how these areas can best be used to maximise their educational and tourism potential.

The mortuary, west of the prison, a mortuary site for the city for over 100 years, is to be demolished, while the mortuary itself will be relocated over Kotze Street in the Hillbrow Hospital.

Below the mortuary is the now defunct Queen Victoria Hospital - a hospital site for the past 100 years - which is now residential space, and will remain so.

The Court is steadily rising from its foundations, with some sections now at roof level, and the constitutional judges are expected to move into their new offices in January 2004, with the official opening of the court in March 2004.

In the meantime, visitors can view the construction progress. Entrance to the site is from Kotze Street in Hillbrow, and secure parking is available inside the Fort premises. A short walk up a stairway to the top of the north rampart affords a view of the construction.

The cost of the project is R460-million, jointly funded by the Gauteng provincial government's development agency, Blue IQ, and the departments of Justice; Arts, Culture, Science and Technology; and Local Government. The Johannesburg Development Agency is co-ordinating the work.

THE Fort was designed by the talented Dutch architect Sytze Wierda, responsible for almost all the Kruger government's public buildings. When it was completed just before the Boer War began, in 1899, it consisted of little more than a heavily-fortified ramparts, covered in earth, and a large gate.

Wierda was also responsible for one other building that still stands in Johannesburg - the Rissik Street Post Office, completed in 1897. An interesting building in its day, it is now closed and looking a little the worse for wear. But it is Johannesburg's only example of Dutch state architecture.

Wierda was hired after President Paul Kruger of the Zuid Afrikaanze Republiek visited Berlin, which made a profound impression upon him.

Kruger wanted to establish a national identity, and Berlin made him realise that architecture was key to this. He employed Wierda to design buildings for Pretoria in a style that became known as Republican Architecture, influenced by contemporary Flemish and French Renaissance designs. Wierda designed the Raadsaal (1890) and the Palace of Justice (1897) in Pretoria. Both still have a commanding presence in Pretoria's Church Square.