The urban logic: a timber processing factory empowering rural ares through value addition
Date
2019
Authors
Ndlovu, Menzi
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Abstract
increased the
interdependence between rural and urban dwellers - the
resources they offer each other is the common thread that
pulls them closer together. While this has introduced various
forms of innovation in underdeveloped parts of South Africa, the
balance between what the urban areas remove from the rural
land versus what returns in the form of economic upliftment;
industrial transformation; cultural and social development, as
well as general living standards, is still very much debatable.
This research explores how architecture can improve the value
chain between rural and urban areas in order to improve the
balance these two areas share, by looking at activities that can
be performed in rural areas using the raw material harvested,
before the material is moved to urban areas for further
processing. The research process begins by looking at a broad
social economic plan; the infrastructural plan to make it work;
and a small intervention where these issues will be addressed.
By moving activities within the supply chain previously only
dedicated to and reserved for urban areas closer to rural areas,
it not only keeps the supply chain safely intact but improves the
context and value found in rural areas. This begins to create
an organic platform for ancillary economic movement to start
building, in the hopes to improve industrial sustainability.
The building is an industrial timber processing factory in northern
KwaZulu-Natal that allows the context to feed into it. The main
activity, amongst many others this factory does, is take wood
harvested from the forests plantations of northern KZN and
add an additional step where it processes it into wood fibers, to
be transported in larger quantities than previously possible to
the urban industrial areas where the final stage of production
takes place. In a social context of poor living standards due
to lack of economic activity this building aims to – parallel to
wood processing work – lend itself as a community workspace
in order to be the focal point for skills development where
locals can utilise the timber processing equipment, cultural
transformation and most importantly a port for other industries
to plug-in. The architecture looks to welcome back the design
principles so often lacking in current industrial buildings - these
principles present a great opportunity to effect social change
over and above industrial functions. Parallel to that, it questions
the function of a factory in a rural setting and re-imagines its
function through design and program.
The farmer sells his corn for R2.00, after production it is sold
back to him as popcorn at R10.00 – the farmer cannot afford
the end product of his own labour. The tensions between
urban and rural; raw and finished product and, architectural
design and industrial engineering, are exposed and given the
spotlight in the search for economic transformation and social
balance in the value chain.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Built Environment in fulfillment of the requirements for
the Degree in Master of Architecture (March)
School of Architecture & Planning
University of Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
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Citation
Ndlovu, Menzi (2018) The Uban Logic:a Timber processing factory empowering rural areas through value addition, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/28284>