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Item The Quantitative Hydrogeological Mapping of Zebediela Estates, Central Transvaal(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1970-05) Pretorius, Desmond AubreyThe groundwater system on zebediela Estates, situated along the northern edge of the Springbok Flats in the Central Transvaal, has been studied by physiographic, geologic , geophysical, geochemical, and hydrologic methods . Emphasis has been placed on the subsurface mapping of the spatial distribution patterns of a nvn1ber of hydrogeologic parameters, and computer-based polynomial trend surface analysis has been employed to facilitate the interpretation of the maps. The computer has also been used to determine the general statistics of the frequency distributions of the various parameters and to platform sequential multiple linear regression analysis in an attempt to determine the relationships between the variables . Data arrays of observations, computations, and interpretations have been disp layed in 38 tables in the text and 21 appendices to the text . The distr ibution patterns , in one and two dimensions, have been portrayed in 8 text figures and 117 maps, separate from the t ext. The area studied covers approximate ly 23 square mil es, in which 556, 000 orange trees have been planted on 5800 acres . An average annual amount of 2400 million gallons of water is required to maintain t he operation, and 560 million gallons of this quantity are withdrawn, on the average, each year from boreholes tapping the groundwater resources of the Estates . Up to April, 1969, 315 holes had been drilled, and 151 had become producers at one time or another. In 19 years of exploitation between 1950 and 1968, 10, 600 million gallons of groundwater were withdrawn, at an average rate of 13 million gallons per year per production borehole. The study has shown that the groundwater system supplying this substantial quantity of water consists of two main elements - a piedmont alluvial slope, in which stream channels and paleochannels on coalescing alluvial fans are acting as conduits for the transmistion of water from the intake areas; and an underlying bedrock storage reservoir composed of aquifers of the Transvaal and Karroo sequences . The Malmani dolomite aquifers and the Stormberg basalt aquifers are superior to those of the Wolkberg quartzites, shales, and lavas, and the Stormberg Cave sandstones. It has been possible to distinguish two cycles of Karoo basalts, each of which shows differentiation . The upper cycle is far more important as an aquifer than the lower cycle. The piedmont slope is composed of portions of three alluvial fans , the spines of which have a general southeasterly trend towards the junction of the Nkumpi and Olifant rivers in the valley-flat environment well to the south of the Estates . The upland areas above the apices of the fans embrace the mountain ranges which form the northern rim of the Transvaal Basin, and these uplands have suffered right-lateral movements along extensive east-northeast-trending transcurrent faults which must have continued to be active into recent times in order to displace the stream course on the fans. The fan-head section and portion of the midfan section of the Nkumpi fan, in which the Gompies River is situated, occur over the east-central, eastern, and southeastern parts of the property, and, where underlain by the upper basalt aquifers, constitute the most important source of groundwater on Zebediela Estates. The whole of the fan-head and mid-fan sections of the Mamukebe fan are located in the riorthern, west-central, western, and southwestern localities of the area studied. The fan is much smaller than either of the others, and is underlain by Wolkberg rocks, Cave sandstones, and lower basalts. Its overall groundwater potential is consequently lower than that of either of the other two components of the piedmont slope. Only a very restricted portion of the fan-head section of the Mogoto fan occurs in the extreme northwestern corner of the Estates, where it is underlain by the dolomite aquifer, Its groundwater parameters are consequently very favourable, but the true potential of this fan lies beyond the western boundary of the property. The average yield of boreholes in the upper basalt is 3600 gallons per hour; in the lower basalt, 2000 g.p.h.; in the sandstone, 1500 g.p.h.; in the dolomite, 11,200 g.p.h.; and in the quartzites, 1500 g.p.h. The average yield for all boreholes on the Estates is 4100 gallons per hour. All of these figures are appreciably higher than those for equivalent formations elsewhere in South Africa, testifying to the impoi,tance of the piedmont alluvial slope environment in the overall groundwater system at Zebediela. The average annual recharge of the groundwater reservoirs from all sources has been estimated at 700 million gallons. With the average annual withdrawal being of the order of 560 million gallons, the possibility exists that production from the aquifers can be increased by 25 per cent, without fear of serious, permanent deterioration in the performance of the groundwater system. However, excessive exploitation in times of low recharge might lead to the development of quality h.azards with respect to sodiuum, ehloride, and bicarbonate over the upperbasalts. This possibility does not exist for the remaining aquifers, particularly those in the dolomite, from which relatively pure water is drawn. An added problem in the recharge of the upper basalt aquifer is the contamination of t he groundwater in storage by lithium, brought into the Zebediela groundwater- system by the Nkumpi River, which transmits the element from the granite terrain to the north of the mountainous rim of the Springbok Flats. A new model of groundwater exploration has been devised, based on optimum drilling sites being located where coincidence takes place of piedmont stream channel conduits, dolomite or upper basalt aquifers, and transcurrent fault aquicludes, Results obtained from the employment of this model during two years of drilling subsequent to its development in a preliminary form produced an increase of 14 per cent in the average yield of all boreholes drilled.Item A bathhouse in Cyrildene - a phenomenological approach to the design of a bathhouse in Johannesburg(2021) Kow, AlanIn Johannesburg, there is a lack of global bathhouse typologies. They either don’t exist or are in a form which caters to a niche subculture. Bathhouse culture has been around for hundreds of years and many people around the world take advantage of it as a form of communal bonding, relaxation and general hygiene. In addition to this, when done correctly, it has the effect of stripping away of social class and distinction as well as providing a safe and entertaining environment for those within its walls. This study aims to bring my personal experience of an East-Asian bathhouse into Cyrildene, a predominantly Chinese neighbourhood, that is slowly losing its cultural identity. Building on existing data on historic bathhouses from around the world, it asks: How can the concept of phenomenology be used to guide the design of an Asian style bathhouse in order to enhance the Asian/Chinese cultural experience and help in the revitalisation of Derrick street as a distinct cultural hub In Johannesburg? The main methodologies that will be used in this report will be from literature reviews on historical analysis of bathhouses around the world but more specifically in Eastern Asia. One on one interviews with the residents and shop owners living in Cyrildene as well as the owner/s of a spa. Observations based on mapping and photography will also be employed. The last will be the use of auto-ethnographic data from my own experiences. The main hypothesis of the report will be seeing if the bathhouse typology through the use of a variety of different programs that range from bathing to eating to sleeping in addition to the application of architectural phenomenological theories helps make it suitable for Cyrildene and thereby revitalise and strengthen the areas existing cultural identity.Item The polymorphic state and real estate: rethinking the relationship between the state and real estate through Johannesburg & Bangalore(2022) Pillay, SaritaThis research seeks to expand understanding of the relationship between the state and real estate. It is guided by the impulse, from experience in urban land justice activism, to acknowledge multiplicity in the state, and to contextualise the nebulous boundary between the private and public. I argue that commonly adopted concepts in critical scholarship – in the strands of urban power, urban planning and historical materialism – do not adequately offer a means to do this. Thus, drawing from how these concepts have been stretched and refuted in critical scholarship, an analytical lens is assembled for this research. It is guided by three influences: a historical materialist analytic of the urban; non-normative approaches to a postcolonial state theorised in India; and insights on the amorphous boundary between the state and private sector in real estate The starting point for this research is Johannesburg. However, an expansive spectrum of Indian critical scholarship surfaced in reading the relationship between the state and real estate. This raised the methodological utility of bringing Johannesburg into empirical conversation with an Indian city. Emerging organically as this city was Bangalore. Rather than ‘cases’, Johannesburg and Bangalore are approached as ‘vantage points’ through which to explore the relationship between the ubiquitous, albeit socially constructed, state and real estate. This research was thus guided by the question: (How) can the relationship between the state and real estate be conceptualised through Johannesburg and Bangalore? To begin to explore this, I undertook in-depth interviews with 62 key informants in real estate and government, as well as observations in real estate conferences and as an intern in a real estate consultancy firm. Additional analysis was undertaken of news articles, industry reports and building statistics. Three lesser-seen relationships between the state and real estate emerged, grounded in each city but developed through each other: an enabling relationship between local government and real estate shaped by the post-apartheid transition in Johannesburg; central government’s incorporation of real estate in Bangalore; and the Government Employees Pension Fund’s (GEPF) embeddedness in Johannesburg real estate as an ‘investor state’. In a landscape of differentiated real estate, the state was shown to be central to financialised forms of real estate – but not only so. This contributes to conceptualising a polymorphic state and real estate. Empirically, this work expands critical scholarship to direct considered attention to non-corporate forms of real estate in India, and listed corporate real estate in South AfricItem Foraging for Earth: resurrecting the heritage of ochre through land reparation of an iron ore mine(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) O'Maker, Simone; Felix, SandraThis thesis aims to extract concepts, ideologies and theories viable to the rights of land. To rewrite a set of spatial relations that deeply grapple with the remnants of the Ngwenya mountain, in an iron-ore mine within the Kingdom of Eswatini, as an archaeological, cultural, ecological and geographical site. Foraging for Earth aims to mend its wounds that gives back the earth its dignity. It questions what architecture arises from seeing the land as a living being and to what extent it can form a relationship with a post-mined landscape. The concept of the design is derived from the site’s scar, a palimpsest of narratives rooted to memory, decay, healing and regeneration, and thereby interprets reparative strategies into a living archive that aims to reclaim what the landscape used to be. The program includes an earth reparation facility, a knowledge-sharing centre, an ochre sanctuary, craft studio and a sculpture garden. Constant visual and physical engagement encourages one to be aware of the land’s rich narrative.Item Mwana Wevhu (Child of the soil): Enhancing subsistence cotton farming through education with production creating employment opportunities in Marondera, Zimbabwe(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mafemba, Simbarashe A.; Kirkman, DeborahCotton plant production in Zimbabwe has witnessed a concerning decline. This cash crop, crucial for the country’s economy, has unfortunately become a harbinger of poverty among diligent farmers. Nonetheless, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon with the adoption of sustainable farming practices, including the use of organic seeds, which can reduce pesticide usage and water requirements, potentially revitalizing cotton production. Marondera, an agricultural hub, predominantly relies on subsistence farming methods to cultivate this labor and capital-intensive cash crop. Regrettably, these methods have proven inefficient for achieving profitability, ultimately pushing farmers further into poverty. The objective of my research is to delve into the realm of cotton farming, seeking avenues to enhance its viability and sustainability, thereby empowering farmers and fostering employment opportunities within associated industries. Cotton cultivation presents a multitude of job prospects, particularly during the processing phase. As part of my architectural intervention, I aspire to design a community Research Centre in Marondera. This center will serve as a knowledge hub, equipping cotton farmers with the expertise and techniques needed to cultivate the crop efficiently and sustainably. A pivotal aspect of the design will be the incorporation of vernacular architecture and locally available materials, ensuring that the architecture aligns with the practical needs of the local population it serves.Item Stories of the Forgone Forlorn Forgotten Space: Interrogating Mdantsane’s Liminal Space in which Ritual Operates(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Xhegwana, Buhle; Maape, SechabaThe proposed site is located on Golden Highway in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape, and is a vacant plot of land adjacent to Mdantsane Correctional Services. The site situates itself in close proximity to multiple educational institutions and commerce, centrally within the township. The proposed research aims to analyse how Amasiko (cultural practices and their memory) within a non-transcribed culture can be translated into a built form that would be representative of its people. The built form would be envisioned as a container for memory where the ethnographic layering of information becomes a tool to access the ritual and its memory as a “Grand Mnemonic Device” to relay import ant aspects of the culture and its history (Trieb, 2013). The space envisaged must promote the acts of remembering and collecting as a tool in the process of creating a “house of memory” (Bahloul, 1992). This assembles what was not transcribed into a physical, experiential manifestation by creating a stronger link between architecture and society, looking beyond the merely functional state of architecture represented in the context. The program enacted in the space will mirror the act of the ritual by providing spaces that relate to the processes of the ritual in their various stages of the procession. The three main ritual processes focused on include Umgidi (Initiation ceremony), Umshado (wedding) and Umngcwabo (Funeral). The spaces proposed function as a tool to access the memory and ritual through its organisation while its program reaches out to the community. The program includes a community hall centred around the acts of song, dance and sermon; a kitchen to be used during gatherings and as a link to food security outreach; urban farm facilities to service the kitchen and community; discussion rooms for skill sharing, dialogue, non-transcribed learning and storytelling; video exhibition spaces to immerse oneself in the memory; a foyer with a primary focus on cleansing or washing hands before crossing the threshold into the space; storage and offices for facilitators of the space.Item Inheriting Resonance: Regenerating Indigenous African Musical Pedagogy Through an Education and Culture Centre in Newtown(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Bopela, Bonnie; Gwebu, Nomonde; Felix, SandraIndigenous African Music requires spatial interventions to counter its erasure in a South African education system that has historically prioritised Western Art Music. This research analyses the relationship between African musical pedagogy and architecture. It aims to address the erasure of musical knowledge through an architectural design that evokes regeneration in an urban setting. Using Pallasmaa’s theory of phenomenology as a guiding focus, this research contextualises African music and how it manifests architecturally. The haptic and embodied architectural experiences defined by phenomenology are inherent within African music. By focusing on the musical bow instruments at the centre of many tribes across Southern Africa, the intrinsic qualities of these instruments are translated and abstracted to form an embodied architectural design intervention embued with an African musical identity. This research argues that phenomenological architectural design methodologies can regenerate, preserve and sustain indigenous musical knowledge(s) for future generations.Item Ponte; Realness. Symbiotic parasitism in drag(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Georgiev, Victor Geoergiev; Bahman, DirkThe intended investigation explores queer identity and the extent to which it can symbiotically co-inhabit an outdated structure to create social cohesion and integration resulting in a regeneration. Consisting of interventions exploring identity representation and familial programmes to create a sense of community. Research focuses on vulnerable communities present within Ponte (a structure containing aspects of familiarity to Ballroom spaces) and their synergy with the Ballroom community in Johannesburg. Through architectural processes engaging with space making and programming, aims value the creation of space. Encouraging educational models through social engagement which facilitate acceptance, sex, and gender expressions through a mutual occupation. Theories identified in queer spaces and Hertzburgers writings provide solutions through familiarity and atmospheres that allow for a symbiosis of community. Research outcomes indicate an adaptive re-use of Ponte through a reprogramming relating to investigations that highlight the buildings previous intentions as a vertical city.Item Architecture as mnemonic experiencing past, present, and future narratives in a Johannesburg cultural complex(2024) Segal, YehudaMemory is transient, it comes and it goes. It is a passing remembrance of a past time, person or place. Memory is the experience we store in our minds to recall at a future time and date. It is the friends we make on the first day of school, our childhood holidays, or beach sand between our toes. Memory is also stored in books, visuals, art, and the internet. It is the long-gone monarch in a painting, the photographs and videos of historical events that record a past time and people. And so, memory is architecture- or, simply, space. Spatial recall- the ability to remember a space or place, directions from point A to point B, is the reason we find our way when lost. The architecture of memory is related to that of structures, buildings and spaces that serve to record or preserve a past event or person, yet also the landmark that guides us. It is a museum, memorial, triumphal arch and even a religious or cultural space. It is also the old as opposed, or in harmony with, the new. Architecture as mnemonic is relatable to other aspects and devices with mnemonic value. Memory is therefore an important aspect of archi - tecture and the built world. Not only do we remember through spatial interactions, we also experience spaces which lead to us creating new memories.Item To burn or not to burn: an approach to control waste in our society highlighting the Relationship between energy, recycling and communities(2024) Kabongo, BenedictteThe capacity of South Africa and other developing countries is as minimal. On the other hand, the growing trends - population growth, industrialization, and economic growth- in modern-day society have improved human wellness. As a result, when resource consumption rises, so as solid waste. However, in developing countries, the generation of waste per capita is the lover compared to developed countries; the main challenge is the capacity to handle it effectively. Moreover, efficiently landfill, recycle and reuse. The resource consumption model in developing countries is linear, meaning that processing, producing, using, and discarding products to nature harms the environment through the emission of greenhouse gas, the pollution of land and water resource, and boost climate effect. In the last decade, solid waste management has improved technologically and operationally and responds to environmental concerns; its focus is on the end-stage solutions, focusing on the reduction of waste rather than sustainability, whose core focus is the prevention of waste. South Africa’s approach regarding solid waste is to push waste up towards minimal production, reuse, and recycling through comprehensive producer responsibility and economic instruments This research focuses on the factors impacting solid waste management in South Africa and will put forward realistic avenues for using solid waste as a resource. In addition, it will help find successful initiatives highlighting inclusive planning and management of those facilities. Finally, this finds approaches for the private sector, the government, and the community to link service and value chains in sustainable solid waste management. For example, it adopts practices that divert waste from landfills, formalizes reclaimers or waste pickers, initiates waste-to-energy technologies, and encourages recycling at all waste cycle stages.Item Urban scripting audio-visual forms of storytelling in urban design and planning: the case of two activity streets in Johannesburg(2024) Mkhabela, SolamSouth African cities reflect spaces based on Euro-American theories and norms, mapping methods, and design imperatives. At a local level, this imposition’s tool of static diagrams, plans, sections, elevation, and aerials; broader spatial plans with localized frameworks; regulatory plans controlling land use results in spaces hindering socio-economic development, especially for the marginalized, which comprises a predominantly black African and poor cohort. Consequently, current practice must significantly improve a city’s engagement with everyday users. Based on the indicated need, this thesis argues that the first step to effective urban design is accurately ascertaining spatial needs. In responding to current city-making practices that create ineffective spatial outputs, the study introduces Urban Scripting as a novel transdisciplinary and practice-based approach for assessing inhabitable urban locations. Its methodology in city-making processes strategically inserts social narrative to enhance understanding of daily user experiences. In creating accessible ways of exposing urban layer details, the procedures combine Nguni oral tradition (local expertise) with audio-visual (disciplinary knowledge) as a hybrid narrative technique that simultaneously analyzes and produces. Here narrative suggests using story to amplify an evolving discourse unit that writes and communicates spatial imagination. More so, storytelling, framed in and through interaction, finds people and information often missed by conventional mapping and assessment tools, specifically the voices in the ‘twilight zone,’ the space between legal and illegal on-the-ground operations. Transdisciplinary methods structure more critical and empirically on-ground evidence that inductively leads to new ways of thinking and analyzing. Practice-based casework turns space into place, builds an anthology of empirical knowledge to inform city-making methodologies, and shapes appropriate policies supporting subaltern communities. Programmatically and polemically, it explores how a cinematic frame is an inclusive tool within a specific set of urban processes. Ultimately, its enframing application calibrates an empathetic narrative, potentially transforming lives better for an African city in motion. This approach is valuable for practitioners as a firm departure from convention and thrusts Black African knowledge to the forefront, thus acting as a decolonization tool. Tested at two different sites in Johannesburg, Alexandra (formerly a Black dormitory ‘township’) and Orange Grove (once a whites-only area), the approach effectively engaged with spatial users, specifically, the microentrepreneurs whose urban insurgency practiced on the side of the street serves the broader public yet remains unnoticed by spatial practice. Urban Scripting’s methodology better understood the urban spatial challenges and needs at the Johannesburg study sites. For spatial practice site assessment, theory building, and iv practical application, it is an approach that is likely to prove equally effective in communicating bottom-up needs to help imagine and design a fair and democratic city in hundreds of other similar environments in South Africa and indeed, across Africa, where parallel realities exist.Item An application of John Rawls' principles of social justice to planning: issues arising from the implementation of the national housing subsidy programme in the inner City of Johannesburg(2024) Oelofse, Michael GeraldJohn Rawl' s conception of social justice has had a fundamental influence on liberal ethics yet its practical implications for distributive planning have rarely been considered in any comprehensive way. This is the key contribution of this thesis. Using the South African housing subsidy system, it examines how distributional policies may be structured to benefit the least advantaged and explores the consequences of their implementation in Johannesburg's inner city. Based on a literature review, it argues that Western planners often place the responsibility for distributional decisions on political processes, or concern themselves with maximising the public good without addressing the consequent allocation of the costs and benefits among members of society. Contemporary planning theory continues to avoid the substantive c.9ntent of social justice. Confronted with what seem to be equally valid, often competing conceptions of social justice, planners focus on the fairness of planning procedures instead of taking normative, principled positions on distributional outcomes. However, just procedure alone does not guarantee a just outcome. This requires adherence to some predefined set of distributional principles, and Rawls' political conception of social justice is presented here as a reasonable and compelling option for planners. Drawing on the author's practical experience, this thesis traces the liberal influence on the formulation of housing subsidy policy in South Africa and argues that national policy generally conforms with Rawlsian distributional principles. However, an empirical analysis of the housing sector in Johannesburg's inner city reveals that its impact is dissipated by a lack of local commitment to the original principles. Conflicting development principles and a failure among many residents to honour the obligations attached to housing benefits compound the problem. This thesis concludes that Rawlsian principles of social justice in combination with the contemporary communicative turn in planning provide planners with a powerful means of placing social justice on the development agenda, but that these principles require championing because conflicting principles and interests continuously place the needs of the least advantaged at risk.Item Cross-border pollination: incubation hub for urban farming in Yeoville(2024) Kubanza, Nzoli GloriaYeoville holds the reputation as an Afro-migrantcentric suburb in Johannesburg (ABED, 2019), with each dispossessed body desiring to keep their cultures alive. This has created social boundaries between South Africans and other African nationalities in the urban landscape. The burning of Yeoville Market is the physical manifestation of growing tension in the community. Gambela (BÉNIT-GBAFFOU, 2019) (known by the neighbourhood) provides migrant women from the diaspora the opportunity to respond to the economic crisis they face in their home country. The enclosed market sphere encourages cultural exchange and interaction by eating, processing, and selling food from home. For migrants living in Yeoville, food is not only a source of nutrients but a tool to transmit culture. Thus, the burning of the market signifies the resistance of the community to integrate. The thesis will follow the Congolese women in the Yeoville market who frequently encounter borders, traveling with various products including cassava. The traders use cassava to transgress the misconceptions of a patriarchal stereotype of an African housewife, simultaneously ensuring household survival. Cassava holds a cultural significance to the West African women as the method of processing cassava requires the knowledge of the native women that have passed down from one generation to another, perfected through time and across borders (Christina Emery, 2021). The importance of the plant not only lies in its mobility but its functional characteristics of promoting harmony, encouraging collaboration, and a medium in which information is transferred (Christina Emery, 2021). In asking the question “how can cassava be used to mend the fragmented community of Yeoville” this thesis will be using cassava as a framework to explore themes of, mobility, boundary, and identity. Re-introducing the market to the community as an agricultural hub. The architectural intervention will re-interpret the market as a space that transmits and preserves culture. The project aims to mediate the fragmented communities of Yeoville using food to educate, generate social spaces, and food works to encourage community involvement.Item Manufacturing imaginaries: a catalyst for reimagining Marshalltown(2024) O’Donovan, Gabriel StormThe inner city of Johannesburg oscillates between images of a vibrant city full of possibilities, and a dystopian city that has fallen into disrepair - illustrating the profound complexities of the city and its resilience, where spaces of dystopian desolation lie adjacent to dynamic spaces of ambition and hope. Since Johannesburg’s establishment various regimes of representation have sought to create a city in their image (Matsipa, 2014) – from visions of Johannesburg as a temporary mining camp with the sole purpose of extracting wealth, to the modernist images of a “New York in Africa” (Chipkin, 2008). This project explores how visions from a past epoch can be re-imagined and questions the role of the architect in facilitating new urban transformations. This research report investigates the accumulated archive of abandoned buildings in the inner city and presents an architectural intervention that acts as a piece of urban infrastructure – facilitating the reinterpretation of these neglected structures. It draws inspiration from current examples of ad hoc spatial interventions that challenge the notions of permanent and purpose-made architecture. The site forms part of an abandoned city block in Marshalltown, Johannesburg. This city block serves as symbol of urban decay and neglect, portraying feelings of desolation and abandonment (Bruwer, 2002) – making it the ideal site for the proposed architectural intervention as well as a source of inspiration.Item Unravelling nature: integrating architecture and nature(2024) Katete, LungoThe ability to bring to life what is created in one’s mind, is perhaps the most remarkable feat of human kind. Without the ability to imagine, innovation ceases to exist, resulting in the overall demise of evolution itself. We exist in a time during which the destruction of nature and its essential continues to expand as quickly as nature diminishes right before our eyes. Our environment is populated with built structures and design artefacts, but very few of these rattle the domain of intellect in a way that provokes cultural reorientation. Persuaded by nature’s grand design, this research document proposes a new approach to architecture, through model development and alternative/natural material exploration. It aims to scrutinise the potential of a new way to create architecture through nature’s lens, encompassing formation that consolidates maximal performance and minimal resources through local material variations. In this approach, architecture will be viewed through the lens that is nature, promoting the consolidation of form, materiality and structure. This will be done by exploring aspects such as form development, material analysis and fabrication, allowing for the utilisation of materials found naturally occurring in nature. Materiality precedes form making, allowing for an approach that is structured based on the material properties as a function of structural and environmental performance. This approach shall integrate material properties as a prospective driver of the form generating process, it shall establish how such processes contribute to a novel way of generating, dispensing and depositing material form. In an environment populated primarily by built structures, it is essential that we take into consideration how we can integrate nature’s grand design in the evolution of the design fabric and the built environment process, for without the ability to imagine, innovation ceases to exist.Item Post-1994 South African university infrastructure: a critical study of the framework and spatial principles to guide future developments(2024) Hansen, LudwigDue to the lack of institutional guidelines for the development and expansion of universities in South Africa a need exists to study and understand the key challenges facing its 26 universities. This doctoral research evolved from the researcher’s urban design and architectural work in practice which, over the past fifteen years, has included urban design for a number of university campuses and their spatial development frameworks. Through this practice-based work it became clear that no institutional guidelines for the development and expansion of universities in South Africa exist. A need was therefore identified for the study of existing campus master plan documents and international campus planning literature to pinpoint the elements, principles, configurations and methodologies in order to guide universities in producing integrated spatial design and development frameworks for their campuses. Apart from a lack of guidance from national government, the increasing pressure on the national fiscus to provide funding for the expanding needs of universities is forcing institutions to re-consider methodologies towards expanding, improving and implementing their infrastructures, buildings and spaces. These alternative planning methods also imply broader partnerships to ensure long-term sustainability and relevance within the South African context. The role of collaboration with the host city or community is becoming increasingly relevant and the development of ‘place-based universities’ must be seen as critical in order to ensure long term sustainability. Recent international research demonstrates that universities are valuable stakeholders within their broader context, making them instruments of regeneration in engaging future developmental necessities. In light of the above, the research objectives are in principle three-fold. Firstly, to establish what spatial principles guide well-functioning university campuses; secondly, which methodologies are used to achieve this; thirdly, to research approaches towards achieving improved integration and collaboration of university campuses with their host cities, communities and stakeholders. The research methodology in this study focuses on the literature review dealing with the historical development of universities and the analysis of their spatial forms, as well as in-depth reviews of 25 contemporary university campus masterplans from across the world, in order to establish normative spatial design guidelines. These findings are then used to analyse the 26 South African universities with their 92 sub-campuses in order to offer improved insights into their challenges and characteristics. The same principles are also used to assess and reflect on the researcher’s practice-based work, with a specific focus through in-depth case studies of the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Johannesburg (especially the Rand Afrikaans University campus) and the recently established Sol Plaatje University. This thesis is organized in three parts, featuring eight chapters. The first part outlines the research problem, including the review of relevant literature and adopted methods of inquiry. The second part covers the analytical study, including case study descriptions, categorisations and performance analyses. Finally, the third part summarises and discusses the results of this research project and makes an institutional recommendation on how these can continue to be taken forward in both practice and researchItem Reusing the urban fabric: adaptive re-use of an abandoned heritage building to explore community empowerment within the Johannesburg CBD's textile industry(2024) Soobramoney, KyleThe city of Johannesburg has undergone massive transformations since its conception and the discovery of gold that set the city on an exponentially rising trajectory. In the aftermaths of apartheid, many post-industrial buildings are scattered through the city landscape, forgotten, and decaying with accompanying detrimental effects to their surrounding context. This investigation aims to reuse a delipidated heritage building to grow economy through local industry. In the case of this investigation, the relevant industry is the ever-growing textile and secondhand clothing market. This industry is contextually relevant, and the basic design principles of Architectural theory demand a building be responsive to the context to be successful. The hypothesis is that if an industrial function can be retrofitted to dilapidated buildings, then these buildings can be saved and enhance the environment in which it dwells. The textile industry in this case offers a multitude of job opportunities as well as applications in architecture and construction. Traits that could possibly help working class, and female entrepreneurs have a stronger foothold in the city, as industrial labor, and basic job access can become more available to women that may be unemployed and unskilled. Design methodologies such as adaptive re-use and symbiotic architecture are aimed to be implemented to endorse an architecture that is feasible for abandoned heritage buildings, concurrently these methodologies are intended to be explored through the textile industry. Architecture that is intended to be easy and cheap to assemble; architecture that can move, grow and change based on the needs of the user while preserving the identity of the building and at the same time creating a new one for a new generation. The end goal is to create a mixed use closed loop self-sustaining building that programmatically focuses on the education and economic components of the context as well as enhances community development in the city. The investigation aims to understand (through experimentation) if an architecture can be applied to the delipidating heritage typology as an effort to reuse space and the preserve character, memory, and diversity in a way that the generation of today will be excited to be in an old building. The city has become a hub for informal traders and entrepreneurs, a social and economic melting pot. There is an opportunity for existing industries to revitalize fragmented infrastructure to add to the mixture.Item Why do people walk on this street?: comparing quantitative and qualitative measures of imageability and their association with pedestrian patterns(2024) Msingaphantsi, MawaboImageability, the quality of a place that makes it distinct, recognisable, and memorable, is traditionally considered to make places pleasant and attractive to pedestrians. The use of primarily qualitative (rather than quantitative) descriptions to discuss the concept of imageability poses a challenge for the application of this concept in physical designs in practice, where designers work with environmental features that have specific dimensions and where they must decide how much of each feature (building height, number of courtyards, number of trees etc.) is necessary to make the environment imageable. There is also wide disagreement in urban design theory and practice about what factors contribute to imageability. Quantitative models attempt to address these challenges by producing operational definitions of imageability with strictly defined variables (factors) that are based on the mathematical relationships between physical environmental features (such as building shape or street length) and the occurrence of imageability. The chief benefit of these models for urban design is their potential use as a means to measure and describe the presence of imageability in a given place. However, the drawback of models is the limited number of verification studies to test their applicability in different contexts. The Ewing model is a street-based statistical model that uses a street audit to describe how imageable a place is from the point of view of a pedestrian on a street. The model identifies eight variables that have a statistically significant correlation (R>0.6) with imageability (Ewing, Clemente, Handy, Brownson, & Winston, 2005). In this study I apply the Ewing model to a low-density environment to measure the imageability of part of Diepkloof (Zone 5), a former black township in Johannesburg, South Africa. I use sketches and qualitative descriptions to validate measurements taken on 30 streets. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which environmental features such as imageability can explain pedestrian patterns in a neighbourhood. I tested for correlation between pedestrian activity and imageability and then created a linear regression model to predict pedestrian volume on a given street based on the level of imageability on that street. My conceptual framework, however, demonstrated that imageability has three key aspects (structure, identity and meaning) and that different quantitative models have in-built assumptions that privilege one or more of these aspects and may affect how the resultant measurements should be interpreted. I use mapping to illustrate other potential factors of imageability (as described in the literature and in other models) and argue that these represent conceptual gaps in the Ewing model that should be considered when interpreting the model’s outputs and their correlation to pedestrian patterns. The results of applying the Ewing model in Diepkloof Zone 5 show low levels of imageability, which is consistent with my qualitative assessment of the site, as lower densities reduce the potential for composition because the environment has fewer elements. Bivariate linear regression was found to be an inadequate measure of the correlation between imageability and pedestrian activity. These simple linear regression models had R2 values of less than 0.65 and had many outliers, which suggested that there were factors outside of the model that had a significant effect on pedestrian activity. When multiple regression is used to account for other neighbourhood conditions, correlation increased and the R2 value (which describes the models’ predictive capacity). There are three statistically significant variables (with p-values less than 0.05): street length, street integration and imageabilityItem Food security in rural areas: the case of the Umkhanyakude District Municipality in the Northern Region of KwaZulu-Natal(2024) Nhlozi, Mduduzi WStudies on food security focusing on households began attracting considerable attention in the mid-1970s following a surge in the cost of food production and food prices. The surge in prices led to increasing percentage of food insecure households throughout the world. To address the growing number of people affected by hunger, countries sought to develop new technological techniques to produce food in large quantities particularly in the developing world. The thrust of the approach was to ensure the availability of food first. The understanding was that large food quantities would result in food-secure nations. Overtime, researchers realised that improved food production does not lead to food secure households. Since then, the percentage of people affected by hunger has continued to increase with 690 million (8.9%) considered food insecure in 2020 (Food Agriculture Organisation – FAO, 2021) despite relative increase in food production. South Africa is not an exception with 23% of the population reported food insecure in 2020 (van der Berg et al., 2021). The reports by the NIDS-CRAM have indicated that the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic in 2019 has further exacerbated food insecurity at a household level. The purpose of the study is to explore mechanisms used by rural households to achieve food security during various threats and risks to their livelihoods. The case study adopted is the Umkhanyakude region which is in the rural area of northern part of KwaZulu Natal. It covers an area of 13855.35 km² and accommodates approximately 625 846 people constituting a total of 128 195 households (Stats SA, 2011). The region was selected as a case study due to its economic, social, demographic and ecological characteristics. The study uses semistructured questionnaire to collect information on lived experiences of households in their quest to access and ensure availability of food. The study finds that households use several food strategies namely economy-related, culture-related and rite-of-passage to achieve food security. The strategies are framed within the context of what Nee and Ingram (1998) refer to as new institutionalism or new institutional economics. New institutional economics places focus on the importance of a “web of interrelated norms – formal and informal” that govern how individuals and households in Umkhanyakude region “respond to perception of costs and benefit in exchanges and invest in or divest themselves of particular ties” (Nee and Ingram, 1998: 19). The study argues that these strategies are embedded within social norms, values, and cultural practices beyond the ambit of orthodox economics. It further argues that the discourse on food security in rural areas must be framed beyond the economic analytical framework, to reckon with the embedded social and cultural norms, practices, rules, and relationships and to develop salient policy interventions. The study advocates for the development of localised food security plans by local municipalities to improve food security status of rural households. This is because food insecurity is largely felt at community and household levels. It is important that policy frameworks to manage food security are placed at municipal levels where local communities can easily access them.Item The application of process mineralogy to improve gold extraction from Wits tailings(2024) Makamu, SaziniThe extraction of gold from secondary resources such as historical Witwatersrand (Wits) tailings has been vital in extending the life of the South African gold industry. For a long time, Wits gold tailings have been a liability to mining operations due to the cost of the management of tailings dams. If tailings are not adequately managed, they can have long-term negative effects on the environment and human health and safety, with pollutants from effluent and dust emissions possibly being hazardous to humans, animals, and plants. However, due to a decrease in ore grades, the growing drive for zero waste, and improvements in technology, tailings retreatment is now a sustainable form of revenue for gold operations in South Africa. While the Wits gold tailings are characterised by low gold content, there is however, an expectation that this residual gold can be efficiently and economically extracted since gold extraction technologies have improved. However, low gold extraction efficiencies have typically been observed with typical plant operations operating at 40-50% recoveries. Poor liberation is a common postulation on the causes of low gold extraction and slow leaching kinetics. As a result local Wits tailings toll treatment plants apply ultra-fine grinding (P80 -20 µm) to partially liberate the gold and achieve economical gold extraction. However, an alternative hydrometallurgy approach that does not come with the capital and process implication of fine grinding can prove to be more economical. The study aimed to establish the cause of reduced gold extraction in a Wits tailings concentrate followed by the establishment of a hydrometallurgy process route that improves the gold extraction. The aim of the research was achieved through a process mineralogy study of a typical Wits pyrite concentrate sourced from the DRDGold’s Ergo flotation plant. Data from the process mineralogy study was then interpreted to develop a test work program that aimed to improve the gold extraction from Wits pyrite concentrate. The results from the study showed that gold in Wits tailings appears predominantly by way of native gold which can easily leach with cyanide, with a negligible amount of electrum. The locking and reactive gangue minerals in the form of iron sulphides pyrite and pyrrhotite were noted to restrict cyanide access to the gold particle. Furthermore these minerals tend to partially dissolve during cyanidation in an alkaline medium. Three options identified to improve gold extraction included the passivation of iron sulphide mineral facades using an arrangement of pre-oxidation, lead nitrate addition to improve leaching kinetics and reduce cyanide consumption, and leaching at elevated dissolved O₂ concentrations with excess cyanide addition. The application of pre-oxidation (lime + air) with increased dissolved oxygen (DO) and cyanide (CN- ), increased gold extraction to 77% at a decreased retention time of 18 hours, which is 17% higher than gold extraction achieved during cyanidation of the same resource at DRDGold ERGO plant. The addition of lead nitrate did not improve gold extraction but was beneficial in reducing cyanide consumption by 0.13 kg/t.