Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (ETDs)

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A Comparative Study of the Efficiencies of Vertical Bracing Practices
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-11) Saunders, Shawn Wayne Valintino; Elvin, Alex
The efficiencies of cross sections and configurations applied to vertical bracing are investigated by evaluating reference configurations (RCs), composed of cross braced circular hollow section (CHS) members, against comparative configurations (CCs), consisting of cross-braced Angle members, and single-CHS members. The metrics used to evaluate efficiencies were mass, raw materials costs, and fabrication and erection costs. CCs were found to be more efficient than RCs for most analysed cases, metric and configuration dependent. The following results were found: i. Mass metric a. Crossed-Angle more efficient in 79% of analysed cases. b. Single CHS more efficient in 87% of analysed cases. ii. Raw materials costs metric a. Crossed-Angle more efficient in 92% of analysed cases b. Single CHS more efficient in 88% of analysed cases iii. Fabrication and erection costs metric a. Crossed-Angle more efficient in 90.4% of analysed cases b. Single CHS more efficient in 88.5% of analysed cases Inversions of the efficiency parameter findings, with RCs more efficient than CCs, were observed when: i. RC CHS member slenderness ratios were less than 80-90. ii. CC design loads were greater than 225 kN, 1200 kN and 1500 kN for mass, raw materials and total cost efficiency metrics, respectively
Alternative Tenure Options as a Stepping Stone for Urban Land Reform: The Case of Kwa Mai Mai Muthi Market
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Mnguni, Thobeka; Maina, Miriam M.
This research uses qualitative methods to investigate the case of the Kwa Mai Mai muthi market located in the central business district of Johannesburg where over the decades informal traders have converted their trading units into residential homes. This case is used to respond to the research question, ‘To what extent is taking administrative action to improve land tenure by offering communities rights to occupy urban land feasible and necessary for advancing the urban land reform agenda?.’ The research acknowledges that popular approaches to improving tenure by converting insecure tenure rights to statutory ownership through the Deeds office has had limited success and resulted in efficiencies due to the high costs and the resources intensive nature of this approach. Instead, the research recommends a necessary transition to improving tenure in innovative, context-specific ways that work to build on existing settlements through taking low-cost and low LOE administrative action.
A bathhouse in Cyrildene - a phenomenological approach to the design of a bathhouse in Johannesburg
(2021) Kow, Alan
In 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.
Change the GOAL: Promoting sports & community engagement through the integration of FNB Stadium
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Ramsarup, Shreya; Kirkman, Deborah
South Africa has invested many billions of rands to build and renovate stadiums. This investment has some advantages, such as fostering national pride and boosting political and economic agendas. However, the benefit to the ordinary citizen is exaggerated. This is evident at the FNB Stadium, while used for elite sport, majority of the Soweto community do not come to the stadium. To the local community it a symbol of something beyond their lived worlds. Against this context my project explored how the FNB stadium can become a sport and cultural led space that locates local people at the center of its use identity. I explored the design of the stadium precinct as a mixed-use space with a focus on sport and football development, allowing opportunities for more people to better connect and understand what the stadium has to offer. This re-imagining of FNB as a stadium fostering broader community aims helps to break the pattern of the stadium as an alienated icon within this historically disadvantaged community.
Control of Aerial Manipulators for Contact Inspection
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Matosse, James; Kuchwa-Dube, Chioniso
Aerial manipulators are flying robotic systems that consist of a multi-rotor vehicle tailored with one or more manipulators. These systems are promising for contact inspection of chemical plants, boilers, tunnels and chimneys without human intervention. They require sophisticated control algorithms for control and stabilisation of complex varying dynamics due to the flying, manipulating and interacting with the environment. The dynamics of an aerial manipulator are treated as two subsystems, the quadrotor and the manipulator. The quadrotor dynamics are extracted through the Newton-Euler algorithm using quaternion-based orientation instead of Euler angles. The manipulator dynamics are extracted using the recursive Newton-Euler equations for purposes of handling the floating-base effect. A classic impedance control is a widely used effective control for contact force tracking but it requires the location of the environment relative to the end-effector and the environmental stiffness to be known precisely, and mostly- the desired force as a constant. In contact inspection without human intervention, the environmental properties (geometrical and mechanical) are uncertain, causing the classic impedance control method to be less effective. Presented in this study are: an adaptive variable impedance control (AVIC) for force tracking combined with the integral linear quadratic regulator (LQR) for the quadrotor and proportional-derivative (PD) for the manipulator’s navigation control. AVIC has the capability to counteract for environmental uncertainties by varying the impedance parameter (damping coefficient) on-line corresponding to the force tracking error. This control has been utilised effectively in industrial robot manipulators for a stable force tracking performance. So far in the literature, AVIC together with integral LQR and PD controllers have not been applied to aerial manipulators as a control strategy. Since the aerial manipulator is a coupled system, a linearisation process was performed on the quadrotor dynamics coupled with the manipulator to achieve a fair approximation of the non-linear model. This study has improved force tracking abilities through the implementation of AVIC that allows the aerial manipulator to achieve a desired contact force on the inspected contour while the quadrotor remains in a stable position. Finally, the developed system was simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK program and the attained results proved the effectiveness of the strategy in comparison to the classic impedance control.
Desire Lines: Addressing the Pedestrian and their Access to the Jukskei River Through Public Interest Design
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Smuts, Robyn; Felix, Sandra
In this thesis, the propinquity of pockets defined between urban schemes of Dainfern and Diepsloot is explored. As well as the overlap zones of various networks of urban goers. The possibility of developing the prospective benefits of these pockets will be outlined through the principles of public interest design (PIB), placemaking, and adventure playgrounds. This reinforces the ideals of ‘rights to the city’ and creates a feeling of citizenship by focusing on the commonalities of the urban goers. To create a community between otherwise divided groups. The research methodology is site and context-centred, revealing where conflicts may lie, and opportunities sourced. Doing this through the exploration of the materiality and features of the Jukskei River site, and the desire line paths that weave through it. The proposed design develops a productive, shared space that instigates common curiosity and skill development through addressing the propinquity of various urban goers and utilizing the rubble and waste that has accumulated on the site.
Developing of a parametrically resonw1t vibrating screen, modelling, simulation and dynamic testing
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-07) Mohanlal, Mishal; Li, Kuinian
A novel coupled spring pendulum vibrating screen is proposed with the goal of developing efficient screening using parametric resonance. A simple spring pendulum is initially studied to provide the basis of the dissertation. The theoretical model of the proposed vibrating screen is developed using Lagrangian mechanics which includes damping and generalized forces. Two derivations of the vibrating screen are proposed, the first being a 4DOF (degree of freedom) system and the second being a 3DOF system. The 3DOF system is found to present better numerical stability and is thus utilized for the study. It is shown that the 3DOF system is comparable to the simple spring pendulum for the case where initial conditions are applied to similar coordinates. The proposed vibrating screen presents motion which is not indicative of traditional vibrating screens. It is found that a system where attributes are sized for parametric resonance requires far smaller excitation forces to achieve higher accelerations and displacements compared to traditional vibrating screens. The proposed vibrating screen is an unfeasible design due to the large displacements; high foundation loads and limitations on mechanical components. Discrete element method (DEM) simulations of the proposed vibrating screen are performed to study the efficiency with varying inclinations of the mesh deck. The results are compared to a linear motion vibrating screen. The proposed screen requires far less energy compared to traditional vibrating screens and achieves higher efficiencies with larger deck inclinations. The derived differential equations are verified by experimental testing using free vibrations. The numerical simulations and experimental tests present a good correlation. Signal processing is implemented to compare the natural frequencies from the experimental testing and numerical simulations, the results present a good correlation.
Eco-vital[c]ity: Ecological Regeneration of the Robinson Deep Landfill through Microclimate Superstructures and Phytoremediation
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Leong, Keilun; Goncalves, Kevin
Landfills are essential to our society for waste disposal. However, they have many negative impacts due to contaminants that are released, polluting the air and ground as leachate seeps into the soil and nearby water sources, affecting the health of surrounding communities and the environment. This research report aims to re-naturalize and repair the Robinson Deep Landfill, which bears scars of exploitative industrial use, and attempts to rehabilitate the environment while mitigating the effects on the community. This will be achieved through phytoremediation techniques, using Sunflowers grown in Hydroponic farms, housed within greenhouses. The design for these facilities will consist of superstructures, greenhouses, and a waste-to-energy plant (incinerator) within a closed loop system. Additionally, the report seeks to generate economic opportunities that promote tourism, entertainment, and education through a recreational centre which will incorporate Biophilic Design and Parametricism to create a public space that will be beneficial to the community.
Evaluation and algorithmic adaptation of brain state control through audio entertainment
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-12) Cassim, Muhammed Rashaad; Rubin, David; Pantanowitz, Adam
This dissertation presents the design and evaluation of a system that can alter the dominant brain state of participants through audio entrainment. The ‘rch broadly aimed to identify the possible improvements of a dynamic entrainment stimulus when compared to a set entrainment stimulus. The dynamic entrainment stimulus was controlled by a Q-Learning (QL) model. The experiment sought to build on previous research by implementing existing entrainment methods in Virtual Reality and dynamically optimising the entrainment stimulus. The neurological effects of the stimuli were evaluated by analysing electroencephalogram measurements. It was found that a set 24 Hz entrainment stimulus increased the power of Beta band brain waves relative to a control condition. Further, contrary to existing research, it was found that the entrainment stimulus did not have a notable effect on brainwave connectivity at the entrainment frequency. The study subsequently evaluated if the QL agent could learn to optimise the entrainment stimulus. The agent was allowed to switch between an 18 and 24 Hz entrainment stimulus and succeeded in learning an optimised policy. The QL driven stimulus yielded results that generally exhibited the same characteristics as the set entrainment stimulus when using power and connectivity analysis methods. Furthermore, the power analysis indicated that the QL driven stimulus was able to affect a broader range of frequencies within the targeted band. The QL driven stimulus, additionally, resulted in higher meta-analysis metric values in some aspects. These factors indicate that it was able to have a more consistent impact on targeted brain waves. Lastly, results from participants whose stimulus was controlled by a QL driven stimulus using optimal actions indicated that the optimised actions created a more sustained increase in Beta band activity when compared to any other results, indicating the impact of the optimised policy learned.
Exploring the effect of spatial planning in delivering access to socio-economic opportunities to address spatial inequality - The case of the Tswaing Mega Project and the Marikana-Soutpan community
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Malope, Kgomotso Mirriam; Izar, Priscila
South Africa is challenged by persistent spatial inequality inherited from previous regimes, which contributes to various socio-economic challenges and hinders the sustainable development of urban areas. Consequently, poverty tends to be more severe in previously marginalised areas where poor residents, the majority of them being black, still suffer from a lack of proximity to adequate socio-economic opportunities (Harrison & Todes, 2013). Several urban and spatial policies have been adopted and implemented, but spatial fragmentation persists. The Department of Human Settlements proposed adopting Mega Projects to develop large-scale, new housing projects integrated with infrastructure, in greenfield sites which are located in urban peripheries. Mega Projects also aim at attracting private sector investment. However, this strategy has been criticised for disregarding planning ideals of compactness and integration with existing economic centres and job opportunities, and for putting forward plans that lack details (Ballard, 2017; Turok, 2015). Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate how spatial planning and infrastructure investment could be used to promote access to socio-economic opportunities for marginalised people in spatially fragmented urban areas by focusing on the case of the Tswaing Mega-Project in the Marikana-Soutpan community in the periphery of the City of Tshwane. Unlike other Mega Projects designed on vacant land, the Tswaing Mega Project covers an already existing informal area, the Marikana-Soutpan informal settlement. Qualitative research methods informed the research, drawing from three types of primary and secondary data: (1) qualitative interviews, (2) documentation review and (3) participant observation. Research findings describe how the Tswaing Mega Project plan, launched in 2015, experienced delays and was eventually cancelled, with the adoption of the Upgrading of Informal Settlement Programme (UISP) in October 2022. Additionally, the long waiting period for government intervention and the lack of transparency from the government have proven to worsen the state of marginalisation for the Marikana-Soutpan Community. At the completion of this research project, the Marikana-Soutpan community is in for another, possibly long, waiting period as the UISP initiates. Therefore, this research speaks to the analysis that is critical of Mega Projects for offering poorly detailed project plans, lacking transparency, and lacking consideration of the complexities of human settlement development. Based on the findings, it is argued that the now-revoked Tswaing Mega Project has contributed to the further marginalisation of the Marikana-Soutpan community.
Future Proofing Architecture: Intelligent design processes of an AI-Innovation center in Newtown
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Wilson, Liam Robin; Triana-Martinez, Gustavo
In the ever-evolving realm of architecture, tools used by architects and related professionals have transitioned from rudimentary sketches to sophisticated digital simulations. Today, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands to redefine this lineage of tools, offering both challenges and opportunities. This thesis delves into AI’s transformative potential in architectural design processes specifically within a South African context, exploring its influence from conceptualization to the final design stages. Through a systematic methodology, the research herein investigates and compares the conventional architectural design stages, the current state of AI and its practical applications in architecture. I have carefully selected a handful of AI-driven software tools that have been instrumental in forging a generative design process. Central to this exploration, is the design of an AI Innovation Centre for Witwatersrand University in Newtown, Johannesburg. This Centre is not just a building but a manifestation of my core argument: that AI, when understood as a tool in the architect’s evolving toolkit, can profoundly influence design outcomes in a manner that far outreaches human capabilities. This study further importantly addresses the ethical implications of AI in architecture, advocating for a collaborative approach that not only complements human expertise, but that illustrates the pitfalls and certain biases inherent to AI. Through this comprehensive exploration, this thesis underscores the need for architectural spaces to evolve in response to AI-driven operational changes, while ensuring designs remain rooted in human-centric principles.
Heirloom between the tracks— Revealing hybrid landscapes of rest and reflection at Langlaagte Cemetery
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Skudder, Emma Catherine; Hart, Brendan
Situated in a sea of grass alongside the Johannesburg railway lines, lie rows of graves lost in an overgrown landscape. Some marked, some unmarked, all invisible to the passer-by. This landscape is rooted between multi-cultural communities with a heritage dating back to the origins of Johannesburg. Paarlshoop, Langlaagte-North, Mayfair-West and Brixton border its edges, which establishes the core of this research— the site. To understand the intricacies of the site, is to understand the project intent. Where there are graves, there is abandoned heritage, lost memory and forgotten stories. Where there are railway buildings, there is existing community claim to be enriched. Where there are grasses, shrubbery, and treelines there is connection to agricultural pasts. Heirloom between the tracks, bridges the urban lifeways of the site with a heritage-focussed centre weaving together old and new, facilitating the surrounding community and providing a space for memory. With a contextual, history-driven, and postcolonial lens, the beacon of this thesis was using methods of remembrance, acknowledging the site’s unavoidable histories, tying back into the surrounding community through revealing, engaging, and re-inscribing. Spaces of commemoration and recreational landscapes, stitch new narratives onto the site for a multifunctional, small-scale heritage hub. This hub ties together archiving, storytelling and making spaces, with spaces of skills-development and contextually functional service provision. By establishing this site-centred facility, micro-industry, heritage, and identity are re-rooted and fed back into its surrounds, nurturing the existing conditions upon which they reside, establishing an architectural tapestry, a quilt, an heirloom.
In the Era of Global Shocks: A Needs Inquiry on State Provided Housing During and After the Covid-19 Pandemic
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Mogale, Lebogang Lucia; Klug, Neil
South Africa, like many countries of the South is confronted by a housing crisis, especially in Metropolitan areas. This is because Metropolitan areas are experiencing rapid population growth and, in the process, creating a demand for low-income housing. The state-provided low-income housing, implemented as a remedial intervention, has faced spatial, procedural, and administrative scrutiny, among others. Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought housing and human settlements into the spotlight, raising both opportunities and challenges with the resilience of state-provided low income housing. The study has used the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic to emphasize and make apparent the various types of housing and settlement needs that should be prioritised to potentially mitigate the impact of future global shocks such as pandemics. Global shocks trigger resilience thinking that is linked to spatial attributes that can potentially reduce and mitigate the impact of disasters and risks. This indicates an opportunity of supporting ‘resilience thinking’ with existing social realities. The study speaks to this gap by diving deep into theoretical discourses of housing needs and practical needs as determined by participants perceptions. This was done by adopting a case study design that follows Wilhelm Dilthey's philosophy of hermeneutics. The Case Study context used was Palm Ridge extension 10 where Breaking New Ground Housing and Military Veteran houses were allocated in November 2019. Interviews were conducted with both municipal officials and beneficiaries of subsidised housing to inquire in-depth about their considerations of housing needs and how they can be met. The findings of the study indicate that there is a correlation between what is perceived as housing needs during the pandemic and some principles of resilience thinking. It identifies two types of housing needs necessary for mitigation, coping, and recovery from the Covid 19 pandemic. The needs identified are technical housing needs which are concerned with the physical structure of a house and settlement, and soft dimensional housing needs which are more symbolic of the relationship residents have with their houses and the overall neighbourhood. Moreover, the study emphasises that the translation of housing needs from theory to practice is to a certain degree challenged by institutional deficiencies. Although state-provided housing is challenged, it has proven a resilient measure in the era of the pandemic when housing insecurities were on the rise. Neighbourhoods like Palm Ridge can potentially adopt evolutionary and transformative resilience due to their flexible nature to cater to changing needs. Therefore, it is apparent that needs inquiry is a complex issue that can be leveraged to stimulate the adoption and development of bottom-up and collaborative responses to shock mitigation.
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, Sandra
Indigenous 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.
Melville strip[ped]: Creating a School of Arts to rejuvenate 7th Street
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Görner, Sebastian; Daskalakos, Christos
This research report is focused on the suburb of Melville, Johannesburg. The issue of failing social and economic systems is defined and a new intervention is proposed. This intervention is a mixed-use development containing a School of Arts, Retail Spaces and Apartment Units. The report covers precedents and case studies for the proposed interventions as well as similar design principles and areas within South Africa and international examples. As the site on 7th Street in Melville is the center point of this report, an in-depth analysis has been done to determine all aspects that influenced the design of the intervention. The design process is directly linked to the research findings, precedents and site analysis. After this the design development is documented. The final outcome of the research report is a completed building set within Melville's 7th Street as a method to turn the failing economy around and to bring the community back together.
Model Propagation for High-Parallelism in Data Compression
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Lin, Shaw Chian; Cheng, Ling
Recent data compression research focuses on the parallelisation of existing algorithms (LZ77, BZIP2 etc.) by exploiting their inherent parallelism. Little work has been performed on parallelising highly sequential algorithms, whose slow compression speeds would benefit the most from parallelism. This dissertation presents a generalised parallelisation approach that can be potentially adopted by any compression algorithms, with model sequentiality in mind. The scheme presents a novel divide-and-conquer approach when dividing the data stream into smaller data blocks for parallelisation. The scheme, branching propagation, is implemented with prediction by partial matching (PPM), an algorithm of the statistical-modelling family known for their serial nature, which is shown to suffer from compression ratio increases when parallelised. A speedup of 5.2-7x has been achieved at 16 threads, with at most a 6.5% increase in size relative to serial performance, while the conventional approach showed up to a 7.5x speedup with an 8.0% increase. The branching propagation approach has been shown to offer better compression ratios over conventional approaches with increasing parallelism (a difference of 11% increase at 256 threads), albeit at slightly slower speeds. To quantify the speedup over ratio penalty, an alternate metric called speedup-to-ratio increase (SRI) is used. This shows that when serial dependency is maintained, branching propagation is superior in standard configurations, which offers substantial speed while minimising the compression ratio penalty relative to the speedup. However, at lower serial dependency, the conventional approach is generally preferable, with 9-16x speedup per 1% increase in compression ratio at maximal speed compared to branching propagation’s 6-13x speedup per 1%.
Pedestrian in King: To what extent is the City of Windhoek's Vision 2032 to pedestrianise part of Independence Avenue successfully bringing value to the street?
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-11) Muzwembiri, Brain Mapato; Goncalves`, Kevin
A street, which the researcher regards as a public space, should offer the pedestrian an environment that is safe to walk, comfortable, and encourages social interaction. Global North and Global South cities have prioritised cars in the street. The conflict between cars and pedestrians has resulted in less pedestrian infrastructure, minimal pedestrian activities, and the pedestrians needing to be more prioritised. Theories and concepts such as livable streets, shared streets, or fully pedestrian-only streets have attempted to regain the street from cars and prioritize the pedestrian. In Namibia, the City of Windhoek has proposed pedestrianizing Independence Avenue in the city’s downtown area. From a scholar’s perspective, the present research investigates the potential sociocultural, transport, economic, environmental (built and climatic) successes and pitfalls of pedestrianizing Independence Avenue.
Provision of personal protective equipment and sanitary facilities to female construction site workers
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Nene, Simphiwe; Ozumba, Obinna; Sunjika, Bernadette
The study was based on an aspect of social justice, namely gender equality in the workplace for the female workers who work on construction sites. The area covered in this study was the health and safety of women in construction in the form of the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitary facilities to female workers. This specific focus is largely overlooked. The study explored, female workers’ (end-user) perceptions and experiences on the provisions of sanitary and personal protective equipment through a qualitative approach. The main source of data collection was through semi-structured interviews and further supported with site observations in order to triangulate the interview responses. The results of the study found that the availability of PPE for females in the construction industry has improved as women are provided with female size PPE. However, quality and advanced gender sensitive PPE still needs attention. Sanitary facilities at established sites are generally up to standard. However, female workers still share these facilities with their male counter parts. Sanitary facilities at unestablished sites still need attention.
Revitalizing the vintage: Supporting novel ways of living for older adults in Galicia, Spain
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Vila, Sabela Rey; Gantner, Garret
The abandonment of rural areas has been an issue of concern for several decades in Galicia. Past endeavours to revive abandoned villages have primarily concentrated on strategies such as reforestation, museumification, tourism, and resettlement. However, as far as the research shows, none of these approaches have tackled root causes or focused on assisting the remaining populations, who are primarily elderly individuals. To fill this gap, this thesis draws on a range of different themes including the spatial organization of villages, the abandonment of Galician villages and its causal factors, various approaches to revitalizing abandoned villages, the needs of elderly people, as well as the architecture, landscape and imaginaries of Galician culture. For the design of typologically varied buildings, the study of heritage and conservation theories, and theories on elderly care were explored. Specific design requisites for the elderly were considered, and an examination of the winemaking process also contributed to the research. Moreover, substantial research was dedicated to locating an appropriate site conforming to the requirements of the proposed new masterplan for an abandoned village. These efforts culminated in using an existing abandoned village to devise a comprehensive new masterplan. This plan encompasses all essential elements required to restore it sustainably, while concurrently offering support to the elderly population. Additionally, it entails further detailed development of facilities such as an elderly day-care centre, residential units, and the establishment of a winery facility.
Shopping Centres in South Africa: Urbanism Gets the Cold Shoulder. The reimagining of introverted shopping centres into responsive urban environments through design: the case of Menlyn Park Shopping Centre
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-02) Mentz, Reuben Frederick; Goncalves`, Kevin
Shopping malls have nestled themselves into the urban fabric of cities, more specifically the suburban fabric, creating large non-interactive, introverted artifacts geared towards consumption and the maximisation of profits. These artifacts act as exclusive clubs where the membership requirements are money and a private vehicle. Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, a regional shopping mall neatly placed between three major regional roads and a national highway in the east of Pretoria, is no different. The mall, or rather the artifact, violates all principles of Responsive Environments and transforming the citizens of the city into customers. The purpose of this research is to explore ways to transform the introverted Menlyn Park Shopping Centre into a more responsive urban environment, an environment that does not turn its back on citizens, but rather welcomes interaction and variety. This overall objective is achieved by creating a research framework in order to create understanding of the nature of shopping malls in general, how they came to be, their functioning and the different types we encounter. An expert in the field of shopping mall design was also consulted, in order to provide some perspective on the future of malls and element to consider. This is followed by an analysis of the Menlyn Park Shopping Centre itself, unpacking the different elements and how they relate to principles of responsive urban environments. A conclusion is reached through an urban design framework, which proposes an alternative design for the shopping mall satisfying the principles of responsive environments.

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