ETD Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/104


Please note: Digitised content is made available at the best possible quality range, taking into consideration file size and the condition of the original item. These restrictions may sometimes affect the quality of the final published item. For queries regarding content of ETD collection please contact IR specialists by email : IR specialists or Tel : 011 717 4652 / 1954

Follow the link below for important information about Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Library Guide about ETD

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Architecture, Modern--21st century

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Tech[no]logical Space:
    (2019) Greenberg, Stephanie
    Technology has been an underpinning determinant that has perpetuated society’s cycle of disruption, disrupting the typical logic surrounding the use and perception of space. The reduction of physical spatial barriers, caused by the full enablement of digital culture and technology, has diminished both physical and social interactions. This has resulted in local fragmentation and a global connection . It has also caused acceleration in the temporal dimension, resulting in a ‘sped-up’ lifestyle. These forms of acceleration and propagation of the virtual realm have not only compressed the time in which we perceive reality but have also disrupted society’s normative understanding of space. This new propagation of space, along with the advancement of disruptive technology, has propelled architecture into a new realm of experimentalism; thereby, advocating for the enablement and translation of the disruption caused by both digital and augmented culture into architecture. Situated in and focusing on Rosebank, this thesis will explore architecture’s role as a mediator for disruptive technologies. The building will respond to the spatial transformation and societal disconnection created by ‘disruptive’ technologies through the utilisation of nature and the transformation of speculated ‘left-over-space’. Thus, through the demolition and design intervention of an existing parking structure, it will propose a co-sharing work pavilion. The design intends to facilitate the socialisation and collaboration of the mobile workforce with the natural environment. Through the emphasis of the natural world, the social world and the human body, the building will explore new spatial perceptions. These perceptions will no longer be centred around the physical aspect of space, but instead on human experience. Society’s complete immersion of technology into everyday practice, has made its implications unavoidable. Therefore, it is continuously changing the way society interacts with each other, nature and the built environments. The pervasive nature of technology encourages architects to start designing in anticipation of the future. As a platform for the disruption caused by technological innovation, the design and discourse act as respondents and enablers of technology. They also use nature as a method to disturb the disruption caused by technological innovation - through its ability to restore diminished relationships between society, nature and technology. This, therefore, speculates on an alternative environment and future for architecture in the workforce and, to a greater extent, society.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Insertion: the revitalizationof a small town through the introduction of a new landuse
    (2018) Mnyaka, Anele
    The formation of small towns in South Africa was a result of the spread of colonialism. Indeed, these towns were conceived for a minority of settlers and set up in the image of British or English towns. Their logic has always been that they would be service towns and most of them have remained as such servicing the rural hinterland. The advent of democracy has allowed for fluid migration patterns creating linkages between urban and rural areas opening these towns to a new demographic. The prompt for endeavoring in such research stems from personal experience and noticing how small towns in the Eastern Cape are deteriorating and losing their strength as service centers which offer jobs, facilities, amenities and focal points from which developments spread to the greater region. The purpose of this research is to conceive a strategy to revitalize the town of Port St Johns by capitalizing on the intense flow of people, goods, capital (both public and private), services and information taking place between urban and rural areas (Ministry of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, 2014). The town of Port St Johns finds itself in the periphery of the Eastern Cape Province as an ‘end of the road’ town. It services over 130 villages most of which are rife with poverty. Its main economic drivers are the tourism and farming sector with tourism being more dominant. As a result of this, it experiences huge population influxes at different periods of the year from people coming in to buy groceries at the end of the month to holiday makers filling up the town and its beaches during the end-of-the-year holiday period. This presents an opportunity to capitalize on these fluctuations but they are often met with poor infrastructure, particularly that of education and accommodation. Although the tourism sector is the major economy of the town it is undeniably stagnant, a situation further exacerbated by weak partnerships between local government and non-governmental institutions. Efforts to revitalize the town must then begin at the regional scale by linking strategic and sectoral initiatives between functional geographic areas (Port St Johns Master Plan). Value chains must be developed between various economic sectors. Research on the demographic makeup of the area shows it to have a large young and unskilled population. Up-skilling the large youth resource initially in the sectors that are strongest in the region must be rigorous. An institution of higher learning dedicated to farming, tourism and hospitality could help aid this as it would anchor the population throughout the year and residences developed could then be used to accommodate holiday makers during the holiday period when a majority of tourists visit the area
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item