3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item [Infra] structuring connectivity: a communal water-frame on the Jukskei River(2020) Marais, PierreHow can an infra-architecture response mitigate a more connective environment between our built and natural landscapes? The world is running out of quintessential resources. Fresh water sources are at their most critical state and are estimated to be depleted within the next 30-40 years if action is not taken (Harvey,2018). South Africa is not exempt from this morbid future. Rapid non-sustainable developments, failing infra-structures and lack of knowledge act as the primary mitigators for environmental destruction. This can be witnessed along the entirety of the Jukskei river. This calls for a more systematic architecture that operates through an interdependent network between the built and natural environment. The situation calls for a more systematic architecture that operates holistically between landscape, infra-structure and architecture. The vision is thus; to develop a design proposal that maintains existing ecologies for future generations while supporting current amenities. Methodologically, this thesis uses a case study to conduct research for the design process. The inquiry revisits the concept of Supersurface, a term that was introduced by Superstudio in the 70s. The study looks at the relevance of the Supersurface in the current context of the Jukskei river, and reinterprets the holistic approach for the larger Johannesburg site. The appropriateness of the scheme will be ‘tested’ in the form of a filtration plant and waterpark. In order to create a stable and continuous relationship between the complexities of the built and natural environments, a composite, but connective, venture is required: the infra-architectureItem Mobility as agency: perspectives from South Africa, China, and the United States(2020) Bergman, ZinetteWe must develop more sustainable ways to be mobile, yet four main hurdles challenge sustainable mobility. The first is the need for individuals and groups to adopt the fundamentally different attitudes, values, and norms upon which sustainable mobility are premised. The second is the reticence to abandon infrastructures and industries that are clearly unsustainable. The third is about the limits imposed by mono-focal mobility approaches that tend to favour either socio-technical or psychosocial interventions. The fourth is the lack of integration, which prevents the creation of an interdependent mobility system that associates psychosocial, sociocultural, and technological dimensions that would give rise to more sustainable mobility practices. The purpose of this research is to explore the potential contribution psychology can make to developing sustainable mobility solutions that transcend some of these limitations. Psychology has played an important role in addressing societal challenges for many decades. The field has at its disposal extensive knowledge about individuals and their practices, and given that individual practices are the defining feature of mobility, the field is ideally positioned to contribute to sustainable mobility. Our ability to be mobile serves as one of the primary functions through which we realise our personal, professional, and social goals. Thus, our potential as agents in the world is deeply connected to our ability to be mobile. Accordingly, there exists a fundamental connection between personal agency and individual mobility practices. This research exploits this connection by using Albert Bandura’s concept of personal agency and his Model of Triadic Reciprocal Causation to develop a framework known as ‘mobility as agency’. This framework conceptualises different modes of agency (individual, proxy, and collective) as well as the potential of different types of environments (selected, imposed, or constructed) to facilitate or constrain agentive action in relation to mobility intentions and desired outcomes in order to study mobility practices as dynamic and interdependent agentive practices. Conceptualising and studying the interdependence between different psychosocial dimensions and socio-structural environments that define mobility practices in different contexts offers the opportunity to systematically examine the limitations of current sustainable mobility approaches and to explore how these limitations could be overcome. Using a comparative case study approach, mobility as agency is applied empirically in three research sites to study the mobility practices of car users in regions without developed passenger trains in the United States (US), regular train users in Beijing, China, and Metrorail commuters in the Western Cape of South Africa. A mixed methods approach known as Hermeneutic Content Analysis is used to study how agency unfolds in individual mobility practices. The analyses identify various agentive pathways, which function differentially, and which are systematically connected to different environmental dimensions, thereby illustrating how mobility as agency is inherently psychosocial and functionally dependent on technical and socio-structural environmental dimensions. The argument for a more nuanced understanding of agency as distinct and systematic patterns of reciprocal interactions is based on empirically systematising distinct patterns of reciprocal interaction between preferences and behaviours in relation to specific contextual and cultural dynamics of mobility environments. To date, most studies on personal agency focus on individual agency especially in relation to self-efficacy. By transcending conventional unidirectional concepts of agency, this research contributes a framework that expands personal agency in line with the Model of Triadic Reciprocal Causation to include the reciprocal interactions between different psychosocial dimensions and socio-structural environments. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the field of sustainable mobility an approach that addresses some of the limitations imposed by focusing on either technical and socio-structural, or psychosocial interventions. Using mobility as agency to examine the interdependencies and conditionalities of mobility practices, this research intends to contribute to advancing psychological research on the dynamic reciprocal relationship between individuals, culture, and environment. In doing so, it proposes a culture-sensitive and context-specific approach to studying sustainable mobilityItem The interpretation of the green economy concept within two major banks in South Africa(2020) Naude, RuanGlobally an unprecedented challenge, in terms of complexity and extent, is facing us all — irrespective of whether some continue to deny its very existence (McCright & Dunlap, 2011). This challenge is the ever-increasing levels of unsustainable resource use leading to ecological degradation and destruction, biodiversity loss and climate change (Hamilton et al., 2015). A concept that has been used to describe the epoch (not the era) in which we find ourselves is that of the Anthropocene (Crutzen, 2006). It has been argued that this epochal moment requires a systemic response in terms of our thinking and practice in all domains of human activity and interaction (Berkhout, 2014) — including but not limited to those of education, work and the interaction between the two. This study, which utilised a case study approach, examined how two major banks in South Africa were interpreting the green economy. In order to analyse the interpretation of the green economy within the two banks, a typology developed by Peter Ferguson which classifies green economy discourses on a continuum from weak green economy discourses to strong green economy discourses, was utilised (2015). The study also examined the interplay between higher education, and specifically the discipline of banking and economics, as banking still employs large numbers of commerce graduates. It illustrated that there were dynamics operational in both domains, banking and economics, that were potentially inhibiting a substantive socio-environmental economic transformation. Furthermore, it showed that the interaction between the two domains is complex; it is problematic to assume a clear and simple link can be established between the two.Item Adaptability of participatory backcasting to e-backcasting for inclusive sustainable city visioning for African cities: a prototyped study Of Abuja, Nigeria(2019-07) Achuenu, Ache StellaThe implementation process of the envisioned future for Abuja as the capital city of Nigeria since 1975 was ill-fated from the start, mainly due to the pattern of exclusion in the governance style, as well as the rigid execution guided by a modernist-inspired master-plan. The resultant sustainability challenges facing the city today include escalating segregation among its rich and poor residents, a hostile relationship between residents and city-administration and a stubborn indifference to the city’s ecological footprint. Provoked by these challenges, this study applied action-research to guide the prototyping of e-backcasting for sustainable city transitioning for Abuja over the next 50-years, with the key focus on participation and inclusivity. The potential of e-backcasting as a participation enhancement-tool was explored by bridging e-governance and conventional backcasting (face-to-face) while leveraging the rapidly maturing Web 2.0 socio-media tools. The process involved four iterative steps which entailed the application of four social-media tools (e-mails, Facebook, blogs and WhatsApp). Of the 644 possible participants initially contacted, 302 participants consented (26 on email, 58 on Facebook, 9 on blogs and 209 on WhatsApp) and remained engaged across all four iterations. Of these, 34 participants were deemed to be experts while 268 participants were deemed to be common citizens. 147 of the 302 participants reported that they were generally satisfied with their participation experience and felt that the approach would be useful for inclusive city-planning in Nigeria especially in facilitating responsive pathways for sustainable city transitioning. In contrast, 59 participants reported dissatisfaction in their experience with the process while 96 participants reported an undetermined/neutral experience. The key inadequacies with the recruitment, participation and inclusivity mainly related to time and technology access, language and low-familiarity with the process and subject-matter of the study. The study recommends further prototyping within Abuja’s e-Governance platform in order to allow for additional evaluation and establishment of institutional capacity for full implementation. In addition, the study concludes that the initial process of reaching out for awareness-raising and recruitment of participants constitutes the most critical stage towards ensuring participation and inclusivity.Item Afrofuturist to bantutopian cities: towards an aesthetics of sustainable African cities(2019) Mlati, Michelle NhlamuloIn my thesis I explore the aesthetics of sustainable African cities through the lens of Afrofuturism as an inclusive design approach. It explores this through studio-based research in site specific contexts of Joburg, Dunusa (which means to bend over in Zulu) to cocreate an embodied culture of sustainability using solar power as central technology of interest. Through various interventions such as guerilla gardening and performing as an informal solar ‘trader’ as an active participant of the city, I question sustainable city paradigms of ‘green’ and ‘smart’ cities that are exclusive to black inhabitants in the inner city of Joburg and spatially explore how they can be inclusive amongst the practices of urban African communities through interventions that suggest a new urban language. Though this critical spatial practice, these interventions manifest a relational aesthetics of sustainability namely Bantutopianism. Through Bantutopianism we challenge Afrofuturism’s inability to adequately deal with the praxis of utopianisms engaged with true lived black vernacular realities in urban space to decipher the relation between humans and non-humans alike. This is in the context of informal trading spaces in African cities such as Dunusa. It explores an ethics of relationality which seeks to embed an embodied consciousness to sustainability that advances a post anthropocentric view underpinned by the philosophy of Ubuntu. This leads to the production of art for renewable energy infrastructure wired towards climate change mitigation and adaptation with the endeavor to generate earthly-cosmological ontologies that guard our planetary futures. Where energy poverty persists, the right to the city becomes the right to the sun. This research through a visual essay and literary aesthetics illustrates the necessary artefacts and rituals of the future such as those provided by the solar futurhythmachine as a resourceful sustainable architectural tool for devising alternative energy utopias inspired and centered around black cultural life to understand an aesthetics of sustainable African cities.Item The role of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) in regional economic integration in the Southern African development community(2018) Hlongwa, Linda X.H.The regional economic integration is a positive process at work in the world economy, as it acts as an effective vehicle for trade and economic and financial globalization, thereby fostering growth. Regional economic integration is also a reflection of the diversity of economies and their histories, and it is notable that the process follows markedly different patterns across the world. Africa like all other continents, has developed a rational response to the difficulties faced by a continent with many small national markets, challenges of geopolitics and landlocked countries to address these shortcomings. African governments have over the years developed strategies, and from that concluded a very large number of regional integration arrangements, to drive this idea. The Development Finance Institutions (DFI’s) play, a positive and significant role in fostering economic growth and with the impact being stronger in low to medium income countries than in higher income countries. Financial investment has a huge role in the economic growth and in turn economic development. In their nature, DFI’s have an additional role, that of, bridging the gap that arise, as a result of commercial banks not able to finance infrastructural needs (soft and hard), creativity and innovations, that will lead to meaningful regional economic integration. However, it is not clear whether the regional DFI’s are having any specified, significant role in the regional economic integration agenda, hence this research. The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness roles of the DBSA, in the regional economic integration, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This study approach, focuses on three (3) main questions which are aimed at determining the effectiveness of the DBSA’s roles in the regional economic integration. The secondary questions are a supporting instrument to the initial question and the questions are meant to find out about factors hindering the effectiveness of the supporting roles of DBSA in the SADC’s regional economic integration. In endeavoring to determine the structural challenges faced by the DBSA, in the SADC region, the investigations explored the interventions and or measures that would improve the bank’s supporting roles, especially because of its developmental importance in the region. To carry out this exploratory study, the investigation followed a qualitative research approach, as a framework and structured face to face interviews and document analysis were also used. Almost all respondents sighted that the major roles of the DBSA in the regional economic integration in SADC to often be associated with resource mobilization and financing of regional infrastructures in SADC, identification of areas for cooperation to facilitate the economic development of SADC and influencing policy development through research and information exchange and sharing. Most of the interviewees, emphasized that the DBSA, has done extremely well in providing both technical and financial support to the SADC in their endeavor to facilitate for the regional economic integration. Simultaneously, most interviewees agreed again, that the, hindrances and or limiting factors to the effectiveness of the supporting roles of DBSA in the SADC’s regional economic integration, have been the inhibiting inherent heterogeneity of SADC countries, inability of the SADC to hold member states accountable and responsible, lack of political will to implement the integration, legal factors, and significant reliance on grants and foreign funding. The results shows that DBSA has been found to be very technically able to deal with support in the regional economic integration. This result suggest that the SADC leadership should consider revising the roles, and the funding model of the DFI’s for the benefit of the regional economic integration agenda.Item Plant-based food innovation and ecological sustainability(2018) Dhupelia, MishaThe purpose of this study was to understand plant-based food innovation and its impact on ecological sustainability. Across a period, the broader impact of humanity’s developmental surge was not considered outside of economic gain. As time extended and resources were bankrupted, scholars had to consider the relationship between social gain and natural capital loss. The balance sheet represented a power bias, as human evolution was all-pervasive. The Rio Earth Summit of 1992 established the foundation for addressing the disparities and positioning sustainable development on an adoption trajectory as a global imperative. These global forces necessitated innovation. Food production and consumption were articulated as a cause for concern and listed on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. Advancement in technology that adopted an inclusive conservation approach could liberate humanity from the clutches of its desire and ramification on global resource depletion. Extensive technological changes in a paradigm would result in a cumulative effect on the constructs of sustainability. Fundamental shifts in the economy, the environment and social domain would likely occur. This study assessed these changes resultant from plant-based food innovation, through a dual case study approach. Plant-based food innovation is considered a viable tenet of the multidimensional food production economy.Item Social entrepreneurship: intentions and barriers to entry in South Africa(2018) Aldridge, MatthewSocial entrepreneurial intentions are influenced by different antecedents to those of general, or opportunity entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyse the effect of previously identified barriers to entry on social entrepreneurial intentions in South Africa. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has been adopted as the theoretical background. Empirical data was collected through online surveys from potential social entrepreneurs in South Africa. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and multiple regression. The results of the factor analysis led to two hypotheses being removed from the study. The remaining three hypotheses that were tested were related to capital, skill and risk related barriers to entry. The findings indicated that there was no significant relationship between these barriers to entry and social entrepreneurial intentions. It was concluded that due to the difference in motivational antecedents, social intentions are not impacted by these barriers which have been identified as relevant barriers for opportunity entrepreneurs.Item Olfactory an atmospheric city experience for the filtration of the environment(2019) Hurst, EmmaThe atmospheric perspective of a city is not only prompted by visual and sensory processes, but is inclusive of the inhabitant’s emotional response to space. It is these responses that evoke sentiments of familiarization, forming the identity of the space. In the same manner in which we identify the scent of perfume, the atmosphere of a city can be identified by its urban materiality. This is influenced by a variety of factors such as location, historical fabric, socio-economical status, and the broader characteristics. Beyond the emotional sentiments of creating space, the earth’s atmosphere is responsible for the supporting of life, as it is the largest shared resource known to humanity. Yet, as the humandriven activities relentlessly spew pollutants into the atmosphere, the paramount role of bestowing such life is under consequential danger. Today, Johannesburg has one of the highest concentrations of air pollutants in the southern hemisphere. According to the World Health Organisation, this has resulted in approximately 10 000 deaths annually (WHO, 2018). Ilanit Chernick, who wrote an article called ‘Gauteng’s toxic time bomb’,explained that “one of the reasons is that Johannesburg lacks adequate urban planning controls, which has led to industrial sources of air pollution in close proximity to densely populated areas” (Chernick, 2015). The research report explores the notion of how atmospheric space relates to human response and the environmental condition, which creates place identity within the context of the leftover industrial spaces of New Doornfontein. It therefore presents the question: how can architecture capture the atmosphere of a place and respond to its environment that has severe implications for human health and life in the city? The strategy in this project is to improve the environmental atmosphere of a district through sustainability to make the control or reduction of air pollution the catalyst for a new urban typology. The intervention is a mechanism to ‘harvest’ the air pollution in the New Doornfontein area and improve the overall condition of the space and health of its inhabitants and visitors. The typology of the intervention relates to a more intangible sense of space, and an atmospheric sensibility of architecture. It will act as a vehicle of knowledge for the user. It will educate the community of air quality and what can be done to improve their immediate environment. This interactive mechanism forms the grounds for discussion on the future of architecture. It highlights the environmental conditions of a space that is not visible and it does this through the experience, manufacturing and filtration of the cities aromas. The aim is to provide a deeper knowledge and experiential understanding of an environmental problem through phenomenological space. Air quality is an important factor when it comes to the quality of life in the city; it has an indirect impact on numerous disciplines, such as: access, accommodation, jobs, general health, food and open space, movement and transport, etc. An atmospheric architecture questions the role of the architect with regards to the sense of intangible space. How can architecture create space that resonates with different individuals experiencing space in their own way? How do we create an understanding of an environmental condition through olfactory senses in architecture? How can this project provide an answer for declining in air quality and our life in the city?Item A city defiled: redesigning the johannesburg cecycling depot, rescuing a city drowning in landfills(2019) Richardson, ShannonThis research report tells a story of how people respond to waste, the implications and the seriousness of this and how architecture and space could play a role in a solution. These inter-woven relationships are explored with reference to the global problem, and a specific focus on South Africa's (mostly Johannesburg's) battle with this plight. As such, this report addresses the essential aspects of the issue at both a national as well as an international scale. The City of Johannesburg's waste management system is flawed. Landfill sites are quickly encroaching on to the living spaces of the less fortunate as these mounds continue to grow. The system is broken from the wasteful consumer, to the disregarded recycler, to the littered mounds growing extremely fast, but how do we fix it? It seems the solution is in the process, Johannesburg is home to a prominent yet disregarded figure who scours the streets in search for the very items we so easily throw away, but where do they take it? To the very landfills engulfing their living space. Most of our landfills are situated next to townships as part of The Group Areas Act, a crucial pillar of the segregation agenda during apartheid. Waste would be ‘imported’ from privileged white areas to impoverished, working-class black areas. Essentially that is what is happening now as poor waste management has resorted in the informal recyclers having to litter their homes to earn a wage. With the end goal being zero waste to landfill, an intervention housing campaign strategies involving propaganda to try educate the public on reuse and recycling is not enough. As how does this directly deal with the landfill problem. I think the solution is in the process of how waste is recycled and Johannesburg's waste management system, therefore I intend to redesign the Johannesburg recycling depot. Through architecture, this research report introduces a redesign of these ‘middle men’ type depots, into a multifaceted recycling station which will include a weigh station, sorting station and baling and buy back centre. A municipal solid waste to energy incineration plant will also be added, now pressure will be taken off the landfills and hopefully the landfills themselves could be sorted and reprocessed back into the depot. This will provide a more organised and material specific station where industry can buy back their recyclable goods. The more organic waste that is left over is then incinerated in the plant and that energy will be placed into the electrical grid. It is also important to me to find a site that would be easily accessible to the Informal Recyclers, close to their routes and not on a landfill as once the landfills have been reprocessed there is an opportunity for land reform. The architectural intervention should also have a social layer linking the informal recycler to the recycling depot, acting as a base camp of sorts for these nomadic people.
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