Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (ETDs)

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    Rest in Peace: Encouraging empathy, compassion and interconnectedness through the design of a rehabilitation centre within Braamfontein Cemetery
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Damjanovic, Ana
    Within Johannesburg lies a dormant space, once a cemetery now forgotten – a relic of the past amidst the hustle and bustle of the city – the Braamfontein Cemetery. This thesis proposes a transformation, seeking to breathe life into this neglected space by integrating an animal rehabilitation centre and archive facility within its grounds, and tying it all together with public spaces and a large walkway. By merging the ideas of animal and ecological rehabilitation, urban revitalisation, and the fostering of connections between humans, nature and animals, this project aims to transform the Braamfontein Cemetery into a place of solace within the busy city. This centre would not only serve as a sanctuary for injured, abandoned and unwanted animals but also as a refuge for city dwellers seeking rest from the stressful and fast-paced living that comes with being in the city. The cemetery has a rich history that is seemingly forgotten by the people that reside so close to it. This thesis aims to use architectural solutions to resurface this history in order to foster a connection between the present lives of people using the space and the past lives of the people buried in it. Drawing inspiration from the ideologies of posthumanism, post-anthropocentrism, existentialism and memory, human-animal relationships and ecological restoration, this thesis explores the potential of reimagining forgotten, green urban spaces as vibrant ecosystems through the use of architecture. Ultimately, this thesis strives to not only revitalise a neglected space but to also cultivate a sense of interconnectedness among all living and non-living beings, fostering empathy, understanding, and reverence for the natural world and for the necropolis .
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    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.