Machina Ex Silva: where the forest meets the blade
Date
2016-01-25
Authors
Van Loggerenberg, Nico
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Abstract
Forests, and the products we harvest from them, are vital to our
economy and built environment, yet we have spiritual and emotional
connections to trees which are at odds with these economic realities.
This thesis explores how architecture can act as a filter between the
real and ideal worlds by looking at the nature of indigenous forests in
South Africa, the abundant plantations so necessary to construction
and trade, and the problem of invasive trees which act as destroyers
of our fragile ecosystems.
The building is a centre for sustainable forestry in the Outeniqua forest
outside Knysna - progressively removing invasive trees, turning them
into useful wood products, and re-planting with scarce indigenous
trees. In a social context of high unemployment this didactic building
aims to connect ancient woodworking craft to modern fabrication
technology for the purposes of skills training, reforestation and
economic upliftment.
The woodcutter kills the tree, but brings us wood - a material of
infinite uses: pliable, strong, beautiful in its variety – a material for the
craftsman to shape, sand, and join. The tensions between destruction
and creation, natural and man-made, and industry and craft are
brought to the fore in the search for the diverse, the specific, and the
beautiful.
Description
Thesis (M.Arch. (Professional))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2016.
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Citation
Van Loggerenberg, Nico (2016) Machina Ex Silva: where the forest meets the blade, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, < http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/22005>