This project is based on the realisation that there are gross misconceptions surrounding significant sites in Pretoria, stemming from the lack of cultural integration amongst differing communities. The proposed design of the Capital Exchange aims to initiate social redress amongst a divided people, through the design of an urban-friendly and contemporary Platform and Place for Cross-Cultural Exchange, developed along the idea of the recently inaugurated Reconciliation Road. The visualisation of the place as a Cross-Cultural Mediator draws on the day-to-day activities of the city dwellers, to generate an ensemble of actions that foster social cohesion. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

This dissertation explores the interface between people, horses and architecture as an edge, which allows it the opportunity to facilitate relationships and accommodate multiple users. City edges currently present themselves as fences and walls. This dissertation aims to engage with and reinterpret these edges, while simultaneously shifting the boundaries between people and animals. The Public Works Department ground in Museum Park is an appropriate place to investigate edges as it currently has segregating boundaries, yet lends itself to the reintroduction of a historical function into the city. By considering life other than human life, architecture’s anthropocentric tendencies are subverted, and the segregating nature of the existing site’s barriers reinterpreted, through the exploration of physical and mental edges. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted