Since the turn of the 20th century, industrialisation and technological development of the machine has brought about mass production of almost everything from spaces, food, environments, experiences, and architecture. The dominance of machine-based processes has diluted the experience of the hand-made environment, once rich with tactility, quality, honesty, and craft; by means of reproduction and standardisation (Frampton, 1983). This has inevitably created a ‘“universal sameness” (Augè, 2008:xii) which spans the globe and reiterates what Ricouer (1961) declares as the formulation of a ‘Universal Civilisation’. Modern Architecture, which is formulated exclusively through machine construction methodologies, has also influenced a sense of “placelessness” (Frampton, 1983:26) whereby the built environment is facing a surge of monotonous machine generated interventions. Within a predominately machine built environment, there are, however, concurrent calls for a reflective engagement of Craft (Pallasmaa, 2005). Although craft has not disappeared, there is a weakening of one’s connection to an ‘existential ground’ (Pallasmaa, 2009) through the advent of the machine and its ability to render mass-produced environments that are not necessarily honest to its place and its inner workings (Pallasmaa, 2009, Sudjic, 2008). A more directly hand-made crafted architecture could then, by definition, have the ability to respond and reignite one’s existential ground and strengthen one’s relationship with the built environment. This could then have a direct influence for one’s reconnection and experience with architecture in the progressive yet inhumane machine-built environment so evident in the Modern world today. This dissertation sets out to explore where architecture is positioned within the 21st century of universal technique, standardisation, industrial processes and contemporary consumer culture. A dialectical method will set the discourse of the research, which is made up of 3 components. The thesis; being architecture as a Machine, the opposing antithesis; being architecture as Craft and the synthesis; being architecture as a dialectic modern handcrafted. This dissertation seeks a unification of machine-built and hand-made technologies through machine processes richly layered with craft, that may well perpetuate a progressive and responsive modern handcrafted dialectic architecture in South Africa. This research could then be implemented towards the design of a collaborative skills development facility in Durban. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The study attempts to assess the capacity of football development programmes to help bring about development at the individual and societal levels. It is concerned with understanding the needs of underprivileged communities through their involvement in football for development programmes and whether such programmes are viable mechanisms to empower these communities with opportunities for a better livelihood. The study will consider whether grassroots sport programmes have any role to play in the formulation of development policy that promoted social integration, self-actualisation, improving cognitive skills, health conditions in underprivileged societies. Included within this formulation is the awareness of how to provide employment opportunities. The study will contextualise development within Amartya Sen's capabilities theory whilst looking at the role of sport as both a means to an end and as an end in itself through the lens of the work of social theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, Robert Putnam and Abraham Maslow. A literature review on some of the potential benefits and costs of sport for development programmes, including a review of international literature of similar concepts being applied around the world will provide the background for assessment of the study. Central to this study‟s research is the particular initiative taken by WhizzKids United, a locally-based organization working in the field of life-skills development through the active participation of youth from underprivileged communities in and around the city of Durban in South Africa. Further assessment will take into account the perceptions of participants and stakeholders in relation to the impact the 2010 FIFA World Cup will have on development policy in South Africa, as well as on the delivery of football for development programmes such as WhizzKids United. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.