Includes bibliographical references / Motivation: Small agriculture towns in South Africa are suffering economically since the number of jobs available in the agriculture sector has been decreasing rapidly. This is attributed to a deepening in capital in the agriculture sector (Hall & Cousins, 2015). Consequently, unemployment is the reality of many farming towns and often results in large numbers of young people seeking a better life elsewhere, causing a slow but steady dilapidation of the town. The job seekers move to the city and become yet another burden on the city's already overloaded infrastructure since they have little chance of employment in a city environment with an agriculture skill set. Proposition: This dissertation proposes to contribute towards urban upliftment through healing the supporting parts to the urban whole. Based on the complex adaptive systems theory the whole can only function through the parts and thus as well as its parts. This frames the understanding that since agriculture is a major part of the Western Cape's economy, the city (the whole) can only be totally healed through healing the supporting agriculture towns (the parts). The intention is to provide a strategy, through research, mapping and design exploration that will uplift the image and economy of small agriculture towns in the Western Cape. Thus providing the town's people with pride and hope, the unemployed with jobs and the youth with a future. Approach: Looking at the two extremes of a centralized and localized approach to architecture, economics and general development, a sustainable mid-way of a locally focused, yet globally relevant, angle is strived towards. This approach suggests moving away from an abstract planning towards using the conditions on the ground and the town plan to provide the future plan through small shifts. A pragmatic approach of developing a theory and methodology through practice has been followed. The sample local town has been mapped and investigated in order to create a grocery list of the existing or available resources, conditions and needs. The content is carefully analyzed to determine the smallest move, with the available resources, that will have the greatest positive effect. The scheme relies on a particularity approach which identifies a local kit of parts. The kit of parts is used to create a spatial connectivity across the town and formulate an urban upliftment scheme. The proposed building serves as supporting infrastructure to the spatial network and culminate the urban, spatial, social and economic schemes. The building is also conceived from the kit of parts and serves as a built analogue for the values of the scheme. This proposed methodology/particularity strategy for upliftment of agriculture towns will be applied to and tested on Porterville (a small farming town about 200km North West of Cape Town) in the form of a speculative project.

This study was conducted to investigate the requirements for the spatial modelling of current and future water demand in the Berg River Water Management Area in the Western Cape of South Africa in order to produce a prototype model from which annual water requirements could be computed and spatially visualised. To accomplish this the spatial distribution of water demand within the study area was first investigated. The data required to perform spatial water demand modelling of diverse land uses and socio-economic activities were evaluated. Finally, the question of improving spatial water demand modelling at the catchment scale was considered from both a systems design and a technical perspective. The resulting model consists of two main modules; one performing a rudimentary monthly soil water balance to obtain monthly and annual irrigation requirements, and another applying preconfigured determinant layers derived from land use to town zone layers in order to determine annual urban water use intensities per areal unit. The resulting model prototype follows a sequential workflow based on a series of components that combine to produce a spatial overview of water use intensity within the study area. Water demand was found to be predominantly irrigated agriculture in the upper reaches of the Berg (mainly wine grape) and was found to be dominated by intensive industrial users in the central and lower reaches. The model was designed so that new data could be introduced in order to expand the system where required, as well as allowing for updated datasets to be incorporated as they become available. Due to the uncertainties inherent in the modelling and approximation of real world phenomena, the importance of establishing a set of structured, stable, predefined user requirements and system specifications were noted as a fundamental requirement for improving model development and design efficiency and ensuring model validity. It was further found that incorporating additional datasets, covering parameters related to the system, may serve to improve model accuracy, but could easily lead to compounded errors if not correctly parameterised or adequately validated.

Bibliography: leaves 105-111.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / South African cities have unique spatial design challenges which can be attributed to our historical and politically charged urban planning practices. Our cities are characterised by modernist town planning principles which have fragmented communities through spatial barriers such as highways, train lines and fences while current development perpetuates urban sprawl. Due to these circumstances many contemporary urban design policies promote densification strategies through transit orientated approaches.In my thesis project, I propose to redesign Salt River Train Station into a multi modal transport interchange. I argue that this multimodal interchange can have an urban developmental and regenerative effect that can address some of the challenges faced in our urban landscape. This design report will attempt to document the processes and explorative methods that I have incorporated during this design process.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-223). / The intention of this thesis is to analyse community participation by the example of one particular firm in Cape Town, South Africa. The thesis investigates in a time period between 1989 and 2000. That means that the study considers the planning conventions in "black" Langa Township before, during and afer apartheid. The study accepts the philosophy of one particular author, Henry Sanhoff who is internationally acknowledged for expertise in community participation. His theory is based mainly on the social and economical environment of developed countries and holds therefore the potential to transfer knowledge into the nature of community participation as it is understood in South Africa by one particular firm, SC-Studio architects.

Includes bibliography. / It is thus proposed in this thesis that low-income medium-density developments, located appropriately in inner city areas to kick-start settlements that are integrated, compact and promote mixed land uses, as well as aspiring towards sustainable urban development, are needed in the cities of developing countries. A typical example of such a housing development is Springfield Terrace Woodstock, Cape Town. This pilot project, demonstrating how the provision oflow-income medium-density housing (in the fonn of three- to four-storey walk-up blocks of flats) can be provided in central Cape Town and how these benefit from the existing bulk infrastructure. It further demonstrates how this housing type could be located and utilised to encourage a shift away from low-density to medium-density housing, particularly with regard to lowincome earners.

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis presents the design and creation of a 3D virtual world of Petra, Jordan, based on the digital spatial documentation of this UNESCO World Heritage Site by the Zamani project. Creating digital records of the spatial domain of heritage sites is a well-established practice that employs the technologies of laser scanning, GPS and traditional surveys, aerial and close range photogrammetry, and 360-degree panorama photography to capture spatial data of a site. Processing this data to produce textured 3D models, sections elevations, GISs, and panorama tours to has led to the establishment of the field of virtual heritage. Applications to view this spatial data are considered too specialised to be used by the general public with only trained heritage practitioners being able to use the data. Additionally, data viewing platforms have not been designed to allow for the viewing of combinations of 3D data in an intuitive and engaging manner as currently each spatial data type must be viewed by independent software. Therefore a fully integrated software platform is needed which would allow any interested person, without prior training, easy access to a combination of spatial data, from anywhere in the world. This study seeks to provide a solution to the above requirement by using a game engine to assimilate spatial data of heritage sites in a 3D virtual environment where a virtual visitor is able to interactively engage with combinations of spatial data. The study first begins with an analysis of what virtual heritage applications, in the form of virtual environments, have been created, and the elements that were used in their creation. These elements are then applied to the design and creation of the virtual world of Petra.

The primary intention of this study is to analyse the imposition of urban conservation-oriented controls in the city centre of Cape Town during the period 1986-2000 and to evaluate their efficacy; the secondary, but directly related endeavour, is to explore the effect of these mechanisms on development rights. In brief, the study set out to explore the themes "conservation constraints" and "development rights" and their relationship so that, ultimately, conclusions regarding the efficacy of the conservation-oriented controls can be drawn.

Includes bibliographical references. / The objective of this M.Arch dissertation is to study the Ghanzi District, Botswana. Because of the few developments and small population in the area, it might be perceived as a place with little to offer architecturally. I am interested in uncovering the contextual layers (landscape and cultures) in this area that could inform and improve the architecture there. The main objective is to investigate an accommodating architecture that allows the Basarwa (Bushmen in Botswana) to be integrated into the mainstream Batswana, but still allow for them to lead their daily traditional lives and express their id entity in ways consistent with their own values.

Includes bibliographical references. / This design dissertation follows a narrative process of research and design speculation. The report defines the subject of the project and is the first part of the dissertation. The subject started with an historical narrative that was to be extended in the contemporary landscape, it was about a wasted piece of post-industrial land that was intended to be programmatically re-imagined to redefine our relationship with infrastructure. The second part and final outcome is a building proposal. Its function has been formed through my initial agenda of redefining the public relationship with infrastructure and industry. The resultant programme is an organic waste to energy plant that shares the site in Woodstock, Cape Town with a research centre, exhibition space, office space and recreational facilities. The story of the site before its current empty life was a catalyst for the investigation. I chose this site for it concealed a hidden narrative in the city that had the potential to disappear with the demolition of the old gasworks in 1996. No above ground structures were built on the site since then because of the polluted soils of the coal gas production on the site for over 100 years. Creating a re-imagined industrial plant that celebrated the industrial history of the site and Woodstock the area became the object of my project. The management of the polluted soils, public pedestrian accessibility to the site and the undesirable ground plane of the context became the first spatial informants for the design project. My method of site research was through archival research using maps and texts from Cape historical records in the libraries, as well as meeting with an archaeologist, formed my historical analysis. My architectural project aims at replacing emptiness of a post-industrial landscape into a site that is part of the productive urban environment, reflecting ideals of participation and hybridity.