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Having been founded on the basis of trade through its port, Durban has progressively evolved and grown. However, as a result of the dependence on the port, a physical and intangible disconnection has developed between the city fabric and *water’s edge. This has manifested itself in the road and rail connection along the Margaret Mncadi Avenue (formerly the Victoria Embankment) creating a barrier between the city and its edge. As a result of this lack of integration, another issue has arisen: ‘lost space’. This space is undesirable and not conducive to a good city image for the central business district. It becomes apparent that with these factors, there is due cause for an investigation for revitalisation and as Richard Marshall suggests in ‘Waterfronts in Post Industrial Cities’, that using the highly visible urban environment of the waterfront as a tool for revitalisation of the area (Waterfront’s in Post Industrial Cities: 2001, 2) and, in the long term - the revitalisation of the city. Studies of Sydney’s Darling Harbour, Baltimore’s Inner Harbour and Seattle’s waterfront provide insight as to how these interventions uplifted and revitalised these respective cities. Key outcomes of these precedent studies include the mixed-use nature at the waterfront, connections to the city fabric, promenade, open space and a pavilion-like architecture. Most integral to the findings are the inclusion of all dynamics of people who inhabit the surrounding areas utilising the waterfront, making it both an attractive urban locality and a safe urban environment. The inclusion of the cross-section of city dwellers amounts in the mixed-use nature of the waterfront. It is therefore apparent that on the micro scale, the urban intervention should be of a mixed-use nature, further to which, the dire need for hotels in the region of the waterfront, as well as Durban as a whole, point to an intervention by virtue of a mixed-use hotel. From the investigation into the case studies, the design parameters further outline where the intervention needs to address the street edge and public realm, creating a precedent for waterfront design with the intention of the urban design linking the city and water’s edge. The end consequence of such design parameters would be to make the waterfront physically accessible for the purposes of leisure, recreation and commerce for tourists and Durbanites alike. *water’s edge specifically refers to the edge along Margaret Mncadi avenue strecthing between Wilson’s Wharf and the Bat centre, including the Yacht Basin. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

This research is a study of traditional and modern architecture and how the aforementioned systems can and should integrate into Afro-centric architecture. The emphasis was on the architecture one tends to enjoy as an African, explored and juxtaposed against the thoughts and theoretical frameworks of culture sensitive architects worldwide. In this dissertation, the aspects of integrative theory were explored. Primary theories dealing with sustainability, New African Architecture, Indigenous Knowledge and Semiology were assessed as well. The differences between traditional Africa and modern adaptations, both positive and negative, were the limit of the research. In the dissertation certain key questions are posed to drive the inquiry of the document. The hypothesis is the conjecture that a connection between modernized architecture and traditional semiotics exists and can be cultivated to flourish, developing African architecture at all levels. This conjecture acts as a base for primary and secondary research. There are accounts listed in this dissertation of richly meaningful and sensitive traditional architecture that show a connection between American, Asian, African and European primitive building styles. These accounts show practices that have lasted near as long as the society that invented them. The gathered information shows that these examples have undergone little change over the years. The dissertation argues that the value these instances of traditional architectural meaning lessened over the years due to a shift in cultural paradigms. Further chapters in the study address cosmology, African attitudes to space, the reinvention of old materials and the manifestation and celebration of new tectonic relationships. Lessons collected on the above listed issues were related against findings from verbal interviews, written questionnaires and observations at the site of case studies. It is the researcher’s desire to explore the potential for an integrative developmental institute. To this end, an assessment has been done both in the form of precedent embedded in the text and Case Studies of relevant buildings that relate to the subject matter of the dissertation. The analysis of these assessments shows a manifested potential for the integration of traditional designs with modern building. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The basis of F.A.CE project.lon was the competition for an future Academy within the spirit of the former Bauhaus Dessau. The competition provided the opportunity to introduce my thoughts for an educational establishment in art, architecture and design. The Essence of F.A.CE project.Ion was to extend the myth of the former Bauhaus utopians. Several artists were active either together or in succession and made valueable contributions to the Bauhaus through their own work. Their names and faces are form together the multifaced image that refers silently as a memory to a former Bauhaus idea. The Identity of the Bauhaus seemed to live as much in the hidden cracks on the facades of a celebrated architecture as in the portraits of the former Bauhaus faces. Through juxtaposing the faces with the Bauhaus Idea I created an dialogue that moved toward a 'corporate identity - Mies v. d. Rohe' and found its ownF.A.CE - F.uture A.rts CE.ntre .Finally, F.A.CE project.Ion led toward a specific spirit ofplastic elements embodying facial aswell as spatial forces with an important contribution to a visual re-education. / Department of Architecture

The Calgary stroet-levcl Arcade preceded the Mall as a place of public exchange: During the first half of its history the covered arcade acted as a buffer between the public street and private interior. The arcade extended me.vitality of the city street to the pedestrian. It was shelter from bad weather and vehicles, and a window into another world of consumable items. A shopper could peruse the 'just out of reach' at the Hudson's Bay or wait for a street car under the measured punctuation of the covered arcade. The public nature of the arcade reconciled.the individual to the group. It mediated the transition from the busy street'.to the beckoning shop window. Today merchandising strategies promise to develop a more efficient circle between shopper and commodity. Mall spaces are connected above ground with a maze of raised public walkways. Crisscrossing the original grid of streets at a height of 4.5 meters is the raised "Plus 15 System." Over the last twenty-five years, Calgary has extended one of the largest semi-private systems in the world through it's downtown core. This system replaces the public street with an interior analogy that is neither public nor private. Ground level street-life suffers a slow but definite decline and is not replaced. As the city experiences a period of extreme growth the opportunity arises to remedy the decline of the public realm In the process of development and gentrification a temporary set of urban artifacts becomes visible. The building crane, the site trailer, construction hoarding - this language of urban expansion is as tenable as the "architecture'' of the city itself. This thesis project will invigorate boomtown city growth with a new public architecture. The site is the back lane between 8th and 9th Avenues and Centre and 1st Street in the heart of downtown Calgary. This is one of many blocks yet to complete the Plus 15 labyrinth of public access-ways. Mid-block pedestrian bridges connect the south and east sides of the site with the rest of the city's Plus 15 system. Low-level heritage buildings and Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall wall the north side of the site while the giant Pan Canadian Building dominates the south. Running through the Pan Canadian Building is an existing public right of way. Using current development as a spring board this project will suture the internal world of the Plus 15 to adjacent public and private fragments of the city. A steel "Frame" will accompany the current developer scheme for a hotel high-rise on the site. This frame reconciles the horizontal dimension of the original property width of Stephen Avenue Mall and the new vertical layering of the "floorplate skyscraper." Inserted into this ordered web is a temporary housing system of pre-built trailer boxes - - an appropriation of the familiar objects of construction: The ATCO trailer, construction hoarding and a "take-apart" kit of frame components provide a fertile base for the growth of the public "tube". They furnish a temporary architecture while the new public walkway asserts its presence. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

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In the act of building, man places himself between earth and sky. Where a wall is raised, a place becomes divided. Architecture occurs. One wall in one place begins to define three physical realities. The form and matter of a wall exist as one thing. Each side of the wall exists separately and face opposing parts. The wall is a barrier, yet acts as an architectural element that joins the two sides. / Master of Architecture

Structures of perfect symmetry, order, and beauty exist in both discoveries of science and objects found in natures. With careful observation and analysis, creative applications of these interesting forms can be and have been applied in many architectural structures with great success. In this project the utilization of these forms can not only bring out the purpose of this Museum of Nature and Science, but because these forms are derived from natural studies, they can also give viewers a sense of familiarity and peacefulness. / Master of Architecture

A library has always been a doorway into learning. Learning, in today's world, has become a complex and varied process. The built form must therefore embody the vastness of this available knowledge. The building must, through its very structuring, make easy and accessible learning. It must also express the intricacies and inter-relationships of knowledge using an architectural vocabulary. The making of the building is analogous to the development of the individual. lt is from the collective that the individual emerge. The built form encapsulates society in both scale and complexity. lt is an amalgamation of difference, offering opportunity for individualized growth to a collective social education. The building reveals itself slowly through its relationship. It encourages exploration at every level. It is a beginning, an instrument of search, a ground for discovery. The transformation of the process of study into built form is drawn out along its connections. The language of architecture is used to bind together the many strands of learning through universally interpretable metaphors into a coherent reality. / Master of Architecture

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries