The key theme of this research document is the negative impact of an increasingly expanding motor vehicle industry. The urban infrastructure and dependence on individual transportation has become an integral part of everyday life for many. Continual growth in the numbers of new automobiles within cities has resulted in the disposal of old and broken (end-of-life) automobiles. This dissertation investigates the potential of industrial architecture in assisting with the regulation of waste management through adaptive re-use of lost spaces and materials. The main objectives include recycling, recycling-awareness and education, re-use of materials, architecture promoting low embodied energy products, the production of energy and social consolidation. Due to the high embodied energy of automobiles, the different range of materials used and the availability of discarded automobiles found within the surrounding industrial area of Pretoria West, a study of the recycling of automobiles will form the central theme for this dissertation. A Vehicle Disassembly Plant, which would be located within the Pretoria West Industrial Area – West of the City of Tshwane CBD, would, by means of waste management, form the basis of the architectural intervention. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

This dissertation investigates how a productive landscape can increase the carrying capacity of the land, by analysing and responding to the existing site and a proposed post-industrial development of the site done in 2010. The aim is to effectively communicate the influence of man’s highly consumerist nature on resources and the ecology on the user group. The chosen site is located in the highdensity urban context of Pretoria West, Tshwane, South Africa. The motivation of this dissertation is for the landscape to be the synergy between the existing productive entities. The strategy was to design holistically, with the objective being to include the larger systems at play. Systemic thinking, in terms of production, increases resources and the variety of resources’ deliverability. The only way that a productive landscape can be resilient is to instil positive meaning in the user and, consequently, indefinite stewardship. To achieve resilience, biophilic urban design guidelines were followed to have a positive psychological effect on the user. This dissertation aims to re-address age-old theories, such as biophillia and the “Web of Life”, as crucial guidelines to inform interventions for the current, real time, global and African issues relating to increasing resource demands. / Dissertation (ML(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Architecture / ML(Prof) / Unrestricted

The thesis is about the programmatic exchange and confluence between production processes, public transportation and people. The proposed intervention would be developed to fit in with the City of Tshwane Spatial development framework and an industracity vision and framework for the location in Pretoria West, developed by the framework group. The new intervention will deal with both production process and public activity in the design of a train station and intermodal freight warehouse. The site location is in Pretoria West, a mixed use suburb with restricted industry, business, retail, flats and single residential areas. The site is the Pretoria West Power Station an intersect fir existing infrastructure and public transportation routes. The aim of the investigation is the integration of public functions with industrial functions in ways that contest monotonous urban environments, preserving the heritage of the site in the outcome. The research questions what can be done to facilitate the return of lost production, increase the interaction of people and processes and address the decaying historical fabric of the Pretoria West Power Station. The study examines the history of production and railway stations, uses descriptive survey methods, precedent studies and architectural and urban theory to inform the intervention. The aim of the design is to transform an industrial site into a vibrant integrated environment, introducing programmes that will attract people , but keep the industrial character intact. The character of the site will be conserved through the introduction of new light industries, keeping the memory of process. The design concept links into the idea of electrical input and output exchanges of a power station. It focuses on the exchanges of energy, physical and visual exchanges between heritage, people and products, service exchanges and exchanges in function between freight and passengers and in context - heritage and production. The design objectives are to extend the railway line as a suspended platform to provide access and exchange for freight and passengers and to depart from the introverted nature of the existing buildings to encourage public interaction with the history of the site and the production processes. The railway track infrastructure will serve multiple purposes. / Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

The contemporary world is continuously evolving and changing. This can be ascribed to technological development. There exists an expanding digital realm that is changing the way society interacts with its surroundings and context. Interior design is a discipline that alters existing structures. This dissertation explores the role of interior design in adapting existing structures to technological development, focusing on digital development. Theories concerning hybrid design were investigated and compared in order to generate a design approach to the problem. Contextual analysis was done in order to establish important factors that would contribute to the generation of an appropriate programme. Thereafter precedents were analysed in order to supplement the body of knowledge. The final product is a mixed-use facility which includes an electronic book (e-book) publishing facility for Van Schaik Publishers as well as a facility for the contextual public where interaction with digital media is facilitated. The dissertation provides a project that acts as a mediator between the material and digital realms. Simultaneously, the product acts as a catalyst for bridging the great ‘digital divide’ one finds in a country like South Africa, where the larger population has no access to the digital realm. / Dissertation MInt(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / MInt(Prof) / Unrestricted

This dissertation deals with the regeneration of Pretoria West as a sub-support district that will act as catalyst for the regeneration of Pretoria CBD. The project focuses specifically on the adaptive re-use of an unused existing building at the Pretoria West Power Station and acts as a possible solution for re-using an old building. The theoretical discourse of this dissertation explored the reasons why new areas in the city develops and other areas fall in a state of disuse. It looks specifically at unused industrial areas and what they can be used for after they have outlived their purpose. The picturesque quality of vacant industrial buildings has recently attracted many fashion photographers and has informed the programme for the project by providing a facility for the fashion industry, together with other proposed functions within the unused buildings at the Pretoria West Power Station in order to add new public functions into the existing urban fabric of Pretoria West. The dissertation investigates the similarities between the fashion industry and architecture, how they influence each other and ultimately how fashion can inspire the design of a new building within the envelope of an existing industrial building. AFRIKAANS : Die verhandeling ondersoek die herlewing van Pretoria Wes as 'n sub-ondersteunings distrik wat as katalisator sal dien vir die herlewing van Pretoria se middestad. Die projek fokus spesifiek op die hergebruik en aanpassing van 'n bestaande gebou by die Pretoria Wes Krag Stasie wat nie tans gebruik word nie. Die projek dien as moontlike oplossing vir die hergebruik van 'n bestaande gebou. Die teoretiese bespreking van die verhandeling ondersoek die redes waarom nuwe areas in die stad ontwikkel en ander areas in onbruik verval. Dit ondersoek spesifiek ongebruikte industriële areas en waarvoor dit gebruik kan word wanneer hul oorspronklike funksie vervul is. Die skilderagtige kwaliteit van ongebruikte en vervalle industriële geboue het onlangs menige mode-fotograwe gelok as kontrasterende agtergrond om hulle onderwerp af te neem. Dit het aanleiding gegee tot die nuwe program, 'n fasiliteit vir die mode-bedryf, tesame met ander publieke funksies, binne-in die ongebruikte geboue by die Pretoria Wes Krag Stasie. Die verhandeling bestudeer die ooreenkomste tussen die mode-ontwerp industrie en argitektuur, hoe hulle mekaar beïnvloed en gevolglik hoe die ontwerp van 'n nuwe gebou binne-in 'n bestaande gebou ingelig kan word deur mode-ontwerp. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

The aim of the design is to adapt a historic industrial structure and create a building that houses a production process, that is socially and historically responsive. A new structure will subtly connect with the old and accentuate the architectural heritage. By converting an old Boiler House into a furniture factory, the architecture strives to enable a physical and visual link between production and daily life. The urban fabric and showroom visually connects with the furniture makers, in order to inform the public on the production process. This will create a integrated socially responsive environment, where people can live, work and play. AFRIKAANS : Die doel van die ontwerp, is om 'n industriële erfenis gebou te hergebruik en aan te pas om so doende 'n nuwe gebou te skep wat 'n produksie proses huisves. 'n Nuwe struktuur sal sosiaal en histories reageer en subtiel met die ou struktuur gebind word. Die nuwe verbinding sal so geskiet dat die klem ter alle tye gelê word op die historiese kwaliteit van die omgewing. Die argitektuur strewe om 'n fisiese konneksie tussen produksie en allerdaagse lewe te vorm, gevolglik sal die argitektuur 'n omgewing skep waar mense kan woon, werk en ontspan. Die studie poog om 'n argitektuur te skep wat sosiaal reageer tot die omgewing. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

Everyone wants to live in a healthy environment, an idea that has always been closely associated with the healthy landscape. Pretoria CBD is no longer a place that offers such a landscape; it is congested, fragmented and placeless. People move far and wide to get away from its hostile environments, chasing after the high gloss images of nature displayed on the billboards and posters of suburbia. They race to find a patch of land within the security complexes and estates of the east, all the while being savagely pursued by the evils of urban sprawl and decentralization. Surely there must be a way of addressing mans need and desire for landscape without perpetuating urban problems and destroying the very nature they strive for? In order to ensure a sustainable future for Pretoria needs to investigate new ways to deal with the urban problems of sprawl and decay. This thesis explores the potential of using landscape as the basis with which one can reorder and reconstruct the urban form in a way that will offer people the ideals they search within a sustainable urban environment. The investigation starts at a regional scale in order to holistically address urban issues and identify opportunities and then works its way across a range of scales down to detail design and place making. It looks new methods of constructing contemporary landscapes not by mere superimposition but by working with the current and historic urban fabric as well as the social, historical and environmental processes that have shaped it over time. It looks to the far from idyllic, yet brutally honest, post-industrial landscape of Pretoria West to construct hybrid landscapes. Arguing that if one were to genuinely offer people a healthy landscape, one they can experience and relate to, the might actually want to live in the city, in return awakening spontaneous urban renewal. / Dissertation (ML(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

The thesis addresses the proximity of contemporary global human issues to local human issues and presents an architectural solution. By identifying, exploring and drawing closer the proximities between these global and local issues, new solutions can be developed for local application. There are new fields created for architecture when we understand and connect the proximity of objects of both cultural and biophysical creation, and when we understand and build on our ever-narrowing proximities between what has been and what is to come. The narrowing global conditions have direct implications on us as individual human beings and our individual local societies. These proximities have been explored, developed, and resolved for local application. The resulting research field for urban agriculture ultimately guided an appropriate architectural response within the city of Pretoria, South Africa. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

Traditionally cultural landscape of the past involved a dialogue between natural system, human modifications and the value given by humans to the landscape, ultimately nurturing a healthy interaction between human and natural systems. Development pressures on remnants of these past harmonious cultural landscapes threatens the memory and therewith the future possibility of this healthy interaction. With looming exponential urban growth in African cities in the near future, it is important to learn from and protect the few past remnants that are left. The main question that was explored in the dissertation is how a degraded cultural landscape can be regenerated to establish social and ecological health. The hypothesis proposed that degraded cultural landscapes can be regenerated using principles of past cultural landscapes that can reconnect fragmented human and natural systems. A degraded cultural landscape settled against the backdrop of the Witwatersberg Ridge served as the location for the testing of the hypothesis. This site, situated near Danville and Lotus Gardens in Pretoria West is a former leprosy colony called Fort West. The aim of the dissertation was to find methods for the regeneration of the degraded cultural landscape.It was proposed that an integrated methodology be followed that brings together a site’s cultural, natural and economic ‘capital’ or latent potential. The integration of these three capitals was proposed in two ways: through applying five principles of ecological design as set out by Van der Ryn and Cowan (1996); and by raising awareness and educating society and the community as proposed by Farina (2000). This process delivered a set of design guidelines for degraded cultural landscapes. The approach matches biological diversity with cultural diversity, ensuring that that the ecological relevance of a cultural landscape and its capacity to inform and guide other human activities are met. The design intervention was applied at three different scales: framework, master plan and sketch plan. Interventions are proposed at each scale that can improve the natural and social health of Fort West. The cultural, natural and economic capital of the site is harnessed by reconnecting past and existing potential in these three fields and integrating proposed natural and cultural systems in this way. Education and awareness is at the forefront of all proposed interventions. In this way a public space that facilitates the reintroduction of biodiversity and also assists in the regeneration of the Fort West community can be established. / Dissertation ML(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / ML(Prof) / Unrestricted