Since the advent of the industrial revolution man has become increasingly detached from the idea of making and the processes associated with it. Today’s society is a consumer driven one dependant on machinery as a means to an end. This attitude has lead to industry becoming an exploitative entity that rapidly becomes obsolete due to the static nature of its program. A shift in mindset is required to create healthy environments that balance the acts of being and doing. At the Tswaing crater, the salt and soda reserves in the crater basin were mined and exploited until they were completely depleted. The factory ruins now stand alone as silent witnesses to the downfall of a doomed industry, consumed by nature and ravaged by time. Although the process has long vanished from memory, the scars of industry are still visible on the landscape, providing an opportunity for a new layer to be woven into the fabric of the site. To respect its history, a new, craft-orientated industrial intervention is incorporated within the existing ruins, which allows visitors to get acquainted with the process of making and allows workers to experience the ephemeral qualities of the site. The end goal is to encourage man to dwell within his surroundings blurring the line between being and doing. The intervention is a fabric dyeing workshop where sheets of fabric add a new layer of colour to the landscape. The fabric is sold to the public on site and training is also provided for the public to educate people about the craft of fabric dyeing. The new process works with the natural surroundings, not looking to exploit the resources as before, but instead looking to add value to people’s lives through learning and experience - and not simply creating an economically viable product. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

This project documents my process of visual and hermeneutic enquiry centred on the Tswaing meteorite impact crater, north of Pretoria. In my visual investigation I attempt to apprehend the landscape through a cyclical process which involves walking within it, photographing it in 360° ‘visualisations’, editing the imagery and returning, often frustrated, to repeat both encounter and process. The cycle of reflection leads me to consider my circular process itself as a dialogical mode of interpretation and response to the primeval, circular landscape of the impact crater. Informed by Gadamer’s (1975) notion of a hermeneutic circle which extends interpretation and understanding, the reflexive process is extended and enriched through dialogue with the work of pertinent scientists, artists, poets and writers. Landscape is considered as an artefact of deep time, challenging entrenched traditions and notions while considering significant contemporary responses. The dissertation attempts to demonstrate the layered accretion of concept and meaning contained within the visual and theoretical components of the investigation

The subject for this dissertation is a development for the Tswaing Crater nature reserve that is dedicated to the rediscovery of the significance of place, as well as a rediscovery of the significance of self. These discoveries are made through the medium of storytelling, which is a universally understandable activity. Different theories on the perception of architecture, existential presence in the world and methods of storytelling is explored to inform a design question. The study culminates in the proposal for a built intervention that responds to the cultural and bio-physical environment and addresses problems identified during the theoretical discourse. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

(MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005