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Re-inhabiting the void

The challenge of this project is to turn a large residual empty space into a public place, a truly relational space. The site was decided upon first, and within its vastness the spirit of the surroundings arose which in turn gave birth to the development programme. At the stage where a site was chosen, no particular functional theme other than that of “adaptive reuse” existed. Located in the industrial sector of Pretoria West, the site was chosen for its ability to stun the visitor to silence with its scale and grandeur. Currently housing the Pretoria West Power Station, the visitor is confronted by structures which appear to be beyond the realm of human interaction. The dissertation explored the transformation of “urban void” to a public place where events can be held. This proposed events centre thrusts the landscape into the intervention, blurring the thresholds between inside and outside. The building itself has little regard for the boundaries imposed on it by the site. Purposely ignoring these limitations, the building extends its boundaries over the lake, creating space above untouched territory. The design aims to fragment the intervention into smaller experiences, which allows the visitor to engage more intimately with the intervention. This project addressed the issues of visual contact. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/24778
Date18 May 2005
CreatorsAthienides, Despina
ContributorsProf K A Bakker, d_athienides@hotmail.com
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Rights© 2005, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.

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