The City of Johannesburg exists primarily due to the discovery of gold, and its urban form has
largely been shaped by the mining strip that runs from east to west along the gold reef. The City
initially grew along the mining axis, with the Central Business District (CBD) developing just to
the north of the belt. Today, the strip of mine tailings and slimes dams creates a vast space of
leftover, mostly undeveloped land adjacent to the City centre. The south of the City is physically
separated from the north by this strip of wasteland, and most current development is usually
only directed northwards towards Sandton and Pretoria.
This study considers the future significance of the mining brownfields and how the land can be
re-claimed, re-used and re-developed in order to structure and enhance the urban landscape of
Johannesburg. The mining strip represents the divisive and collective history of the City and can
potentially be used to create the connective tissue that could address this division and ultimately
form a cohesive Johannesburg. The linear mining strip is currently supported by railways and
industry and as such, provides an ideal setting for development, as useful infrastructure is
already present.
Brownfield sites, which are previously-developed urban sites with a potential for redevelopment,
and specifically mining brownfield sites, form the core of the research for this
study. The tailings and slimes dams of Johannesburg require extensive reclamation and
reprocessing, yet provide the ideal landscape for redevelopment. The variety of brownfield sites,
as well as the different ways to approach them is discussed within this document.
In order to validate the extensive effort that is required to overcome the many issues associated
with redeveloping the Johannesburg mining sites, the theory of Compact Cities pioneered in the
Netherlands has been investigated and is used as a case study in this document. The current
segregated and dispersed format of Johannesburg is not sustainable, and all future
development should aim for a denser City, greater mixed-use environments and the
predominance of public transport.
The focus initially will be on developing the land within the City, rather than that on the outskirts,
focusing primarily on the vacant land of the mining belt. Careful consideration will be given to
the fact that the natural environment is a key aspect to a future sustainable City, and reviews of
where this theory has been successfully implemented form a basis to the proposal of this
design. This study considers the use of natural landscapes as the catalyst for development
within Johannesburg. Natural systems are crucial to the form of the City and can create the
base for the linkage of open space systems, which is used to structure future development.
Natural mitigation techniques are also one of the best ways to remediate brownfield sites
Lastly, the specific history and character of the City of Johannesburg, and specifically the mining
belt, is considered in this document, as certain factors will define the process of re-development.
The existence of the Witwatersrand Reef and the historical development of the City have led to
the current status quo of the City. This thesis studies the patterns of growth that the City has
followed and how it has been impacted by gold mining.
The design portion of this thesis begins by forming a proposal to create a movement system
within Johannesburg based on the existing natural space networks. It considers integrating the
mining belt with this system in order to create a new structuring device to inform the
development of the urban form of the City.
The second part of the thesis attempts to construct a strategy that can be used in the
development of the vacant land along the mining belt, based on the above-mentioned open
space system for Johannesburg. A pivotal site within Johannesburg has been identified in order
to test the principles and concepts that have been explored. There are many challenges that
arise when developing on former mining land and this thesis attempts to address these issues
spatially, through an urban design framework.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/13645 |
| Date | 04 February 2014 |
| Creators | Stelli, Jenna Chantal |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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