OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Louw, Mike"

Browsing by Author "Louw, Mike"

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Open Access
Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
(2016) Arnold, Anees; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
With regard to low-income settlemnts in Cape Town, it has become apparent that the private relam is prioritised over the public realm. It is essential that we regard the public realm as an integral component of the lives of the people who inhabit this environment. Because of the living conditions, large portions of people's lives are conducted outside of this prioritised private realm. It is evident that public spaces within these environments become neglected due to a lack of ownership and management. The intention of this research is to find strategies of enhancing public life through encouraging shared open spaces – the urban commons. This thesis is process driven as opposed to product driven. The objective is to determine a replicable strategy that possesses generic solutions as well as providing strategies to address the specific. These strategies are explored and hypothetically tested using Delft South, Western Cape, as a site. With regard to the public spaces the present condition of the public spaces are not dissimilar to that in other areas of the same socioeconomic condition in South Africa. The public spaces have been neglected and there is limited space to provide additional public spaces within these areas. Therefore this dissertation explores the possibility of activating existing residual open spaces as well as neglected parks. It aims to use these as opportunities to provide shared public spaces nestled within neighbourhoods to meet the needs of the respective communities. Ultimately, the objective of this thesis is to develop a series of strategies which can be applied to specific conditions. This is to be to be done by interrogating my own design processes with the objective of being able to reorder it in a suitable manner. Specific to Delft South the areas positioned away from the active Main Road require attention. For the case of this thesis theses areas are referred to the backquarters and I have highlighted it as my interest of concern An introduction to my interest of adding new life to the public back quarters through enhancing the neglected open spaces. I will start off by problematising public spaces in low-income suburbs to outline the underlying issues specific to South Africa. This is followed by general principles that public spaces should embody. A large section, thereafter, will analyse the spatial structure of Delft South and how it is being inhabited. This analysis was done using various exercises to get both a quantitative and qualitative understanding. Using this as a basis, desired outcomes are explained in the chapter following this. All of these aspects are used to inform the architectural interventions.
Open Access
Adapting at multiple scales: Towards a contextualised adaptive reuse of disused commercial infrastructure in secondary South African cities
(2018) Madolo, Bongane; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
In the early 1990s about 50 000 m² of office space was developed in the Central Business District (CBD) of Nelspruit for the Mpumalanga Provincial Government. The office space was spread out in a number of office buildings around the CBD. Between 2003-and 2005 the Provincial Government moved out of these office buildings to an office complex on the outskirts of the CBD, as a result a portion of the CBD was left vacant. The commercial sector has not really recovered since then and the CBD is beginning to experience urban decay. With this as background the dissertation, explores regeneration of a CBD and the opportunities that lie in large scale disused concrete frame buildings in Nelspruit, a secondary South African city. Affordable housing plays an important role in the development of the project, not only because it addresses a practical need for housing in the city, but also because it starts to speak to transformation of a city that largely remains anti-poor. The exploration in-to timber construction plays an equally important role in addressing questions of making buildings differently, looking at regional industry and craft, and the use of more sustainable building material. Research in to this topic was primarily aided by a 4-week research trip to Mezimbite Forest Centre in Beira, Mozambique. The objective is not to create a blueprint on which all the buildings are to be adapted because each existing building by virtue of its context alone, is unique and has challenges that are specific to it that need to be addressed. The objective is to develop a different way of adapting large scale buildings. One that breaks the monolith, makes connections and through its material is rooted in its broader context. Ideas that are tested in 32 Bell Street, a nine-storey building in the CBD of Nelspruit. Johannesburg's regeneration is looked at as an example of regeneration because it is the best example of a South African city that has used the decline of its commercial office sector to bring about transformation to a CBD, with housing being an important part of that transformation. Johannesburg also offers some of the clues on what needs to evolve in the way office buildings are being adapted.
Open Access
The afterlife of megastructures in the aftermath of mega-events: the case of Cape Town Stadium
(2018) Mwedzi, Alick; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
Large scale global spectacles such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games demand infrastructure of a suitably grand magnitude - the stadium being the centrepiece of this infrastructure. However, because the mentioned events are hosted in a different location each time they take place, the stadia they leave behind often face uncertain futures, as the events and capacity for which they are originally designed are difficult to maintain following the spectacle. The intention of this dissertation is to explore how adaptive reuse can be considered as an approach towards stadia in the aftermath of global mega-events. This exploration focuses on Cape Town Stadium, a venue for the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa. The dissertation engages Cape Town Stadium in terms of an exploration into understanding the nature of stadia as very large buildings, and the challenges and opportunities adaptive reuse presents to their continued use. Cape Town stadium is understood as a robust concrete structure with a high embodied energy and a variety of spatial and environmental conditions created by contrasting deep and shallow spaces, and different engagements with external environments. These conditions present a challenge to providing the spatial and environmental requirements of an alternative programme, especially where spaces are deep, isolated, inappropriately scaled or articulated by structure. Informed by Metabolist megastructure thought, adaptive reuse is explored in an approach that regards the existing as a robust permanent structure and introduces a secondary order of architecture: more delicate and less robust - that augments the existing structure to provide for the spatial and environmental requirements of a new programme - an educational campus - introduced to occupy the underutilised portion of the Stadium.
Open Access
Engaging vestiges of negative social memory: from an order of segregation to linkage
(2018) Wren-Sargent, Tomas; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
The theme of this project is the architectural opportunities of spaces of negative social memory. The issue that the work focuses on specifically is the case of the former Non-White Main Line Concourse building, located on the flyover of the Cape Town Train Station precinct. The building has slowly deteriorated since the end of apartheid when its function was made redundant. Today it stands as a squalid remnant of the segregated society it was built to serve. Damaged and decaying, it provides an opportunity for powerful architectural transformation. This project establishes a value in the negative social memory that the building holds, presenting an opportunity to transform the site into a powerful architecture that encourages society to learn from the injustices the building enforced. Through understanding the spatial potentials of the building, a design intention of integration emerges, able to subvert the segregated nature of the existing. The paper locates itself as a research piece on the opportunities presented by remnants of socially and politically challenging histories.
Open Access
Erasure layering
(2018) Jhupsee, Sneha; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
This dissertation developed from an interest around sustainability and the current housing crisis within the inner-city of Cape Town. The evolution of the city has played a role in developing a layered but fragmented space that lacks a favourable density. New housing developments within the city are developer-led and market driven schemes that more often than not do not consider the rich urban and social contexts provided by the city. These schemes remove vast portions of rich urban fabric to profit from maximising bulk. While these developments do indeed add density, they lack diversity and equity. This dissertation challenges the contradiction of the positive addition of density and the negative impact of inequitable and unsustainable architecture. From a sustainable point of view the idea of continued reuse and transformation of vacant existing buildings is explored. Many existing buildings within the inner-city are not fit for their intended purpose and seen as impediments that generate unsafe spaces. These buildings have become targets for inequitable developer-led schemes as they are located on prime positioned land. This dissertation explores layering the existing by providing different layers of public and private function. The sustainability of retaining an existing building is interrogated through the lens of the value of its structure. Essentially, there is an immense amount of building stock that is underutilised and underdeveloped within the inner-city that may provide an opportunity to layer the urban fabric. This dissertation endeavours to explore a new typology that embraces density for an inclusive city through sustainable practices. The ideas of reuse, density of the city and expanding its capacity in a sensitive manner and adding to the character and rich existing urban fabric of the city are pertinent to the dissertation design. Realistic ideals such as bulk and parking as well as idealistic ideas such as how to create an equitable building in a market driven era, and everything in between, will be explored.
Open Access
The FACTory: Unearthing the forgotten industry of Cape Town
(2018) Moll, Alex; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
The FACTory is a research-based design project which explores the synergy between the material and the memory of a site of former industry. The setting for this scene is an abandoned concrete works in Salt River, Cape Town; which has been left to deteriorate. This dissertation proposes that, through a new architectural intervention, the concrete ruin can be assisted in telling its own story. This is a project in which the existing found object will uncover, narrate and reclaim its own industrial past, through its reprogramming, and will act as an urban catalyst within its otherwise stark context. Industrial Archaeology is the study of material evidence associated with the industrial past, and the heritage significance thereof. It is the documentation of the tangible and intangible. It is the reason a new construction method can have both material and memory value. It is a lesson that can be applied to architectural projects. Cape Town has a haphazard approach to the preservation of its industrial memory, and this project could identify a new approach in dealing with that. Through the introduction of a series of temporary spaces, The FACTory will reprogramme the site into a hub of educational leisure which unearths the industrial history of the site through haptic moments. In an area of the city which is almost certain to be regenerated in the not too distant future, this intervention will see itself as a single moment in the site's history.
Open Access
Fertile ground: enhancing local food production in Delft, South Africa
(2016) Pieters, Frans; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
This dissertation, situated in Delft, on the eastern edge of Cape Town, aims to improve livelihoods by establishing a productive urban agricultural operation that will create jobs, supply healthy food and reestablish farming as a lucrative business in an impoverished community. It is intended to inspire people to transform the landscape of local food production and sustainable agricultural practice. Most impoverished communities tend to feel the effects of a formal food system that is set up to deliver to more established urban areas. This forces low-income communities to rely on informal retail to supply healthy foods, often at a premium, both for user and supplier. Food supply chains are dispersed resulting in high food costs and over-reliance on an extensive transportation sector. My project aims to decrease this footprint allowing nutritious foods to be grown and sold locally, benefitting both the consumer and the producer. By investigating the leading NGOs promoting urban agriculture and food security in the Western Cape, I have been able to extract valuable spatial lessons from these organizations. I have then applied them to create a model of urban agriculture and local food production that can work in these demanding landscapes. I explored the natural and urban conditions at various scales to determine the number of inputs required for a successful operation. I also investigated selected technologies to enhance land productivity and food production as well as selected systems to establish a sustainable operation in a landscape where resources are valuable and scarce. With high unemployment a regular statistic in impoverished communities, there will always be labor available and when given the opportunity, local residents can take advantage of the many benefits that such a project can deliver. I hope to develop a model that can be implemented around communities all over South Africa and the world, where common challenges of food insecurity faced by millions of people everyday can be addressed through local food production and in the process, establish a new type of agricultural model that can supply both the formal and the informal food sectors. My project is about celebrating a new agricultural model, one that is integrated into the urban landscape with a particular focus on local production within an impoverished community. It consists of a production farm with educational, research and retail components and a large-scale greenhouse that is intended to change the landscape of Delft. The farm will run various agricultural operations in a sustainable manner where are resources and waste is recycled and reused allowing for a closed loop operation. Growing, processing, packaging and distributing of produce will take place from this centralized hub. The greenhouse will be the celebratory moment of my project and I envision it to transform the landscape of Delft and the way in which the farming is perceived from a local perspective. The building will showcase all kinds of food growing technologies and will become a landmark in the area as a place of education and production. Specialized crops and seeds will be cultivated, stored and displayed for visitors from around the world, a one of a kind building that fuses food production, education and public interaction.
Open Access
From Subject to Object: Preservation and awareness of the vulnerable Cape Gannet
(2023) Oettle, Tilanie; Louw, Mike
This dissertation investigates and describes the concept of how an Ecocentric world model is possible by using architecture as a tool to achieve this. The relationship between humans and nature should be further investigated and developed as there is a current disconnect between these two. As a result, the natural environment is degrading, ecosystems are becoming dysfunctional and species extinction is increasing. The Cape Gannet forms a critical element in the dissertation as there is a need to address the decrease in its population, especially on Malgas Island (located close to the site). The design seeks to engage with this subject and find possible solutions as to how this issue can be addressed in Saldanha Bay, South Africa. The design draws individuals to the site, which is in close proximity to the island, to engage with these species, providing awareness and an educational basis regarding the species as well as the natural environment of the area. At the same time, the design seeks to enhance the existing landscape by making a positive impact. The research topic also identifies ways in which architecture could engage with its surroundings through a multi-species cohabitation approach which could alleviate ongoing biodiversity losses in an Anthropocentric world model. By incorporating stabilization and research facilities focused on the Cape Gannet, research and monitoring facilities focused on the ocean, as well as awareness and educational spaces, the design starts to form a basis to reverse the effects of the possible extinction of these species in the future, address the health of the ocean and provides solutions to how humans, the natural environment and animals can co-exist amongst each other in a symbiotic manner.
Open Access
Grounding Density: Mobilising the economic and spatial potential of low-income housing along the Delft South main road
(2016) Brown, Kayla; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
This dissertation comprises five chapters. The first chapter explores issues of housing and density. Case studies are used to examine the relationship between agency and housing as well as the trade-offs of efficiency of circulation systems in dense housing. The second chapter locates the research within the context of Delft South and, more specifically, along the main road. The idea of "Home as Economic Generator" is explored through studying housing and retail patterns. The third chapter moves towards a design outcome by choosing and analysing Sibanye Square as a site within Delft. Chapter four explores a variety of technical considerations that could develop into an architectural language by studying how people are currently building in Delft. Finally, chapter five proposes an architectural outcome that explores three typologically different housing developments located on and around Sibanye Square.
Open Access
In service, on common ground: finding commonality between user, architecture and landscape through the ritual of dining
(2018) Lehabe, Valerie; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
This research is about ﬁnding commonality between seemingly unrelated entities. It seeks to enhance an existing essential service situated on a site that brings together people of all walks of life, i.e. on common ground. By intervening at this level there is an opportunity to adapt the current situation whilst simultaneously encouraging cultural cohesion or perhaps at the very least instigatedialogue. One can assume that the intermediary realm constitutes both the interstitial (the state of being) and the liminal (the state of becoming}. It involves creating spaceswith different pluralities at play. This research situates itself in the intermediary realm by creating an intervention that blurs the boundaries between the building and its context. It also seeks to expand the parameters of Adaptive Reuse to not only intervene at the level of the object but rather adapting beyond the object. by paying close attention to all the relationships at play. The intervention expands on an existing programme situated on a terrainvague site.
Open Access
Oven-Baked Architecture & Embodied Earth, Re-purposing a decommissioned quarry in Paarl, with a focus on the interface between people, architecture and the Earth
(2023) Trouw, Neil; Louw, Mike; Boulanger, Heidi
This dissertation is about architecture. However this dissertation is about what architecture isn't as well. It is an intersectional investigation into the boundaries of architecture and where they lie. This is understood in the context of people, architecture and the Earth. Where exactly does mankind start and end and when do we become nature. How does architecture form the threshold between these conditions. A brick quarry in Paarl forms the site of this investigation. In a place characterized by a confrontation between people and the ground. A scar in the landscape, that begs to be addressed. Through the application of theoretic principles in the design process, a mediating architecture is uncovered.
Open Access
Over Growth: a metabolic densification of Cape Town
(2016) Saczek, Ted; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
Contemporary cities are experiencing unprecedented growth to cater for growing populations and immigration into urban centres. As a result cities are becoming increasingly densified especially in developing countries2. Densification, and the associated growth, provides many social and cultural benefits, but can lead to increased pollution, environmental degradation, the destruction of existing urban fabric, a lack of greenery, a lack of light to street level, unmanageably large, decaying buildings and increased pressures on infrastructure. This dissertation argues that the design of densified spaces is of utmost importance if we are to maintain a healthy operating space for humanity and the planet. Since before the industrial revolution our society has become governed by a mechanistic way of thinking that originates from technology and science. These thought patterns have shaped the way we design and perceive architecture globally. Many other aspects of society are also influenced by the same mechanistic thought, including our global economic system. This system focuses on indefinite growth; a goal that our finite planet cannot sustain. This paradigm suggests that new, complex approaches to city growth need to be considered to avoid impending disasters. Over Growth investigates various biological concepts that can be applied to densification. Metabolism is used to understand how Cape Town can become more socially and ecologically sound. It suggests that to retain its local character and multi-cultural identity new buildings should grow over valuable, existing urban fabric. The cell is used to interrogate basic increments of city growth. These range from from the scale of an urban block, to individual ERF sizes and to the basic units of the proposed architecture. Symbiosis suggests that cities can exist in harmony with the natural environment. City growth, as an organic process, facilitates the necessary shift away from rational, dualistic thinking towards more complex solutions. These ideas are applied to the South African context, and in particular, a site on Bree Street. Many cities in the developing world continue to aspire to the western models of development. The development of Cape Town is thus threatened by the predominant mechanistic worldview. Conversations with Gawie Fagan, an architect and occupant of the chosen site, gave insight into the city's future and its past, explained later. In general this process was open, collaborative and interdisciplinary to be congruent with the push towards complexity over mechanistic thinking. In short, I develop an approach to architecture that could most suitably alleviate the negative affects of densification in central Cape Town. These include: the deconstruction of spatial hierarchies by using the idea of cellularity to create a more diverse, inclusive social realm; the adaptation, configuration and tectonic of cells; the provision of structure, services and greening to accommodate future additions in a layered 'over growth' that is simultaneously occupied and under construction; and the malleability of the city's zoning regulations and its densification strategy.
Open Access
Ruin[ed] edge[iness] ruined landscape: Inverting and resurfacing the buried ruin with the scarred landscape
(2018) Kruger, Aimee Leah; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
This dissertation focuses on the Voortrekker road strip between Salt River Circle and the Black river. It is bounded by the railway lines on the western side, and the Black River and M5 elevated freeway bridge on the eastern side of the strip. The Voortrekker road bridge over the railway line creates a blatant disconnected neighbourly association. The area is currently in a state of decay, plagued by abandoned buildings and crime. Within this focus area I have highlighted 3 key sites of interest, both for their location adjacent to defining natural and man made boundary elements, as well as their state of neglect and ruin or being underutilized. The urban strategy of this project will attempt to uplift and transform this abandoned area by stitching together the two edges of the strip with a pedestrian orientated, contrasting intervention, that inverts the existing ruin, creating a series of relief spaces within this harsh environment. The architectural intervention would address each ruin by inverting them into public space with individual responses and programs, incorporating predominantly a mixed use transport orientated development with housing and rentable spaces above and retail/ market on ground floor. All the sites will use the same technological and structural approach of a light adaptive socially performing structural frame that connects this disconnected, scarred context. The buried, dark and grungy social & material context is thus resurfaced through this light, uplifting, vertical transition. This architectural transition also carefully uses structure and tactility, with walls that grow out of the existing ruined landscape and protect the site. The social user then inhabits this structure and controls or changes their own space to suit their needs within this new vertical spatial framework.
Open Access
Spatial overlay: valuing the existing through juxtaposition
(2018) Rohiman, Wazir; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
Adaptive reuse can be viewed as a catalytic process that upgrades an existing building into its current temporal reality. This process has given rise to the practice of facadism; a practice that operates in the middle ground between two extreme approaches of either preservation or complete destruction of an existing building. Preservation is concerned primarily with the keeping of the existing building in its intact form, architectural language, tectonic and spatial qualities. New programmes demand new spatial needs, the practice of preservation leaves very little space for major intervention to take place, remaining often unsatisfactory for the new uses of the building. On the other hand, the anti-preservationist's approach leads to total disregard of the existing whereby complete demolition is likely to take place. The practice of facadism locates itself in between these two approaches. While it serves its purpose of upgrading the existing architecture, this paradoxical practice is somewhat more deceptive than pristine preservation or complete demolition. The problematic issue is that it pretends to value and retain part of the building while ignoring the set of values of the whole that the existing building has to offer. More importantly, it erases the spatial and programmatic qualities of the existing while only considering the material and physical connection between the old and the new. ln the majority of cases, this results in a severe dismembering and the gut-removal of the existing building's internal elements. The upgrading of an existing building is bound to exert major changes that entirely transform the building's image. This reality is acknowledged and regarded as unavoidable throughout the dissertation. However, when the whole and the set of values of the existing are ignored, the new intervention creates a totally alien architecture that offer no substance that can relate to the existing building. This dissertation set out to find a dialogue between the old and the new, by respecting the old without compromising on the upgrade. The aim of this dissertation covers the process of space-making that relies primarily on taking the valued elements, whether physical, spatial or programmatic from the existing to drive the design of the new intervention forward. Unlike the practice of facadism, where the process emerges from design intentions that do not value the existing, the process employed in this design dissertation frames the existing building as the starting point of the design process. The new intervention therefore originates from the spatial overlay of the existing building, where the latter becomes the main input of the design process for the former. Since the practice of facadism does not value space, the emphasis for the spatial overlay is to find the right fit between maintaining spatial qualities of the existing while juxtaposing the requirements of the new design intervention.
Open Access
Tearing the envelope: from tunnel to tower industrial typology
(2018) Saville, Ivor; Papanicolaou, Stella; Louw, Mike
The following dissertation responds to the industrially significant Maitland/Salt River area of Cape Town, Western Cape. Over time, industrial stock has resulted in ruin due to the unpredictable reality of industry, and competing for business globally. Exploring the possibility of the area to be developed as an industrially significant urban quarter seeks to revive investment in existing industry. The revival requires a shift in business and architectural model that encourages adaptability through rethinking the scale of production/manufacture and tenancy. Current single tenancy models operate with a ground floor sprawling line of production, prioritising the machine in a controlled environment. This requires a rigid form of enclosure, defined in this research as the envelope. Research has suggested that the scale of manufacture should decrease, providing the opportunity of a hybrid, mixed-use industrial typology. The intention is to vacate space on an industrial site to cater for an interface with the public. Visual and physical connections with the local urban condition will allow the factory to contribute to the revived intention of industrial urbanism in the area. The Jensen Belts leather factory will be used as this study's existing building to be adapted. Currently the circulation of production and goods is isolated from the circulation of the public which results in the factory creating a black box surrounded by negative space in the city. Prioritising the circulation of goods creates an environment that is not conducive to human comfort - highlighting the sheltering priority of the existing factory, to house goods and not people. Focusing specifically on leather production, rethinking the connection between the circulation of goods and people establishes the industrially significant presence through the theatre of production in the city. The proposal of a future factory lies in rethinking the production line model to limit the amount of space it occupies - offering loose space for multiple tenancy. Multiple tenancy describes the hybrid typology proposed to cater for the varying needs of the Maitland context. These needs involve employment and upskilling, which are catered for in a responding Community Workshop Model. The first architectural investigation seeks to 'tear' the tightly sealed factory building envelope once the controlled production line model shifts. The second architectural enquiry is in the design of an adaptable vertical tower that houses the possible phases of needs in the typical industrial building life cycle. The tower is seen to anchor a hybrid community workshop program. The existing building and site constraints, tunnelling the production process, provides a platform to propose a strategy for a new, bold structure that shifts the program to prioritise the comfort of the user. In response to the existing controlled production line model that excludes the public, the new model seeks to expose the program to connect to the site's range of urban networks positively. The area offers a wealth of key infrastructural networks (M5 highway underpass, railway, Black River, West end of Voortrekker Road) that have resulted in spatial boundaries. With the interest of 'tearing' the factory building envelope for integration, the urban investigation seeks to establish ways of inhabiting and crossing these architectural and urban boundaries to foster connection.
Open Access
To reimagine the integration of public transport with high-density neighbourhoods
(2016) Terwin, Stephanie; Silverman, Melinda; Isaacs, Fadly; Louw, Mike
Transport is the network that moves people between places. It provides a means of access and opportunity. Transport routes in Cape Town have become expansive due to urban sprawl. There is an unjust spatial economy due to modern and apartheid planning. Poorer urban residents live far away from places of opportunity and are forced to travel long distances and spend a high percentage of their income on transport. Minibus taxis are the mode of transport best able to provide a flexible and on-demand service within this sprawling urban form. Public transport interchanges remain largely undeveloped and undesirable places. The concept of transit-oriented development (TOD) has the ability to transform these undesirable places into neighbourhoods of intensified mixed-use development, offering convenience, access and amenities to people who use the transport interchange or live nearby. The project involves the analysis of the transportation network in Delft, a rapidly transforming settlement 21 km from the inner city of Cape Town. Although the settlement is located far away from the historic city core, its main road follows an important desire line connecting Khayelitsha, a dense working-class neighbourhood and Belville, an important economic node. This has led to significant densification along Delft Main Road and people turning their homes into shops. Some 600 minibus taxis service the area because there is no high capacity train line or bus rapid transit (BRT) route. The project is sited within an important civic node in Delft and is well located to the R300, N2 and Symphony Way (regional roads). Taxis currently hover on the side of the street due to the people count in the area. The design is a public transport interchange and mixed-use - retail, residential and commercial - hub, which adopts transit-oriented development principles. The design proposal suggests an urban design framework that responds to the existing context, and a predicted idea of what the neighbourhood could become. lt aims to link the existing civic node to the new shopping mall development in a series of streets and active building edges. It responds to the life of the taxi by providing loading, holding, parking, servicing and washing areas. The taxi world evolves around the existing Caltex petrol station and Delft Main Road. The architecture responds to the current socio-economic context of Delft and how people currently inhabit space. The live-work unit provides flexibility for tenant and occupation mix, whilst contributing to the necessary density of the project. The dissertation explores how transportation can contribute to city building, economic activity and resi dential densification in an existing underserviced low-income suburb.

Browsing by Author "Louw, Mike"

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