Minimal means of making place
Master Thesis
2016
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University of Cape Town
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This dissertation introduced a minimal means approach to architectural interventions in the landscape of the Western Cape. Learning from land artists such as Robert Smithson and Robert Morris, an intervention is powerful when experienced in isolation. The intervention supercharges the landscape, enabling the participant to notice things they might have overlooked otherwise. Simultaneously, when there are too many interventions, the dialogue they have with their surrounding environment becomes diluted. It proposed the idea that architecture is a means with which people interact with their environment. People make place by using what the land has Io offer and curate a place in relation to the surrounding landscape. Looking at the way people lay claim to the land, and in particular make place with boundaries, lies at the heart of the research. The place-making theories of Martin Heidegger and Christian Norberg-Schulz were not negated, but rather reconsidered in the landscape of the Western Cape, outside of the metropole. This research focuses on Kleinmond, a small-scale fishing town along the Western Cape coastline, which originated with fishermen settling along a small indent in the coastline, where conditions invite fishing activities. It was suggested that the land could only be exploited to a certain extent that is determined by the constitution thereof. The manner in which the urban fabric in Kleinmond has developed over the years has deprived civilians of a dialogue with the ocean. The project sought to redefine this relationship by making place through physical and implied boundaries with minimal means of intervention. The existing rhythms present in this environment: the fishermen's daily routine, the rhythm of the tides, the seasonality of the wetland water as well as the coming and going of visitors, were informants to the approach to the site. It was sought to redefine Kleinmond as a place worth dwelling in by proposing a building that acts as an end towards the harbour, as well as an edge for the slipway while offering amenity to an under-utilised site.
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Swanepoel, S. 2016. Minimal means of making place. University of Cape Town.