How can the architecture of an urban living room, in the form of a regenerative performed arts and market intervention, stimulate the sustainable development of urban communities in Pretoria?

​

This dissertation investigates the practice of regional architectural to express and develop a sustainable architectural identity within the dilapidated city landscapes of Pretoria. Revitalisation of the urban environment is enabled by creating opportunities for social and economic interaction within the public realm and supporting it with architectural design solutions aimed at mediating oppressive and restrictive boundaries.

​

Regional architecture is critical about its relationship with its context and environment, the source and impact of materials on the environment and local economy  and the establishment of appropriate built urban interventions that will enhance social cohesion within communities. This definition makes regional architecture in theory compatible with sustainability in architecture.

​

The intention of the architectural intervention is to mediate the boundaries between the expected redevelopment of Marabastad and the Pretoria CBD. This is done by developing existing and predicted pedestrian routes through the addition of infrastructure to facilitate new public leisure and recreation activities around urban waterways and to articulate existing informal markets along these routes.  The architecture is to act as precedent for expected future developments, stimulating a contemporary architectural identity for Marabastad that is sustainable.

The construction of the intervention is simple in nature. A series of brick walls articulate the horizontal thresholds while a habitable steel roof accommodates the more intimate programmes of the intervention and provides shelter to the public realm. Towards the urban edge the structure dissolves to become a steel structure elevated over a horizontal market plane, allowing for unhindered pedestrian access to and from Marabastad.