Context-Appropriate Industrial Repurposing
My project tackles premature deindustrialisation in South Africa and argues for a local-scale industrial model to help reindustrialise cities and improve labour and productivity. Based in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, I extract spatial use data to inform the programming of the new crafts and technology-based sustainable industrial system.
My proposition is a new manufacturing system inserted within old, small-scale industrial buildings. The new hybrid building houses a crafts and technology-based sustainable industrial system. To ensure the success of the proposition, I’ve ensured that my project becomes a part of Fordsburg providing an impetus to local, small-scale manufacturing and trade within the area.
My design strategy drew inspiration from the existing industrial materials and structural systems used in Fordsburg, which I scale and twist into a new contrasting industrial form that while new and different embodies a reference to historical building practice.
