Ephemeral Infrastructure
My project investigates the lives, processes, and landscapes of ‘Zama Zama’s’ or informal miners on Johannesburg’s West Rand. I use the concept of ‘ephemerality’ to reveal the intricate systems and practices of the Zama Zama and developed a design intervention that embraces informality while improving the environmental effects of mine waste.
My focus sharpened through the year on the environmental effects of abandoned mines and remining efforts – both formal and informal. I studied how close informal miners must settle to mine waste areas to access abandoned shafts efficiently. These areas are hazardous to human health but enable livelihoods. In response, I designed an ‘archetype’ – system of dust-catching and mitigating barriers that contain and filter toxic mine dust.
First, the abandoned mine waste area or mine dump is covered in a structure and membrane to limit dust from blowing off it. Under the membrane, the mine dump will be reprocessed and removed. This process will leave the structure of the membrane as a landscape memory of the mining mountain that once stood there. The system would also be applied to informal settlements in the mining areas and incorporate state-of-the-art air filtration and purification technology to remove dangerous airborne pollutants and produce a clean environment efficiently. These tensile forms are ephemeral and, in the landscape, demarcate the ebb and flow of miners as they work these dangerous sites.
