- Title
- The design of an internet sever facility in central, Port Elizabeth
- Creator
- Binda, Mathew Ryan
- Subject
- City planning -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Urban renewal -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Subject
- Land use, Urban -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Central places -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Date Issued
- 2016
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/18762
- Identifier
- vital:28720
- Description
- The concepts underlying this treatise develop from an observation of contemporary society’s inherent reliance on technology, its growing popularity as an information exchange mechanism and Africa’s lack of connection to it’s foundation, the internet. Human interaction with digital technology, supported by the internet, has created a new social culture which manifests meaning through visual and virtual cues. These make reference to place and are experienced as real and individual, relating to theories such as Heidegger’s imagined place (Heidegger 1971). In order to enhance Southern Africa’s connection with the global network of the internet, the design of an Internet Server Facility will bridge previously under-utilized international lines into the country at Port Elizabeth engaging with the existing infrastructural system. At this point of connection the infrastructural zone impedes the extension of a public environment. The design seeks to challenge the conception of the highway infrastructure in Port Elizabeth as objects that dehumanise space. It intends to emphasise structure and building as a set of processes or systems able to work together to enable not only the functional aspects of data infrastructure, but also respond to the urban fabric providing a multitude of spatial environments that engage with everyday human activity. Investigations of the previous impact of infrastructure which has been layered onto the edge of Port Elizabeth’s historical core, reveal the stripping of it’s place-making qualities over time, resulting in an urban wasteland. In considering the placement of an infrastructural system, an existing vacant space that forms part of the current infrastructure is more appropriate than using up other urban spaces. In its response, the system would need to respond to its urban environment in a way that infrastructure has previously failed to do in this area, due to its position adjacent to the CBD. For this reason the design is concerned with the urban rejuvenation of the scarred landscape and a design strategy for the development of a contemporary digital infrastructural system, capable of not only being a non-evasive to the urban environment but also a catalyst in the creation of physical and digital place-making in the public realm.
- Format
- 121 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Arts
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | The design of an internet sever facility in central, Port Elizabeth | 189 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |