Refuse exchange: the design of of waste management and recycling facility for the 5th avenue, Walmer waste tip in Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay Metro
- Authors: Hunter, Casey Lauren
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Refuse disposal facilities -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Waste disposal sites -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/38808 , vital:34975
- Description: Our cities can be viewed as urban mines, full of resources that already exist within the urban fabric. This treatise focuses on the design of a recycling facility to be used as a tool for metabolising waste and separating it into valuable resources. It then goes further into the uses of waste and its up-cycling in the realms of (I would say industrial products, arts and crafts and even in the fabric of architecture. The treatise aims to perpetuate Regenerative Sustainability and its application in design and architecture. It tries to understand the impact waste has on social, economic and environmental aspects of the community and how the better management of waste can positively affect these aspects of modern urban life. The study is separated into two parts. The first part is research into the topic and the second part is the application of this research into the design. The research section is broken down into two main chapters that investigate various issues and processes relating to the nature of the program and the nature of the site. The main focus of part two is on the conceptual development that will lead to a final design. Chapter one is an introduction to the theoretical discourse to be discussed in this project. It also discuses the connotations, history and development in waste management. Chapter two discusses the various programmatic concerns relating to the Waste Management and Recycling Facility and a paradigm shift towards integrated infrastructural development in an urban environment. Chapter three analyses site criteria to choose a site best suited to this program. It then analyses precedent studies of projects done in similar contextual environments. Through this a conclusion is made about the nature of the site. It considers how this project can be developed from the organising elements and the opportunities for improvement and the re-scripting of the site. The final chapter of part two explains the process used to arrive at a final design. It starts with the development of an urban intervention and the vision for the project. It goes on to explain the nature of the spaces in the facility, their various connections and locations in relation to the site and other related spaces. This chapter then develops the plan and physical form as well as the tectonic and materials to be implemented in the facility. The themes of the project are to [RE] cycle, [RE]cover, [RE]manufacture and [RE]materialise. Recycle refer to the program of the building and the physical act of separating waste. Recover refers to the way the facility will try to extract energy and useful resources from the waste stream such as biogas, electricity and fertiliser from anaerobic digesters. Thirdly, remanufacture refers to the up-cycling of waste in order to improve its value by transforming it into art, crafts and even building materials. Finally, the ultimate goal of the project is to rematerialise the connotations of waste in society, changing its perception from a dirty, unwanted by-product of society to a minefield of possibilities.
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- Date Issued: 2016
“Just trying to live our lives”: gay, lesbian and bisexual students’ experiences of being “at home” in university residence life
- Authors: Munyuki, Chipo Lidia
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Homosexuality and education -- South Africa , Gay students , Lesbian students , Bisexual students , Transsexual students , Student housing , Discrimination in higher education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2893 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020341
- Description: Higher education in South Africa is faced with a paramount task to help erode the social and structural inequalities that have been inherited from the Apartheid system (Department of Education 1997; Council on Higher Education 2000:12). The findings from the Soudien Report (2008:116-117) point out that the post-Apartheid higher education system in South Africa is characterised by various forms of discrimination and institutional cultures that marginalise some members of institutions resulting in pervasive feelings of alienation. In the South African higher education field, the concept of a “home” for all has been used by a variety of commentators to depict a vision of what transformed, inclusive higher education institutional cultures might look like. In this thesis, I interpret the experiences of residence life on the part of gay, lesbian and bisexual students on a largely residential campus. I ask how gay, lesbian and bisexual students experience being “at home” in the campus’s residence system. The thesis is based on 18 in-depth qualitative interviews with students who self-identify as gay/lesbian or bisexual who have experienced residence life on the campus for a period longer than six months. A wide literature exists on the concept of “home”. Drawing from many different disciplines including anthropology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology, architecture and sociology, I distil the essential features of “at homeness” as incorporating comfort, privacy, security, acceptance, companionship and community. The research was concerned to inquire into how central the idea of home is to human flourishing and then into how gay, lesbian and bisexual students are routinely denied many of the essential comforts associated with being “at home” that heterosexual students have the privilege of taking for granted.
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- Date Issued: 2016