THE ‘ADAPTIVE’ CITY - By transforming residual infrastructure, an industrial ruin, into an urban agricultural centre
The project investigates the adaptive re-use potential of an existing Johannesburg (South Africa) landmark, the decommissioned power station in Orlando, Soweto, while also looking at the relationship between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’. It proposes an intervention that makes use of the sites existing infrastructure and contaminated natural environment, turning it into a productive facility again.
Of particular interest are the ideas of agriculture and cultivation in an urban context. At one level, the Orlando Power Station can be read as a ‘power farm’ and in its present state of abandonment and dilapidation; it has ceased to be productive, after it was decommissioned in 1998 due to its inefficiency.
On the morning of the 26th of June 2014, marked the collapse of the iconic building as a result of ongoing looting of structural members. The collapse prompted me to rethink the design concept from a parasitic architecture to a symbiotic relationship between the architecture and existing structures.
By developing an understanding of the heritage values, community importance, historical relevance, nature of proposed reuse and condition of the site and the natural ecology, made the site a viable adaptive reuse project.
Through the adaption and reuse of the existing infrastructure and the sites current condition, my project reinstates a productive landscape, through the cultivation of algae for the production of biofuel, to assist in the supply of fuel to the local transport system, predominantly the taxi industry.
