Architecture as a living machine - a 21st century textile mill
By: Heidi van Eeden
The project is an investigation of the potential of industry as urban catalyst – a mechanism with which to regenerate urban environments and re-integrate fragmented socio-ecological systems.
In an attempt to redefine modern concepts of waste and mitigate the flood of pollution emanating from 20th century industrialisation, the investigation is focused on the re-structuring of the textile industry, and is contextually based in an ‘urban wasteland’ – the Daspoort Wastewater and Sewage treatment Works.
By contextualising the investigation in a sewage treatment plant, the project finds value in the ‘wasteland’- and proves that similar sites may be re-integrated with the urban fabric of our cities. As open space is becoming an increasingly rare commodity in the 21st century city, Machinarium attempts to re-define the cultural biases associated with waste treatment and reprograms the site as a socio-ecological urban space, useful not only to treat waste, but also to generate power, grow food, harvest water and other resources, host industrial and productive activity, and serve both as social space and ecological habitat.
The site is re-programmed to integrate with its surrounding social context (the semi-rural neighbouring Marabastad), as well as with its surrounding natural context (the Apies River green belt), and architectural interventions are introduced to form an industrial ecology on site - an architectural system which simulates the natural logic of ecosystems to form closed-loop interactions between the sewage plant and the newly-introduced textile mill. Consequently, waste water and other effluents is harvested from the sewage plant and is redirected to the Mill, where it is used to manufacture textiles, generate power, and produce algae-based dyes. |
A link to the full dissertation |