Undermining

Secret Secondary Undermining Operations

Nadine Mantle

BArch 2021

Supervisors:
Unit Leader: Dr Finzi Saidi
Unit Leader: Jabu Makhubu
Unit Tutor: Dickson Adu-Agyei
Unit Tutor: Mathebe Aphane
Unit Assistant: Nomalanga Mahlangu

UNIT 15X^︎︎︎
Toxic [Urban] Landscapes

The purpose of the project is to establish a new sustainable economy, utilising the old in conjunction with a new vision – developing long-term thinking about how mines could turn into functional spaces once they are decommissioned. Exploring how the infrastructure below (the decommissioned mine) could lend itself a new meaning, creating possibilities of combining history from springs, the present and sustainable future. Re-awakening the hustle of the underground world during the mining era and resurrecting life underground.

In order to disguise the illegal activity below surface, a façade is created above ground, an idealistic environment transporting one to a normal everyday space: a market setup where local designers – from clothing to pottery – come to sell their products; a manufacturing centre where production of jewellery can be practiced by local designers, thus creating a connection between two worlds that exist on their own. The project will propose a utopia that camouflages the existing activities happening underground.

Keywords:
Undermining, Utopia, Connection, Re-awakening

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