Abstracts Law

infraTECTURE : transforming infrastructure into architecture, a services building in Pretoria CBD

by Ilse Behrens

How does one appropriately design a selfsufficient building in the existing urban fabric without damaging historical urban centres? The role of architecture is to adapt, to not only serve and support people but, also to support its context and surrounding architectures. Thus a new typology needs to be created, by designing the architecture of giving. By looking at how resources travel between and through buildings, one could start to re-address the nature of services within architecture, starting with the outer workings of infrastructure. Through experimenting with the potential of creating space & place as an architectural expression via the re-imaginative design of infrastructure, the existing urban fabric can be served in a sustaining manner. The design is of a services building housing a parkade for conventional and electrical cars and bicycles which generates its own energy, harvests and stores water for itself and surrounds, process waste and sewage and cycle on site resources. © 2010 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Behrens, I 2010, infraTECTURE : transforming infrastructure into architecture, a services building in Pretoria CBD , MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12092010-153956/ > C11/37/ag