Paradox Landscape

A void in networks, break in connections, closed-open space and unsafe terrain – an epicentre of paradoxes and opportunities. As topographically and topologically dynamic landscapes, landfills exist as a unique paradox of public space which is not easily accessible or visible to the public which created them.

The final resting place for most refuse/solid waste, landfills, have become underappreciated and often an overlooked form of public space. The contemporary perception of landfills, and refuse disposal, is that these landscapes should be concealed from public observation. This perception removes the link, and subsequent understanding, of where the waste that they create goes to ‘die’.

Studio AT Denver

Creating Architecture that has the DNA of the whole, in every part - a fractal.

As a seed contains all the information to become a tree, within itself, growing over time defined by external conditions, so can architecture.

Concept

Infrastructure and Agency

Agency is the capacity of an agent - a person or entity - to act. This capacity does not imply a specific moral dimension to the ability to make the choice to act, therefore moral agency is a distinctly different concept. In sociology, an agent is an individual that engages with a social structure (Wilson and Sphall 2002).

Looking at agency in infrastructure, within a neighbourhood scale context in Johannesburg, one could see the prevalent Trolley Pullers as infrastructural agents. These agents are also transient as traverse the context of the neighbourhood collecting recyclable goods. If they were provided with the necessary tools and incentive to collect the fallen leaves as they walk their daily routes, one would be integrating a new infrastructure into an existing one - thus increasing efficiency.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the elementary physical and/or organisational system required for the functioning of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. It could be generically defined a system of interconnected elements that provide a framework for the support of a structure of development (O'Sullivan and Sheffrin, 2003:474).

Infrastructure is typically referred to as the technical structures which support a society, namely roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, etc., and can be further defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions" (Fulmer 2009:30).

From a practical perspective, infrastructure promotes the production of goods and services, all the way through to the distribution of complete products to markets. Rudimentary social services, such as schools and hospitals, also benefit from infrastructure.

'Hard' infrastructure refers to the physical networks necessary for societies/neighbourhoods to function, whereas 'soft' infrastructure refers to institutions which are required to maintain the economic, health, and cultural and social standards of a country, such as the financial system, the education system, the health care system, the system of government, and law enforcement, as well as emergency services.