Volatile Landscape

From oral history to body art, the body is simply another surface, much like any other, into which culture is carved, sculpted, cut, patterned and tattooed. In this context, skin acquires depth, becoming a “thick space” in which memory, history, tradition and testimony are literally inscribed.’ LESLEY LOKKO

The major design project, Volatile Landscapes, is an attempt to ‘un-do’ the architecture of the Kimberley mining landscape and its subsequent toxic geologies. Imagined as a mythology of the landscape, the project unravels as a narrative played out in 4 key ‘anti-architecture’ interventions, each of which uses seasonal shifts – veld fire, rain, flood and germination – to activate the interventions and in so doing, un-do the toxic effects of the industrial landscape.