Cellumorphology
Swelihle Njokwe
M1
Supervisors:
Dr. Finzi Saidi, Jabu Absalom Makhubu, Dickson Adu Agyei, Mandy Schindler, Prof Antonio Tomas
Unit:
15 X- Remembering public Space
The design research explores the relationship between architecture, nature and biology. It aims to investigate the potential for architecture to serve as a catalyst for site regeneration, specifically in a landscape that is undervalued in its current condition. The design, located in the lower reaches of the Msimbazi river in the mangrove swamp, explores wetland rehabilitation and cultural program stabilization, by viewing the site as a cell or biological organism that becomes part of the bigger body or tissue and forms part of the dynamic ecological system in ecological landscape. The boundary has been selected as means of architectural engagement, and the layers of the site are explored their potential to create identity.
The proposed program comprises of an architecture of inhabited site works, that embodies the process of water filtration, using water from Msimbazi river that flows through a number of layers including Pugu Hills and Forest. Natural ecosystems are restored through the cultivation of endangered wetland plants, the Mangrove Tree, in controlled growing beds for wetland rehabilitation on the site. Filtered water from the wetland, flushed down stream, is used by the surroudings to water the plants and mostly is toxic due to sewage and other toxins.
The conventional typology of landscape of production is augmented through public interaction, which will help formulate a desirable provision of public amenities. These include healthy food market, public park as well as a wetland recreational park.
This account seeks to show with evidence that through the creation of a regenerative landscape that facilitates public interaction, value can be given to an under appreciated site, by establishing identify by borrowing from small organisms, from within a cell to ant size and to