Stripped - a vehicle disassembly plant

Abstract

The key theme of this research document is the negative impact of an increasingly expanding motor vehicle industry. The urban infrastructure and dependence on individual transportation has become an integral part of everyday life for many. Continual growth in the numbers of new automobiles within cities has resulted in the disposal of old and broken (end-of-life) automobiles. This dissertation investigates the potential of industrial architecture in assisting with the regulation of waste management through adaptive re-use of lost spaces and materials. The main objectives include recycling, recycling-awareness and education, re-use of materials, architecture promoting low embodied energy products, the production of energy and social consolidation. Due to the high embodied energy of automobiles, the different range of materials used and the availability of discarded automobiles found within the surrounding industrial area of Pretoria West, a study of the recycling of automobiles will form the central theme for this dissertation. A Vehicle Disassembly Plant, which would be located within the Pretoria West Industrial Area – West of the City of Tshwane CBD, would, by means of waste management, form the basis of the architectural intervention.