The Garden Is Us

Abstract

Poetic dwelling, both as the perception of and engagement with the environment, has predominantly been lost in contemporary society. As a result, the earth had become an ‘inexhaustible inventory’ in the eyes of the dweller, resulting in a culture that merely consumes without giving anything of itself. In response to a Regenerative approach to the making of architecture, the dissertation combines the theories of Robert. P. Harrison and Martin Heidegger, in that poetic dwelling finds its extension in the form of building, and its fulfillment in the garden. The design aims to facilitate the healing of both people and environment on a site scarred by the consumer model of modern industry, and does so on a derelict brick quarry site in Monument Park, Pretoria.