Barren praise : an apiary as a placemaking interface in the post-industrial context

Abstract

The relation between industrial enclosures and their environments change in the post-industrial state, which causes a loss of orientation and identification of place. While the inherent character of such a place does not become thinned, it does however become encased in the remnants of industrial activity. The re-assessment, activation and interpretations of the transitions between industrial enclosures and their environments intend to bring the character of a place forward, and therefore emerges its seemingly vague placeness. The project proposal is situated on the periphery between the industrial and altered natural environment of Era Bricks, a dilapidated quarry which borders on industrial Silverton and Eersterust. The architectural intervention grapples with the transitions between the site’s dynamic environmental transformations and the static physicality of its structures. This exploration is manifested as an apiary and beekeeping facility, a formalised industry which cannot be fully contained. Translated into architecture, the dissertation suggests that beekeeping brings forward and reflects the ungraspable and imposing essence of the post-industrial terrain. Through the layered transitions of this programme, the terrain is aimed at becoming activated in its inherent sense of place.