Abstract:
The industrial age has left behind many urban spaces and buildings frozen in time. The city
of Bilbao tackled the issue by commissioning famous architect, Frank Gehry, to design an
award winning branch of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. This single injection into the
urban tissue saved the city from economic and cultural depression by boosting the tourism
industry.
This dissertation investigates and deconstructs “The Bilbao Effect” to better understand
and replicate it’s successes in Pretoria West. The theoretical approach led to the redesign of
the existing show-grounds in Pretoria West. The landscape intervention is an abstraction
of the greater community by capturing and celebrating a very typical industrial and agricultural
built form. The design caters for numerous events, shows, and expositions to take
place and attract people from all parts of South Africa to recreate the Bilbao Effect in order
to essentially regenerate Pretoria West.
