Eastern Exodus : utilizing light industrial typology as a vehicle for economic and urban regeneration in Pretoria West

Abstract

The project set out to investigate the potential of using the light industrial typology as a vehicle for economic and urban regeneration in the western part of Pretoria CBD, which is home to a substantial number of light industrial zoned lots, but has experienced persistent urban blight in recent years. The presence and clustering of light industrial facilities in this part of the city and this urban blight, revealed a correlation between the industrial typology and the persistence of urban blight, owing to a light industrial typology which has become a building block for anonymous and placeless urban environments. The project investigates how these qualities make industrial spaces prone to exclusion from urban developments and create conditions that lead to industrial gentrification - which leads to the loss of industrial jobs, particularly high value manufacturing in the city of Pretoria. With the high local youth unemployment, the return of local manufacturing, its preservation and further development could aid in alleviating this challenge, hence developing industrial spaces which are sensitive to place is crucial in creating enabling environments for local young manufacturers. The project also explores the potential of connecting manufacturing spaces with spaces of cultural production, to create liveable, inclusive spaces which offer economic opportunities to a demographic that could potentially fall into urban poverty. Place-making, regenerative, and critical regionalist concepts are used to develop an incarnation of the light industrial typology which is tailored to the Pretoria Urban context, but also functions within the global technological and economic scope.