A reservoir urban living room - increasing water relatedness in Marabastad

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate how architecture can improve water literacy and, thus, water conservation and security, by bringing the user closer to the building’s water processes and systems. The programmatic function of the building is an urban living room. Here, the dwellers of the adjacent social housing development – about 3000 people – will be provided amenities for mostly recreational purposes. Furthermore, the tens of thousands of people who travel into Pretoria CBD daily for various government services, will be provided with a place to pause, linger, and perhaps have something to eat. The architectural exploration aims to empower the user through the provision of basic water services and surrounding secondary services, whilst at the same time enhancing the everyday user’s relationship with, and reverence of, water. The two main water resources that will be focused on are rain roof water and storm water. In an urban context where storm water runoff is currently treated as a destructive force and the water is discarded as quickly as possible from the city, the project will endeavor to harness this resource and utilise it to enhance the architecture. Similarly, roof rainwater will also be collected and utilised. The project will invite water into the building in various ways that enhance the climatic conditions within the building. Unlike in the traditional manner of waterproofing and keeping the water out of the building, these enhancing processes will be made visible to the users of the building in order to increase their understanding. This dissertation endeavors to add to the large body of research into the global quest for water security, underpinning itself in the context of the Marabastad, Pretoria.