The Healthy School

Westfort Work Incubator: a historical leprosy colony in transition

The Westfort Leprosy Colony in Pretoria, South Africa, was built by the <i>Department Publieke Werken</i> of the <i>Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek</i> in 1898-1898 under supervision of the Dutch architect Sytze Wopkes Wierda. It is the only leprosy colony of its kind that is still (almost) intact. It is part of to the national history of South...

Property development in South Africa

Investigating the Employment Impacts of Renewable Energy in South Africa

This dissertation aims to contribute towards the research on just transitions by providing insight into the extent of the employment impacts caused by a potential energy transition in South Africa. South Africa is in the process of transforming its electricity mix. The majority of electricity is currently sourced from coal-fired power plants....

Landmark of meeting

Good Hope (Memorial) Park: A future for dissonant heritage, a design for hope and democracy

This thesis and design explores the dissonance of the 17th century heritage object of the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. The research explains the theme of dissonant heritage together with an excerpt of the South African national history in part one. Part two explains the changes of the Castle over time, as military landscape, as object in a...

Introducing a recycled building component: A first step towards sustainable and adequate informal housing in South Africa

This research focuses on the unofficial neighbourhoods on the boarders of South African Cities. The informal settlements are quickly built by unskilled hands on foreign land without any form of planning, supervision or legislation. The self-constructed houses lack of daylight, ventilation and water tightness. This results in poor, unsafe and...

Climate Adaptation under Uncertainty: A novel decision scaling approach to assess climate vulnerability in the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, South Africa

Managing water resources for the future is challenging, given the wide range of climatic and hydrological uncertainty. To support decision makers in formulating robust adaptation plans and finding their way through the broad range of available climate data and models, decision scaling was introduced: an approach for bottom-up climate...

Domestic thresholds: Towards re-engendering the erased street life of District Six

This project focuses on the layered history and current situation of District Six in Cape Town, South Africa, which saw forced removals and demolition of non-white residents' homes under the apartheid regime. With only 108 families being allowed to return over the last 55 years later, this project looks at the impact of restitution housing and...

Westfort Park: a strategy for a community upgrade

The former leprosarium Westfort in South Africa is a very valuable place, but under pressure because of the poor squatters using the institution grounds as living place and the urban sprawl of Pretoria, reaching the borders of the site. A plan for the current community and the heritage structures is needed to secure its future. My plan is based...

The analysis of prototype measurements concerning the behaviour of moored ships in long waves

In the past decades several numerical models were developed to predict the behaviour of moored ships in waves. They are referred to as Six Degrees of Freedom models. These models need quite detailed input data. For the planning phase of a port or an offshore facility, a need has grown for a model which estimates the ship's behaviour and possible...

Umhlanga Rocks coastal defense

The eThekwini coastline is a vulnerable coastline subject to chronic erosion and damage due to sea level rise. In 2007 a severe storm caused major physical and economic damage along the coastline, proving the need for action. Umhlanga Rocks is a densely populated premium holiday destination on the eThekwini coastline suffering from similar...

Modelling nourishments through the Durban piers: Research of sediment transport and surf conditions

The Durban bight has a very dynamic and variable coastline which is constantly under attack by the Indian Ocean. To protect the Durban harbour from this energetic ocean, already in 1855 breakwaters have been constructed to protect the harbour and prevent sedimentation inside. The construction of these breakwaters and eventually extending these...

Project Ladysmith

Ladysmith, a small city in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) had to deal with severe floods in the past. To prevent the city against floods like this, the Ladysmith Flood Protection Scheme was implemented in 1998. After the implementation of this scheme, there were still some floods. The goal of this project is to identify the causes of the floods...