Palimpsest : derelict mines and architecture of archeology one hundred years from now

Abstract

The realities of the built past and the palimpsest-ic nature of activities on the African mining landscape is under critique. On a site where nature gives way to the man-made activity of platinum ore excavation and mineral extraction, the activity of mining essentially creates infrastructures of dust and filthy landscapes. Inserting a new architecture within this obliterated savannah landscape allows for a process of reclamation to take place. This project uses an abandoned mine site in Southern Africa and focuses on the environmental mitigation and civic development of the site adjacent to the existing mining town of 40,000 inhabitants. The derelict mineshafts serve as infrastructure for a new civic space of scenic agrarian routes and programmed enclosures: auction floors, warehouses, residential short-stay rooms, water purification systems, mineral baths, crop rotational schemes, research labs and a museum space.