Courtney Maher

The climate crisis is becoming a pressing issue all over the world impacting everyone on a global scale. Among these impacts generated by the climate crisis is the ever so pressing food crisis, specifically brewing in South Africa. Already as it stands food security in South Africa is an issue with the large unemployment rate, in which it specifically hits lower income communities and areas far more than most.

The site chosen is located in Honeydew, South Africa. It finds itself in the ‘in-between’ or ‘the void’ as I have defined, as it is simply unable to identify itself within a specific typology. The site itself stands neglected, unused and undermaintained. The deeply complex and vast community that surrounds the site provides it with an essence of disposition. A site which resembles the idea of heterotopia, non-place and placeless.

In response to the placelessness of the site and the climate and food crisis as a whole, the project aims to deal with a sustainable reactivation of the neglected site as a potential magnetic hub of connecting surrounding communities together through agriculture. With few employment opportunities, agriculture itself is an incredibly common method for not only growing one’s own produce but also selling it. South Africans are known for creating employment opportunities through their own entrepreneurial strategies, so to encourage a space that provides education, retail opportunities and community involvement would allow those to have the resources to follow through with these strategies. The project specifically aims to connect with its direct community members from the retirement village and the RDP village with the hopes of creating a space that could be utilized and beatifical for both. At the same time, it also has the opportunity to aid in terms of the food crisis and education issues in South Africa, the project intentionally works towards positively impacting the global climate crisis and the design considers not only education and agriculture but also the various ways in which a building can be good to the environment and give back.

The project strives to create a sense of place within the ‘placeless’.