Abstract
M.Tech. (Architectural Technology)
A memorial to Main Reef Road.
The city of Johannesburg was founded with the discovery of gold along the gold reef, which runs
approximately parallel to Main Reef Road. The foundation of the city of gold is now a forgotten
landscape. The miners, who descended deep into the earth's crust to harvest this valuable commodity,
are also forgotten. In an attempt to memorialise the foundation of Johannesburg and its ancestors, I
dove deeper in understanding the life of a miner. A miner who emerges from the darkness of beneath
and submerges back into the darkness. How do they cross the threshold between the underground
and the above ground, between darkness and light? A miner navigating through tunnels upon
tunnels, darkness within darkness, can be likened to the metaphorical tunnels of the fast-paced
lifestyle of the residents of Johannesburg, navigating to and from destinations, never-ending.
It is useful to understand the process adopted methodology, before commencing reading this
portfolio. This portfolio is a journey of discovery. A journey which started with a literal two day
long bus trip along Main Reef Road. We were allowed to soak up the context and reflect on the
concepts of mining, infrastructure and memorial. We then generated a series of collages and
intuitive drawings mapping our experiences and understanding of Main Reef Road, its past, present
and potential future. The drawings were then translated into 3-dimensional models and CAD
drawings which reflect an even richer understanding of the road. The processes up to this point
were the generation of a rich conceptual premise, which resulted in the site finding us. By trusting
intuition to guide this process we were able to locate ourselves on sites of complete relevance to
our themes. Thereafter a series of on-site drawings were generated, where a deeper understanding
of context and the potential for architecture were realised. These intuitive drawings informed a
3-dimensional, physical, model realization of an abstract architecture. The lessons learnt up to
this point were then generated into a complete scheme which is deeply rooted in the history of
Johannesburg, Main Reef Road, and more specifically, linked to our individual sites. Furthermore,
a complete understanding of the scheme can only be achieved through referring to Appendix A
(History and Theory Dissertation).