Project Global: Ground


This exploration of our current day metropolitan condition as a system of systems deals with the crust of the Earth as a primary carrying capacitor of human activities, from the extraction of resources deep within the ground, to agricultural operations that barely scratch the surface.

Part 1: Lexicon

Part 2: Atlas

Part 3: Architectural Projects


Part 2: Atlas index

︎ Extraction
    ︎ Macro-economy
    ︎ Totems
    ︎ I. Gold
    ︎ II. Coal/Power   
    ︎ III. Water
    ︎ IV. Platinum
    ︎ Network

︎ Off-cycle
    ︎ Tailing Index
        ︎ Gold
        ︎ Platinum Group Metal
        ︎ Coal
        ︎ Chrome
        ︎ Vanadium
        ︎ Fluorite
        ︎ Diamond
    ︎ Mine Waste Landscape
    ︎ Case Study 1: Gold
    ︎ Case Study 2: Diamond
    ︎ Case Study 3: PMG
    ︎ Case Study 4: Fluorite
    ︎ Case Study 5: Coal
    ︎ Impact Air
    ︎ Impact: Ground
    ︎ Impact: Water

︎ Capacity
    ︎ Cashbuild for your backyarding needs!
    ︎ Material Proximity
    ︎ Township’s Evolution
    ︎ Townships’ Formation
    ︎ Nodes and Corridors
    ︎ Policy Resistance
    ︎ Township Renewal
    ︎ Infrastructure Density
    ︎ Regulated Infrastructure
    ︎ Pressure Points
    ︎ Shack Catalog

︎ Private Archipelagos
    ︎ Private Archipelagos
    ︎ Company Town
    ︎ Extended Networks
    ︎ Unstable Terrain
    ︎ Industrial Park
    ︎ Parallel Connections
    ︎ Industrial Pollution
    ︎ Planned City
    ︎ Commute Network
    ︎ On Site Resources
    ︎ Buffer Zone
    ︎ Informal Commerce

︎ Productive Land
    ︎ Exports vs Imports   
    ︎ Agricultural Land   
    ︎ Imports vs Exports
    ︎ Distribution
    ︎ Orchards
    ︎ Crops
    ︎ Livestock
    ︎ Game Farms
    ︎ Poultry
    ︎ Informal Trade

︎ Cultural Landscape

    ︎ Street Trees Distribution
    ︎ Golf Courses 1
    ︎ Game & Nature Reserves
    ︎ Trees Species Catalog
    ︎ Golf Courses 2
    ︎ Dinokeng Game Reserve 1
    ︎ Botanical Garden
    ︎ Jackal Creek Golf
    ︎ Dinokeng Game Reserve 2
    ︎ Herbarium
    ︎ Golf Courses 3
    ︎ Specificity



Macro-Economy

South Africa


South Africa’s economy is reliant on technological and industrial logics that extract natural resources for sale on the global market. Using gold as a starting point, the network of infrastructures, auxiliary industries, and services that have formed to support gold extraction are studied. Gold - and other mineral - exportation is dominated by multinational corporations who together form the “Minerals Council of South Africa '' that sell to foreign nations and to the South African Gold reserves which stores gold in foreign bank reserves. Gold is increasingly difficult to mine in South Africa despite rising global prices, but it remains culturally important as the foundation of the national export-driven economic model.