Stormwater Park
What if the energy of the power lines could create new landscapes and uses? The aim of the project is to update Alrode Industrial Park by reinterpreting the unused buffer zones created by power lines and electric substations as a new utilitarian and recreational space. The project tackles the problem of storm water pollution by proposing a longitudinal park that treats, protects and regenerates the soil by managing the rain water while providing a recreational area for the workers of the industrial park.
Powerlines That Clean
Alrode, Johannesburg
What if the energy of the power lines could create new landscapes and uses? The aim of the project is to update Alrode Industrial Park by reinterpreting the empty buffer zones created by power lines and electric substations as a new utilitarian and recreational space. Manufacturing operations of the industries, its releases of heavy metals and oily wastes, have brought an apparently invisible problem that is poisoning the soil: storm water pollution. The difference of elevation in the terrain is used to propose a longitudinal Stormwater Park, a water treatment plant that cleans the polluted water before entering the wetlands that surround the township of Tokhoza.
Updating the network
Alrode, Johannesburg
In Alrode, the factories have covered large surfaces with asphalt pavement what makes the absorption of the rainwater back to the ground imposible and causes the drain system to collapse by floods and extra charge of water. The project proposes an update of the existing stormwater pipeline, with larger diameters that prevent the contamination of the soil by leaks or floods of polluted water. A stormwater treatment plant is also needed to treat the water that gets heavily contaminated by soluble pollutants. Finally, rain gardens treat stormwater industrial pollution in a small scale and allow the ground to re charge its aquifers.