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



Private Archipelagos

Gauteng is home to more than a quarter of the country’s population with approximately 15 million people. It is the financial hub of Africa as it contains the administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large areas such as Johannesburg and Sandton. However this financial center is shifting northwards through private developments. Since the discovery of gold, private development have been growing, starting from company towns for the mine workers to industrial hubs created along the main circulation networks to the establishment of private cities, that is to say, gated communities located within an even larger enclosed territory. The trend towards privatization has been growing since 1994, both due to the growth of industry and the search for secure environments, leading to an increasingly segregated City. Three case studies -Company towns, industrial Parks and Planned cities- have been analyzed to understand how they have impacted and are co-dependent of their surroundings. The research has revealed conditions in which the formal and informal come together at the intersection between public and private.






Company Town

Industrial Park

Planned Settlement



Private Archipelagos

Gauteng


Gauteng is home to more than a quarter of the country’s population with approximately 15 million people. It is the financial hub of Africa as it contains the administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large areas such as Johannesburg and Sandton. However this financial center is shifting northwards through private developments. Since the discovery of gold, private development have been growing, starting from company towns for the mine workers to industrial hubs created along the main circulation networks to the establishment of private cities, that is to say, gated communities located within an even larger enclosed territory. The trend towards privatization has been growing since 1994, both due to the growth of industry and the search for secure environments, leading to an increasingly segregated City. Three case studies -Company towns, industrial Parks and Planned cities- have been analyzed to understand how they have impacted and are co-dependent of their surroundings. The research has revealed conditions in which the formal and informal come together at the intersection between public and private.


Company Town

Company Town

Carletonville, Merafong Municipality


Company towns are residential complexes that come fit with the basic services, developed by the mining company and adjacent to the sources of extraction. There are several types, for the black workers they are called compounds or hostels, are unisex, gated and are located within the mining premises. For the white or mixed race workers better quality residences are provided outside of the premises and are ungated. Carletonville was selected as a case study for being the area with the deepest gold mines in the World, with up to six different mining companies operating independently, of which many remain active today. Around the area, multiple other types of settlements have surfaced to support the industry, and provide more modern forms of housing, such as the townships (Khutsong and Wadeville) and gated communities. In 2013, the mining company of Blyvooruitzicht closed operations and left the settlements around it that depended on their electricity, water, security and maintenance services, vulnerable. This led to the growth of informal settlements and criminal activity in the area, until 2020, when operations resumed.