FERDINAND LE GRANGE
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA
Prospect Portal: A Layered Landscape
The thesis focuses on Village Main No. 1
Shaft which represents one of the last remaining
examples of mining architecture from the 1886
Johannesburg gold rush. It is emblematic of
the issues faced by sites of industrial heritage.
This dissertation investigates architecture’s
role as a potential mediator between polluted
natural systems and latent industrial architecture
through exploring the combination of heritage and
environmental theories. In so doing, it develops an
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archetype for a new layer of industrial archi-
tecture capable of regenerating latent industrial
sites. Village Main is the case study with the
intention of it becoming a precedent for industrial
architecture that can establish and sustain mutually
beneficial relationships between industry and
nature. Regenerative layering is used as a means
of combining the lost prospects of the site’s past,
the threatened prospects of its current situation
and the prospects of its future.
Student Awards