Incubated dimension : an urban campus for informal business development at the Grand Parade

Includes bibliographical references.This dissertation is inspired by the age of digital media as a mode of cultural production. This project aims to uncover how social interaction is shaped by digital space and its effects on physical space. This is an exploration of an architecture which mediates between the tensions and contradictions that exist between a digital and physical dimension. I believe today's culture is largely driven by the use of digital and social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, etc. Through the use of digital media, people are able to consume and produce material (online) simultaneously and collaboratively. I believe this has transformed the manner in which people communicate and establish their sense of identity. Digital media has also made way for the concept of globalisation, where people are brought closer through instant and rapid forms of network communication, thus contesting and collapsing the reality of distance and physical boundaries. According to Virilio (2012:73), “...we must at least resolve ourselves to losing the sense of our senses, common sense and certainties, in the material of representation. We must be ready to lose our morphological illusions about physical dimensions...". This indicates that there is a tension between the formal environment and digital space. In this age of digitalisation, the human artefact and its mode of communication is changing: with it, so will our physical environments. This dissertation seeks to negotiate between these two dimensions, through the architecture and its programmatic response in relation to the urban context of Cape Town city centre