Human-Centered Studio: Adaptive Reuse & Exhibition Design

Studio leader: Janri Barker 

Studio Assistants: Duren Moodley, Rene du Toit, Sandeep Nicha.

This design project explores the intersection of adaptive reuse and exhibition design through the lens of plant knowledge and botanical heritage. The vacant structures within the Ditsong Sammy Marx Museum complex will be transformed into an immersive botanical knowledge centre for the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Students will work with the historic dairy building and associated industrial structures to create spaces that celebrate Indigenous and cultivated plant knowledge systems while addressing the complex heritage narratives of the site.

The project investigates the tensions between preservation and transformation, heritage and innovation, that characterise adaptive reuse projects within existing museum complexes. Drawing on theoretical frameworks including Nóbrega et al.'s (2024) concept of 'spatial mediation', Tzortzi's (2015) understanding of museum spatial experience, Brooker's (2004) analysis of remodelling existing buildings, and Seabela's (2020) critical examination of exclusionary museum practices, students will develop spatial strategies that translate botanical heritage themes into immersive learning experiences.

Students will engage with contemporary botanical heritage through visits to the Indigenous and Orphan Crops Programme at the Future Africa campus and the herbarium at the National Botanical Gardens. A visit to the Workers Museum in Johannesburg will serve as a case study of adaptive reuse and exhibition design. Expert lectures and workshops, engagement with botanical knowledge systems, heritage preservation practices, and critical museum theory enable students to develop adaptive reuse proposals that transform underutilised museum infrastructure into active sites of environmental learning, challenging exclusionary practices while demonstrating how plant knowledge can be spatially mediated to create inclusive and immersive cultural experiences.