Cape Town

The big and the small: Designing for disaster and dwelling in neighborhoods of change

For newly arrived migrants and the unemployed in cities like Cape Town, wood and tin shacks built on flood plains and wetland or river fringes are often the only opportunities for land and affordable accommodation in urban areas. In 2000 it was estimated that most of the approximately 100,000 people in South Africa living below flood levels along rivers and streams live in informal settlements. A clear relationship therefore exists between unequal processes of urbanization and disasters like flooding, exacerbated by the frequent and devastating informal settlement fires ("shack fires"). There are various approaches, each with their own constraints and shortcomings, which have been undertaken to address these predictable cycles of misery. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Tariq Toffa — Sat, 04/26/2014 - 00:00

Adversity and urban planning: Designing safer, more resilient cities

The African city should be seen as a stimulating and exciting maelstrom of cultural conflict and transformation. We need to celebrate and dissect the fragments of urban life and empathise with the multiplicity and contradictions experienced in our cities, whilst at the same time understand the daily service needs of the urban inhabitants. Under current conditions of extreme and rapid growth experienced in the majority of South African cities, change manifests itself most evidently through space. The urban poor and the 'space' in which they occupy, define and conduct their activities and their relationships form fundamental, dynamic elements of the building of a city in the context of contemporary urban Africa. Public space (the street and the node) forms one of the most important venues for such transformation. Efforts by the urban poor to appropriate community space (although much contested) are an integral part to a process of self-empowerment and socio-economic networking. In the formation of contemporary urban developments in South Africa (particularly in low-income areas and informal settlements), it seems that less attention is given to the space in-between buildings and how these can function as 'service venues'; the very glue that unites the elements of the positive spatial structure; the shared space. One may question why this is so? Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Tue, 03/25/2014 - 00:00

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

After the transition to democracy from the apartheid era in 1994, an ambitious post-apartheid housing initiative was implemented in South Africa to provide formal housing for those denied it under apartheid. However, the simplest and cheapest policy has been to locate this housing on the urban peripheries (typically over 20km away in the case of Johannesburg's or Pretoria's economic centres) — thus creating an alarming parody of apartheid-spatial planning in locating former black townships in marginal locations far from economic opportunities, amenities, and public transport. This has not only compelled people residing in these areas to use much of their income on transportation but, moreover, the dispersion perpetuates a marginal urban form which increases the burden placed on the city's financial models and its already depleted and over-extended infrastructure networks. Read more.

Submitted by Tariq Toffa — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 11:16

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

South Africa has entered into its 20th year of democracy and as the world looks on at a society that has been free of the shackles of Apartheid for two decades, the form of its urban fabric is changing as its cities try to shake off their segregated pasts. Over the last two decades, cities in South Africa have seen the tremendous influx of people in search of economic opportunities and better access to services. This in-migration to urban areas has seen the proliferation of informal settlements from nearly non-existent in the late '80s to over 2000 (and counting) in present day South Africa. Local municipalities and city planning departments have not planned for these settlements. If anything, the only strategy being applied today is a reactionary one, further handicapped by the very formal and rigid development methods imposed by city officials trained primarily in planning for and implementing very traditional city planning processes. Where does that leave the informal settlement dweller? Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 11:03

Urban planning and design: laws, regulations, and the informal city

My introduction contains a statement and a question. First, for city governments to truly embrace and innovate around the informal city concept they require a defined measure of discretion to design, plan and regulate. However, they often find themselves "at the bottom of the food chain" when it comes to regulatory authority. For example, South African cities (who work in what is perhaps the most "city friendly" constitutional framework on the continent) are still severely constrained by national and provincial laws and policies. What complicates this is the fact that the African city is often a hot bed of opposition, a place where urban-based opposition movements begin to chip away at the hegemony of the national ruling party/coalition with its rural constituency. Kampala, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Cape Town and Harare are but a few examples of cities where this scenario plays or played itself out. Partly as a result of this phenomenon, there is then the central governments' anxiety with these "oversized" local authorities exercising unfettered planning authority and they are prompted to insist on tight "one size fits all" planning frameworks that stifle city innovation. Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Sun, 03/02/2014 - 08:44

Between ecology and economy: The changing status of Cape fishing communities?

Despite advances made in natural resource management science, the degradation and the destructive competition for natural resources in most areas of the world has continued more or less unabated. South African fish and seafood stocks, too, generally show no exception. Moreover, there are increasing numbers of applicants, corporations, and communities competing for fishing rights to this shrinking resource. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Tariq Toffa — Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:21

Youth focus: Can grassroots movements bring in girls' voices?

Data has emerged showcasing the latest trends of our demographic shift - the global population now articulates a 'youth bulge'. The UN-Population Demographic Profile (2010) show children, and 'youths', comprise 1.6bn, and 1.0bn, of the population in less-developed regions. The population is younger; and Sub-Saharan Africa is no exception. Attention is now turning to youths: what young people do, what opportunities they initiate for their families and nations, and what it means to be 'young' in the developing world. However, an important caveat requires recognition: the focus has been particularly male-focused. Our understanding of girls, within both public and private spaces, remains limited. Such is the debate in this blog post - if we are now looking at 'kids' in the city and development, what are the experiences of girls? What can we learn about the city through an engendered perspective? Fundamentally, who is responsible to grant equal rights? Two models of intervention are discussed be, each using alternative methods to provide rights for girls. However, each acts to reinforce the need to improve our understandings on 'being' a girl. Read more.

Submitted by Gemma Todd — Mon, 01/20/2014 - 10:08

Nature-Related Graffiti in Cape Town

Many of us think of urban graffiti as a nuisance, as an illegality, as a challenge to authority. Exactly, especially the last one. And it is also a form a communication, sometimes the only form available to people who aren't so well represented in the media. Alex Alonso wrote an interesting piece on urban graffiti and its typologies, and discussed how graffiti can provide insight into societal attitudes and perceptions. Graffiti includes political commentary, personal or 'existential' messages, gang-related territorial demarcation, simple 'tags', elegant 'piecing' where tags or names are elaborate, and larger works that, more obviously like art, that combine comment with an clear aesthetic. Read more.

Submitted by David Maddox — Mon, 12/16/2013 - 15:25

Three books on African cities

With the holiday season upon us, here are some book suggestions that will be particularly relevant for those involved in the city as urban scholars, professionals, or activists, or interested in issues of urbanism and sustainability in cities. The following books from the African Centre for Cities (ACC) are significant contributions to the study of urbanism in African cities. Read more or join the discussion.

Submitted by Tariq Toffa — Mon, 12/16/2013 - 00:00

Exposing gated cities

Upon exploring how just and inclusive cities can emerge a key component of analysis is social life — how people act in cities, the complex character of sociability, and the factors designing urban life. Multiple concepts have been raised to define what a city is — and has become, and further, what kind of life materialises within urban spaces. Over time cities have been conceptualised as 'misanthropic', expressing disorganisation, violence, and a dense concentration of people whom adopt different mentalities and motives. Such urban personas are expressed through space. Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Mon, 12/02/2013 - 14:18

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