Government housing initiatives, such as the N2 Gateway, are "vanity" projects that do not serve the communities they are supposed to accommodate as much as make the government appear to be delivering, according to the director of a leading South African urban planning firm.
Communal facilities were a fraction of the price of individual services and could serve as an important starting point for the incremental upgrade of informal settlements, said Simon Nicks, director of environmental planning, urban design and landscape architecture firm CNdV Africa, formerly known as Chittenden Nicks.
Nicks was speaking at a Southern African Housing Foundation conference in Cape Town on Monday.
For example, community ablutions could be built and a little concession business could be set up to clean them.
That was one way to approach housing projects with lower capital costs and it was not as disruptive as a "rollover" upgrade where everybody was required to clear out of the area. However, from a political perspective, that approach was not seen as "impressive".
"Politically, what have you delivered? Housing policy is only interested in the photographs."
Nicks also questioned the wisdom of building a housing project that faced directly on to a highway "into the teeth of the roaring southeaster".
"I don't think we're really learning from history," he said, showing an article about a slum upgrade in District Six in the 1930s that read: "... few of the existing residents can afford the new rents, however".
The architecture was also surprisingly similar, Nicks commented, referring to N2 Gateway.
"Being a new dispensation doesn't mean things will automatically be done better. That will only happen if things are done differently.
"We want poor people to live in environments that fit middle-class perceptions of what constitutes good housing, rather than taking into account the realities of their existence."
Security of tenure by means of sorting out the title deeds and registering plots was necessary to mobilise the formalisation of informal areas.
"There's a fantastic opportunity to do a huge amount of building in our settlements in the next 15 years," he said, referring to "infill" of multi-income housing and access to transport and socio-economic activity within 1km walking distance. - Cape Times
Communal facilities were a fraction of the price of individual services and could serve as an important starting point for the incremental upgrade of informal settlements, said Simon Nicks, director of environmental planning, urban design and landscape architecture firm CNdV Africa, formerly known as Chittenden Nicks.
Nicks was speaking at a Southern African Housing Foundation conference in Cape Town on Monday.
For example, community ablutions could be built and a little concession business could be set up to clean them.
That was one way to approach housing projects with lower capital costs and it was not as disruptive as a "rollover" upgrade where everybody was required to clear out of the area. However, from a political perspective, that approach was not seen as "impressive".
"Politically, what have you delivered? Housing policy is only interested in the photographs."
Nicks also questioned the wisdom of building a housing project that faced directly on to a highway "into the teeth of the roaring southeaster".
"I don't think we're really learning from history," he said, showing an article about a slum upgrade in District Six in the 1930s that read: "... few of the existing residents can afford the new rents, however".
The architecture was also surprisingly similar, Nicks commented, referring to N2 Gateway.
"Being a new dispensation doesn't mean things will automatically be done better. That will only happen if things are done differently.
"We want poor people to live in environments that fit middle-class perceptions of what constitutes good housing, rather than taking into account the realities of their existence."
Security of tenure by means of sorting out the title deeds and registering plots was necessary to mobilise the formalisation of informal areas.
"We've got to start reconceptualising things," he said.
Housing projects should be used as a tool for "urban medicine".
"There's a fantastic opportunity to do a huge amount of building in our settlements in the next 15 years," he said, referring to "infill" of multi-income housing and access to transport and socio-economic activity within 1km walking distance. - Cape Times
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