Browsing by Author "Wilkinson, Peter"

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    An analysis of the Winterveld settlement strategy with special reference to the role of the architects of the National Building Research Institute
    (1987) Begbie, Ronald; Wilkinson, Peter
    Architects in South Africa, intentionally or unintentionally, play ~ political role within apartheid ideology each time they hecome involved in housing provision. This thesis will investigate their role within the new housing policies which were heing developed in South Africa in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The specific focus will he an analysis of the work of the Architectural Branch of the National Building Research Institute (N.B.R.I.) who initiated a community participation pro~ess to formulate an upgrading strategy for the Winterveld settlement, 30 km north of Pretoria. An historical perspective will reveal how the plotowner and tenant communities were estahlished in the Winterveld and how conflicts arose hetween these groups, the South African government and the Bophuthatswana government. An investigation of the issues around which these conflicts revolve will reveal why it was that the conflicts could not he resolved. This will, in turn, uncover why it was that in 1980 the architects of the N.B.R.I. initiated a community participation process to formulate an upgrading proposal to deal with the intolerahle living conditions in 1 the settlement. Each stage of the participation process will he discussed and analysed with special emphasis heing placed on understanding how the actions of the architects served various interested parties. It will hecome clear that the architects had no power to intervene as independent arhitrators. Their actions and final proposals were to a large extent hased on their own interests and those of the most powerful actors in the situation. Finally, we shall consider or unintentionally served whether the Architectural Branch intentionally the interests of the apartheid state. Conclusions will he drawn with respect to architects understanding their work from an historical perspective which encompasses a hroad appreciation of economic and political factors.
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    Matching networks to needs : travel needs and the configuration and management of local movement networks in South African cities
    (2002) Behrens, Roger; Wilkinson, Peter
    Motivated by disquiet that walking, as both a travel mode and as a segment of public transport trips, is not accommodated well in South African cities, this dissertation has two central aims. The first is to understand better the need for travel by non-motorised modes and within local areas. The second is to contribute to the improvement of local area movement network configuration and management practices. The research is primarily exploratory in nature and was conducted within a 'critical social science' paradigm-in which the research process was driven by a series of questions regarding the critical interrogation of these practices. It explores some of the implications for practice of a post-apartheid urban transport policy discourse that prioritises understanding travel need, managing road space, and accommodating public transport users and pedestrians. Reviews of literature, examination of codes of practice, and interviews with practitioners were conducted to trace the origins and nature of practices in the fields of travel analysis and local network planning and to investigate evidence of relationships between local network planning practices and improved local travel conditions. A household travel survey was administered in metropolitan Cape Town to gather data on travel behaviour across various income bands and in different residential locations. The survey employed an innovative activity-based method, with theoretical origins in time geography. With the use of computer-assisted personal interviewing technology, it involved members of 204 households recording their activity schedule over a 24-hour period. The data were analysed using conventional methods of filtered cross-tabulation, as well as time-space instruments. The research found, inter alia, that as a result of being routinely excluded or underestimated in past surveys, the importance of walking has not been fully understood. Walking would appear to be particularly important in satisfying the travel needs of middle-and low-income households, and walking distance findings would appear to refute assumptions regarding the introverted nature of pedestrian trips that underlie conventional local network configuration practices. In the light of these and other findings the dissertation argues for functionally 'fuzzy' local networks within which pedestrians and cyclists are accommodated on 'permeable' networks of footways, pathways, cycleways and shared roadways, while motor cars are accommodated on variously discontinuous roadway networks. The dissertation also argues for the strategic identification of local areas requiring priority attention, and the preparation of integrated local area plans incorporating co-ordinated and proactive pedestrian planning, bicycle planning and traffic calming.
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    Planning for low income settlements in the Blaauwberg Administration Area
    (2004) Katz, Jessica; Wilkinson, Peter
    A topic that has increasingly come to the fore in urban planning is the accommodation of those people residing in informal settlements, characteristically the lowest income earners and unemployed. Internationally, nationally and locally, there is a general surge of interest in urban planning towards accommodating low-income settlements adequately, and in formalising informal settlements, based on increasing recognition of peoples' legitimate right to land and security of tenure. Along with these trends, the challenges presented by the urbanisation of poverty that surfaces in informal settlements has become increasingly of interest to me as a researcher and student of planning, over the past few years. This mini-dissertation provides an opportunity to explore some of the social and technical issues that need to be resolved with regards to low-income settlements. Largely related to the background of the ANC government's popular promises of "Housing for All" and "Jobs for All", informal dwellers in South Africa expect to receive formal housing and tend only to accept such services as are associated with subsidised housing. However, poverty in urban environments is a deeper issue that exists when an individual's or household's access to income, infrastructure or services in inadequate to meet their basic needs. More than a lack of income, poverty exists for that section of the population who are unable to pay for basic services or access development opportunities (Van Ryneveld, Muller & Parnell, 2003). .. Increasing urbanisation of poverty presents a challenge to decentralized local government. Although informal settlements have finally become accepted as a local government responsibility, insitu upgrading is a politically driven and preferred response to informal settlements. Upgrading, wherever possible, appears to be a reactive approach by local authorities rather than a pro-active response to the reality of increasing informal settlement. There is little evidence that authorities are planning ahead for informal settlements. Current policy and housing strategies consider those settlements where people earn less than R3500 per month as low-income settlements. In this document, reference to low-income settlements encompasses those who earn less than R3500 per month as well as the unemployed. Poverty alleviation has gradually become a primary political focus in Cape Town, manifesting in informal settlements eventually being allocated a substantial budget, as recently as 2003. This project is based on an extensive literature review that includes internal reports of city officials engaged in current upgrading of informal settlements initiatives of the City of Cape Town, as well as the ongoing debates surfacing in newspaper articles. Access to data gathered from field visits and on-site observations, attending public participation meetings and interactions with officials and their appointed consultants, has broadened insight with regards to low income settlement upgrading. The first section of this document provides the contextual background to the existing situation of low-income settlements in South Africa, and more specifically Cape Town. An analysis of economic opportunities, institutional and servicing issues that are associated with low-income settlements informs this background. As approaches to low income settlements in South Africa are still largely based at the national and provincial levels of government, rather than at the local metropolitan level, this section illustrates the shaping of the initiatives that are in place at a site-specific level. Section 2 comprises a site-specific analysis of the northern suburbs of Cape Town. The N1 and Salt River canal in the South, the N7 in the East, and the Atlantic Ocean in the West are the boundaries of the selected study area. To the North the study area extends to Philadelphia Road and Brakkefontein Road, including Koeberg. For details, refer to the locality map 1 below. The most recent 'Blaauwberg Spatial Development Plan', compiled by Planning Partners (2002) is used as a reference, along with various other Framework plans and proposals. Additional information is gathered from GIS and from current newspaper articles reporting on developments, debates and perspectives. In order to construct proposals on how to intervene in the study area so as to accommodate low income settlements in a more sustainable and integrative way, theory and case studies that provide precedent on approaches to low income settlements allows for drawing on a number of lessons that can be applied to the site. This will be the focus of Section 4. As the outcome of all the above sections, an improved approach and strategy for upgrading low-income settlements is suggested. The pre-empting of problems associated with foreseen increases in low-income settlements is put forward in the proposition that identifying and planning land most suitable for accommodating low-income settlements is an essential component of an effective strategy. As no proposal is complete without taking implementation into account, this will be dealt with in Section 5 through identifying a number of actions that would need to be carried out in order for such a proposal to be implemented.