Browsing by Subject "Urban Infrastructure"

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    Open Access
    Re-imagining a child-centric spatial environment that promotes quality of life for children in Altantis (Witsand)
    (2025) Mthethwa, Lungelo; Ewing, Kathryn
    This study investigates how Urban Design can promote quality of life for the development of children in Atlantis (Witsand). Altantis is located 45 kilometers north of Cape Town, Which is a long distance from the economic city centre. Atlantis was created in the early 1970s as a “model industrial node” within the framework of apartheid spatial development policies. These policies were designed to physically separate and divide South Africans along racial lines of Cape Town. Acknowledging the significance of integrating children's development/ upbringing in urban design research can bridge the disconnect between the urban fabric and educational facilities to promote child-centric urban development. Employing a qualitative research approach, including social mapping, text mapping, desktop context analysis, site observations through a periscope, and interviews of subjects except, ECD operators, Caregivers, and program coordinators from CoCT. The study aims to employ urban design theories and tools to redress spatial challenges or negative effects apartheid-era urban planning in Atlantis to create a child-centric spatial environment, promote the safety of children, and promote consistent learning and the quality of life of children. The spatial characteristics will be investigated to develop urban design intervention that will assist in addressing challenges in Atlantis particularly in the neighborhood of Witsand. When dealing with disadvantaged neighborhoods like Witsand, it will be vital to observe urban design theories such as tactical urbanism to ensure interventions are realistic and impactfulon communities
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    Open Access
    Sustainable urban infrastructure : the prospects and relevance for middle-income cities of the global South
    (2016) Hyman, Katherine Rose; Pieterse, Edgar
    In this thesis, I contribute to the emerging theoretical knowledge of and policy discourse on sustainable urban infrastructure, as a potential solution to the myriad of ecological and socioeconomic developmental challenges, for middle-income contexts of the global south. To understand this under-studied theme better, this dissertation uses three emblematic case studies of utility departments in the City of Cape Town (CCT) - an in-depth study of the Solid Waste Management Department and supporting studies of the Electricity Services Department, and the Water and Sanitation Department - to determine the prospects and relevance of sustainable infrastructure in such contexts. Through an analysis of urban networked infrastructure, I provide novel insight into the underpinning institutional dynamics that reproduce the service delivery model, and highlight how innovative activities that reflect the principles of sustainable urban infrastructure become embedded within institutional practice. Two conceptual frameworks, developed from the literature, have guided the empirical research and the analysis. The first is a heuristic device that enhances our understanding of sustainable urban infrastructure knowledge and discourse. The second offers a way to understand how it is institutionally mediated. Specifically, these conceptual frameworks are applied to the cases to reveal how the CCT's utility departments respond to an emergent crisis within a sector and how they pursue purposive interventions that reflect the sustainable urban infrastructure theory and discourse. The research was carried out over a period of two years and six months, during which I conducted semi-structured and informal interviews, and extensive document analysis.