The use of Cape vernacular architecture in gated communities in the Stellenbosch area

Havenga, Christine

The use of Cape vernacular architecture in gated communities in the Stellenbosch area

Thesis

2018

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Conservation of the Built Environment

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Abstract

This dissertation contributes to the conversation about gated communities, which has become the fastest growing development sector in the post-apartheid South African city. It is a controversial form of development, due to the country’s history of residential segregation, and is regarded by many to contribute to a new form of segregated landscape causing social division and polarisation in the built environment. The study includes a discussion of the use of vernacular architecture in gated communities, a field largely unstudied by scholars of the built environment. This is explored by looking at some gated communities in the Stellenbosch area where Cape vernacular architecture is used. Stellenbosch is a historical student and tourist town with a townscape that reflects various colonial architectural styles. It is especially well known for its Cape Dutch architecture. It is also a town strongly associated with enduring white Afrikaner privilege and economic power. The history of the use and revival of Cape vernacular architecture—and specifically Cape Dutch architecture—during various periods in South African history has been well studied, as has its association with white supremacy and with later Afrikaner power. This study explores whether the use of this architectural style contributes to the perception of exclusion created by gated communities. The study could find no direct proof that this is the case, although there is some suggestion that the use of Cape vernacular architecture is promoted by various parties to enhance and protect a certain townscape, which is associated with a former and, for many, still-existing power base. However, the findings reveal that there are other factors at play in the use of this style of architecture in gated communities. These include a wider nostalgia for a former era, one considered to be a better period in time, as is reflected in New Urbanism developments. Also, developers and their architects believe that its use will enhance their chances of obtaining approval for an often-controversial type of development. They hope that the social status associated with Cape vernacular, and especially Cape Dutch architecture, will attract residents to these developments, which now include members of all racial groups of the South African society.

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