AJLA 06: Working Informally
Informal settlements are a global urban phenomenon representing the most prevalent form of city making. In Cape Town, South Africa, there are approximately 146,000 households in 437 informal settlement pockets, many of which were established before democracy but still do not have recognised tenure or access to basic services. Furthermore, globally, informal settlements are at the climate change coal face, with settlements in Cape Town experiencing annual winter flooding and the associated spread of disease, exacerbated by a lack of formal infrastructure and poor quality public spaces. In South Africa there has been a groundswell acknowledgement that established communities offer both social and economic networks that should not be uprooted in the upgrade process and that rather local governments, NGO groups and implementing agents need to shift their approach to informality away from formal housing resettlement. A new design approach that recasts designers as facilitators and mediators of the upgrade process is needed, placing greater emphasis on community based knowledge. Community members living in informal settlements have important skills to contribute to their own upgrading process. This paper proposes that landscape architects become thought leaders, combining co-design that empowers local community members and knowledge of landscape infrastructure and place-making.