President’s comment

Reshaping our urban landscapes

Covid-19 has brought home the reality of poverty, job losses and hunger. It is also changing and reshaping society worldwide, presenting many opportunities to bridge inequality gaps in the process. This especially applies to living space and the minimum standards for the delivery of social housing.

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lobally, social housing typically refers to rental or cooperative housing for low- to mediumincome households; however, within the South African context, we should also include affordable and RDP-type housing categories as well.

In both the developing and developed world, most countries have social housing programmes in place, but experts are now questioning whether current models are outdated. Internationally, a frontrunner in this regard is Housing Europe – the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing based in Brussels. This is an umbrella organisation for some 43 000 social and cooperative housing providers in some 24 countries collectively managing close to 25 million dwellings.

Housing in crisis

During a press statement in June 2020,

Randeer Kasserchun, president, IMESA Housing Europe said that “the coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on Europe’s housing crisis, exposing the shortcomings of our housing policies that have increased inequalities and destabilised our societies.”

Designers at home and abroad are questioning the status quo. Beyond the provision of adequate shelter, they argue that social housing must also provide a sense of pride, security, family and space. Another important shift in thinking is the need to plan and build urban environments around people, rather than the other way around.

Integrating communities

In South Africa’s post-1994 landscape, housing agencies and developers are faced with the ongoing challenge of dismantling apartheid spatial planning. One of the key objectives going forward is to create integrated rather than excluded communities.

Brownfield opportunities, like inner-city renewal projects, offer huge potential because existing infrastructure like water, sanitation, electrification and public transport systems are already in place, although they may need upgrading. Greenfield developments hold even greater potential for positive change because they start with a clean slate.

Projects like Melrose Arch in Johannesburg and Century City in Cape Town are earlier examples of smart city concepts where residents could live and work in self-contained precincts. From the onset, though, residential properties were priced at a premium, which meant low- to medium-income earners working there still needed to commute.

Traditionally, RDP-type developments have been constructed on cheaper land some distance from urban centres. While the housing need has been addressed, it still means that residents are at a disadvantage in terms of transport costs, plus the family time lost due to long daily commutes. In a sense, this perpetuates pre-1994 models.

The latest thoughts on smart city developments tackle that issue head on, making sure that income thresholds are not the deciding factor for living there. A great example is Cornubia – a partnership between eThekwini Municipality and Tongaat Hulett Developments.

Redefining settlements

Situated approximately 17 km from Durban’s city centre, the vision is to create a vibrant mixed-use and mixed-income residential, commercial and industrial zone. According to Tongaat Hulett, Cornubia is expected to create some 45 000 permanent jobs over the longer term and contribute around R25 billion to the economy.

Addressing South Africa’s housing backlog is a pressing concern, as inward migration leads to burgeoning informal settlements surrounding urban areas. A classic example is Alexandra township in Sandton, where formal and informal dwellings stand back-to-back in some instances. Covid-19 has highlighted new dangers alongside the existing ones like poor sanitation.

Metros like Cape Town and Johannesburg have already begun the process of de-densifying squatter camps and moving residents to newly prepared land earmarked for housing. This presents a golden opportunity to reflect on the design faults of the past and become far more creative with our social and affordable housing blueprints. After all, life is for living and everyone deserves a decent home.