A city vision by Michael De Beer

University of Cape Town Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics University of Cape Town Rondebosch Cape Town 7701 Telephone: + 27 (0)21 650 2362 + 27 (0)76 484 2417 Fax: + 27 (0)21 689 9466 Dissertation presented as part fulfilment of the degree of Masters of City Planning and Urban Design In the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics University of Cape Town November and 2014 All rights reserved. Except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Sponsored by the National Research Foundation: Scarce skills scholarship First published in 2014. Author: Michael de Beer

Declaration of Free Licence I (Michael de Beer) hereby:

(a) grant the University free license to reproduce the above thesis in whole or in part, for the purpose of research; (b)

declare that:

(i) the above thesis is my own unaided work, both in conception and execution, and that apart from the normal guidance of my supervisor, I have received no assistance apart from that stated below; (ii) except as stated below, neither the substance or any part of the thesis has been submitted in the past, or is being, or is to be submitted for a degree in the University or any other University. (iii) I am now presenting the thesis for examination for the Degree of Master of City Planning and Urban Design.

Acknowledgments With thanks to the following people who gave up their time to answer my interview questions; Stephan Claassen, Robert McGaffin, Piet Louw, Andrew Fleming and Frank Cummings. Your insights, opinions and interesting responses kept me questioning my own assumptions. Thanks to my supervisor, Dr Henri Comrie, and studio staff Adriaan Mentz and Heinrich Kammeyer for your continual guidance and support, stimulating thoughtful debate, critique and discussion throughout the course of my studies and aiding in the development of the dissertation. Thanks to everyone else who has helped along the way or been interested enough to chat with me about my topic.

Abstract With recent imperatives in South Africa to align nodal development with urban networks, this dissertation adds to an understanding of economic factors influencing development. By identifying principles, relationships and factors that bear on the economic performance and impact of urban interventions, the study aims to contribute to an informed perspective that enable actors in the built environment to design and implement achievable visions that support sustainable growth. The research engages with transport orientated development, factors influencing development, competitiveness of cities and locations, as well as the spatial economy, characterising the primary economic factors influencing the built environment. The research finds that users and firms guide the actions of developers, but their relationship is under considered and at times taken for granted. The current paradigm believes that good economics are a result of good urban interventions. This dissertation, however, views an interdependent system of cause and effect in which users and firms, as a sign of good economics, are an origin and result â&#x20AC;&#x201C; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re what we react to and plan for. If we understand this catalytic influence of users and firms in the context of spatial economic dynamics we can begin guiding city growth and addressing socio economic inefficiencies, a critical issue in post-Apartheid South Africa. With focus on transport orientated development in Cape Town, a proposed design intervention is rationalised on various scales according to principles drawn from the research. The site, in Mitchells Plain, is identified as a priority urban area to develop sustainable economic growth and address issues of inequity and inefficiency in the city of Cape Town.

Contents 1.

Introduction

Research Aims and Methodology 2.1. Research Rationale 2.2. Research Problem and objectives 2.3. Research Methods & Techniques 2.4. Limitations and Assumptions 2.5. Dissertation Layout and Process

11 11 11 12 13 14

Design 3.1. Design Analysis 3.2. Design Proposal

15 16 40

Assumptions and Visions

Transport Orientated Development 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Comparative Cases 5.3. Synthesis: Transport Orientated Development

74 74 78 95

Urban Competiveness and Specialised Differences 6.1. Externalities and the Need to Address Competitiveness and Economic Performance 6.2. Locational Dynamics | Portside 6.3. The performance of the Bundle of assets 6.4. Successful Cases in Addressing Competitiveness 6.5. Detroit | Undermining City Competiveness 6.6. Lessons Learnt

97 97

7. The Form Producing Process & The Actions of Developers 7.1. The Contradiction of Capitalists 7.2. Three Circuits of Capital 7.3 Capital Accumulation Process 7.4. The Spatial Impact of the Capital Accumulation Process 7.5. A User Generated Approach 7.6. Mechanisms and Actors 7.7. Synthesis

98 100 101 107 109 111 111 111 113 114 116 116 118

8. Cape Town | Interrogating the Spatial Economy 8.1. Past to Present 8.2. Conditions of the Spatial Economy 8.3. Divergent Realities and Possible Solutions 8.4. Transport Orientated Development as Mechanism to Address Inefficiency and Separation 8.5. Synthesis

119 119 121 124 125

9. Spatial Economic Analysis | Positioning Mitchells Plain 9.1. National Dynamics 9.2. Local Economic Dynamics of Mitchells Plain in the Context of the City 9.3. The Corner Shop is Alive and Well in Mitchells Plain

127 127 129

10. Conclusion

138

11. Bibliography

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12. List of Figures

145

13. Addendum 13.1 Plagiarism Declaration 13.2 Interview Script | Robert McGaffin 13.3 Interview Script | Piet Louw 13.4 Interview Script | Andrew Fleming 13.5 Interview Script | Stephan Classen 13.6 Interview Script | Frank Cummings 13.7 Ethics Approval 13.8 Signed forms of Ethics Consent

149 150 152 156 159 166 170 178 190

126

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1. Introduction City Vision looks at transformative nodal interventions as means to achieve a more liveable and equitable city that supports sustainable growth. The City of Cape Town and other organisations have implemented policies and interventions with this aim but have often not been successful. A key factor to the success of interventions is the nature of market activity in an area, namely the spatial economy. This has informed the rationale for undertaking the study, with the intent of building an informed understanding of the economic factors influencing the built environment. The intent of the study follows the presumption that with an innate understanding of economic influences, actors in the built environment would be enabled to create achievable visions and interventions. Drawing on current transport initiatives nationally and in Cape Town, to align nodal development with urban networks, the dissertation aims to investigate the spatial economy in relation to transport orientated development. With Cape Town currently implementing an extensive bus rapid transport system and drawing on the existing metro, the studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objective is to understand the effects of transport infrastructure on the city to inform the goals and objectives for development and underpin sustainable growth demands. This has positioned the research question; how can quality urban

interventions influence the spatial economy in and around train stations to stimulate sustainable growth that is beneficial for the City of Cape Town? In responding to the question, research undertaken in this dissertation (chapter 4-9) motivates and informs a design approach and outcome. The design (chapter 3) proposes a transport orientated intervention, which is rationalised on various scales according to principles drawn from the research. The objective is to propose a scheme that would enable development, contribute to sustainable economic growth and address issues of inequity and inefficiency in the city. The design response, positioned at the beginning of the document, introduces a practical outcome of the research.

The research is intended to develop an informed perspective to underpin interventions undertaken by actors in the built environment. By identifying principles, relationships and factors that bear on the economic performance and impact of interventions, this is underpinned by an aim to stimulate a proactive look at the economic forces impacting urban design work.

Secondly, as motivation for the design, theoretical perspectives of transport orientated development, factors influencing development, competitiveness of cities and locations as well as the spatial economy, are explored. These topics characterise the primary economic factors influencing the built environment. To gain further insight, interviews with professionals from various fields, each with a unique and different understanding of economic influences were conducted. These findings contribute to the theory, interrogating conflicting opinions and assumptions.

2. Research Aims and Methodology This chapter introduces the rational for undertaking the study as well as the methods utilised when conducting the research.

2.1. Research Rationale The Dissertation, City Vision, interrogates the economic influences that interventions in the built environment are dependent on. The study has focused on understanding how to achieve successful nodal interventions and transport orientated development in order to establish more liveable and equitable cities. The premise from which the study had been conceived had been that the City of Cape Town and other organizations have implemented both policy and interventions aiming to stimulate economic transformation to address equity. However, this has often not been successful. A key factor to the success of interventions is the nature of market activity in an area, namely the spatial economy. The compact city paradigm and its urban network approach are reflected in Cape Town’s Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework (MSDF) (2012). The MSDF report suggests that to overcome negative trends in development within the region, an integrated intermodal transport approach needs to be adopted. This approach is based around nodal development that is informed by existing and new urban networks, with the intention of stimulating urban transformation and a

goal of creating an increasingly competitive and equitable city (City of Cape Town, 2012). In light of recent imperatives in South Africa to align nodal development with urban networks, initiatives have begun to implement integrated modal transport systems throughout the country. Brown-Luthango (2010) suggests that due to the significant investment of public funding into transport orientated interventions, studies ought to be conducted to understand the effects of transport infrastructure on the city. Brown-Luthango (2010) has advocated that a sound understanding of these effects would support the goals and objectives for the development of South African cities and underpin sustainable growth demands. In contributing to the discourse surrounding economic transformation, nodal development and urban networks, the dissertation focuses on the economic factors which take form within the built environment. The intention of the study has been focused on identifying why development takes place and to what extent professionals in the built environment can intervene and guide future development and investment in order to achieve a more liveable and equitable city.

2.2. Research Problem and objectives How can quality urban interventions influence the spatial economy in and around train stations to stimulate sustainable growth that is beneficial for the City of Cape Town? Issues surrounding urban transformation are complex and multidimensional. Yet the discourse surrounding urban transformation remains fractured and myopic, largely due to the myriad of specialists engaged in urban affairs (Bentley, 2005). Bentley suggests that fragmentation has reduced the issue to particular viewpoints, such as economic, social and architectural along with many more foci. This fragmentation offers isolated perspectives that cannot be generalized upon. Bentley’s insight is drawn in opposition to these “zeitgeists” in an attempt to highlight that any approach, regardless of its specificity, is subject to a multitude of factors and actors. In clarifying and characterising the environment that built form is produced within, Bentley employs the “Battlefield problematic”. A situation “…in which actors deploy their resources of economic and political power, valued knowledge of cultural capital, in more or less adroit ways, in attempts to make things happen as they want” (Bentley, 2005: 47). Bentley’s position highlights a key notion that built form cannot be theorised within a vacuum. Thus topics undertaken in a study which are focused on the economy, society or issues around

sustainability need to remain cognisant of a wider range of influences and actors while being cautious of generalising on the forms produced within these various veins of enquiry. Although this division exists, it is important to note that these differing perspectives should not be ignored as they offer focused insights into the urban environment. The question proposed and rationale for undertaking the study aims to remain cognisant of Bentley’s position by acknowledging that the findings of the study are a focused field of knowledge part of a myriad of factors that define urban dynamics. This has informed two primary objectives that have been translated into the design component of the dissertation. The first is that the design intervention although informed predominantly by the study undertaken, the design process draws on various other factors such as social and environmental influences. The second objective is that the study undertaken informs an approach to identifying priority sites for interventions. The design proposal initially considering several sites identified Mitchell’s Plain as the key site for intervention through a process of elimination which considered alternative factors. The aim of the study, which forms the motivation for the design, interrogates the factors influencing urban transformation, transportation and the spatial economy in order to answer the question proposed. The study aimed to define constraints and further objectives for the design

process however it has also maintained the integrity to stand alone as a body of research and findings.

2.3. Research Methods & Techniques The spatial economy is inherently context dependent. Thus the research methodology is best suited to a Comparative Case Study method. Although case study research is used extensively in the social sciences, it has not been held in high regard due to misunderstandings regarding the method. Flyvberg (2011) has argued that the method allows for context-dependent and valuedriven knowledge that would uncover how a multiplicity of factors interacts. Flyvberg (2011) maintains that the objective is not to prove but rather learn what is “at the very heart of expert activity”. By using the comparative case study method the dissertation will draw on qualitative information corroborated with quantitative data allowing for more robust findings (Yin, 2004). An ‘information orientated’ approach in “critical cases” (Flyvberg, 2011) allows for maximizing the effectiveness of the study. Throughout the study various groupings of comparative case studies are undertaken to support and verify theory presented. This entails drawing on 3 to 4 case examples to deduce logical outcomes. The strategic selection of representative cases will mitigate the difficulty in generalising on case study research

due to its dependence on context. In other words, “if this is (not) valid for this case, then it applies to all (no) cases” (Flyvberg, 2011) of this type. However, the study must acknowledge the different variables acting in the cases. Furthermore acknowledging that the purpose of the research is not to generalise upon the findings but rather contribute to the knowledge surrounding the topic. The comparative case study method is ideal in responding to the research question proposed. However, caution must be taken to prevent the tendency of verifying the researcher’s preconceived notions on the findings. Preventing the tendency to be biased, the study will triangulate (to verify) the research findings through different data collection techniques from equally different sources. Furthermore the outcomes to the comparisons between the cases studied will allow for reasonable deductions to be made. This process affords an understanding of what causes a phenomenon in order to enable a linking of causes to specific outcomes/ relationships. 2.3.1. Techniques: Research findings will be coded and analysed according to the assessment criteria established from a review of the relevant literature. The techniques highlighted will also be used during the design component of the dissertation to enable an informed design response that is supportive of the argument presented in the theory component.

Mapping: The mapping technique draws on both qualitative and quantitative research. It enables the spatial representation of a diverse range of information that is accessible. The data is sourced from varied resources such as the Rhode Report, Stats SA, observations, GIS and other relevant data sources. Mapping’s advantage is the ability to synthesize different data sets in order to draw correlations which may not have been evident otherwise. In mapping, the critical process is data collection which may also be its limitation. In addressing the limitation, a number of research techniques will be used in order to verify research findings that would inform the mapping process. Interviews: Interviews offer the ability to gather deep insights and rich descriptions from participants. It may also uncover information that the researcher may not have considered. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews will be used in order to avoid the effects of group dynamics that may arise from focus groups. The five interviewees who have been selected are professionals within their field and hold expert knowledge. They are; Stephan Claassen the First National Bank provisional representative for the Western Cape; Robert McGaffin a specialist in the spatial economy being a town planner and land economist; Frank Cummings an advisor for the Provincial Regeneration Programme of

the Western Cape Government ; Andrew Fleming a strategic researcher in urban dynamics with an economic background; and Piet Louw a planner, architect and urban designer. The use of recording devices will be used in order to enable the interviewer to be present at the interview. The limitations of interviews are: time constraints, asking unnecessary and poorly constructed questions that distract the interviewee, the sample of interviewees may skew the data collected as well as unexpected behaviours and sensitive topics. Thus preparation is required as well as clear objective as to whom is to be interviewed and why. This technique is ideal in understanding the dynamics of informal trading and the perceptions that are associated to urban upgrading. This will be used to guide and corroborate other techniques through triangulation. Field observations: Field observations document by watching, listening and recording the case. This can be done with a field journal, drawings, film or photography. The technique allows for two types of observations, the first being one of the ‘outsider’ maintaining a passive role. The second is one of ‘participation’ in an actual event being observed. Observation allows for data collection in difficult contexts that are noisy, crowded and chaotic, while accounting for the spontaneity of unexpected events within the case. The limitations are that the presence of the

observer may change the everyday dynamics of the case. Analysis of Data: The data collected synthesize by coding data by criteria, categories or themes, avoiding bias in selecting only information that supports the argument. The interpretations of the analysis phase shall entail an unpacking of the meanings of qualitative social actions corroborated by quantitative data.

2.4. Limitations assumptions

and

The primary limitation for the dissertation and study is the timeframe in which the study has been conducted. This is of particular importance as issues pertaining to changes in the spatial economy happen over long periods of time. Due to the time constraint primary research will not be able to be conducted and the dissertation will draw on secondary research conducted by various academics, data sources and institutions. Through the aforementioned research techniques, the study aims to verify and triangulate information presented to avoid selecting only information that supports the argument. An assumption in the dissertation has been based on the premise that the proper (or more efficient) utilization of train stations may be an effective mechanism to guiding economic trends. This has been informed by both the existing extensive network of train lines in the city as well as

the unequal distribution of train stations between the Southeast and Northwest districts. Another key assumption is that the dissertation is drawn from an urban design perspective which has assumed that urban design may have a role to play in guiding sustainable economic growth. A third assumption is the role of the developer being a primary actor in the spatial economy. These assumptions will be verified and tested through the study.

2.5. Dissertation Layout and Process The process followed in both designing and researching has not been laid out chronologically in the dissertation. It had been an iterative process where design and research had been conducted in parallel with one another. This had enabled a reflective progression constantly testing theories and notions within the design. The layout of the document forms two primary portions and has been divided into the design proposal first and the research and motivation for the design after. This layout enables the reader to contextualise the design outcome to the research and analysis as the motivation for the design. Figure 1: Process & Rationale (by author)

Design Analysis & Proposal

3.1. Design Analysis

3.1.1. Identification of a priority site for intervention The research undertaken has motivated for the need to identify priority sites for intervention. This is supported in two veins; the first being that for transport orientated development to occur a focused intervention ought to be undertaken which has been rationalized regarding city wide dynamics and the potential for future development (Chapter 5). The second is the position outlined in chapter 8 by Turok and Watson (2001) which motivates for the need to draw on the potential threshold conditions existing in the city for focused interventions that support nodal growth. This aims to maximize the impact of interventions by addressing the Southeast and Northwest economic division and uplifting poorer areas that often surround these threshold conditions. Drawing on the positive impact of spend on the value of property (Chapter 5.1), positioned by McGaffin (2011), the dissertation has identified a growing lower middle class with increasing incomes as a key point of opportunity and method of identifying threshold conditions. Increasing disposable income, that is translating into discretionary spend, would directly affect the value of property if it is focused into an intervention. Using Adrian Frithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2011 census data) mapping of household incomes in South Africa, the figures below extract the bracket of incomes that characterise the lower middle class and increasing disposable incomes. Various locations are

identified with Mitchells Plain being the largest concentration of this type. This has positioned Mitchells Plain as a priority site for intervention which the following points support. • Chapter 9.2’s analysis on market performance and locational potential suggests that if an intervention releases land for development, supports service sector growth and addresses crime

and accessibility within Mitchells Plain the site may positioned as key area of opportunity for development in the city. • Drawing on Cape Town Metropolitan Spatial development Framework (2013) Mitchells Plain’s infrastructure provision is higher than many areas in the Southeast of Cape Town. This is critical as it holds capacity for future development.

• Drawing on Cape Town Metropolitan Spatial development Framework (2013) and corroborated by Property 24 , Mitchells Plain’s Land and property prices are currently low which would impact the cost of development and makes projects undertaken potentially more profitable (chapter 7).

Figure 2:

â&#x20AC;˘ Drawing on the spatial economic analysis in chapter 8, Mitchells Plain Town Centre is the only well performing node within the Southeast. This has positioned it has a site where an agglomeration of industries already exists, in turn contributing to the feasibility of investment. â&#x20AC;˘ Mitchells Plain has a high population density, in comparison to the rest of Cape Town, with exception of areas which host large informal settlements (figure 110, Chapter 8). This is critical as these high populations with growing income brackets, if seen

Figure 3:

cumulatively, suggets that the spend in this area would perform higher than in other districts of Cape Town. (This may be why a large mall has been built adjacent to the Town Centre of Mitchells Plain) These factors have positioned Mitchells Plain as key site of opportunity within the city as they have motivated for the position that the area holds a high development potential (refer to chapter 9.2). This suggests that Transport Orientated development may be feasible.

Figure 4:

3.1.2. Nodes and Growth The figures presented have illustrated the current strategy of the Cape Town Metropolitan Spatial development Framework (2013). The key principal being that future growth of the city should reinforce the current economic core between Cape Town CBD and Bellville (chapter 8) while positioning a node in the Southeast that is envisaged to be connected to the city and supported by economic growth. However in the past 20 years this strategy has failed to generate the economic activity needed in the South East for any of the nodes to perform as to the strategy and vision suggested by the Cape Town Metropolitan Spatial development Framework (2013) . Drawing on the site selected the dissertation positions Mitchells Plain as this key node. The node aims to create both an economic centre to the district while low income and poor economically inert (chapter 8) areas (Khayelitsha and Nyanga) adjacent to Mitchells Plain will benefit from the proximity to activity. Figure 5: City of Cape Town strategy (by author)

3.1.3. Creating an Equitable Movement System Movement within the city has been positioned in the research as a critical factor and mechanism to urban dynamics impacting the performance of locations. Classen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) highlights the relationship between accessibility and the preferences of firms to locate in the city and globally are strongly aligned (chapter 5.1). Various industries require different forms of access, as industrial activity may align to road and rail while service industries would align to key public transport and road junctions within the city. Classen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) suggests that there are two key elements at play, junctions and direct routes of travel.

Figure 6: Transport inforgraphic

The need to interrogate movement is positioned by the need for transport orientated development to be rationalized on a city wide perspective in order to identify opportunities (Chapter 5). Chapter 8 and 9 highlights that access to the city supports the northwest southeast division through the inequitable distribution of train stations. Contributing to the inequitable distribution, the figure 7

Figure 7: Current Metro lines | Passenger rail

of the cape metro lines, illustrates that movement is geared towards the city centre positioning the city centre at a great advantage, at the cost of accessibility to other areas within the city. The inequitable distribution of movement is also true of other modes of transport and infrastructure provision in the city. This has formed due to apartheid planning, as the rail network served to facilitate movement from mixed race and african dormitory towns, predominantly situated in the Southeast, to work. This has meant that the rail network has been put at disadvantage as movement has been geared in one direction and does not support the multi-nodal city, Cape Town has become. Reflected in the infographic (figure 6), the current distribution of movement in the Figure 8: The Spider’s Web city has supported the domination Intergrated transport concept

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(MyCity Bus) system which ought to make the connections which train lines cannot. Both bus and train are seen to be integrated and mutually supportive, enabling a more holistic form of access across the city metropolis. This both enables a means to address city competiveness, accessibility and position Mitchells Plain to be a candidate for transport orientated development.

to be adequately supported by a movement system.

of the car due to the convenience it provides users in contrast to the fixed routes that other public transport modes provide. This spatial formation has severely impacted the competiveness of the city.

Figures 10-11 suggests a possible means to position movement in the city to be more equitable. Drawing on the notion of a spider’s web, accessibility should enable ease of movement in various directions supported by a hierarchy of modes (the person on foot to that of the train). Using the existing distribution of train lines in the city, figure 10 illustrates a proposal that remains supportive of the core business district (the red line and yellow line) while various other nodes are positioned to be more accessible via train. The following figure 11 illustrates the bus rapid transport

In Mitchells Plain buses have been able to form a direct connection to new places of labour that the current metro system does not support and is highlighted by the high bus ridership in the info-graphic (figure 6). This has supported the norm of people moving from designed dormitory areas to places of labour. The dissertation suggests that if nodes in the Southeast are to be successful they need

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Figure 12: Site Selection Diagram

3.1.4. Selecting a precinct for transport orientated development Figures 11 and 12 identify five potential sites within Mitchells Plain and position the southern half of the business district, Mitchells Plain Town Centre, and the areas adjacent to it connected via a key access corridor as the site for intervention.

built fabric itself influences where users and firms locate within the city which significantly impacts where development occurs. These spatial attributes, the agglomeration of service industry and retail business as well as the large vacant parcels of land that surrounded the area, which were absent from the northern extent of the business district, positioned the Towns Centre motivated for the selection of the site.

Initially development sketches (figure 15 -16) proposed that the extent of the site would encompass the whole business district. This would include the light industrial area as well as large shopping mall development as part of the scheme. However further investigation and design identified each of the five potential precincts as being intersected via an axis route which connected it with the surrounding morphology. Drawing on this notion and supported by chapter 5, positioning the need for detailed design frameworks to support transport orientated development, the dissertation suggests that each station site would require a unique intervention. This would enable interventions to adequately respond to locational dynamics and extend along the axis from the core station. Drawing on further analysis and motivated by the research, the Town Centre had been seen as holding the highest potential for development. This was motivated by Chapter 9.2 highlighting the need for unlocking land parcels for development as well as chapter 5 advocating that agglomerations of types of industries as well as the

Figure 13: Concept skecth of potential precinct intervention

Figure 14: Potential sites for transport orienated development and selected site, Town Centre

Figure 15: Concept design sketchs of potential precinct interventions (31 Aug 2014)

Figure 16: Concept design sketchs of potential precinct interventions (19 Sept 2014)

3.1.5. Recent precinct intervention Chapter 9.3 interrogated the economic spatial conditions of Mitchells Plain, positioning motor vehicle orientated spaces as negatively impacting the potential for adhoc economic activity to form in surrounding areas. The recent scheme for this node, figure 17, has implemented large

amounts of space surrounding the central precinct with both parking lots and transport interchanges. This potentially threatens the pedestrian core of the precinct and creates a disjunction between the surrounding morphology and the precinct. The dissertationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design aims to address this through unlocking land for potential development

Figure 17: Current development Framework

creating threshold and transitional zones that are supportive of pedestrian movement from the surrounding morphology.

Figure 18: Town Centre (2000) The photo above shows the Town Centre 14 years ago, since then dense row housing been development on the ocean side with the transport interchange (beige roof, bottom right) expanded and moved to 3 different locations. The road running parallel to the transport interchange had been changed to a pedestrian walkway however the bridge from the retail precinct to the station existed prior to 2000. A key insight, illustrated clearly on this image is that structured open space running towards the ocean on the left side of the image serves as a pedestrian movement route.

Figure 19:

The figure shows a variety of densities with an integrated distribution of household income (the full range between R0 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; R1 228 801 and above) with average household income ranging between R19601- R76400. The western edge of the Town centre has pockets of very high densities while the east side holds a lower population density that is on average wealthier.

Figure 20:

The movement system is based on a hierarchical system of roads. The primary arterial routes that surround the northern edge of the Town Centre are unfriendly pedestrian environments. This is a critical as large amounts of pedestrians walk to the Town Centre across these spaces. The train line is also of significance due to the lack of permeability across the line(illustrated on the following image). There are also numerous interchanges that take up large amounts of space within the precinct. Figure 21:

The figure highlights pedestrian space and active street fronts in the retail precinct as well as highlighting the edges of the surrounding morphology. A key notion drawn from this is the extent of lost space surrounding the precinct. Figure 22:

The figure highlights the core axis of the area, and three secondary precincts on the site (Civic, retail and cultural) as well as highlights point of entry and barriers.

Figure 23:

1 The following illustrations study the qualities of the existing retail precinct which has been used to inform both the design framework and identify a vernacular typology which has informed an approach to coding.

3 Figure 24: Spatial Conditions within Mitchells Plain Town Centre

Figure 25: Spatial Conditions within Mitchells Plain Town Centre

3.1.6. Design Approach In responding to the research question proposed by the dissertation (Chapter 8) McGaffin (interview, 21 Aug 2014) asks “what bundle of assets is needed and from whose perspective? It will be physical but some of this will be process, management and institutional and then how does one create that bundle of assets in that location?” The research undertaken has both informed and motivated this position, highlighting key principles. Chapter 6, interrogating the competiveness of cities, introduces the notion of a bundle assets and suggests that if cities and localities are to remain competitive the performance of these assets are critical in supporting and introducing sustainable growth into the future. Chapter 5, 7 and 8 advocate for the cumulative effect of implementing various levers and mechanisms to impact on locational dynamics however chapter 6’s cases of interventions have suggested that a clear concise vision is required to enable effective interventions. Both Chapter 6 and 7 advocate that it is the influence of users and firms in space which significantly impacts the performance of an area and the potential development that the area could create. Drawing on these principles, the research highlights key objectives which ought to be achieved within the intervention. Chapter 9.1 introduces the need to support service industry and related industry growth within the city. While chapter 9.2 suggests that for

an intervention to be successful in Mitchells Plain it ought to release needed land for development and address issues of crime and accessibility (accessibility addressed earlier, chapter 3.2). McGaffin’s (2011) notion on spend in chapter 5 positions the users as the key catalyst for transport orientated development due to the resultant impact they may have on the value of land as well as chapter 7 suggesting that users provide a fundamental opportunity to where and how business’s locate in the city . These constraints and objectives that have been positioned in the research motivate a method of approach and have informed constraints and objectives for the design. The spatial analysis of the precinct has enabled the contextualization of these principles to the precinct contributing to an understanding of locational dynamics. A key point of departure for the design is the copious amounts of lost space that surround the central retail precinct highlighting that these spaces are ought be threshold conditions between the exiting morphology and the Town Centre. It has also

identified three primary clusters of use within the Town Centre; the retail precinct which has active street fronts and is defined by a row house typology that has introduced mixed (residential and business) to the area; the second is the civic precinct comprised of a two hospitals, a police station, court and various municipal offices; and third a cultural precinct that comprises of a dance schools and Allaince Francaise amongst several other facilities. Drawing on the density study (figure 21) and the axis of movement the dissertation aims to create an intervention which integrates the identified threshold conditions with the surrounding fabric. The design also aims to introduce both catalytic and reflective interventions that both contribute to the sense of place and create points of energy that are supported by surrounding mixed use city fabric. The primary objective of the interventions is to influence the types of users being concentrated and what those users are doing within the area in order to impact the opportunity, value and potential development within an area.

Figure 26: Town Centre Spatial Composition Diagram

3.2. Design Proposal

Figure 27:

3.2.1. Intervention Framework The proposed development plan, informed by various urban dynamics, and situated along the axis connecting the precinct with surrounding morphology, is broken into a primary and secondary intervention. This distinction between the interventions is informed by both a strategy for implementation and the need for focused and detailed transport orientated development. The framework is comprised of five core types of interventions which introduce various attributes and qualities to the precinct and are intended to be mutually supportive of one another.

Private development/ land use is suggested to be business orientated development facilitating service industry growth. The aim is to draw on the existing agglomeration of business and retail in the precinct to stimulate development supportive of serivce industries. The proposal has positioned this as a primary objective for the intervention while the research has suggested that in order for such development to be successful several issues ought to be first considered. Thus implementation of this type of development occurs later along the time line, utilising the implementation of institutional mechanisms, visionary and vernacular development, the university and the transport interchange as the catalyst to maximize the opportunity of the site prior to releasing this land for development.

Vernacular development is envisaged to introduce mixed uses to the precinct while establishing a sense of place and activating street edges. It is proposed as being predominantly four storey walk ups that either occupy threshold conditions in the precinct or are situated to support pedestrian spaces.

The cultural precinct is located on the southern edge of the transport interchange, occupying a key threshold condition between the university and the precinct, facilitating a gateway into the Town Centre. It comprises of a civic centre aimed to support events as well as proposed service industry businesses proposed; it also comprises of the relocation of the dance school and Allaince Francaise which is supported by potential theatre spaces, gallery and cafes. The eastern edge is seen to be a thoroughfare toward the interchange while western half of the square is aimed to be a spill out spaces for the activities occurring in the precinct.

There are two catalytic interventions, the innovation centre and ideas store. These interventions provide key resources to the community and precinct. Their objective is to facilitate entrepreneurship and become places of learning, providing essential services. These facilities are seen to become highly active spaces directly influencing the surrounding fabric and positioned as armatures in the landscape.

The university, comprises of four parts. Residences for the university are situated within the Town Centre contributing to the energy in the precinct as well as contributing to activity in the Town Centre to extend into the evening. The position has also been informed due to the proximity to the exisitng UWC hospital and proposed ideas store. The university itself is broken into two phases, the first providing the needed catalytic energy to unlock the potential of the precinct while the second is seen to occur incrementally supporting further growth. The fourth segment is the sports precinct aimed to be open to the public. Alterations to schools have also been included into the precinct design, which positions them to have active edges and due to the sports precinct, unmaintained sportsfields can be developed on.

Synthesis The framework engaging with threshold conditions achieves three primary objectives, to support the existing retail precinct, enable the opportunity for future development and for a connection between the surrounding fabric and the precinct. The consolidation of the interchange has enabled this intervention freeing critical land for development while creating dignified public spaces that facilitate the large volumes of people moving through this space and enabling both formal and informal activity to thrive.

Figure 28:

3.2.2. Rationale | Building Quality Spaces The research (chapter 5, 6, 7) has motivated the significant impact liveable environments provide in facilitating opportunity as they attract users and firms. The figure illustrated here has begun to engage with what these qualities may be, addressing various spatial attributes. The research highlights that it is the cumulative effect of these various interventions that enables the intervention to maximize the opportunities presented.

Catalytic Interventions Innovation Centre

Ideas Store

The innovation centre provides subsidised rental and access to essential equipment for businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s starting up. It also provides a business support services and seminars helping entrepreneurs to make the right decisions and setup business structures and strategies. Its positioned at a key location between the existing retail precinct and the proposed development, allowing businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to benefit from being in close proximity.

The ideas store is an open space of learning. It is primarily a library supported by IT facilities, seminar rooms and various other facilities. The primary function of the ideas store is to support exsiting learning insitutions and a youth program aimed to aid in informing people of career paths and access to higher learning institutions. This aims to aid in addressing low matriculation rates and support for guiding the youthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future choices. It is positioned within walking distance of the university and cultural precinct and at a key pedestrian junction making it highly accessible.

Figure 29: Development sketch Reflective vs Catalytic

Figure 30:

3.2.3. Public Space and Movement The intervention has been predominantly focused on creating pedestrian friendly environments. This has both reinforced existing pedestrian orientated spaces as well as connected these spaces to the surrounding fabric. This has been closely aligned to proposed uses and typologies which have been implemented throughout the precinct. A key consideration had been the movement of public transport, spaced at 400m increments which are at a 5 min walking distance. Illustrated as bus stops these key points of concentration have been situated to support various types of spaces and enable greater accessibility to both the precinct and surrounding morphology.

Figure 31:

3.2.4. Institutional Mechanisms The research has suggested that management and incentives are critical in creating investment confidence. The following strategies have been utilised to enable a better development climate.

City improvement district The city improvement aims to maintain public spaces, improve safety within the area and pride vital information to prospective developers. These improvement districts have proven to be successful in many areas of Cape Town. The implementation of the improvement district is aligned to the implementation of the precinct.

Tax incentivised zone The Urban Development Zone a tax incentive used throughout South Africa and implemented in the City Centre as well as Voortrecker road impacts on the cost of development and aids in stimulating investment confidence.

Trade-offs Facilitated in part by the city improvement district, trade-off areas aim to focus on public space upgrading that establishes a sense of place within the precinct. These interventions are aligned to figure 30, precinct intervention rationale. A key example of this is the implementation of wireless free zones in public space, which has been a recent imperitive for the city of Cape Town, and as proven to be a key factor influencing where and how service industries locate.

Figure 32:

3.2.5. Implementation: a Strategy Focused on Maximising Opportunity The Frame work has been broken into three phases of implementation which aim to first maximise the opportunity provided by the Town Centre followed by the development which the intervention aims to stimulate. This is represented in figure 33 to the right as the initial development within the precinct (orange arrows, phase 1 and 2) aims to create a user orientated environment. This initial energy aims to unlock the potential development represented by the grey and blue arrows.

Figure 33: Implementation Strategy

Existing Fabric

Phase 1 This phase focuses on the construction of the interchange, which would free up land surrounding the precinct, concentrating existing interchanges and informal traders into this space. This is supported by various other developments including the innovation hub, cultural precinct and the first phase of the university and its residents.

Phase 2 Supporting the completion of phase one, phase two positions the innovation hub and new development on the sites that have opened up due to the relocation of interchanges and informal traders. With the completion of the primary precinct, the dissertation suggests that site would be enabled to facilitate new development surrounding the peripheries and positions the completion of the university and sports precinct.

Figure 34:

Phase 3 Enabled by phase one and two, the opportunity that the agglomeration of activities, uses and the intensity of users in the area, supports the final phase of development along the primary axis of the precinct.

Figure 35:

3.2.6. Detailed Intervention Motivated by the Sydney cases study (Chapter 5.2.1) that successfully implement a transport orientated node through engaging at various scales, from regional to the man on foot. A detailed intervention serves as precedent for the larger design framework and is focused on the transport interchange and surrounding city blocks. The selection of this area is based on its critical role in unlocking and maximising opportunity presented through the implementation of the precinct framework. The detailed intervention serves to illustrate the variety and diversity the proposal aims to introduce to the area. Focusing on the quality public space and how pedestrian and public transport is integrated at one central point maximising the opportunity presented at this point. It also aims to illustrating how other precinct interventions may be enabled in the future while supporting the larger framework implementation strategy through a transport network.

Figure 36: Detailed Precinct Intervention

3.2.7. Visionary and Reflective A visionary and reflective rationale have enabled an approach to the precinct. Visionary, underpinned by how urban design is able to spatially organise communities, not simply accepting the current situation, challenges current thinking and existing morphologies as it aspires to the transformation of space through the catalytic effect of interventions. The has predominantly underpinned the proposal to introduce interventions such as the ideas hub, innovation centre and consolidation of the transport interchange, which attempts to change how and why people use space in turn impacting the surrounding area.

This rational of approach has been translated into and articulated into the development of the detailed precinct design. As visionary work forms armatures in the landscape and their articulation of facades has been informed by the rhythm of street frontage and typological attributes of the current context. The intention underpinning this has been to draw on the social impact that the articulation of public interfaces and the positioning of catalytic elements may have.

Reflective, aspires for better urban environments which are respective of their situation. It advocates a mindfulness of the varied and often conflicting urban conditions. The position engages with the maintenance of urbanity, facilitating urbanism and mediating the public realm, underpinning the second approach to the intervention. Drawn directly from the context, to form a holistic urban Framework, the intervention proposes a row house typology and focuses on the quality of public space already existing in the precinct.

Figure 37: Station Section illustrating the graded slope for pedestrians.

Figure 38: Exploded intervention

Figure 39:

3.12. Movement Movement has been a central focus of this design. The solution has separated pedestrian and public transport movement which only comes together at station and interchange. This has enabled two public transport to move across the rail station and pick up passengers quickly. Pedestrians are concentrated in the interchange allowing for access to all three modes of transport simultaneously. The large space provide for pedestrians allow for different activities. The interchange plaza is

an active and bustling space with trains moving overheade, informal traders, formal retailers; taxiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and buses all within one space. The two adjacent squares contrast this environment, being solely dedicated to the pedestrian.

3.13. Coding Coding, positioned in Chapter 9.3 as being a critical component to the design due to the activity and diversity it can facilitate, has been applied to the interfaces which engage with public space. These interfaces form the threshold

between private and public space and respond to the variety of functions proposed in the precinct. The following diagrams (figure 40-43) illustrate what these interfaces may look like and are contextualised to the exploded diagram (figure 39, above).

Coding 1: Street Frontage Illustations relate to figure 39

Figure 40: Coding 1

Coding 2: Upper Levels Illustations relate to figure 39

Coding 3: Institutional, Cultural & Catalytic Illustations relate to figure 39

Figure 43: Coding 3

Walk Through the Precinct

3 Figure 44: Views 1-3

Figure 45: Views 3-6

9 Figure 46: Views 6-9

11 Figure 47: Views 9-11

Walk Through the Precinct The precinct walk through aims take a journey along the axis, exhibiting various spaces that make up the precinct which aims to build an impression of pedestrians view.

Research Motivation for Design Proposal

4. Assumptions and Visions “Vision without action is a daydream and action without vision is a nightmare.” (Planner, Mary-Anthony Williams cited in Altman, 2011)

Andy Altman (2011), the planning director for Washington DC, speaking on the power of visions to shape cities reiterates the successes and subsequent failures of visions. Although visions matter and have had significant impacts in positively shaping cities, they have been equally harmful (Altman, 2011). This chapter aims to highlight the need for informed design that navigates away from generalising and building on assumptions. Rethinking Spatial Planning (Todes, 2008), positions broad design-based frameworks as being founded on assumptions, lacking an understanding of natural spatial-organisation and economic activities, while failing to guide infrastructure development. Todes (2008) advocates that as spatial interventions engage in existing environments, it is critical that they respond to existing urban dynamics if interventions are to be successful. Lack of understanding has led to abstract nodes/corridors unable to engage the changing economies of spaces (Todes, 2008). Todes’s argument draws into question urban visions that lack a fundamental understanding of context and thus are disempowered to truly achieve guidance and development (figure 48).

Figure 48: Assumptions verse reality (by author) Drawing on Todes’s argument, the figure above aims to illustrate a disparity between proposed nodes and linkage corridors to how development has actually taken form, often not correlating with the intentions of proposals. In the illustration, proposed nodes and corridor are aligned to a primary movement route however the energy provided by public transport which does not follow the primary movement route had been the primary catalyst for development to occur. Thus the change between the initial morphology and changed morphology do not correspond with the proposed vision for the area.

Figure 49: View of Shanghai from the Jin Mao tower

“I was in SOM’s Jin Mao tower once, looking down next to the retired chief planner for Shanghai. I was thinking, ‘What a mess,’ but I didn’t want to say that, and he turned to me and said, ‘Well, there’s a $10 billion mistake’.” Dennis Pieprz president of SASAKI talking at the 2006 GSD in Urban Design Now: A Discussion (Krieger & Saunders, 2009)

The 2006 GSD conference, Urban Design Now: A Discussion, primarily focused on identifying successful Urban Design projects as well as discussing successful urban environments whether designed or not (Krieger and Saunders, 2009). A key point drawn from the discussion aligns to the argument put forward in this chapter, highlighting that urban environments are increasingly complex and as professionals who intervene within this context one must understand the various dynamics which are taking place. In doing so the designer is able to assimilate a method approach which is able to achieve the proposed spatial vision. Alison Todes (2008), drawing on Walker’s (2008) analysis of Cape Town, highlights that initial attempts to strengthen the spatial framework had not considered the relationship between where infrastructure capacity existed for intensification and areas proposed for densification. This has changed in recent years as infrastructure capacity has been linked to future development (Todes, 2008). However, this dissertation’s study draws on this change and suggests that the spatial economy has failed to be incorporated into an integrated approach informing interventions which is interrogated in chapter 8 of this document. A brief interrogation of Dewar’s, The Way Forward Draft Report (1993) in comparison to current conditions of Cape Town illustrates the need for informed visions that consider socio-spatial, economic dynamics and infrastructure capacity (figures 50-55).

Although The Way Forward Report (Dewar, 1993) report is only a draft, which had been finalised and published in 1994, many of the principles and approaches proposed have since been translated into subsequent frameworks such as the current Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework (2013). Many visions and concepts have not changed substantially since their proposal as illustrated by the vision for Voortrekker road corridor (Figure 50 & 51). In positioning these principles’ as applied in 1993, little or no data existed for many areas in the Cape. With the advent of democracy on the horizon, the prospects of change had been accompanied by what the city was imagined to become thereafter. With Humanism and Environmentalism as two underpinning pillars from which to engage the future, the report spatially engages with nodes, linkage corridors and fundamental urban principles of curbing sprawl and introducing densification to the city. The illustrations demonstrate the proposals against what currently exists in 2014. Bringing into question the disjuncture between design based frameworks formed from assumptions and the need for greater understanding as to what the urban dynamics are in respect to the market, society and nature. The aim of the following illustrations is not to question the integrity of the report as many aspects have been successful, but rather to highlight those interventions ought to be designed from an informed position.

Principles to take forward »» Design ought to be an informed process that avoids generalisations and assumptions when forming future interventions and visions. »» With a knowledgeable underpinning the designer is able to assimilate findings and coordinate an approach which would enable the implementation of the vision that is possible to be achieved.

Figure 50: Vision for Voortrekker Road (Dewar 1993)

Figure 51: Current Vision for Voortrekker Road

Figure 52: Vision for Mitchell’s Plain (Dewar 1993)

Figure 53: Mitchell’s Plain: Current morphology (by author)

Figure 54: Vision for Gugulethu (Dewar 1993)

Figure 55: Gugulethu: Current morphology (by author)

The figure above illustrates the difference between Dewar’s 1993 vision and the current morphology of the areas. They aim to illustrate that there is a disjunction between the vision and what has actually taken place in these spaces 20 years later. Dewar’s visions of nodal centres in Mitchell’s Plain and Gugulethu predominantly exhibit spaces with large courtyard developments. However the current morphology is characterised by fine grain morphology of predominantly residential one to two storeys buildings. The disjunction has primarily occurred due to the lack of investment from the private sector which would have enabled the nodes Dewar envisaged. Chapter 8, the Spatial Economy of Cape Town, integrates thes why this disjunction has formed within the city.

5. Transport Orientated Development 5.1. Introduction How can quality urban interventions influence the spatial economy in and around train stations to stimulate sustainable growth that is beneficial for the City of Cape Town? Chapter 4, Assumptions and Visions, highlights a need for informed design that enables not only successful and appropriate visions but also the ability to rationalize implementation of a proposed vision. Drawing on the question proposed for the dissertations research this chapter engages with a study on transport orientated development and draws on three comparative cases to support the review undertaken. The chapter focuses on how transport can stimulate development and forms the departure point for further study in the document which supports the principles established in this chapter.

5.1.1. The value and opportunity in transport orientated development Increasingly commuter times have had an adverse effect, stimulating decentralization as firms attempt to bypass congested routes, stimulating the negative trend of sprawl occurring globally over the past 60 years. With increasing environmental, socio-economic, and fiscal concerns of such morphological growth, alternative mechanisms

Figure 56: Transport Interchanges offer concentration (by author) Concentration of people is a key attribute of transport interchanges, however the opportunity does not simply arise from concentration but rather the types of users being concentrated and what those users are doing within the area. If one wants to impact the opportunity, value and development within an area, influencing users ought to be the priority within an intervention.

for movement are increasingly necessary to address city growth. This has positioned public transport as an indispensable component to future growth in cities, which has been indicative of recent initiatives in South Africa to make public transport a priority focus area (McGaffin 2013). Brown-Luthango (2011) and McGaffinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2011) evaluation of value capture interrogates the role of transport as a potential mechanism enabling change. Understandably with transport comes access to and away from an area, yet it is the associated benefits of this that influence value

of land in and around transport interchanges. Cummings (Frank Cummings, interview, 27 Aug 2014) highlights that transport interchanges concentrate people in one location and focuses the buying power within that location, in turn influencing the attractiveness for investment. McGaffin (2011) expands on this in saying that â&#x20AC;&#x153;value is generally a function of incomeâ&#x20AC;? which is influenced by the level of spend produced. Increased spend results in greater demand for space in an area, resulting in higher rentals and in effect land value (McGaffin, 2011). Spend may result from: the number of commuters passing

through an area; the level of spend of users; or the number of people wanting to live and work within the area (McGaffin, 2011). If these variables are not changed, impacting the level of spend, it is unlikely that the value of land will be increased or development will be stimulated (McGaffin,2011). McGaffin’s position on how users influence value is a core principle of transport orientated development. It introduces the opportunity provided by concentration however highlighting that the opportunity does not simply arise from concentration but rather the types of users being concentrated and what those users are doing within the area. If one wants to impact the opportunity, value and development within an area, influencing users ought to be the priority within an intervention. Brown-Luthango’s (2011) study draws on a variety of case studies to evaluate the measure to which land value may be influenced and finds that “Transport interchanges have a direct effect on the value of property adjacent to stations. In most cases this has been positive… except for several outliers where crime and grime have risen and had an adverse effect” (Brown-Luthango’s, 2011). Brown-Luthango’s (2011) study verifies McGaffin’s (2011) position as disparities in the findings of transport interchange interventions illustrate that it is users which impact the area of intervention most significantly. If an intervention is not geared in a constructive manner it may lead to adverse effects. Brown-

Luthango (2011) emphasises that the effect of interchanges is not unique, as at key junctions of road infrastructure illustrate similar effects on property value. The dependence on users has wider implications beyond the interchange and bears on the quality of the interchange and the purpose for which the interchanges are associated with and used. This position, supported by Doherty (2004), suggests that to maximise the potential benefit of transport infrastructure, urban frameworks that are userorientated ought to be generated along with the development of transport interchanges. This introduces a need to establish precincts that engage and attract users along with interchanges and begins to uncover a need for addressing spatial qualities and various factors influencing urban dynamics. The success of transport infrastructure in stimulating investor confidence is contextually dependent. Begg (1999) advocates that urban competiveness is essential to urban dynamics as it influences the locational preferences of firms, as the mix of factors impacting profitability influence firms locations. Local environments are increasingly dependent on the assets of a place and the demographic characteristics that exist in these locations. Brown-Luthango (2011) cites Kularathe (2008) in highlighting that social facilities impact on economic growth and generates productive labour forces, holding a significant impact on the economic outlook of an

Figure 57: Road junctions also offering opportunity (by author) The opportunity provided by interchanges is not unique and various other forms of opportunity exist within the city. The above illustration refers to Brown-Luthango’s study on roads and how a simple intersection provides a point of opportunity for development to occur. A good example of such development is the current node forming in Klapmuts, an intersection just outside the Cape Town’s boundary. Chapter 9, primary research conducted on Mitchell’s plain illustrates how economic activity has formed in informal clusters within the morphology, which had been stimulated by various morphological situations.

area. Urban Landmark (2007) found that residents in lower income areas in Cape Town, value being located near social facilities, such as schools, instead of being near transport. These findings suggest that a fundamental access to opportunity is defined by the variety and types of amenities within an area, supporting the need for precinct plans.

The need to address issues of value and opportunity are of critical importance as private property developers play a primary role in realising transport orientated development (Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter, 2014). Begg’s (1999) position on urban competiveness highlights that the value and opportunity cannot be achieved if seen in a vacuum and are subject to to citywide dynamics. Claassen (Stephan Classen, interview, 26 Aug 2014) highlights the need to understand the different roles of areas in order to maximise potential opportunity rather than creating areas that could be potentially competing for similar firms and users, in turn undermining the feasibility of potential development.

Figure 58: Supporting interchanges (by author) The figure above serves to illustrate a situation in which public infrastructure including public space has been put in place to support the interchange and is integrated into the surrounding morphology. It highlights the need to develop local areas plans as interchanges are not in and of themselves enough to stimulate development and need to be supported by urban frameworks.

Figure 59: Direct connection (by author) Accessibility is a key element to city wide dynamics. Direct connections establish points of primary opportunity while routes that hold various stops between points facilitate secondary points of opportunity. The various stop overs also hold the potential to disable the potential growth of a point as it undermines the opportunity provided when compared to the opportunity provided by points with direct connection.

Claassen (Stephan Classen, interview, 26 Aug 2014) explains a key variable being access, through the example of global positioning of firms. Internationally accessibility is measured by direct access via aircraft, avoiding as many stopovers as possible. This plays out as direct flights to locations positions a city as being areas where global firms will locate. On a city scale the same logic applies as firms are increasingly looking for convenience of access. Drawing on the current movement routes, both motor vehicles and public transport, are primarily directed to the City Bowl while the N1 and N7 facilitate the primary trade in goods. This has positioned the southeast at great disadvantage. If any development is to be successfully stimulated in the southeast direct accessibility ought to be a primary consideration. Drawing on Charles Correa’s (2011) presentation on the development of Delhi, India, transportation fundamentally provides opportunity through access to the city. Correa (2011) explains that in Delhi, the railway line is an indirect subsidy for housing because you are enabling people to live beyond the city confines, in affordable locations. At every intersection a growth point forms and this has been critical to Delhi’s growth over time. In comparison, Cape Town’s southeast has not formed naturally and neither has it been a location of choice, yet the potential of opportunity in transport to guide growth remains a significant element in affording opportunity. However the argument has presented

not only a need for strategic frameworks to accompany transport infrastructure but has emphasised the need to evaluate where transport orientated development could be feasible within the city. The measure of success of transport-orientated development is highly dependent on the opportunity which the locations may be able to afford users and firms.

Figure 60: Points of opportunity (by author) Referring to the development of Delhi, the figure above illustrates how train stations outside Delhi’s confines have provided points of opportunity and developed into thriving nodes.

5.1.2 Synthesis of study

Principles to take forward

Transport orientated development is able to impact the spatial economy in an around train stations, however this is both dependent on users, spend and the bundle of assets that accompany the development. The user focused approach presented enables the ability influence spend, value and use which enables the ability to establish opportunities. Enabling this approach further requires precinct frameworks that engage users and ought to be rationalised and respond to key opportunities at a regional and sub-regional scale. Drawing on recent imperatives to introduce a Bus Rapid Transport system to Cape Town, MyCity bus service, and the extensive network of train lines existing in the city, although with stations inequitably distributed, transportorientated development ought to be increasingly explored. However, the argument has highlighted that transport-orientated development may not be effective in all cases. Thus careful evaluation of locations needs to be undertaken to ascertain whether the objectives of the approach in influencing the spatial economy are feasible in varied locations. In contributing to this chapter, three comparative case studies are interrogated and aim to verify the position put forward, form constraints and objectives as well as inform areas for further study.

»» Primary opportunity is defined by the concentration of types of users and what those users are doing within the area. »» Increased spend results in greater demand for space in an area, resulting in higher rentals and in effect land value. »» Transport interchanges are not in and of themselves enough to stimulate development and need to be supported by precinct plans anf further interventions. »» The measure of success of transport-orientated development is highly dependent on the opportunity which the locations may be able to afford users and firms. »» Private property developers play a primary role in realising transport orientated development.

5.2. Comparative Cases Transformative Transport Infrastructure has been a recent imperative for South African Cities as infrastructure such as six new bus rapid transport systems (My CiTi (Cape Town), GO!Durban (Durban), Rea Vaya (Johannesburg), ect.), high speed trains (Gautrian) and continued emphasis on motor vehicle capacity has been implemented in the past 15 years. Poignantly, in most of these cases there has not been enough time to gather data and evaluate responses within the spatial economy. Thus comparative case studies will focus on international cases, including Johannesburg, which use transport infrastructure as a transformative mechanism in guiding the growth of cities. The case studies presented aim to corroborate the study, inform further points of study and form a motivation for the design undertaken for the dissertation.

The Cases: - Wolli Creek | Sydney - TransMileneo | Bogata - Guatrian | Johannesburg

5.2.1. Wolli Creek | Sydney | Australia 5.2.1.2 Regional Dynamics Sydney has had a history of planning attempting grapple with a means to effectively guide the city with several dramatic failures and successes. A key turning point had been in 1917, when JD Fitzgerald a politician and town planning advocate, described Sydney as the accidental city whatever plan had existed was done by the errant goat: where there were trails, there are now roads (Ashton and Freestone, 2008). Fitzgerald sought for planning to hold a stronger role and aided the promulgation of the Local Government Act, 1919 subsequently leading to the statutory Cumberland County Plan, 1948 (Ashton and Freestone, 2008). The Cumberland Plan supported by a high-level council enabled planners to enforce bylaws and plans which had a significant impact on the morphology of the city as it had been based on the 1944 Greater London Plan that pursued green belts encircling the city with satellite cities surrounding. However the plan encountered significant opposition from developers and local authorities due to its prescriptive nature. The plan subsequently failed and led to rampant development, sprawling the city at such a rate that developers often funded primary road infrastructure to facilitate their developments (Ashton and Freestone, 2008). The growth in morphology aligned to arterial routes that extended into the hinterland naturally creating corridors of development. The

Figure 61: Movement Network supporting Nodes | Sydney The Figure is drawn from the metropolitan spatial development Frame Work and illustrates various roles of nodes and the connections and movement of the city, which both exists and is proposed. It enables the ability to rationalise areas and interventions on regional and sub-regional scale allowing for interventions to correlate with city wide dynamics.

plan which followed drew on the Copenhagen five finger plan, supporting the new corridor morphology and protecting green belts. Several plans followed thereafter yet the overbearing statutory nature of plans fell away and their purpose began to inform guidance and opportunity facilitated by local authorities rather than the prescriptive top down prior model. Consequently, by the late 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the morphology of the city had been characterised by sprawl as neoliberal government and lack of coordination between local authorities caused high living costs and many neglected urban environments. Increasingly a new method of approach had been needed to reposition Sydney vision

as a global centre. This would require enabling developers and positioning planning as an informed practise guiding infrastructure to the nature of the city. The current model does exactly this as urban design, infrastructure planning, and city planning form an integrated approach that is underpinned by an understanding of various factors influencing the city to enable and guide investors and the growth of the city (Bunker, 2008) which had not been the case in the past. This current model is the focus of this case study to enable the understanding of how regional dynamics have translated into precinctsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; utilising transport orientated development as a key mechanism to guide future growth. A key component to the

Figure 62: Nodes

spatial development framework1 (figure 63) is the diversification and hierarchy of nodes within the city which are supported by movement routes. The framework illustrates how the guidance is presented as being notional and non-persrciptive, with broad directional movement systems. This position is informed by an in-depth spatial analysis of the pressures facing the city that have been categorised as economic activity, household formation, employment, movement and recreational needs amongst other core user-required statistics and information2. The analysis has 1 The Framework illustrated is the newest, 2013, spatial development framework. Frameworks are reviewed every 5 years, the last three frameworks 2013, 2010 and 2005 are very similar with the primary difference being the method of representation. The primary changes to such frameworks have been focused on governance, coordination, policies and changes which have been informed from ongoing analysis. 2 The analysis highlighted is created and formed within various departments and integrated into an approach to guide key objectives in city growth. A helpful document in accessing the information has been compiled and formed into several

enabled a firm understanding of the relationships that exist within the city and where opportunity and problems are situated. This city-wide approach has enabled transport planning to translate and coordinate key issues of goods, commuting, and unanticipated directional movement trajectories to housing demands, future growth, employment and other factors that form spatially. The broad stroke guidance given by the metropolitan framework becomes an increasingly integrated approach during implementation. Projects are informed by regional dynamics and evaluated at both a local and city wide scale. This establishes roles and key objectives to be achieved. Implementation has been tailored to creating liveable user environments, recognising the benefits of focusing on people. Projects undertaken are multifaceted with various stakeholders, existing communities, investors and developers as well as alternative future scenarios for the growth of Sydney, compiled by ARUP as an interactive report that can be found at: http://strategies. planning.nsw.gov.au/Portals/0/ SydneyAlternativeGrowth_Diagrams. pdf

numerous local authorities be it infrastructure, planning or urban design which are coordinated to form an integrated framework. With increasing need to address accessibility to the city due to long commuting concerns the city has aimed to reduce commuting to 30 min and allow for greater accessibility to the city region (Brooker and Moore, 2008). Informed by the multidimensional analysis, movement is aligned to potential growth scenarios for the city (Bunker, 2008). This primary focus has positioned transportorientated development as a key mechanism in achieving higher densities, enabling liveable environments and supporting economic activity. Recent projects include highway extensions, rail extensions, bicycle infrastructure and a recent imperative to implement a light rail network; however these projects are coordinated through local area plans enabling precinct prioritisation which facilitates development. Illustrating how transport orientated development has taken form in the city; the case of Wolli Creek is presented.

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Wolli Creek - Case study 9 City Shapers

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Figure 63: Sydney Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework

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5.2.1.2. Wolli Creek Illustrated by figure 63, Wolli Creek is positioned at a key junction in the city forming the Southern section of the global Sydney corridor while being situated at a key intersection of the M5 and several rail lines that converge, at right angles, to cross the river from Rocklands suburb (Urban Planning Unit, 2006). This junction, previously an industrial area, had supported the airport via road, as part of the larger industrial area that surrounds the airport. In 2000, the Wolli Creek station had been completed to integrate a new rail line connection to the Airport (Urban Planning Unit, 2006). Two primary objectives stimulated this project; the first being the need to have a direct connection to the airport via rail which in turn, the second objective, positioned Wolli Creek, due to its location, as a potential redevelopment area (Searle, Darchen and Hustin, 2014). The station development had been utilised as a mechanism for transport orientated development and suggested that Wolli Creek ought to become a node of business, housing and recreation

Figure 64: Wolli Creek

(Urban Planning Unit, 2006). Although not identified as primary node in the city, Wolli Creekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role is to draw on the potential of being a junction within the city and its connection to the airport to support various other primary nodes in the city. Local authorities implemented a Local Environmental Plan, 2000, and Development Control Plan No.62 which had gone through numerous forms of public engagement (Urban Planning Unit, 2006). The objective of the plans are to enable a coordinated vision of the area between private and government entities while enabling a liveable environment through focus on the public realm and how people use the area. To enable this, authorities have created a platform of engagement for prospective developers to guide development and establish trade-offs (figure 65) which enable the realisation of the envisaged liveable environment. The approach has been translated into visions of public spaces that would in part be maintained by private sector developers investing in the area. The Development

Figure 65: Trade off area of development Plan Figure 66: Trade-off streetscapes from the development plan (to the right) The figures when read together identified enable detailed intentions to be implemented through private funding sourced through trade-offs. Prospective developers would in part fund these streets to acquire additional rights. There are many more examples of this in plan. The combination of various streetscapes has enabled a place making exercise that would change the existing industrial orientated spaces into more liveable environments. This has been significant as these interventions address the quality of spaces within the intervention and align development to correlate with the intended visions. The increasingly participatory process which has engaged both private investors and developers have enabled numerous revisions as the precinct is built. The process Allows for a dynamic environment and non-prescriptive approach which is underpinned through engagement

control plan highlights where trade-offs may occur and detailed streetscapes, pedestrian avenues and two large parks that border the river. The success of the approach is indicated in the continued investment in the area with various on-going developments occurring. One of the fundamental principles had been how the area would change. The Development Control Plan facilitated development through a coordinated block-byblock fashion progressively forming the continued transformation from an industrial area to a multifunctional hub (Searle, Darchen and Hustin, 2014). The approach has used planning and urban design to facilitate a platform from which development is able to be envisaged through public-private coordination. The intervention has transformed the area from an industrial area to a young and thriving node. However, it will take several years before the full extent of the plan would be realised. As a case study, the case of Wolli Creek in Sydney illustrates how regional factors are able to influence and inform precinct developments. It also highlights that spatial frameworks that facilitate coordination are critical in realising transformative nodal interventions. The success of the redevelopment has largely been attributed to not only the coordination but a focused intervention of a spatial vision underpinned by liveable urban environments stimulating investor confidence to engage in the redevelopment.

Principles to take forward »» An informed position of regional dynamics and an intergrated aproach to planning enable the projection and testing of various scenarios which are translated into intentions and objectives at numerous scales. This has enabled Sydney authorities to act proactively in guiding the growth of the city. »» The various movement systems, knowledge of city wide dynamics and roles of nodes represent a unified approach to the city. Enabling the identification of priority interventions as precincts and points of opportunity. »» City wide dynamics have been key to Wolli Creeks Success, informing intentions and objectives and establishing the areas role of the precinct. »» For transport orientated development to occurred, precinct plans ought to form an essential and supportive role to interchange provisions. These ought to be non-prescriptive in nature and align to developer interests while fostering liveable environemnts. »» Implementation requires coordination between stakeholders, private and government, for the intended vision to be successful.

5.2.2. TransMileneo | Bogotá | Columbia 5.2.2.1. Cumulative effect of numerous interventions In 1976, Bogotá mayor Hernado Duran Dussen implemented Ciclovía, meaning cycleway in Spanish, where on Sundays roads are closed to motorists, opening streets to cyclists and pedestrians from 7am to 2pm. The initiative took form as an exercise in social integration, during a time when crime and violence had riddled the city districts and road congestion had reach unprecedented levels. Ciclovía marked the beginning of initiatives taken on by various mayors championing interventions in the built environment to address the liveability of the city in focusing on security, environmental protection, public services, urban mobility, and public space (Wright, 2004). The research has uncovered various case studies on

Bogotá often investigating specific relationships and attempting to draw generalisations from this, however the argument presented in this case study attributes findings to the cumulative effect of the various incentives and interventions that have been undertaken overtime. The Ciclovía, started small and grew over time and had been very successful, stimulating further social programs orientated to building communities and a stronger citizenry, which impacted on high levels of crime (Cervero, 2005). The continued implementation of the bicycle network has introduced 250km NMT orientated spaces ( Cervero et al. 2007). A key focus area had been the return of the city to the pedestrian, removing the tradition of cars parking on the sidewalks

(Cervero, 2005). However this new vein of thought in addressing how people use the city faced high unemployment, socio-economic disparities, as well as a congested urban mobility network. With access remaining a problem and the lack of a metro system, the uncoordinated privatised bus network was often locked into congestion by the rising car ownership (Heres, D., Jack, D. and Salon, D. 2013). In 2000 plans were put in place to implement the TransMilenio, a bus rapid transport system, this had been planned to be coordinated with pedestrianization and the reclamation of public spaces. Its implementation had been carefully aligned to urban form, connecting economic active areas and residential areas of various income groups. Within

Figure 67: Ciclovía

two years, 2002, TransMilenio had been implemented at low cost to both the city and riders attributing to its record ridership levels of various income brackets. Supporting 800 000 people per day initially, which grew to 5.5 million by 2005 (Cervero, 2005). Stations had been placed at 500m increments, 8 minute walking distances, while being articulated by the continued extensions of bicycle infrastructure. The intervention has gone through various reiterations to extend the networks and create public space. 5.2.2.2. Appreciation & Value

Figure 68: TransMilenio Figure 69: TransMilenio impact on density (right)

A study had been undertaken by Rodriguez and Tagla, published in 2004, which compared apartment rentals to the proximity to TransMilenio stations (Rodriguez and Mojica, 2008). Two key findings had been drawn from this, this first had been that there was a premium of 6.8 to 9.3 percent for every 5 minutes of walking distance closer to a BRT station; and second had been that premiums had been lower when adjacent to bus routes not necessarily close to a station (Rodriguez and Mojica, 2008). Several other studies followed over the next four years evaluating various economic responses to the BRT system and the new public spaces; namely Wright, 2004; Muñoz-Raskin 2006; Mendieta and Perdomo 2007; Perdomo et al. 2007, Rodriguez and Mojica, 2008. These studies all had found various appreciation values for property of various uses and locations attributed to either the BRT or public space. However many anomalies have remained

The TransMilenio implementation vastly changed the city. At a low cost for commuters, it has enabled a diverse income demographic to travel through the city. This is of particular importance, drawing on McGaffin’s argument on spend, the diverse income group enables stations to host a variety of amenities.

It has also impacted on the value of property and the densities surrounding stations since its implementation. This is significant as transport orientated development is not only about creating new development but impacting on the existing fabric, which the TransMilenio has achieved.

and all these cases reiterate that findings cannot be generalised upon nor necessarily attributed to the specific relationships between property and public space or BRT proximity alone. However the trend in appreciation if seen collectively between the case undertaken by various researchers suggesting that the cumulative effect of; proximity to BRT; public space upgrading; and other initiatives such as the continued expansion of bicycle routes have had an economic impact on property in many areas of Bogotá.

Rodriguez and Vergel (2013) undertook an extensive study of how BRT stimulates land development, 10 years after TransMilenio’s initial implementation. Rodriguez and Vergel (2013) found that it depends on local attributes and roles of stations. Although appreciation of property values may occur around BRT stations, the land which is developed in proximity to BRT stations varies due to numerous factors influencing the specific context. A critical section in the study evaluated whether development which had occurred

Figure 70: Reclamation of public space The transformation of car orientated spaces into public areas has been a significant intervention impacting the livability. The study conducted by MuĂąoz-Raskin (2006) on these public spaces found that it had increased the number of pedestrians using these spaces.

in proximity to BRT had occurred due to BRT proximity, they found that in some economically active areas this had not been the case. Although the study had ended with mixed findings, a critical recommendation had been that if a piecemeal approach to transport orientated development had occurred within a regional approach, it would have been more likely to stimulate transport orientated development than the broad strategy of the TransMilenio (Rodriguez and Vergel, 2013). Although Rodriguez and Vergelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2013) study had found mixed results between stations an economic development, figure 69 illustrates a strong relationship between density increases and

stations. This relationship to density is indicative of natural growth and household formation that many of the other studies did not interrogate. Drawing on this point the natural relationship of increased densities is one aligned to opportunity as users gravitate towards convenience and activity. Drawing on McGaffins (2011) position on spend, the increase in density has increased the spend of these areas and as a result, verified by Rodriguez and Tagla (2004), this would impact the value of property which is represented in the rental. Both the study on apartment rentals and the plethora of other interventions near stations suggests that these spaces have dramatically changed as the urban

environment has become more liveable and now offers a greater variety of amenities. Ten years on, transformative initiatives in using urban interventions have had very mixed results and the socio-economic impact has also remained questionable. Although crime has been dramatically decreased, unemployment, although less than it had been, remains high and the poor are increasingly pushed towards the fringes of the city as land affordability near to transport due to appreciation is inaccessible to them (Rodriguez and Vergel, 2013) . This has impacted on the competiveness ratings by the World Economic Forum, where during the TransMilenio implementation it had risen, it has now slumped several positions (Cervero, 2005). BogotĂĄ, has responded to these

Figure 71: Reclamation of public space

continued problems in two key ways, namely the purchasing of land near stations for provision for relocating informal settlements and increased investment into education and community facilities (Cervero, 2005). 5.2.2.3. Synthesis The BRT has had numerous benefits for Bogotá, reducing traffic congestion and commuter times, creating more liveable environments, introducing a greater variety of uses throughout the city and creating safer environments. However for transport-orientated development to occur it needs to be championed in specific locations and not across the entire city, highlighting that different approaches ought to be undertaken which are dependent on the context and role of specific

areas within a regional strategy. Finally the case has verified many of the findings that have been presented in the dissertation such as the effect of stations on property value, that a station in and of itself is not enough to stimulate development, that market forces are critical to the success of transport orientated development and that users impact opportunity.

Principles to take forward »» Transport interchanges impacts the value of property and the value may be able to be measured by walking distance from stations. »» Various interventions have a cumulative affect on value »» A piecemeal approach of priority areas may be more effective than a broad regional strategy »» Interventions focused on livability (reclamation of public space) and access (BRT & bicycle lanes) enable user orientated spaces ,attracting people and potentially increasing densities and diversity.

5.2.3. Guatrain | Johannesburg | South Africa The Gautrian, a high speed rail link, aimed to unlock potential economic development and establish Gauteng as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Smartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; province (Joubert et al., 2001). The planning of the system aimed to form a holistic approach from provincial to local scales through an interdisciplinary task team. Informed by various scales of Spatial Development Frameworks the project aimed to guide economic development and transform the urban structure of Gauteng (Joubert et al., 2001). The objective of the project had been to utilize transport orientated development to guide the sprawling morphology. The focus primarily being to contain and re-direct urban growth in order to strengthen existing nodes, encourage development of new town centres, promote the redevelopment and revitalization of CBDs, connect people and jobs as well as enhance economic growth in existing and new areas (Joubert et al., 2001). Formally opened in 2012, after delays, the Gautrain extended 80km and is the most expensive infrastructure project undertaken by South Africa. The planning of the route engaged with several key issues, existing and potential nodes, economic growth, topography, land value, hydrology, energy consumption and other factors which would influence morphology, operating costs and implementation (Joubert et al., 2001). This process went through further reiteration during the EIA process that had been completed

in 2002 with several amendments thereafter. The case interrogates how effective the stations have been in stimulating development and the potential benefits to the surrounding area. 5.2.3.1. Increased value and transactions in property Initial studies between 2000 and 2007 indicate that properties value within 3km of station precincts rose dramatically above the average Gauteng prices in 2004, and have remained above average since (Lightstone, 2007). However this has not been the case in all areas, as in the case of Pretoria where prices have remained below the average property value, although this had been attributed

to lag affected by investment in Gauteng (Lightstone, 2007). The sale of property had indicated a rise in the number of transactions around stations (Lightstone,2007) especially by the Sandton station (Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter, 2014). These early values verify the findings of BrownLuthango (2011) that transport infrastructure has a direct effect on surrounding property in most cases. However the key aspect is to what extent and how do these very early indications of investment play out across the city region. Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter (2011) have engaged in an interesting study of such dynamics by evaluating the Rosebank,

Figure 72: Property Values within Radius of Station The graph is of particular interest as it indicates that values in property rose ten years before the completion of the Guatrian in 2012. It highlights that that property values may be effected well before the final completion of an intervention with the anticipation of the opportunity that intervention would provide. Another factor would have been that property developers began purchasing property in and around station precincts to be able to build and correlate their own development completion dates with that of the stations. Drawing on this interaction implementation of interventions that engage with transport orientated development ought to begin implementing precinct interventions which support this early investment into areas.

The Rosebank stationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance, that has seen the highest investment between the three cases, had been attributed to the mix of various land uses, higher densities, the ability to walk and cycle, supported with various modes of transport (Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter, 2014). These attributes were not as evident in the other cases. Pretoria showed the highest level of transport mode interaction, which is attributed to the area being predominantly government owned with high volumes of commuters. 5.2.3.2. Differentiation spatial qualities

Figure73: Rosebank Spatial Development Framework The Rosebank Spatial Development Framework has defined a precinct within a larger framework for detailed design by demarcating a 10 minute walking distance away from the central station that is related to proposed densities. This has been an effective strategy as densities correlate with movement desire lines and energy which exists in the precinct. The Framework has also engaged with releasing key portions of land for development and the revitalization of public spaces.

Pretoria CBD and Midrand stations. The study evaluates the number of developments and types through categories: namely types of mixes, use of nonmotorised transport, availability of various modes of transport and density. However the findings have shown dramatic differences between Rosebank and Midrand, with Pretoria performing as an average between the two. A key

factor had been the commitment by authorities to prepare local spatial development frameworks in motivating developers to engage in these areas (Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter, 2014). A second factor had been the existing fabric prior to the implementation of the station attributing to a well-functioning node (Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter, 2014).

and

A key finding had been that although there is an increase in property transactions and development the performance of the types are not the high density mix of uses which had been envisaged and rather representing a continued trend of business as usual (figure 74) (Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter, 2014). Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter (2014) recommend that government need to take a proactive role in defining the surrounding precincts of these areas to incentivize the envisaged development initially conceptualised. Joubert (2006), describes the design of stations and the various modes to which they connect, however this description focuses on the actual station itself and suggesting a lack of coordination, design and vision for the greater area. Although impact area guidelines had been conducted with relevant municipalities, the extent to which

this has been applied or is relevant to impacting development interests, has been nominal and incredibly varied when compared to Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter’s (2014) case study. Espach (2013) notes that “Not all Gautrain stations are created equal”, when comparing the trends occurring in Hatfield to Sandton and Midrand. This points towards the regional dynamics between stations as some stations have been categorised as points of origin rather than destination places. The origin stations , often facilitated by the wide network of connecting modes of transport from a broad suburb area, have been severely impacted due to the ability of these stations to draw investment as the users in these space are often transient moving through station precincts rather than living around them. Espach (2013) confirms this dynamic, highlighting that many offices in Hatfield have been vacant for up to 3 years, highlighting that the transient nature has contributed to little effect on the economic dynamics of station precincts. Joubert (2006) explains that there are three categories of stations: anchor stations such as Pretoria, supporting stations such as Hatfield and greenfield such as Midrand . However, as highlighted, lack of coordination between the station and precinct has been nominal and the differentiation of these precincts has of yet to be championed.

Figure 74: Business as Usual The Urban Design Framework for Linbro Park, Modderfontien, Johannesburg, is situated on the edge of a Guatrain line and is connected to one station. The proposal suggests a variety of mixed use development at a ‘moderate’ density. However the proposed typology of the development, semi-detached housing, is situated on large, predominantly parking, gated estates that are inward facing. This typology and layout does not engage with the street and nor does it achieve the densities that should align with transport orientated development. This proposal serves to illustrate a continued form of development which is not aligned to the high density vibrant areas that the Johannesburg Spatial development Framework proposes to align with the implementation of the Guatrain.

Figure 75: Tshwana Station Upgrade The Figure of the implementation of the Tshwana development framework illustrates four stages of development. This entails the development of three precincts that develop overtime. A key part to the Framework has been the protection of structured open space and creating key linkages between the areas which facilitate the ongoing infill of the project.

Figure 76: GEP Manufacturing Precinct The figure above illustrates the differentiation in use in the recinct as well as the core public space networks. The proposal suggests various types of small to large interventions with implementation being staged. The staging has been aligned to achieve two primary objectives; creating a sense of place and; forming catalytic elements. The core principal of the development is to stimulate an economy around local markets based on manufacturing as well as developing the event day as primary catalyst. A detailed proposal is further proposed of the station junction between Ellis Park and the precinct.

5.2.3.3. Precinct Development The Tshwana framework (figure) as well as the GEP Manufacturing Precinct however has been some of the first areas to engage in defining precincts and proposing spatial qualities, economic growth and more liveable environments. The GEP Manufacturing Precinct situated adjacent from Ellis Park station has performed an indepth analysis and response to the existing fabric and has proposed that precinct respond to the new opportunity. In doing it has focused on potential uses and new functions within the area; creating a public space network and drawing on the existing typologies and heritage of the are to define a sense of place. Although these precincts plans have yet to be implemented they begin addressing the dire need to differentiate stations and define precincts which support investment confidence, development and economic growth around the new Guatrian intervention.

5.2.3.4. Synthesis

Principles to take forward

The case presented has to develop over time as Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter (2014) highlight that in ten year’s time these areas would look significantly different. On the other hand, initial trends suggest that the form of development that is occurring is not the one envisaged of high-density and multiple uses. Cloete, Mushongahande and Venter (2014) stress the importance of government holding a proactive role in instilling confidence in developers as the provision of stations is not in and of itself enough. However the precinct development frameworks occurring such as the Tshwana framework and GEP Manufacturing Precinct, begin to address the need for in-depth and differentiated visions of frameworks that are geared to creating a successful network of nodes in the city.

»» Value increases can occur prior to the completion of the interchange, drawing on the potentail opportunity, and ought to be supported and guided by interventions within the precinct.

Drawing on previous cases and theory, transport-orientated development requires the implementation of coordinated spatial frameworks that are founded on private/public partnerships. The need to address the users requires liveable environments which ought to be championed if the envisaged development is to occur. One cannot assume that the envisaged development would occur naturally without guidance.

»» Regional strategies need to be translated into local frameworks, highlighting the need to define the roles of station precincts, the possible opportunities which exist and the relationship between stations. »» The various roles of stations are defined by how people use these spaces. This ought to be considered when designing a precinct questioning how one may influence and support the role of the interchange? »» Precinct Frameworks ought to proactively engage with typologies as development often does not align to the envisaged framework proposed. »» The frameworks presented have illustrated various strategies and concerns, highlighting that every case is different. Transport Orientated Development precincts designs ought to be considered on a case by case basis in order to successfully engage with the various contexts.

5.3. Synthesis: Transport Orientated Development

Consolidated Principles to take forward

The cases have aided in verifying as well as contributing to the findings of the study. The findings presented have motivated the strategy undertaken in the design component of the dissertation.

»» City wide dynamics ought to create an informed approach that should enable the identification of key points of opportunity within the city and inform the roles and objectives of those areas. A broad aproach may undermine the success of transport orienated development.

Transport interchanges directly influence the surrounding urban environment as robust armatures in the city fabric. They form points that concentrate people which directly impacts on the value of property through the resultant spend. However, the study has shown that for transport orientated development to occur the opportunity that these interchanges offer ought to be maximised. To maximise the potential opportunity the study has positioned a fundamental understanding of regional dynamics as critical in evaluating whether areas are positioned to become potential candidates for transport orientated development. This is rationalised by investigating the various issues and urban dynamics that exist at a metropolitan scale; such as the spatial economy, movement, proximity, demographics, and types of nodes amongst other key variables. The identified area that could best benefit from transport development is informed by the regional scale through objectives and understanding the role of the area within the city. These informants ought to be translated into a precinct framework which the study has identified as essential to supporting interchanges and enables the maximisation of the opportunity presented. The precinct framework plays a critical role in creating a holistic approach to implementation which is cognisant of the benefits that arise from the cumulative effect of various types of interventions. The precinct framework ought to respond to local dynamics enabling an integrated area and addressing potential challenges. The objective to maximise opportunity ought to be focused on the types of users and firms that are intended to inhabit the area which directly effects the surrounding fabric. The synthesised approach presented has highlighted key points which are to be further investigated in the following chapters to gain and understanding of competiveness between areas, the influence of users, how and why development forms and the conditions and characteristics of the spatial economy.

»» A degree of additional land value can be created due to the provision of transport infrastructure. However, the provision of infrastructure is not sufficient in and of itself and precints frameworks must support transport interventions if transport orientated develepment is to be stimulated. »» Multiple interventions of various types have a cumulative affect. »» The measure of success of transport orientated development is highly dependent on the opportunity which locations may be able to afford users and firms »» Transport orientated development should not only focus on creating new development, but also influencing the existing fabric.

KOlkuta- an industrial and intellectual hub Deli- global metropolis and world class city New York- greener city Mumbai- city of the millennium Berlin- the city of change Bangalore- the city of the future London- an exemplary sustainable world city

VISIONS 96

6. Urban Competiveness and Specialised Differences The previous chapters have highlighted a need for understanding various urban dynamics that would aid in rationalising interventions within the built environment and establishing transport orientated development. This chapter aims to contribute to the argument by interrogating competiveness at various scales. This would enable an understanding of the factors influencing locational dynamics and how actors in the built environment may be able to intervene and guide urban areas to support sustainable economic growth in the city. The study aims to contribute in answering the question: How can quality urban interventions influence the spatial economy in and around train stations to stimulate sustainable growth that is beneficial for the City of Cape Town?;

of 2008, suggests that economic trends are subject to complex global economic patterns resulting in booms and slumps represented as a wave that may be able to be predicated (Watson, 2014). The Kondratieff wave illustrates a macroeconomic movement demonstrating booms and slumps with an average 54-year cycle, namely the 1930 great depression, the 1970 oil crisis and the 2008 fiscal crisis. However a measure of control in this intractable economic climate can be achieved in cities, which influence their competiveness (Begg, 1999: 796) and ultimately their resilience. The contemporary models of economic performance are drawn from the 1960 Coasian view of the

world (Begg, 1999: 797) where competition evolves from a firm’s bundle of assets that gives rise to the unit of production and ultimately its ability to contend on the open market. Nations, regions and cities can also be seen as a bundle of assets jockeying for position on the open market. The definition “suggests that the capacity of a city to compete is shaped by an interplay between the attributes of cities as locations and the strengths and weaknesses of the firms and other [socio]economic agents active in them” (Begg, 1999: 798). Thus the notion of competition drawn from a bundle of assets enables the position that through management and intervention of these assets nations, regions and

as well as contribute to the study conducted on transport orientated development and the design presented in this dissertation.

6.1. Externalities and the need to address competitiveness and economic performance Factors influencing urban performance derive from national and global economic trends, in a top- down fashion, leaving little ability for cities to affect these variables (Begg, 1999: 796). Figure 77 illustrates movements of economic trends at various scales of time and quantity . David Harvey’s Circuits Of Capital (1978), which has received renewed interest after the slump

Figure 77: Economic Cycle Time is represented on the x axis of each graph and quantity is represented on the y axis. Quantity is specifically focused on the measure of economic performance at any one time. The various graphs presented represent various scales of time and quantity and form part of a hierarchical setting where the Kondratieff wave is the largest economic wave which is comprised of smaller fluctuations, namely the smallest being yearly, the seasonal cycle.

cities are able to influence the measure to which they are able to compete. Alternatively, Sassen (2011)argues that the position being focused on competition has undermined performance as cities contend for similar markets and greater emphasis should be given to specialised differences amongst cities, regions and nations (cited in Burdett and Sudjic, 2011: 61) Sassen’s (2011) alternative is especially key to global dynamics as production and firms have become increasingly fragmented and footloose. This has largely been due to the preferences of companies to locate according to various stages of production (Begg, 1999: 798). As in the case of Apple, where services are based at Apple headquarters, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, which is characterised by the agglomeration of high tech industries such as Google and Facebook, while Apple product manufacture takes place in China where low manufacture and labour costs have formed an agglomeration of manufacturing cities. The locational advantage of these stages of production is directly influenced by the various spatial attributes of the localities, which Ian Begg has referred to as the price and non-price factors that impact the input costs of companies (Begg, 1999). The factors which allow firms to compete are supported by the bundle of assets of a city. This means that localities have price factors, land value and labour costs, as well as non-price factors, such as business services and congestion, which influence the competiveness of localities as

Figure 78: Agglomeration of banks in Cape Town City Bowl The figure above is a view of the City Bowl of Cape Town highlighting the proximity of banks in the area. This illustrates the importance of locational dynamics and agglomerations of industries within a city, in prompting where firms locate.

these variables impact on the input costs of firms. This leads to the notion that locational dynamics are key to the opportunities which cities offer and facilitate.

Principles to take forward »» Management of a cities bundle of assets enables cities to impact on their competitiveness. »» Specialised difference between cities and localities fosters partnerships which may be more beneficial that competing for similar markets »» Locational dynamics are essential to the opportunities that cities are able to afford firms and users

6.2. Locational Dynamics | Portside The current location of FNB regional head office, Portside, in the City Bowl of Cape Town is good example of locational dynamics. Claassen (Stephan Classen, interview, 26 Aug 2014) highlights that “South Africa needs a New York and a Chicago; we need Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban”. Claassen refers to both the relationships between the cities and the varied locational attributes that had informed Portside’s location within the city. The benefits of Cape Town had been the ability to tap into varied industry agglomerations, for instance the IT sector in Cape Town aiding head offices in Johannesburg, but also having the ability to tap into skilled labour which would be apprehensive to relocate to Johannesburg for employment. Within the city, several locations

had been considered, Century City, Tygerberg and various locations in the City Bowl. Several key aspects led to locating Portside at the intersection of Hans Strijdom Ave and Buitengracht Street. Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) also highlights that if FNB did not see a long-term answer of being in the area they would be renting rather than taking on the onerous and initially costly process of finding a site and building in the city. The City Bowl is seen as a location for big business, which had steered FNB away from locations such Century City. This highlights the key factor of service industry agglomeration as various banks and other financial institutions have located in the City Bowl (figure 78). Other key factors had been branding (with 35 000 people moving through the intersection below, per day, which would be valued at R2-3 million); the urban redevelopment zone giving key tax incentives; the potential appreciation of the building value; access for staff and clients; and ultimately the variety of amenities and services the area provides. Portside illustrates the importance of the price and non-price factors and city relationships, through positioning itself not only in Cape Town but in a well thought-out location which provided vital opportunities. This has drawn key issues of both physical environmental assets as well as many institutional and social attributes that inform firm’s locations.

Principles to take forward »»

“South Africa needs a New York and a Chicago; we need Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban” (Claassen, 2014) highlighting that specialised difference may be critical within a South Africa context.

»» Locational dynamics influencing firms locations comprise of attributes such as; industry agglomeration; types of labor and demographics; institutional levers (Tax incentives & city improvement districts), local amenities, accessibility, and factors influence the input costs of firms. »» The influences of locational dynamics at various scales are critical in understanding where firms locate and how to influence the locations of firms in the future. This key insight reinforces the need for precinct plans supporting transport orientated development and forms objectives for making these areas more attractive to firms.

6.3. The performance of the Bundle of assets The World Economic Forum’s report, The Competiveness of Cities (2014), defines city competiveness “as the set of factors, policies, institutions, strategies and processes that determine the level of a city’s sustainable productivity” (WEF, 2014). This description of city competiveness, which is an alternative definition to Beggs, highlights that there is a time component to sustainable productivity which does not account for more lucid economic models that are not spatially fixed. The measure of sustainable productivity introduces the need for management of the bundle of assets which forms a guarantee to potential firms, potential location globally, nationally and locally within a city. The report classified competitiveness in four parts, namely: (1) institutions1 , (2) policies and regulation2 , (3) Hard Connectivity3 , and (4) Soft Connectivity4 . The four classifications of competiveness offer a particular insight into the 1 Institutions: The governance and/or decision-making framework, concerned with how important decisions are made and vital reforms created. (WEF, 2014) 2 Policies and regulations: The framework of public policies and regulations that shape economic competiveness and the ability to reform and adapt to changing economic climates. (WEF, 2014) 3 Hard Connectivity: The core physical infrastructure which is underpinned by the notion of connectivity and access. (WEF, 2014) 4 Soft Connectivity: Primarily based on social capital that supports and enables investment in hard infrastructure and new technology. (WEF, 2014)

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Figure 79: Sustainable productive cycle The cycle represented above is an abstraction of the argument put forward. It aims to illustrate a continued need to review the state of the city, its locations and the relationships with other cities. Continually assessing how one is able to gear the bundle of assets to influence where firms locate.

nature of city competiveness suggesting that a city’s bundle of assets measures the proactive nature in which cities function, if proactive at all. Mercy Brown-Luthango (2010) identifies three primary forms of infrastructure which define the various bundles of assets of nations and/or cities, namely: (1) Economic Infrastructure which encompasses core infrastructure; transport, connectivity and water, which in turn enable production and ultimately consumption. (2) Social Infrastructure comprising civic facilities such as health, education and public amenities which underpin social capital attributes in regard to society. (3) Institutional Infrastructure that encompasses the legal system, governance, institutional capacity

and decision-making. The primary difference between BrownLuthango’s (2010) definition and the World Economic Forum’s (2014) is that Brown-Luthango’s enables the classification of the bundle of assets while the World Economic Forum’s is aimed at the measurement and performance of these assets. A key point to be drawn from the classifications presented is that they are interdependent and a deficiency in one of these sectors both in their presence and their performance has cumulative impacts on one another influencing the ability to compete. However, the presence of the three forms of infrastructure is not in or of itself sufficient to enable competiveness. Leo Abruzzese (citi, 2013) advocates

that “competiveness is about performance now but it’s also the ability to plan for the future”. The proactive, degree of sustainable productivity, presented in The Competiveness of Cities (WEF, 2014), enables a better measure of the potential competitiveness of a city or locality. Drawing on Sassen’s (Burdett and Sudjic, 2011: 61) position that specialised differences enables a means to proactively engage with the negative trends of competition, suggests that identifying global, national and regional roles are key to a city’s sustainable productivity. This is drawn from the standpoint that competition offers a narrow scope of larger dynamics, undermining potential partnerships and opportunities. If cities are to truly engage in being competitive, their ability to proactively engage in their future economic outlook bears on their ability to be sustainably proactive. This requires both an innate understanding of local dynamics and regional, national and global dynamics, while critically reflecting on the roles of city localities.

Principles to take forward »»

To be economically competitive in the future, cities need to intervene and guide economic outlooks through the management of the bundle of assets.

»» The presence of the bundle of assets is not in and of itself enough to influence the competiveness of an area. »» Economic competiveness is dependent of sustainable production which is a measure of the future performance of the bundle of assets.

6.4. Successful Cases Addressing Competitiveness

The case studies presented are drawn from The Competiveness of Cities (WEF, 2014) and offer insights in addressing city competiveness. These cities have focused on aspects of the bundle of assets to introduce a sustainable economic future. These cases have responded to challenges while incorporating specialised differences or opportunities to enable a more sustainably productive outlook.

»» The bundle of assets influence locational attributes and where firms and users locate which influences competitiveness. »» These points are drawn into the design highlighting that when intervening in an area one must be able to evaluate the performance of the current assets of an area identify what needs to be implemented and understand how these would affect the areas performance overtime.

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6.4.1. LAGOS | NIGERIA Government enabling efficiency Lagos, a city of 17 million, faces rapid in-migration and population growth that is putting strain on a system already fraught with inefficiencies in all three categories of infrastructure. The city has recently focused on institutional infrastructure reform to enable greater efficiency. The reform process has primarily focused on corruption: modification of law to enable efficiency; legal aid to citizens; the establishment of institutions driven to support innovation and localities tagged as being â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;innovation hubsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ; a six day week for city officials improving responsiveness of public services; and security trusts enabling better funding for police through public-private partnerships. (WEF, 2014) The result has seen a threefold growth in revenues since 2007 as Lagos is becoming an increasingly attractive location for firms. The reform process has yielded increased function and efficiency in business while enabling city authorities to address crucial economic and social infrastructure inefficiencies.

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Figure 80: Lagos CBD

6.4.2. LEIPZIG | GERMANY From stagnation to the forefront of Europe Leipzig, a small city of 530,000 people, suffered during the transition from communism in Eastern Germany which resulted in a decline of 96% of jobs in the industrial sector crippling its economic outlook. Leipzig, positioned at a thousand year old trading junction, drew on its locational advantage and the capital backing from Western Germany after the transition, focused on government decision-making. This enabled successful growth as cooperation among political parties to avoid conflict, involvement of citizens and drawing on strong connections with the private sector. These were identified as priority focus areas. The outcome of this process led to key infrastructure upgrading aligned to stimulating growth in industries. Tagged as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the most liveableâ&#x20AC;? city in Germany, Leipzig has become a European industrial powerhouse. Through sound decision-making, Leipzig has been able to define a clear vision that has proven that even small cities can be competitive.

Figure 81: Liepzig

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6.4.3. CURITIBA | BRAZIL A Sustainable vision for the Future Curitiba has a rich history of economic prowess, centred on its key location in an agricultural region of Brazil. In the 1900â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the city began to sprawl and become unsustainable, which stimulated a strategy in the 1960â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, led by architect-planner and mayor, Jaime Lerner, forming the Curitiba Master Plan. The plan focused on integrated transport, land-use and environmental preservation. Later projects followed and are well known for their community building through housing provision that addressed the rapid increase in population from 350,000 to 1.7 million in 2010. The outcome of the plan has provided high living standards and public provisions that have enabled the city to position itself as the greenest city in Latin America and in 1996 received the Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most innovative city award. This approach has directly affected its competitive advantage leading it to be the wealthiest city in Brazil.

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Figure 82: Curitba

6.4.4. NANTES | FRANCE Addressing industrial decline through a cultural and green identity Nantes, a city traditionally of trade and merchants, due to its position on the Loire River saw a decline in economic activity at the end of the 20th century due to a crisis in the shipbuilding industry. Focusing on Nantesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture and green economy the city reimagined its asset portfolio as becoming both a cultural capital and a leader in sustainability. Nantes conceptualised an approach which would see the entire city becoming entwined with arts and culture, unlike other cities that hold a finite number iconic cultural attractions. Thus transforming harbour infrastructure to create a creative centre while engaging in an extensive network of installations, architecture, exhibitions and cultural events. Green initiatives took the form of preservation, air quality control, noise reduction, waste management and an extensive transport policy focused on more sustainable methods of traveling. Nantes not only became a major tourist attraction but an increasingly attractive location for firms and inhabitants as it is seen as more liveable and affordable than other French counterparts.

Figure 83: Nantes

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6.4.5. Synthesis of Cases The cases presented have intervened in specific ways to change the nature of the bundle of assets to be more sustainably productive in scenarios where their economic outlook had been compromised. A key aspect to be drawn from these interventions have been their focus on either making the economic efficiency of the city more attractive or to have improved key civic and cultural factors and amenities of the city making the cities more liveable for users. The cases illustrate that urban competiveness concerns the ability to influence the mix of factors which affect the desirability of localities for users and firms. This underpins the notion that government’s role is moving beyond direct provision of the bundle of assets to an enabling role that facilitates urban competiveness through focusing on specialised difference to enable sustainable productivity (Begg, 1999: 806). This is directly affected by the performance of the bundle of assets in regard to alternative localities as users and firms are increasingly footloose and able to locate in cities and localities which offer the greatest opportunity. The Economist Intelligence Unit5 has engaged extensively in projecting city competiveness through a benchmarking exercise (2012). The study identifies some key deductions in understanding the performance of the relative 5 The economic intelligence unit is an international organization that researchers the economy and its relation to other fields. They publish numerous reports a year focused on a plethora of economic topics.

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assets of cities. A key finding in the report has been that although sound economic infrastructure does profoundly impact on cities’ competitiveness, it does not hold influence on future competitiveness. Sustainable production being the core indicator illustrates that it is the quality of spatial attributes that appeal to specific types of sectors that influence the attractiveness of cities, allowing for increasingly competitive outlooks. This aspect, although a key factor to city competiveness, is part of a plethora of institutional mechanisms and other environmental and social aspects that create a healthier business climate for firms to work within. The report highlights that a key growth sector which in recent years has been a core component to competiveness, is soft infrastructural investment such as widespread broadband access, which has extensive positive influences on the performance of economic sectors, and has aided emerging markets in the East to leapfrog onto the global stage (EIU, 2013). The report verifies that firms and users preference to locate are becoming increasingly important if cities are to remain competitive. Begg (1999) cautions against associating competiveness with an unachievable ideal vision as cities are subject to complex dynamics that are constantly changing and often prescriptive visions of economic competiveness undermine their sustainable outlooks. This is drawn from the premise of over-specialization or reliance on mature industries and lack of flexibility in allowing for

change. As in the case of Nantes which suffered from a crisis in the shipping industry, cities are affected by externalities and economic trends.

Principles to take forward »» The Cases have either implemented interventions that improve the economic efficiency of the city or improved key civic and cultural factors and amenities of the city establishing livable environments. »» Sustainable production being the core indicator of competitiveness illustrates that it is the quality of spatial attributes (asset bundle) that appeal to specific types of sectors that influence the attractiveness of cities and localities. »» Users and firms are footloose able to move and situate in cities and areas that offer the greatest opportunities. »» Firms and users preference are becoming increasingly important if cities are to remain competitive.

6.5. Detroit | Undermining City Competiveness The case of Detroit is an exemplary example of over-specialization, macro and local economic dynamics while undermining the bundle of assets of a city. Detroit was once the 5th largest city in North America with a population of 1.85 million in 1950 and an economic automotive powerhouse (Cohen, 2014). Saunders (2012) notes that “once the automotive industry became established [in Detroit], government and business abdicated their responsibility on sound urban planning and design, and elected the booming economy to do the work for them”. This

directly affected the already motorcar-orientated morphology as the city became decentralised, lacking key transit networks to the weakening business district and proliferating industry in the city core while poor variety of housing stock options and public realm degradation led to generally poor urban environments for users. Saunders (2012) positions Detroit’s poor urban environment as crucial factor to its decline which affected the liveability of the city. However Saunders overlooks the critical dire socio-economic issues of the city which affected firms’ ability to function: namely numerous calls of corruption and irresponsible

state spending and borrowing, heightened racial tensions, some of the highest taxations in the USA, active and aggressive unions leading to supported absenteeism, and poor service delivery which had eventually been privatised (Beyer, 2013). By the 1950’s, supported by the poor business environment, the auto industry began relocating to Mexico and Southern states of America as well as into Canada, which had been followed by parts suppliers and associated industries (Sugrue, n.d.). The departure of businesses led to vacant swathes of the city exasperating the poor urban environment Saunders introduces (2012).

Figure 84: Detroit The figure above taken in 2011, illustrates how the decline of Detriot has remained with the city long after. Vacant city land, low densities and poor urban environments define much of the city landscape. While the old motorcar factories remain vacant and surround the central business district reinforcing the stagnation of city.

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In 1967 a violent five day riot ignited by African-American civil rights movements and racial tensions at the time crippled the city districts. The riot killed 43 people, injuring a further 467 people, arresting 7000 people, looting 2500 stores and creating 700 fires which burned down 412 buildings (NBC Learn, 1987).The riot led to further closure and relocation of businesses and what was coined as the ‘white exodus’ (NBC Learn, 1987). The 1970’s oil crisis was the final knock to a declining industry in Detroit as petrol prices increased in America and global auto industries competiveness forced record losses and federal bailouts (Sugrue, n.d.). By 2010 the city had seen a marked decline in population of 60% to 700,000 people, since the 1950’s (Cohen, 2014). Although economic prospects have changed in recent years, Detroit has not recovered from the past 50 years of economic decline. Beyer (2013) highlights that the three automotive giants that led to the rise of Detroit, had been abused by the city authorities. Methods such as “increasing taxes, harassing businesses and pandering to unions” (Beyer, 2013) had been instrumental in Detroit’s decline. Unlike Nantes or Leipzig, Detroit had been unable to curb the collapse in industry. Saunders aptly states that Detroit put all its “eggs in the corporate caretaker’s basket” (Saunders, 2012). In doing so, it solely relied on the automotive industry to sustain the city and achieve competiveness to the detriment of the urban environment. During

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the economic decline over several decades, the cities increasingly neglected urban environment fraught with crime, unemployment and poverty led to little aspiration for users to remain, resulting in the dramatic reduction in population as citizens looked for cities with better opportunities and living standards.

Principles to take forward »» Detroit highlights the need to implement a sustainable outlook that is resilient to externalities. Although many of the problems that Detroit faced were caused by institutional and social factors, a primary factor had been the overspecialization of uses and firms in the city (motor industry) and the resultant poor urban environment. The case serves to illustrate the importance and need for diversity in use and firms as well as to champion quality environments in the interest of maintaining a livable city that is attractive to firms and users. This position has been translated into the design, motivating the need for diversity and public space.

6.6. Lessons Learnt The Detroit case has shown the adverse effects of negligent city management. Several key issues can be drawn from this. The first is the affect that price and nonprice factors may have on firms if left unchecked or unmaintained. Secondly in contrast to Curitiba and Nantes, Detroit has also illustrated the adverse effects of poor urban environments impacting on the liveability of cities, influencing both firms and users. Fleming (Andrew Fleming, interview, 26 Aug 2014) warns that unchecked competitiveness “can easily result in a race to the bottom”. In an effort to be competitive, as in Detroit, often other critical socioeconomic and spatial issues are undermined. The case advocates the potential role of governance, sound planning and design in an environment where firms and people are increasingly footloose. Supporting the notion that the management of the city’s assets is critical for cities to remain resilient to externalities and adverse local factors. The argument thus far has identified the need for ingenuity in guiding city growth to become economically sustainable. Defining it has also identified the categories of assets which impact city localities and advocates that management and vision is required to enable a competitive advantage and sustainable productivity. Yet, for cities to be sustainably productive, relationships between cities and specialised differences come to the fore. These insights hold true for areas within cities as

well as similar dynamics between areas can occur leading to blight, gentrification, agglomerations of industries and multipolar city where various and often divergent scenarios exist. This has informed a key understanding of the aims of the design proposed in this dissertation, acknowledging that the intervention undertaken needs to reflect on various relationships existing within the city. Asking how and what may make the greatest difference in making the city competitive as well as gearing the proposed intervention to be able to attract the users and firms, while remaining cognisant of the need for specialised difference. These insights corroborate and support the findings on transport orientated development and suggest that to maximise the opportunities within transport orientated development, interventions ought to focus on specialised differences building on relationships within the city while championing quality environments that are tailored to appeal to specific types of users and firms. To implement these strategies a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of the spatial economy and the actors which contribute to the form- producing process within cities needs to be understood if one is to intervene in the bundle of assets of a city. The following chapter will focus on the actions of developers and suggests a means to for cities to intervene in becoming sustainably productive.

Consolidated Principles to take forward »» Sustainable production being the core indicator of competitiveness illustrates that it is the quality of spatial and institutional attributes (asset bundle) that appeal to specific types of sectors influencing the attractiveness of cities and localities, which impacts on the competitiveness of cities and local dynamics. »» Specialized difference between cities and localities fosters partnerships which may be more beneficial than competing for similar markets. »» Interventions ought to focus on the economic efficiency of the city or key civic and cultural factors and amenities of the city establishing livable environments. »» Users and firms are footloose able to move, situating in cities and areas that offer the greatest opportunities. A proactive approach to guiding the growth of cities and localities to align with users and firms preferences is thus increasingly needed. These principles motivate the design and the need for an approach which is geared to creating interventions that aim to become sustainably productive and aid in creating a more competitive city.

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Figure 85: Skyscraper city

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7. The Form Producing Process & The Actions of Developers The chapter on city competiveness (chapter 6) has highlighted that cities need to be proactive in guiding their economic outlooks. It has identified three forms of infrastructural assets, the importance of liveable environments and urban dynamics in securing urban competiveness and resilience. The study has been mutually supportive of the findings in the transport orientated development chapter (5) and positioned a need to understand how development takes place within the city. This chapter aims to interrogate how built form is produced within the city suggesting a possible means for actors in the built environment to intervene and guide how and where development forms. Introducing the form production process, the chapter begins with the three circuits of capital and the capital accumulation process. This enables an understanding of the environment that developers work within. The chapter draws on this context to identify the key factors of development and the means and rationale to intervene.

7.1. The Contradiction of Capitalists Harvey (1978) draws on the work of Marx in presenting the urban process under capitalism: a framework for analysis that presents the three circuits of capital and the implications of capitalists on built environment and labour. A broad scoping and highly intricate topic, this chapter

draws on the definition presented by Harvey to inform a context in which the form-producing process takes place. The theory draws on several broad assumptions that characterise the process of the capital accumulation process while defining social classes of labour and the capitalists as products of this process, forming a class struggle in constant conflict. The roles being that capitalists control the work process and organise the process for the purpose of producing capital, while the labourer sells labour power as a commodity on the open market (Harvey, 1978). The importance of the class struggle in forming the built environment is highlighted in the contradictions of capitalism (Harvey, 1978) as the relationships which are formed underpin the three circuits of capital. The contradiction is drawn from the notion that capitalists work individually focused on selfinterest and are in competition with one another. This dynamic, â&#x20AC;&#x153;each acting in their own selfinterestâ&#x20AC;? (Harvey, 1978), results in the exploitation of the cost of production and sold as means to extract the maximum value for the product while remaining competitive to other capitalists. The contradiction is the ability of labour, being part of the production process, to be able to produce surplus value. The effect is compounded by labourers having to compete to sustain employment, given that the capitalist controls the work

process. These contradictions can interfere with the accumulation process and cause antagonistic class struggles while fuelling conflict between capitalists and potentially acting against the interest of capitalists as a whole (Harvey, 1978).

7.2. Three Circuits of Capital The three circuits of capital are interrelated and categorised as primary, secondary and tertiary. The Primary Circuit of capital is focused on the process of production and consumption, the basis in which capitalists work. Aiming to accumulate capital through production, however when too much capital is produced instances of over-accumulation can occur. Examples of this are the overproduction of commodities surpassing the demand for the commodities, falling rates of profits, surplus capital lacking profitable employment (Harvey, 1978). In these cases of overaccumulation capital cannot be profitably employed within the primary market. This is then drawn into the Secondary and Tertiary Circuits.

The Secondary Circuit can be summarized as being either products such as a dry cleaner for a laundromat or the built environment. Investment in the secondary circuit benefits the production process and may be

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able to hold value or accumulate value over a period of time. The secondary market also encompasses Begg’s (1996) price factor where the laundromat’s new washing machine would benefit the production process or alternatively non-price factors such as investment in to property or transport that may have indirect and direct benefits to the production process and capital accumulation. Harvey (1978) highlights that although some forms of investment occur in property and development, these efforts are often aligned to selfinterest. Investment into other built environment assets such as transport may be too costly for any one developer and has collective benefits undermining competitiveness at too great a cost. Harvey (1978) advocates that due to the discouraged position of capitalist to invest into the larger infrastructure and services, the role of government, planning, partnerships and intermediary institutions such as banks and pension funds are paramount. Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) expands on the importance of these institutions as surplus funding is used to develop large infrastructure which smaller companies are not able to fund nor able to coordinate. Government enables the process through a concession while big consortiums put in 10% capital which the banks then, gear 9 times through foreign debt that is transferred into a 20 year loan structure with a 6-7% yield. Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) suggests that, drawing on precedents from other emerging markets, government

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ought to engage in creating legal structures and supporting the process through institutional infrastructure to instil confidence in the market as there is more than enough surplus funding in the world to enable the process. In doing so, allowing private sector to take a proactive role in forming large infrastructural components of the city. The Tertiary Circuit of capital is focused on the enhancement of the capital accumulation process. This is done through investment in technology to aid the advancement of technologies to improve production as well as investment in a wide range of social expenditures such as the direct improvement of labour by improving education or health. Similar to the secondary circuit, the tertiary circuit is reliant on state and intermediary institutions which perform a mediatory role in improving these factors as capitalists lack either the capacity or will to invest in infrastructure which is broadly beneficial and requires large capital investment. Harvey’s (1978) circuits of capital is a highly economic perspective, yet it draws on a key relationship which is critical in forming the built environment and its resultant impact, namely that built form is produced in the secondary and tertiary circuits which support the primary circuit’s production process. The ability for capitalists to invest in broad infrastructure of the city, which is beneficial for them, is undermined by self-interest and their ability to coordinate and fund such projects while their

actions cement the conflicting class struggle. Thus state and other intermediary institutions are critical in intervening and mediating the infrastructural and social-economic components of the city. This relationship substantiates the argument presented in the previous chapter on city competiveness. For cities to function and be sustainably productive they require capitalists, both businesses and developers, however, illustrated by the failure of Detroit, capitalists’ investment being self-interested requires interventions for the common good of the city to be persuaded by state and city authorities as well as other institutions.

Principles to take forward »» Built Form is produced in the secondary and tertiary circuits and support the primary circuit of capital production process. »» The ability for capitalists to invest in broad infrastructure of the city, which is beneficial for them, is undermined by selfinterest and their ability to coordinate and fund such projects.

These two points highlight the need for interventions for the common good of the city which has formed the motivation for the design to engage with socially orientated facilities, engaging in defining the public domain as well as developing coding within the precinct.

Figure 86: Capital Accumulation process

7.3 Capital Accumulation Process Harveyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (1978) circuits of Capital and the identified relationship fashions the context in which the form production process takes place and suggests certain roles within it, while a means to guide and intervene remains ambiguous. The argument draws on the actions of developers who trade in built form as a commodity to clarify how and why form is produced to shape a tangible approach to intervene. Bentley (2005) introduces the capital accumulation process and how built form is used as a commodity to trade in the market place by developers. The capital accumulation process forms a series of transformations (Figure 86). Capital is employed to purchase land (transformation 1); then labour and materials are bought to produce the built form as a commodity (transformation 2); the commodity is then sold (transformation 3). If the process yields a profit, the profit is employed for reinvestment, which

Figure 88: Building Confidence index The accumulation process and its profitability are primarily affected by economic patterns illustrated in figure X. Although major booms and busts of the Kondratief wave have a major impact on the economy of Nations and the World, smaller cycles being 9.5 years and 4 years on average are indicative of how built form is being produced as developers wager the feasibility of development on these smaller cyclical booms and bust. The premise is that property is sold at higher price on the boom of the 9.5 year cycle (Figure 11) thus developers aim to finish building around this point to achieve the maximum profit. In turn the process of development itself and all the actors fall within highly competitive shorter 4 year cycle as illustrated in figure 21. This process often results in large amounts of vacancies being produced due to an over-accumulation of space in the market, in turn causing a decline in the market, the slump.

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leads to the capital accumulation process being a recurring cycle (Bentley, 2005). A key aspect to the process is profitability which is dependent on both the cost of the production process and the value of the resulting built form as a commodity. Production is affected by economic patterns (figure 88), tax, cost of labour, urban networks and morphology within the city that influences the speed and cost-effectiveness of the three transformations. These factors are directly affected by the asset bundle of the city and thus allow for interventions which may enable development by impacting the cost of development and input costs of firms. This is a regular method of intervention, proactively employed throughout the world and in South African cities. The Urban Development Zone (UDZ) which is a tax incentive employed by SARS across South Africa and administered by city authorities as a zone, is one of the current mechanisms utilized, as in the case of Portside. The UDZ allows developers to recoup the cost of production faster, enabling a better development environment (Robert McGaffin; Stephan Claassen; Andrew Fleming, interview, 21-26 Aug 2014). Cape Town’s Economic Growth Strategy Report (2012) positions Cape Town as a globally competitive city. The report identifies institutional and regulatory changes as the principle approach to guiding and stimulating economic growth. The Economic Intelligence Unit’s

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report on benchmarking future competiveness for cities (2013) has highlighted that the institutional and regulatory approach has been a fundamental factor to Cape Town’s competitiveness, standing out from other African counterparts. The approach although generally supportive of business, employment and growth in industries has been translated into moving from “redtape” to “red carpet”, reducing the procedural process of approving buildings (Pollack, 2012). Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) highlights that the procedural mechanism in approving buildings, such as in the case of Portside, is a long and highly inefficient system and in many cases is a disincentive for investment in the city. So there are obvious benefits to incentivize development through institutional mechanisms that impact on the cost of production.

Principle to take forward The Capital accumulation process is affected by profitability. If one can affect the cost of production (e.g. tax incentives) or the value of the property through influencing firms and users as well as price and non-price factors one may be able to influence where and how development occurs. This has been a primary principle in approaching the design. Cape Town’s approach to competiveness focuses on institutional and regulatory reform and mechanisms that have been successful, however it has done little to address the social inequity and distribution of economic activity in the city.

7.4. The Spatial Impact of the Capital Accumulation Process Cummings (Frank Cummings, interview, 27 Aug 2014) advocates that Cape Town’s development model does not align to the long term objectives that the city requires to address socio-economic inefficiencies and other objectives due to how development performs spatially. This is primarily due to built form being a commodity and the surrounding fabric of the city holding an economic value (Bentley, 2005; 68-69). McGaffin (Robert McGaffin, interview, 21 Aug 2014) explains that the value derives from the income stream generated by rentals from businesses which is factored into discerning the profitability of the scheme. This in turn guides where developers invest as they attempt to find locations where opportunity exists and where the value is higher than the cost of production allowing for a return on the initial investment (Robert McGaffin, interview, 21 Aug 2014). The factor of profitability although subject to numerous factors, indicates that the primary incentive for development is a demand for space created by business and usersThe demand

Figure 89: Location, Location ! Highlighted in the analysis of portside various industries require different circumstances and situations which is impacted by the demand for space, potential opportunities, locational attributes and price and non-price factors influencing the value and production cost.

In all these cases developers act to facilitate these demands which play out spatially, reinforcing aggregate formations within the city. Figure 90: Agglomeration Industry agglomerations have various benefits and align to the notion of primary and secondary uses. A good example of this is where the car showroom has mechanic and panel beater on either side. The different uses are mutually support and this attribute his highly beneficial for industry locations.

for space impacting value and the potential opportunity is subject to several considerations. Primarily it aligns to the particular industry in which demand exists as well as the various locational attributes and factors which in turn impact on the cost of production. “Location, location, location never has the truism been more the case” (Frank Cummings, interview, 27 Aug2014). The characteristic has thus aligned to particular aggregate settlement patterns that have illustrated that city fabric itself holds economic value in being the container for trade in built form as a commodity (Bentley, 2005). These considerations play out spatially, for instance in the case of industrial development coordinating in areas where access to transport and related industries are key considerations to locational preferences. Similarly other industries evaluate the opportunities of aggregate and the spatial attributes of cities. Service industries and retailers look for environments that are user-friendly benefiting staff and clients while IT-orientated businesses look for locations where broadband access is fast.

The relationship between demand and supply of space has both positive and negative outputs: in stimulating developers to produces types of built form, indirectly through individual action, spatially organising the city and impacting the quality of urban spaces in the city. The development of types which Bentley (2005) interrogates in detail is aligned to creating flexible spaces that require little alteration when tenants change. This is a critical to the feasibility of a building because a building with vacancies undermines its profitability and thus the turnaround time between a tenant leaving a space and one taking over that space is critical. The turnaround time is linked to the previously mentioned demand for space in area. This perception of types, which developers will defend as being the most profitable model, is intrinsically built on development standards (Bentley, 2005). Changes in types only occur when designers are able to leverage a new type as improving the profitability, which is dependent on turnaround of tenants, demand from users, providing more lettable space for lower costs or being generally beneficial for stakeholders involved. Bentley (2005) advocates that this dynamic requires intervention and is an increasingly important role for designers whom are often the only actors able to intervene in the quality of

the urban realm. Bentley’s (2005) position is increasingly important due the collective effect of types on the urban realm. Types gear aggregates to perform in specific ways and attract particular users, which creates a reinforcing cycle. In worst-case scenarios the process often yields a plethora of buildings, negating the public realm and due to self-interest, cumulatively they may lead to disinvestment and degeneration. Jane Jacobs’s (1961) pioneering book, The Death and Life of American Cities, interrogates the urban realm and positions diversity of use as key element to urban longevity. Presenting the case of Downtown Manhattan, a global financial melting pot, that had seen large investment and development of the area. However the concentration of office towers, impacting the use of the urban realm, meant that retailers and restaurants that intended to draw on the concentration of people could not survive as they were only serviced by people between office hours (Jacobs, 1961). The subsequent effect, experienced by many business districts across the world, was a decline in the area as these uses could not be sustained by the short but intense periods of sale produced by the density of office blocks and were slowly replaced by crime and grime. Although Downtown Manhattan has maintained its global position and proactively engaged in introducing variety of uses into the city, the case presents a tyranny of types and need for diversity and varied use of the urban realm.

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7.5. A User Generated Approach Bentley (2005) positions the capital accumulation process and form production as being intrinsically determined by human interaction which is also the essence of The Death and Life of American Cities (Jacobs, 1961). McGaffin (Robert McGaffin, interview, 21 Aug 2014) suggests that approaches to guiding development ought to be focused on the users of space, firms and people, thus advocating a user generated city. Mcgaffin’s (interview, 21 Aug 2014) position highlights the need for pursuing liveable environments as it is the users and firms which guide development through creating opportunity. Yet this ought to be done strategically as the case of Manhattan has illustrated that if development is left unchecked it may lead to detrimental circumstances. Bentley’s positioning of the designer to effect types, coordinated with the view of a user-based city, to that of the urban realm being an economic instrument facilitating the trade in built form as critical to affecting the shape of the city. The dissertation proposes the urban designer as the actor best equipped to facilitate and guide the user-based approach and able to intervene in the urban realm.

Principle to take forward

Figure 91: User Generated City

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If interventions are able to guide, attract and influence types of users in space, which influences the opportunity that space provides, interventions may be able to influence where and how development forms.

7.6. Mechanisms and Actors Louw (Piet Louw, interview, 24 Aug 2014) highlights the misguided perception that urban design is large scale architecture. Louw explains this perception originates from other built environment professions, architects and planners, rationalizing their own position as actors in the built environment through scale of intervention. Yet urban design is unique in the sense that it holds an understanding of a multitude of scales, able to conceptualise implications from a human scale to that of the city and region. This enables an innate ability to intervene in specific locations which impacts on larger urban dynamics. This holistic understanding and interest of the built environment draws on various aspects, be it economic, form, social, spatial or environmental, enabling the possibility to engage in the relationships between these elements, coordinating spatial visions with a myriad of influences. Alternatively McGaffin (interview, 21 Aug 2014) highlights that urban management has been one of the most successful tools in directing investment, more so than the traditional built environment professional’s role and the mechanisms they employ, citing Cape Town Partnership’s role in implementing the Central City Improvement District (CCID) in the City Bowl. The Improvement District changed the City Bowl during a time when crime and grime had begun taking hold and leading to firms and businesses

relocating to other areas. Through various management tools, security, street cleaning and providing key information about the area to business and developers alike, the CCID had made the city once more a thriving location. Around thirty large and small other improvement districts have opened across the city since then (Andrew Fleming, interview, 26 Aug 2014). Flemming (interview, 26 Aug 2014) in contrast to McGaffin’s view highlights that although improvement districts have a direct benefit for those areas that are being facilitated by them; peripheral areas may be disadvantaged due to a displacement of issues such as crime. This reinforces Cummings (interview, 27 Aug 2014) position that many of these initiatives negate larger and longer term visions for the city. “There is no silver bullet” (Frank Cummings, interview, 27 Aug 2014). The form production process which has been interrogated thus far has illustrated the highly economic perspective of capitalist interests and the roles of both state and large institutions as well as the actions of developers and the roles of designers and urban management. This has emphasised the need for various levers which bear on opportunity and profitability. Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) advocates that one should read all these levers collectively; it is the potential cumulative effect that guidance and impact on the form production process may be achieved. Cumming’s (interview, 26 Aug 2014) cautioning of the

development orientated approach towards loosing site of longer term vision’s highlights that guidance and intervention ought to be seen holistically at the scale of city as cause and effect play out at this scale. However, drawing on both the chapter on city competiveness and the actions of developers, users and firms remain central to both the form production process and the competiveness of cities. Although urban management and institutional interventions have been highlighted as positive mechanisms in guiding developers, firms and users; urban form is seen to be fundamental to the activities of these actors. The urban designer’s holistic spatial understanding of urban dynamics positions the designer as a potential key actor in influencing these factors and guiding both cities growth and future competiveness. This role enables a realisation and coordination of the various levers and actors that influence cities. Nevertheless, Bentley’s (2005) battlefield problematic, where “… actors deploy their resources of economic and political power… in more or less adroit ways to … make things happen as they want” highlights that the position of the urban designer, is not the Haussmann of Paris but part of a combined effort in forming the city. The urban designers role is thus one that not only champions visions but synthesis’s various urban perspectives to facilitate and mediate visions.

Principle to take forward “There is no silver bullet” (Cummings, 2014) rather one should employ various levers collectively; it is the potential cumulative effect that guidance and impact on the form production process may be achieved. This position verifies the findings in both the transport orientated chapter and city competitiveness chapter. The design undertaken has employed this by implementing various intuitional and spatial mechanisms in order maximise on the collective opportunity provided by these mechanisms.

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7.7. Synthesis The chapter has formed the context in which built form is created and the roles of actors in forming it. Although the chapter has established that built form is predominantly created by private interest, developers are driven by demand and demand is created by users and firms. The notion that “Good environments create good economics” (Piet Louw, interview, 24 Aug 2014) is a common misconception. It’s not just about creating environments, but rather about creating urban realms that attract and form the types of users and firms, and the consequential development, applicable for the intended urban outcomes. Supporting the argument that to be economically competitive in the future, cities need to intervene and guide economic growth, highlighting the relationship between state’s and the capitalist’s interests. It has also identified that institutional infrastructure in and of itself is not sufficient in addressing socioeconomic disparities due to the manner in which it manifests spatially, positioning McGaffin’s (interview, 21 Aug 2014) usergenerated city as increasingly influential method of guidance. If we understand that users and firms influence the actions of developers we can begin guiding city growth to address socioeconomic inefficiencies which bears on our city’s competitiveness. The chapter has highlighted the role of the urban designer as a key actor in guiding this approach due to an innate understanding of

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urban dynamics. In drawing on the need to be sustainably productive (chapter 6), and the regional understandings which informs key interventions areas (chapter 5) as well as the findings in this chapter the following chapter will contextualise the argument to Cape Town with the aim of identifying the conditions of the spatial economy, highlighting key concerns while distinguishing opportunities and a method of approach. The chapter will draw on the user-generated approach and evaluate whether it could be applicable for Cape Town and what this would mean.

Consolidated Principles to take forward »» For cities to function and be sustainably productive they require capitalists, both businesses and developers, however capitalist investment being self-interested requires interventions for the common good of the city to be persuaded by state and city authorities as well as other institutions. »» If we understand that users and firms influence the actions of developers we can begin guiding city growth to address socio-economic inefficiencies which bears on our city’s competitiveness »» The Capital accumulation process is affected by profitability. If one can affect the cost of production (e.g. tax incentives) or the value of the property through influencing firms and users as well as price and nonprice factors one may be able to influence where and how development occurs. »» Interventions should employ various levers collectively; it is the potential cumulative effect that guidance and impact on the form production process can be achieved.

Figure 92: District Six

8. Cape Town | Interrogating the Spatial Economy The previous chapters have engaged in universal knowledge surrounding transport orientated development, competiveness and the form production process. A continued principal drawn from these studies has highlighted the need for an understanding of city wide dynamics and the spatial economy. Through interrogating the spatial conditions and spatial economy of Cape Town this chapter aims to contribute to the previous studies undertaken and aid in responding to the primary research question. The findings in this chapter have informed key concerns and objectives that have motivated the design intervention.

8.1. Past to Present Cape Town, founded in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company, is relatively young city compared to other cities around the world. In the last 200 years the population has swelled from 17,000 in 1805 to 742,400 by the mid 1950’s (Wilkinson, 2000) and today the city holds a population of approximately 3.7 million (StatsSA, 2011) which has illustrated a trend of unabated acceleration in population growth and rapid urbanisation. Although this has been indicative of the pressures facing Cape Town, the last 100 years of urban planning, characterised by both racial and economic segregation, has

shaped the way in which the city is configured today. From as yearly as 1901 the planning of Langa, a ‘native’ settlement, had been premeditated to address the spread of the bubonic plague (Wilkinson, 2000). This had be followed in the 1920’s by increasing fiscal pressures on the population due to the great depression, replacing informal shack dwellings and providing social housing in the Cape Flats. In 1927 the first planning laws in the country had been promulgated in the Cape and by 1930’s zoning schemes had been introduced enabling a mechanism to pursue increasingly proactive settlement formation (Wilkinson, 2000). The trend in urban development had

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been underpinned by separation as non-white poor households began to be relocated toward the then peripheries of the city. Although segregation had occurred prior to the 1950’s Group Area Act, promulgated by the National Party regime, many wealthy non-white families prospering in manufacture and trade remained within the inner city. However the Act’s racial policies enforced racial separations, relocating all non-

whites, which resulted in rapid settlement formation over the following 50 years, in what is today the southeast of the city. These settlements, envisaged as dormitory towns from which labourers would travel to work, were separated by race-creating african areas, such as Khayelitsha, and mixed race areas, such as Mitchell’s Plain. A key spatial technique which had been used had been the utilisation of infrastructure and structured open space to create barriers

between and within settlements which has impacted the ability of reintegration of areas after the advent of democracy. Illustrated by Adrian Frith’s mapping of racial distribution below (2011), settlements remain racially segmented with few signs of integration in the wealthier suburbs of the Cape due to upward mobility of households as families have been able to access higher household incomes.

Figure 93: Racial Segregation in Cape Town (2011 census Data, Adrian Frith)

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8.2. Conditions of the Spatial Economy Drawing on the role of private development as a primary mechanism of city growth, the lack thereof in the southeast has been a primary factor to the lack of racial integration. Turok and Watson (2001) highlight several key trends in the spatial conditions of Cape Town which characterise the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth, outlining the primary challenges that the city is facing. Decentralisation has established various submetropolitan nodes with multiple locations of economic activity in the city, creating what Healey has defined as the multiplex region (Todes, 2010). It is the manner in which this have occurred in the city that has perpetuated the legacy of separation within the city reinforcing northwest to

southeast divisions. McGaffinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (2013) mapping economic activity and business registration (Figures 95-100) illustrates the divide in the city as the southeast remains economically inert. The current characteristics of the northwest significantly impact the disparity as they hold skilled labour pools and better service provisions. The agglomerations of industries further reinforce the manner in which businesses locate due to the cumulative effect of concentration resulting in diversity of amenities and opportunities. These spatial characteristics of economic activity have been further supported by the implementation of the Urban Development Zone in the City Bowl and Voortrekker road as well as the numerous city improvement districts that have formed in the

city. The previous chapters have highlighted that the combination of the locational attributes and the demand created by firms influence where development occurs. Figure 94, confirms that the development which Wesgro, the official marketing, investment and trade promotion agency for the Western Cape, has facilitated between 2004 and 2007 is predominantly outside of the southeast of the city.

Principle to take forward The Spatial economy is defined by separation in economic activity between the Southeast and Northwest of the city. This division has severely impacted on Cape Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s competiveness and is reinforced by current trends in development.

Figure 94: Wesgrow facilitated development in Cape Town

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Figure 95: Spatial economy: Business The figure illustrates the distribution of commercial economic activity. It shows the that this type of activity is focused at Bellville and Cape Town CBD which are connected via the Voortrekker Corridor and surrounded by various smaller nodes. It emphasizes the disparity between the Southeast and Northwest while illustrating how Cape Town is a multiplex region with various smaller nodes of activity. An interesting finding is that Claremont is not as active as one may expect and the Southern Suburbs (Southwest) hold very little activity as well. Figure 96: Spatial economy: Retail Retail performs very differently to business as its economic activity is moderately distributed with activity occurring away from the core between Cape Town CBD and Bellville. The high performance of activity in comparison with the other illustrations of business and industry is due to a consumer based economy. A key insight is that the Mitchells Plain Town Centre, which is rationalized in the next chapter to be the key site for intervention, performs well in contrast to surrounding areas in the South East.

Figure 97: Spatial economy: Industrail It is the identified industrial areas such as Epping, Montague gardens and Blackheath amongst others which perform highest in this study. Although there is indication of industrial activity occurring in other areas these are mostly light industries types and the demarcation of heavy industrial uses has concentrated the businesses. A key insight is that the industrial areas towards the South of the city hold less activity as they have seen less investment due to these sites a being viewed as high risk, which has been verified by Ecamps (2013) study on theft.

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Figure 98: Spatial economy: Businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Registered This illustration looks at the number of business registrations and locates them via postal codes. The figure offers a unblemished representation of the city which highlights the differentiation between the Northwest and Southeast.

Figure 99: Economic Acivity This figure illustrations the distribution of economic activity in the city. It is of particular significance as it illustrates the economic performance of various nodes and linkage corridors in the city (which the other illustrations do not represent). Although it highlights the differentiation between Southeast and North West it has identified Mitchells Plain as the only performing node within the Southeast of the city. This has in part motivated the site as a key opportunity within the city for an intervention which would address the existing division. Figure 100: Population distribution This diagram shows the distribution of population density in the city. In contrast to the other images it emphasisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that the highest population densities are situated in the Southeast highlighting the effect of Apartheid planning and the need to address the imbalance of economic activity in the city.

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8.3. Divergent Realities and Possible Solutions McGaffin (interview, 24 Aug 2014) highlights these socioeconomic disparities as being part of a significant issue of inefficiency facing Cape Town. Considering population densities in comparison to economic activity (figure 99 & 100) the actions of economic development does not align with where the highest populations occur, in the southeast. Dispersed growth impacts on the capital costs related to infrastructure provision, especially as economic activity and the primary rate payers of the city remain in the northwest while southeast faces increasing infrastructure deficits (Turok and Watson 2001). An example of such a deficit can be seen in the distribution of train stations, although the train lines

Figure 101: Bonteheuwel dispersed provision of infrastructure impacting the ability of centres in the southeast to function as nodes.

run extensively throughout the city, in the southeast train stations occur between 2-3 kilometres apart while in other districts they are 800 meters apart. Turok and Watson (2001) advocate that the spatial form of urban development has imposed a wide range of social costs, such as high transport costs and longer hours away from

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home resulting in high learner absenteeism which is amongst a range of other challenges that face the lower income population predominantly residing in the southeast. These issues of inefficiency have been perpetuated by the manner in which the City of Cape Town has approached infrastructure provision. Turok and Watson (2001) advocate that the dispersed provision of schools, clinics and other services have significantly impacted the ability of centres in South East to function as nodes, perpetuating the current investment pattern in the city. Furthermore low income housing provision is being planned on the peripheries of the city, largely due to land costs (Frank Cummings, interview, 27 Aug 2014). This has a significant impact on the living costs of these households as these settlements are lower density poor urban environments that lack economic activity, diversity of amenities and essential infrastructure provision while being increasingly further away from work opportunities (Turok and Watson, 2001). Brown-Luthango (2011) highlights the increasing burden on local government facing capacity constraints and challenges in raising sufficient revenue in order to finance infrastructure projects. Inefficiency impacts significantly on the potential performance of Cape Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s competiveness. Initiatives to address these circumstances have been formed such as the Urban Renewal Programme which has focused on Khayelitsha and Mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Plain, with some success. The programme has concentrated on key infrastructure provision to these areas, however this has had little effect on the high crime rates and lack of economic activity. Turok and Watson (2001) advocate a method of approach which is geared towards an economic perspective and offers a potential means to stimulate economic activity and uplift these areas. Drawing on the threshold conditions that exist within the city, which are often situated in areas between the wealthier and poorer areas, the proposal advocates that strategic area interventions that stimulate centres may enable catalytic responses that are more beneficial than other planning approaches. The notion resides in that if these areas that are better positioned to draw on current economic development patterns of the city begin to form economic activity, poorer areas often in close proximity may be able to reap the benefits which has not been the case of urban development in Cape Town thus far.

Figure 102: The potentail threshold conditions that exist in the city. This approach enables focused interventions that support nodes and develop economic activity. This has formed the primary method of identifying a site for opportunity. The design uses disposable income to select and area of greatest opportunity being Mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Plain.

Although Turok and Watson’s work (2001) and initiatives such as the Urban Renewal Programme introduce mechanisms of possible change, the overriding determinant of success remains with the profitability of investment in the market. This position brings a key slant to city dynamics drawing into question the application of mechanisms such as the tax incentivised Urban Development Zone applied in the City Bowl and Voortrekker Road. Although this initiative has allowed for increased investment, its application has reinforced the Northwest Southeast divisions. If the city is truly to engage in socio-economic transformation projects such as the Urban Renewal Programme, it ought to be supported by other mechanisms that impact the feasibility of investment in the Southeast such as the Urban Development Zone. McGaffin (interview, 21 Aug 2014) highlights the potential of service delivery that the city is obliged to provide, as a potential for stimulating economic activity. An existing example is the minibus taxi services responding to the needs for transport which have formed throughout South Africa. Other potential industries may be able to be formed around services such as waste collection and housing. Cummings (interview, 27 Aug 2014) advocates that the primary challenge facing the city is the rate of household formation that is increasing exponentially, while the city is unable to cater for the structural backlog of housing delivery which already exists. Wilkinson (2000) advocates that

a key problem is the provision of service to affordable poor households and the consequent difficulty of recovering costs. McGaffin and Cummings both advocate creative solutions and ingenuity through the provision of services as a key area of opportunity in building economies and aiding city authorities whom are under-capacitated. Brown-Luthango (2011) advocates that due to the increasing fiscal and capacity burdens local governments face, alternative mechanisms ought to be explored in both generating revenues and economic activity. Drawing on the recent initiatives by both national and local governments to focus on transport infrastructure, Brown-Luthango (2011) positions ‘value capture’ as a potential method to recoup additional funding from projects that have benefited from public service provisions. McGaffin (2013) highlights that such techniques may be increasingly needed if socially orientated development is to remain economically feasible for local governments. BrownLuthango and McGaffin’s positions are increasingly relevant to Cape Town as new transit development is being implemented in the form of the MyCity bus services creating a platform for both transit orientated development and potential value capture in its various forms .

8.4. Transport Orientated Development as Mechanism to Address Inefficiency and Separation Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) advocates that transportation has been a key factor to locational dynamics, influencing how people use and locate in the city. The access and convenience provided by transportation is critical to these locational dynamics as it impacts the price and non-price factors that firms depend on. McGaffin (interview, 21 Aug 2014) expands on this notion highlighting that the N1 and N7 are the primary goods transport routes while the N2 has held less significance in terms of the economy, which can be attributed to current locational dynamics between the northwest and southeast. McGaffin (interview, 21 Aug 2014) suggests that this differentiation in primary road capacity may be an economic opportunity if other factors are

Figure 103: Various public transport modes performing alternative functions

able to be addressed within the Southeast. Fleming (interview, 26 Aug 2014) positions transportation as key mechanism in influencing economic activity and social

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inclusion. Advocating that greater emphasis should be put on understanding how transport orientated development may be able to influence how development occurs and how people use the city (Andrew Fleming, interview, 26 Aug 2014). Louw (interview, 24 Aug 2014) highlights that a major challenge has been that many of the transport modes operating in the city compete for similar routes and thus do not work efficiently. Advocating that various modes should integrate to perform alternative functions enabling a coordinated movement system, which affords access to opportunities. Claassen (interview, 26 Aug 2014) suggests that the configuration of the city has situated work away from living environments, which has contributed to the current congestion as well as various transport inefficiencies. Transport orientated development may be an enabling mechanism that not only could address congestion and public transport inefficiency but also the economic disparities between the southeast and northwest.

8.5. Synthesis Various methods of guidance and intervention have been highlighted towards uncovering a potential means to address the socioeconomy inequity and inefficiency in the city. These interventions vary between institutional and physical interventions that have identified transformative nodal infrastructure as a key mechanism of approach while positioning threshold conditions within

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the city as being strategic areas of implementation. Transport orientated development in the context of Cape Town has been highlighted as a significant opportunity since extensive networks exist within the city. However, current conditions are contradictory in function and spatially inequitable. In drawing on the question proposed in the dissertation: how can quality urban interventions influence the spatial economy in and around train stations to stimulate sustainable growth that is beneficial for the City of Cape Town? In responding to the research question proposed McGaffin (interview, 21 Aug 2014) asks “what bundle of assets is needed and from whose perspective? It will be physical but some of this will be process, management and institutional and then how does one create that bundle of assets in that location?” This has been the primary focus for the design response in creating an intergrated intervention. The issues and factors highlighted in this chapter has contextualised the research undertaken to Cape Town and proposed a method of approach which has motivated the design of the dissertation. The following chapter serves as the final motivation to the design. It draws on the body of research undertaken thus far and engages with identifying an area of opportunity for the design response as well as interrogating the spatial economic conditions within the area.

Consolidated Principles to take forward »» The Spatial economy is defined by separation in economic activity between the Southeast and Northwest of the city. This division has severely impacted on Cape Town’s competiveness and is reinforced by current trends in development and the approach of the city in both infrastructure provision and institutional levers. »» A key opportunity for interventions exists in the threshold conditions within the city. The design proposal utilizes this in order to identify a site for intervention which is rationalised in the next chapter to be Mitchell’s Plain. »» Transport orientated development enables an approach to defining centers and establishing economic activity in the South East.

9. Spatial Economic Analysis | Positioning Mitchells Plain The study undertaken has interrogated various issues which have informed an understanding of the factors that impact on the city and the success of transformative interventions that are transport orientated. This chapter aims to draw on the research and perform an analysis of various issues that motivate and rationalize the design undertaken in the dissertation. This aims to draw on both national and city wide dynamics to inform an approach to the identified site, Mitchells Plain.

9.1. National Dynamics National Dynamics as outlined in city competiveness (Chapter 6) is critical to understanding Cape Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role within South Africa and has implications as to the type of industries and development that ought to form. The illustration below highlights elements of trade, industry and economic activity occurring on a national level. It demonstrates that Cape Town is especially isolated. Economic activity within South Africa is focused in the North and has created a manufacturing trading belt between Gauteng

and the port cities of Richards Bay and Durban. This is especially clear as Durban is now the second largest contributor to economic activity at 16.5%, which has occurred in the last five years repositioning Cape Town to third at 14%. A point to be drawn out is that manufacturing industries have predominantly resituated in the North which has resulted in a manufacturing decline in Cape Town. However this dynamic is not unique to manufacturing as other industries are drawn toward the economic engine which is Gauteng, contributing 65% of economic activity to South Africa.

Figure 104: National Dynamics (by author, 2013) The figure has been drawn from the 2013 National Development Plan for South African as well as National ports survey 2012 and Stats SA and forms a composition image that highlights key nodes corridors and spatial elements on a national scale.

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A key characteristic that has stimulated this dynamic can be attributed to proximity and density of urban settlements and businesses occurring in the north. Identified both in Chapter 6 and 7, city competiveness and the form production process respectively, types of agglomerations and the asset bundle of areas are critical to how and why firms locate especially as they are increasingly footloose. The key question being, how could Cape Town contend in this economic climate? Drawing on Sassen’s (2011) argument on specialised difference, made in the city competiveness chapter, may be a manner to address these national dynamics. If Cape Town is to remain an economically competitive city, barring its tourist industry, Cape Town needs to identify is role, which ought to be mutually supportive of other cities and should not attempt to contend with the industry agglomerations of manufacturing and trade occurring in the North. If Cape Town does attempt to contend with these national dynamics it may find itself on a slippery slope, akin to Detroit. Drawing on Cape Town’s primary economic contributor, being the service industry, it may begin to be able to etch out a possible manner in which the city could remain economically resilient and sustainably productive. Recent efforts have enabled such a trajectory as soft infrastructure such as free wireless access in several nodes begins to roll out over the following decade. Initiatives such as this are mutually supportive of the service industry’s

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needs. However, as highlighted in the analysis of Cape Town’s spatial economy (Chapter 4), if socioeconomic disparities are not also addressed, Cape Town may be significantly hindered in remaining economically competitive. However this may be a case of killing two birds with one stone. If investment into the Southeast forecasts beyond current infrastructural capacity provisions and aligns to supporting economic growth in the service industry and related activities it may enable beneficial growth. Cities are predominantly built by the private sector, which is responding to the demands created by firms and users. Drawing on this notion, currently the role out of infrastructure to the South East is not encouraging beneficial environments for firms and users and thus little or no demand for new development is occurring in these areas. The argument positions a means of approach for an intervention in the Southeast that address’s both socio-economic disparities and stimulating economic activity related to the service industry by focusing on firms and users.

Principle to take forward »» Cape Town is isolated from the economic engine in the north, specialized difference is critical in maintaining and anticipating the future competiveness of Cape Town. »» Cape Town’s strength lies within the service industry. »»

If investment into the Southeast forecasts beyond current infrastructural capacity provisions and aligns to supporting economic growth in the service industry and related activities it may enable beneficial and sustainable growth. This would enable a proactive approach to city competiveness and a more resilient economy.

9.2. Local Economic Dynamics of Mitchells Plain in the Context of the City Drawing on the research and the selection of the site, Mitchells Plain, it is critical to understand the current performance of this node in order to be able to potentially intervene to support sustainable growth. This study draws on information provided by Ecamp (City of Cape Town) an online information portal which illustrates various factors influencing economic performance of the numerous nodes in Cape Town. Figure 106 below illustrates that Mitchells Plain is a node which is positioned as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gray areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, currently lacking both potential and performance suggesting that little or no incentive for growth currently exists in the context of the city. The argument put forward here is that the factors

Figure 105: Mitchells Plain in the Context of the city The image above compares the numerous nodes of Cape Town (with Mitchells Plain in Red) by measuring their market performance and locational performance currently. This forms a very interesting insight into understanding the economic dynamics taking place at a metropolitan scale showing where investment is being geared towards. However the study undertaken suggests that the design may be able to position Mitchells Plain as a key node within the city.

Figure 106: Performance of Mitchells Plain The diagram above illustrates the current performance of mitchells plain as being a space in transition currently lacking opportunity which has undermined growth. However the directional arrows suggest that the design intervention undertaken in the dissertation should attempt to position Mitchells Plain as an area of opportunity that will enable growth. This has been translated into the designs implementation strategy.

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of Mitchells Plain as the site.

Six factors influence market performance (figure 107); namely rental performance, rental growth, vacancies, building completed, buildings planned and sales of buildings. The performance of this market is compared to the performance of these factors in other nodes attributing a score of out of 10. This is of some significance as the data analysis has already places Mitchells plain at a disadvantage when compared to the spatial analysis of the precinct undertaken in the design proposal, chapter 3. With a large amount of vacant land, not

released for development, within a small precinct in comparison to other areas in the city, that data represented for Mitchells Plain is skewed. Drawing on the raw data a different picture emerges. Non-residential buildings sales performance at 18%, which is average compared to the rest of the city. 592 buildings have been completed since 2005 which is also high if one considers the extent and constraints of land available in the precinct. Although rentals do perform lower than the city average the low sale of land prices offset this variable enabling development to be feasible in Mitchells. If the intervention in the design can unlock land parcels for development, and change the spend in this area, the market performance may increase and potentially outperform many other districts in the city, which this study has positioned as motivation for the identification

Figure 107: Market Performance The study has shown that the representation of this data by Ecamp has skewed Mitchells Plainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market performance and suggested that if land surrounding the business district can be unlocked then the performance of the precinct would perform better when compared to the other nodes in the city.

Figure 108: Locational Potential The figure highlights key factors that need to be addressed if Mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Plain is to become a successful node. The study has highlighted that Accessibility and crime are ought to be focus areas while infrastructure provision currently is currently being provided by the city.

Figure 109: Travel Time The diagram illustrates the travel time to various nodes in the city which ought to be addressed if Mitchells Plain is to become an accessible node within the city. This has informed a design response that has addressed movement within the city.

which contribute to the poor performance may be able to be changed and geared in a proactive manner that could enable growth. Both figure 105 and 106 have used market performance and location potential variables to assess the current circumstances of Mitchells Plain business district.

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The locational potential (figure 108) highlights factors that ought to be addressed in the intervention. Poignantly these factors are a high crime rate and accessibility (figure 108). Drawing on the research and motivated by the success of the City Bowls improvement district, the study suggests the implementation of an improvement district to address crime and grime in Mitchells Plain. Accessibility (figure 109) being the second issue predominantly impacts on industrial uses due to the lack of such an agglomeration in the precinct and the distances from the northern cluster of industries in the city. However if public transport addresses both accessibility to surrounding districts other than the City Centre and utilizes direct access to core nodes, Mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Plain would be become more accessible (chapter

3.2 proposal for movement). The benefits of such accessibility will position the exiting retail and business (figure 110) occurring in the area to enable further growth, supporting the need to establish service orientated business’s (e.g. call centers, IT industry ). Infrastructure, catchment and space, factors also influencing locational potential, perform negatively; however these factors are either skewed or are being addressed by the city. Infrastructure performs negatively due to current constraints on waste water treatment which is due to a lack of investment in waste

Figure 110: Space provided by various uses in Mitchells Plain The diagram illustrates that Mitchells Plain CBD is focused on retail and business functions with few industrial functions in the area. This agglomeration of business and retail suggests that if geared appropriately service industry agglomerations may form here.

water treatment plants across the city placing strain on the existing water treatment plants, including Mitchells plain’s treatment plant. The city has however made waste water treatment a priority for infrastructure provision dedicating R280 million in 2014 (City of Cape Town, 2014) to the construction and upgrade of various plants across the city. This intern will ease pressure on Mitchells Plains plant and address current constraints. Space, compared with that of the rest of the city performs negatively, however has highlighted the current constraints on land skew the data. The raw data on space suggests that the precinct is performing above average. Catchment has evaluated disposable income of various demographic groupings around the precinct, however this is compared to other nodes such Durbanville with a predominantly wealthy demographic, creating a distortion of the intensity of use in the precinct. The dissertation suggests that due to the lack of other functioning precincts in close proximity, the catchment zone for Mitchells Plain and the resultant intensity of use in the precinct is much higher than indicated in the data analysis. This difference in catchment suggests that Mitchells Plain ought to perform higher than represented in the analysis presented by Ecamp.

9.2.1. Synthesis The study performed here has illustrated that the representation of Mitchells Plain’s performance is distorted and the precinct holds

both the capacity and the potential to be a priority opportunity in the city. Market performance has indicated that investment in the precinct is feasible and potentially profitable. If levers such as tax incentives are employed investors and developers would be put at a great advantage and the node would be positioned as a key opportunity for private investment in the city. However for this to occur both accessibility and crime need to be addressed in the precinct to create investor confidence. These points both motivate for the selection of Mitchells Plain as a precinct and suggest possible ways of intervening in the space.

Principle to take forward »» If the intervention in the design can unlock land parcels for development and change the spend in this area, the market performance may increase and potentially out perform many other districts in the city. »» The Design needs to address accessibility to the precinct as well as implement a city improvement district which would address high crime rates (burglaries of business’s). »» The study has positioned Mitchells Plain as a priority opportunity in the city but only if the points in findings of the study are addressed in the design intervention.

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Figure 111: Space provided by various uses in Mitchells Plain The figure supports the spatial economic analysis conducted to the right. To primary correlations can be drawn from this. This first is that higher density areas are prone to support a wider variety of amenities within the surrounding fabric and secondly that poorer areas, with more people walking in the streets, support a wide variety of amenities. Looking at the spatial distribution of densities and household income, wealthy areas tend to be less dense than poorer areas however there are exceptions such as the housing South of the CBD.

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1 Proximity to Activity Schools offer activity which is situated just beyond the housing in the figure. This has supported several spaza shops, businesses, a clinic and shabeen.

2 Pedestrian Environments The buildings in this secondary node engage with the street and have thus encouraged pedestrian activity and secondary uses to form in the surrounding residential area, such as clinics, car repairs and spaza shops 3 Structured open space Although structured open space is often unmaintained and unsightly, the ability to see across the space has enabled economic activity along its periphery, as the edge conditions are viewed as positions of opportunity.

4 Road Junctions Junctions of various hierarchies of roads stimulate economic activity from the concentration of people that pass through these spaces. These uses are often scaled to the in function to the hierarchy of road junction.

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Figure 113: Figures extracted from Spatial Economic Analysis (drawn by author) Refer to Figure 112 to as the numbers correlate with positions on the analysis map of Mitchells PLain

5 Car orientated Nodes Car orientated nodes, as seen here, characterized by larger parking lots, lack of street frontage and poor pedestrian environments that sap potential economic activity from the surrounding morphology.

6 Activity Corridors There are several roads spanning North to South characterized by row housing and avenues of trees. These roads have generous pedestrian and bicycle spaces and host a large variety of uses and economic activity.

7 Proximity to Activity There is a strong trend and precedent of economic activity stimulating further economic activity creating clustering of uses and informal nodes. These nodes are often disassociated with formal activity and occur haphazardly. However, if you find one shop there will be another around the corner.

Figure 114: Figures extracted from Spatial Economic Analysis (drawn by author) Refer to Figure 112 to as the numbers correlate with positions on the analysis map of Mitchells PLain

8 Cultural Faculties Cultural facilities, defined by inactive boundaries, situated in the middle of large plots and often clustered together destroy potential economic activity developing. The key reason for this is not the use but the typology which creates large expanses of inactive areas.

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Figure 115: The corner shop is alive and well Photos extracted from google street view (2009)

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9.3. The Corner Shop is Alive and Well in Mitchells Plain The economic analysis undertaken has been significant in understanding the economic dynamics at a local scale. It has shown that economic activity exists throughout Mitchells Plain. Small plot sizes (average 200m2) are maximized forming a typology of street frontages that intern create interfaces between private and public spaces. This has enabled the adhoc formation of informal economic activity; be it a spaza shop, daycare center or doctors surgery. It has also informed where potential opportunities in the morphology exist and how informal agglomerations begin to support informal nodal clustering. Junctions, activity spines, open spaces and proximity to activity have predominately informed the formation of clusters of economic activity. If there is a one shop in a street, there is bound to be another around the corner and after some time a doctor surgery or shabeen will locate nearby. This is through the efforts of private individuals, seizing the opportunities presented in a location. This trend has formed variety and convenience to local residents and supported community formations which is central to urban dynamics. This study has also highlighted a threat to such activity, the practice of formal planning that is prescriptive in nature and imbedded in the zoning scheme. Planning of secondary nodes and the clustering of cultural facilities has had a significant spatial impact. Drawing on

chapter 4, assumptions and visions, secondary nodes have been rationalized without an understanding of local dynamics. The study has identified two types of secondary nodes, the first being car orientated, which draws activity from the surrounding morphology creating inert spaces. It can be attributed to the lack of pedestrians walking to and from such nodes which are surrounded by desolate, unsightly and unsafe spaces (e.g. parking lots, lack of street frontage) that are not pedestrian friendly. The second is the planning of failed nodes, equally undesirable; these nodes have been rationalised without an understanding of where the intensity of users exists. Often large commercial blocks, these buildings are dilapidated and riddled with burglar bars, influencing surrounding morphology to build walls that have undermined the typology of interfaces that define Mitchells Plain. Cultural facilities have mirrored such trends, being positioned in the middle of large gated plots, negating the street. However it is the clustering of these facilities that has impacted the morphology most significantly. Churches, mosques and community halls most associated with civic and thriving spaces are now creating desolate and inactive streets.

typology that has enabled economic activity. Additions and renovations, requiring council approvals, has enforced and imposed inactive streets. This has occurred predominantly in areas of higher household incomes, where residents can afford to build substantial alterations that would not go unnoticed by authorities. The dissertation draws on this study to inform coding of street interfaces in the design to support the natural formation of economic activity. However, the dissertation also proposes that this ought to be a topic for further investigation. The study has also informed how and where opportunities in the existing morphology exists which has informed the precinct design undertaken in the proposal of the document. In concluding the study has highlighted that economic activity is abundant within Mitchells Plain however if this naturally forming typology is not supported but rather prohibited, the diversity and variety that morphology currently holds will become inactive and inert.

The prescriptive zoning scheme of Cape Town has been equally harmful to the urban morphology. Requiring height, setbacks and types of uses (40m2 for economic activity in a single residential one zone, the dominate zoning of Mitchells Plain), the zoning scheme prohibits the adhoc vernacular

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10. Conclusion The research undertaken has motivated the design; however, it has also been positioned to stand alone, uncovering principles that can be applied in various circumstances. A recurring point in maximising the opportunity which locations present, has been the ability to influence users and firms. If we understand that users and firms impact the actions of developers we can begin guiding city competitiveness and sustainable growth to address socio-economic inefficiencies. This was an unexpected outcome, as the initial assumption positioned the city fabric as the container for trade in the built environment. Although this is still true, the key lies in understanding users and firms, as their presence bears on the performance of the city fabric. Our cities are built by private interest; developers are driven by demand and demand is created by users and firms. Urban interventions ought to influence users and firms as a way of directing growth and stimulating private investment that is aligned with a city vision. Whether on a city-wide or human scale, interventions need to be read together and understood in relation to one another. There is no single act or “silver bullet” (Frank Cummings, interview, 27 August 2014) that can be considered as a solitary ‘final solution’, but rather multiple levers and interventions act cumulatively to impact nodal change. Urban designers work as mediators between selfinterested developers, city visions,

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communities, architects and other role players influencing urban change. Urban designers are able to rationalise interventions of various scales, enabling the ability to act across professional spectrums and support this cumulative process. By influencing and interpreting visions from a myriad of perspectives, coordination and integration of design interventions can be achieved. Economic factors, however, are assumed to work as a consequence of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;goodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; design. Business activity is an indication of successful urban interventions but it also a catalyst, creating the environment that is conducive for urban development. If the economy is understood from this perspective, it can be positioned to support intended outcomes in addition to normative design principles. To maximise locations of opportunity, economic services from corner shops to roads to soft infrastructure like Wi-Fi, should be aligned to the needs of the people. Urban design works beyond selfinterest, focusing rather on the public realm and the activities of people. This frame of reference around why and how people use space is a tangible means of influencing economic opportunity and sustainable growth. Transport orientated development highlights the attributes and unquestionable effect of users and firms, if geared in the right way; you can build a node but it is whether people are using that node that makes it successful. Transport nodes concentrate people but if they are transient

spaces, with users not lingering and using the space, they are unlikely to stimulate development. To align nodal development with transport networks, a citywide understanding must inform detailed, localised precinct designs that differentiate between location roles.

includes an understanding of the economy, from both site specific and theoretical perspectives, motivating that urban design needs to remain cognisant of economic influences that bear on visions proposed.

Using this insight, a priority site was identified through an analysis at a metropolitan scale. Various urban dynamics, economic factors included, were considered to illustrate the opportunity this kind of approach can generate. Mitchells Plain was identified as a potential catalyst for a larger district with the prospects of facilitating localised transport orientated development. This demonstrates how the city should be investing in areas that already have economic momentum but are in need of support and investment confidence. These areas are more likely to benefit from urban interventions, becoming business centres that would address the inequalities of the city. The design draws on the existing service economy of Cape Town, and positions Mitchells Plainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s town centre as a potential service industry hub. This can only be achieved if we intervene in the correct way, creating an environment that is conducive to how people use space. The design proposes varying activities within the precinct that stimulate a user generated environment. This cumulative vision reiterates the relationship between users, firms, and development. The design is underpinned by an informed perspective. This

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12. List of Figures 1. Process & Rationale: by author (2014) 2. Household income in Cape Town: by author (2014) 3. Household income in Cape Town: Frith, A. (2014).Â Comparing 2001 and 2011. [online] Adrianfrith.com. Available at: http:// adrianfrith.com/2013/09/12/comparing2001-and-2011 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014].

Engineers (2008) Urban Development: redevelopment of Mitchells Plain Town Centre. Cape Town 19. Spatial Analysis: by author (2014) 20. Density & Household Income: Frith, A. (2014).Â Comparing 2001 and 2011. [online] Adrianfrith.com. Available at: http:// adrianfrith.com/2013/09/12/comparing2001-and-2011 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014].

4. Extract Cape Town Spatial Development Framework (2013): by author (2013)

21. Movement: by author (2014)

5. City of Cape Town Strategy: by author (2013)

22. Pedestrian movement: by author (2014)

6. Transport info graphic: Future Cape Town (2013) Transport Cape Town. Available at: http://futurecapetown.com/ [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014].

23. Precinct composition: by author (2014)

7. Current Metro lines: metrorail (2010) passenger rail routes. Available at: http:// www.metrorail.co.za/maps/CT_RailMap.pdf [Accessed 16 Sep. 2013]. 8. The Spiders Web integrated transport concept: by author (2013) 9. Proposed new metro system utilising exiting infrastructure: by author (2013) 10. Proposed Bus Rapid Transport System: by author (2014) 11. Precinct intervention areas in Mitchells Plain: by author (2014) 12. Site Selection Diagram: by Author (2014) 13. Concept sketch of potential precinct intervention: by author (2014) 14. Potential sites for transport orientated development: by author (2014) 15. Concept design sketches of precinct intervention: by author (2014) 16. Concept design sketches of precinct intervention: by author (2014)

24. Spatial Composition within Mitchells Plain Town Centre: by author (2014) 25. Spatial Composition within Mitchells Plain Town Centre: by author (2014) 26. Town Centre Spatial Composition Diagram: by author (2014) 27. Current Context: by author (2014) 28. Development Plan: by author (2014) 29. Development sketch reflective and catalytic: by author (2014) 30. Precinct intervention rationale: by author (2014) 31. Proposed Pedestrian Movement : by author (2014) 32. Institutional Mechanisms: by author (2014) 33. Implementation Strategy: by author (2014) 34. Phase 2: by author (2014) 35. Phase 3 by author (2014) 36. Detailed Precinct Intervention: by author (2014) 37. Station Section illustrating the graded slope for pedestrians: by author (2014)

17. Current development Framework: Kayad Consulting Engineers (2008) Urban Development: redevelopment of Mitchells Plain Town Centre. Cape Town

39. Public space & coding: by author (2014)

18. Town Centre (200): Kayad Consulting

40. Coding 1: by author (2014)

38. Exploded intervention: by author (2014)

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41. Coding 2: by author (2014)

60. Points of opportunity: by author (2014)

42. Coding 3: by author (2014)

61. Network supporting Nodes: NSW Goverment, (2012). Sydney over the next 20 years A Discussion Paper. Sydney.

43. Coding 3: by author (2014) 44. Views 1-3: by author (2014) 45. Views 4-6: by author (2014) 46. Views 7-9: by author (2014) 47. Views 10-11: by author (2014) 48. Assumptions verse reality : by author (2014) 49. View of Shaighai from the Jin Mao tower: Available at: http://advisortravelguide.com/ jin-mao-tower-of-shanghai-one-of-thetallest-skyscrapers-in-the-world/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2013]. 50. Vision for Voortrekker: Dewar 1993 :Urban Development Commission (1993)The Way Forward Draft report for discussion. Cape Town 51. Vision for Voortrekker: Current: Bhatta, B. (2010). Causes and Consequences of Urban Growth and Sprawl. Analysis of Urban Growth and Sprawl from Remote Sensing Data, [online] pp.17-36. Available at: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-05299-6_2 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014]. 52. Vision for Mitchell’s Plain: Dewar 1993 :Urban Development Commission (1993)The Way Forward Draft report for discussion. Cape Town 53. Mitchell’s Plain: Current morphology: by author (2014) 54. Vision for Gugulethu: Dewar 1993:Urban Development Commission (1993)The Way Forward Draft report for discussion. Cape Town 55. Gugulethu: Current morphology:De Beer, M.(2014) Gugulethu perceptive 56. Transport Interchanges offer concentration: by author (2014) 57. Road Junction also offering opportunity: by author (2014) 58. Supporting interchanges: by author (2014) 59. Direct connection: by author (2014)

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62. Nodes: NSW Goverment, (2012). Sydney over the next 20 years A Discussion Paper. Sydney. 63. Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework: NSW goverment, (2013). Draft Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031. Summary. Sydney, pp.8-9.. 64. South Bank Wolli Creek: Johnstone, T. (2013). City’s destiny is high density. [image] Available at: http://news.domain.com.au/ domain/real-estate-news/citys-destinyis-high-density-20130606-2nr69.html [Accessed 18 Sep. 2014]. 65. Trade-off areas of development plan: Clouston Landscape Architects • Urban Designers • Landscape Planners, (2002). Wolli Creek Streetscape Masterplan Landscape Design Manual. Revision B. Sidney: ROCKDALE CITY COUNCIL 66. Trade-off streetscapes from the development plan: Clouston Landscape Architects • Urban Designers • Landscape Planners, (2002). Wolli Creek Streetscape Masterplan Landscape Design Manual. Revision B. Sidney: ROCKDALE CITY COUNCIL 67. Ciclovía: Dorado, A(2008) Hacai del Centro. Available at: www.flickr.com/photos/ cgsb75/2207701262/.html [Accessed 18 Sep. 2014]. 68. TransMilenio: Wessels, J., Pardo, C. and Bocarejo, J. (2014). Bogota21 towards a world class, transit orientated metropolis. Bogota: Editorial Scripto. Pg. 75 69. TransMilenio Impact on Desnity: Wessels, J., Pardo, C. and Bocarejo, J. (2014). Bogota21 towards a world class, transit orientated metropolis. Bogota: Editorial Scripto. Pg. 52 70. Reclamation of public space: Cervero, R. (2005). Progressive Transport and the Poor: Bogotá s Bold Steps Forward. Access, Pg. 28, 30 71. Reclamation of public space: Cervero, R. (2005). Progressive Transport and the Poor:

Bogotá s Bold Steps Forward. Access, Pg. 28, 30 72. Property Values within radius of Station: Lightstone, (2007). Gautrain already showing impact on property prices. Johannesburg. p. 2 73. Rosebank Spatial Development Framework: City of Johannesburg Department: Development Planning and Urban Management, (2007).Rosebank Urban Development Framework: Discussion Document. Johannesburg: Department: Development Planning and Urban Management, p.62. 74. Business as usual: Bigen Africa, (2008). Urban Design Framework Plan Linbro Park: Johannesburg. 75. Tshwana Station Vision: Gauteng growth and development adjency, (2011). THE GAUTENG SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK. Pretoria: Gauteng Province, p.125. 76. GEP Manufacturing Precinct: MMA Architects (2005) GEP Manufacturing Precinct Draft Precinct Plan. Johannesburg Available at: http://www.joburg-archive. co.za/2011/inner_city/ellispark/ manufacturing_hub_precinct_plan_ section3.pdf [Accessed 20 Oct. 2014]. 77. Economic Cycle: Watson, V. (2014). Economic drivers of the urban land and property market (circuits of capital), and the role of the planner. 78. Agglomerations of Banks in Cape Town City Bowl: by author (2014) 79. Sustainable productive cycle: by author (2014) 80. Lagos CBD: Presse, P. (2014). Le magazine de la photo et du voyage - Magazine photo : Geo.fr : Geo.fr. [online] Geo. Available at: http://www.geo.fr/fonds-d-ecran/villes-etvillages/megalopole-dantesque-lagos-est-lajerusalem-noire-du-pentecotisme/119495 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014]. 81. Liepzig: Panorama Tower - Plate of Art, (2014). Panorama Tower - Plate of Art. [online] Available at: http://www. do-it-at-leipzig.de/de/Locations/Alle_ Locations_1197.html?locations1153.id=98 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014].

82. Curitba: Anzola, F. (2014). Francisco Anzola. [online] Flickr. Available at: https:// www.flickr.com/people/10345599@N03 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014]. 83. Nantes: Meditor, (2012). Nantes, France. [online] Thefabweb.com. Available at: http://thefabweb.com/48903/30-best-citypictures-of-the-week-july-1st-to-july-7th2012/attachment/48928/ [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014]. 84. Detroit: Eckstein, B (2011) Aerial view of Downtown Detroit .. Available at: http:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_ View_of_Downtown_Detroit.jpg [Accessed 18 Oct. 2014]. 85. Skyscraper city: Piet de Beer Archive (edited by author) 86. Capital Accumulation process: Bentley, I. (2005). Urban transformations. 3rd ed. London: Routledge.pg.74 87. . 88. Building Confidence index : De Beer, M.(2014) Interpretation of FNB building confidence index 2014 89. Location, Location!: by author (2014) 90. Agglomeration: by author (2014) 91. User generated approach: by author (2014) 92. District Six view: Kids fly kites: Sourced from: Piet de Beer photo Archive 93. Racial Segregation in Cape Town: Frith, A. (2014). Comparing 2001 and 2011. Available at: Adrianfrith.com. Available at http:// adrianfrith.com/2013/09/12/comparing2001-and-2011 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014]. 94. Wesgro facilitated development: SAPI (2010). Draft Analysis of the Cape Town Spatial Economy Implications for Spatial Planning Population distribution. SAPI 95. Spatial economy: Business: McGaffin, R. (2014). The Space Economy & the Role of Planning Some Conceptual Thoughts 96. Spatial economy: Retail: McGaffin, R. (2014). The Space Economy & the Role of Planning Some Conceptual Thoughts 97. Spatial economy: Industrial: McGaffin, R. (2014). The Space Economy & the Role of

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Planning Some Conceptual Thoughts 98. Spatial economy: Business’s Registered: McGaffin, R. (2014). The Space Economy & the Role of Planning Some Conceptual Thoughts 99. Economic Activity: SAPI (2010). Draft Analysis of the Cape Town Spatial Economy Implications for Spatial Planning Population distribution. SAPI 100. Population distribution: SAPI (2010). Draft Analysis of the Cape Town Spatial Economy Implications for Spatial Planning Population distribution. SAPI: 101. Bonteheuwel: by author (2014) 102. The potential threshold conditions that exist in the city: by author (2014) 103. Various public transport nodes performing alternative functions: by author (2014) 104. National Dynamics: by author (2013) {sources: National Development Plan 2013, National ports survey 2012, Stats SA} 105. Mitchells Plain in the context of the city: Available at: http://ctcs.capetown.gov.za/ Ecamp/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014]. 106. Performance of Mitchells Plain: Available at: http://ctcs.capetown.gov.za/Ecamp/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014]. 107. Market Performance: Available at: http:// ctcs.capetown.gov.za/Ecamp/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014]. 108. Locational Potential: Available at: http:// ctcs.capetown.gov.za/Ecamp/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014]. 109. Travel time: Available at: http://ctcs. capetown.gov.za/Ecamp/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014]. 110. Space provided by various uses in Mitchells Plain: Available at: http://ctcs. capetown.gov.za/Ecamp/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014]. 111. Space provided by various uses in Mitchells Plain: Frith, A. (2014). Comparing 2001 and 2011. Available at: Adrianfrith. com. Available at http://adrianfrith. com/2013/09/12/comparing-2001-and2011 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2014]. 112. Mapping Economic Activity: by author (2014) 113. Figures extracted from Spatial Economic Analysis: by author (2014) 114. Figures extracted from Spatial Economic Analysis: by author (2014)

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115. The corner shop is alive and well: Google street view (2009) [Accessed 5 Sep. 2014]. 116. A Day in the life of a bench: Degtyarev, M. (n.d.). The Day in the life of a Bench. [image] Available at: http://designspiration.net/ image/385402829398/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2014].

13. Addendum

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Plagiarism Declaration

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Interview |Robert McGaffin Specialist in the spatial economy being a town planner and land economist 21 August 2014

The interview with Robert city. An example of this is that McGaffin is not the the N1 and N7 coming into complete interview script. Cape Town as critical goods

Unsustainable city form from an environmental point of view. If you look at Barry Gason, whether its from the footprint or the regenerative systems in the city. But all doom and gloom, for instance the improvement in the Black River of the past years, from 10 or 20 years ago, and a long way to go still. Environmentally there is clearly a problem.

What are the current routes, however the N2 is not 3. 1. Could you describe performing in the same capacity conditions of the spatial economy in Cape Town? the spatial condition of Cape as a goods route. Town? It is also inequitable, in regard Ecamp go look at the Ecamp The city is inefficient; the to access to opportunities. I portal! amount of resources it takes to am not one of those people operate it is disproportionate that believe that things need What this shows is that the to the output. The sprawl to happen everywhere and bulk of the economy is based structure of the city requires uniformly throughout the city. in the CBD, city bowl, and then a lot of resources to make it By definition you are going the spine moving towards work. This plays itself out if to have certain things going Tygervalley as broadband you look at the CSIR logistics on in certain places of the between Epping and Century reports, referring to the whole city, where it makes sense City and then going up the country, indicates that the cost for them to take place as N7, Montague Gardens and of logistics of South African there are certain locational Killarney Gardens. This is cities are significantly higher requirements. What needs to represented by the commuters than global averages. One can be done is to make sure people arriving in the morning, floor actually quantify what those can get there. A good example space that is there, the new inefficiencies are. In comparison of this is the distribution of amount of commercial build to global cities which have 5-8% train stations in the city as the occurring. Interesting the GDP dedicated to logistics, South line has a station every Southern suburbs from a South African cities are closer 800m and the South East is at commercial point of view is far intervals of 2-3km. Inequity is less than what we thought it to 20% of the GDP. not that Khayelitsha does not was, it is far more insignificant. 2. What are the have every aspect of the city, What they call that urban core, many factors causing the its never going to and there is city centre out along through no city in the world that has a Maitland, Goodwood, Parow, inefficiency? homogenous distributions of Bellville and then Tigervalley A lot of logistics is aspects. However you should be is where the cities economy is focused on transport and able to travel in the city within really siting. network issues which are a reasonable time frame, cost related to the structure of the and convenience.

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locational met.

requirements

4. Briefly describe the relationship between the City of Cape Town and developers/ property investors? Is there an interaction?

response that looks at the change in areas allowing the city to stream line the rezoning process instead of doing it from a property to property basis.

There is the Western Cape Development Forum which meets on a quarterly basis and also meetings that occur in The Institute for Consulting Planners. There is a number of formal structures in place where this interaction takes place and then there is the case by case basis. The Rhetoric coming from the City is that they are very pro-development; Cape Town is open for business. Tensions always will exist.

6. What are the key spatial conditions when investing in They do. Different types of an area? companies would place a Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the firm that is the most different value on those assets. important party because once A logistics and distribution you have a firm wanting to be company would access to road there and being able to operate network and this plays itself successfully they can therefore out spatially. However a small pay a reasonable rental and IT company doing animation value access to this is effectively what property would developers are buying. So broadband. The space is but one developers want to see that factor when running a business, firms want to be in that space namely the production process, and if firms leave, their ability staff and employment, market to get another firm in that space and customers ect space is one is critical. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the location to of those but one of many. A the broader environment. Does company will locate in an area that location make it feasible for that satisfies (not necessarily firms wanting to move there, a space that maximises there as well as the actual space itself needs) there needs because as being flexible because if to time is important. So if space is specific and one tenant moves available now they will take it, out its difficult to get another they cannot wait. So there may tenant to move in. From a be 4 locations in the city that developerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point of view, they would work for them but there will develop anywhere if there is only vacancy in one which is a guarantee of a tenant to they will take. sign. 8. Could you briefly From the firm perspective describe the conditions that there is basically the location developers use/ need to requirement which is going evaluate the feasibility of to vary dependent on their investment? activity. Eg. The lawyer needing The crux is that no developer to be near to the courts. in the right mind would press What are those economic the green light if the value activities that are likely to of the end product is greater be growing, what are their than the cost to develop it. The locational requirements and value comes from the income where in the city will these stream that is generated and

You also need to distinguish that you get developers and then developers. There are developers that have shown a good track record with the city and others which have been problematic, which may influence engagement. Refer to the notional developer. The guy with the buckie doing small scale development verses the major property fund. 5. Is there any guidance from the city defining an action or reactionary relationship by the City with developers? Yes there is a formal policy that is put in place such as the tall building policy which is proactive response due to its broad application. It has also been proactive in regard to parking requirements. There is also talk of blanket rezoning that allows for a proactive

7. Do spatial qualities (assets) of the locality influence investment and if so please elaborate?

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this comes from the business. So it will be those places that sufficient value can be created. It doesn’t matter where you build, other than the land value of the land, what you trying to do as a developer is find those locations where the value is higher than the cost and this is influenced by where those firms want to locate. a. How can planning impact or improve these conditions/ needs? As planners we have focused on the development process, as a place that we can influence eg. Development rights, land, infrastructure. What should be done is that we should be looking at the users of space not the developers of space. A user generated city. A developer will build anywhere. If you want to stimulate phillipi, don’t go and try and convince a group of developers to go build there, try and convince someone that it makes sense to run an operation out of Phillipi and then that will demand space and then the developer will come. The question is what do you need to do to phillipi if you want to make sensible place for a business to operate from. So we need to understand the business requirements far better than we do. Urban management has been far more successful at directing investment than the traditional tools of urban planning as it has changed the way your businesses can operate. A good example of this is the

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city bowl, people were leaving because their staff where getting mugged and the city partnership stepped in, dealing with crime and grime changing the pattern of the CBD.

efficient market is lacked in property. Public side needs to improve some of these inefficiencies such as the lack of information such as ecamp.

9. What are the positive b. How can urban design and negative effects of value impact or improve these capture and is this mechanism a viable tool for planning in conditions/ needs? Cape Town? The cliché location, location, location comes to the fore. A Its not going to work in every company or person wants to be case but we should be looking for in a particular space because opportunity for its application. of the broader characteristics Cases are different and thus a of the space. For example broad swath approach will most the distance from the airport probably cause more damage as well as the specific spatial than benefit. characteristics of that site or could/does building, where urban design 10. How begins to play a larger role. urban design mitigate the The key is how urban design relationship between private impacts on the business investment and the city? environment either from the business owner’s point of I’m not convinced that urban view or the customer’s point designers are well positioned of view. However, great urban to do this. A person to for fill design is not in itself enough such a role needs specialised which urban to stimulate change in area. knowledge Eg. A good urban environment designers are not trained in in khaylitsha is not enough to to do. A good example is the draw business and investment. economy. Urban design is very important An urban designer however is however it is only one part of looking at the bigger picture but for them to perform a mitigating the puzzle. role they would need to up skill c. Is public-private themselves dramatically. partnership important in are the influence spatial economic 11. What characteristics of transport trends? interchanges and how is this The property market is highly of value to developers? inefficient because it is highly heterogeneous and high They bring value by making the barriers to entry and exit, location better for business by everything you need for an either bring more people to the

area or increase foot traffic and access customers. Developers respond to users demands and if transport interchanges impact that it then has an impact. Developers: tenant is king! If it makes business wanting to locate there then it makes a difference.

disposable So in many respects we are going to get to the point where we are going to try holding onto Formal definition: net income the production industry rather redirecting them around. after tax. 14. What income?

The income that is at your 16. What are the outlooks disposal to spend. Housing of these consumer based centres? food cigarettes extra

What are the existing consumption patterns and can we improve the scales around that? However this has a glass roof. Are there other forms of They facilitate economic It’s a huge one, depending consumption that we can build activity, and if enough needs on the business that you are economies around. For me it’s happens then that stimulates doing. So either you are on about the provision of services, the production side or the housing ect. We constitutionally an economic node. consumption side of the obliged to provide these and 13. What are the key issues economy. So any retail, services they need to take place in when implementing transport are almost completely driven by these locations. Why are we disposable income. In shopping not building economies around orientated development? centre development this is this? Also we need to recognise TOD (transport orientated key as how much disposable that we are not going to provide development), I like the idea. income is out there and how all the employment required in khayelitsha, so how do you But we need to be careful much can we capture. network khayelitsha better into in applying it to solve all our problems. How can that 15. How can you change a the rest of the city. form of development assist a consumer based economy into company to do business in that a more production orientated environment. In many ways it economy? will however it also makes life difficult because to many users It’s a great challenge. The with different requirements in production side of the economy, one space may be conflicting. regardless of where you are, is What I am saying is that TOD under threat. The general size of works, but every user of space the production pie is shrinking may not want to be in that and what left over is likely to space. So there is a primary stay or go to those production urban management issue that areas. If it were growing, it is aligned to TOD’s. So having would be easier to push into multiple users with different other areas. Production also has requirements and different a lot of inertia; it is very difficult operations in the same location to change a site as the cost of relocation is a nightmare. If you is key, it’s the goal. look at some of the factories they have been there for years. 12. What is the role of transport interchanges (ie. train stations) as economic nodes?

a. Could this characteristic be used to identify areas of potential investment and improvement? Why?

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Its not my strong point but it touches on what urban design and design at different scales would be. I believe that the Planner, architect and urban designer start point would be that with a good environment, gives you 24 August 2014 good economics not the other way around, success breeds success. The answers are not in numbers but it is how it is done. Investment will follow where good environments are. The following interview resistant’s and thus areas which That’s at project investment with Piet Louw is not the should not be built are built like and responses to certain complete interview script. wetlands. The reason why it situations. Part of this argument gets invaded is that People want is looking at small vendors and 1. Could you describe access to opportunities they where they locate in terms of the spatial condition of Cape want to be where the action is. pedestrian flow, it’s the same A city of contrast, there is the sort of argument. Town? natural beauty, the man made What are the key spatial response, and the sprawling 3. A city of contrast. effect and a great separation of conditions when investing in Cape Town must be considered income and disparity in equity. an area? at a variety of scales. There’s the regional context which is for me The nicer parts of the city in Fits into the aforementioned You cannot defined by the topography and terms of broad firm are areas framework. space between the mountains that were inherited in the predetermine this, you can and the coast line which creates past due to planning being an design a good shopping centre a Mediterranean climate. Once integrated activity, which were but if it’s in the wrong location you go beyond the mountains more generous stimulating it won’t work, so access is the physiographic elements the ability to be flexible important. begin to change. It’s different and performing better. The Do spatial qualities from other cities and regions negatively performing parts 4. because of this unique quality. are attributed to modernism of the locality influence At the manmade level the city and town planning following investment and if so please has become an increasingly international trends and the elaborate? eccentric located city. With the dominance of transport and city focused on the city centre engineers. The cities on the What I’m interested in is the and the periphery which is outskirts are disjointed and condition of man. What is reflected in transport, access there are many barriers around. important is to focus on what and mobility roots and areas The idea of limited access of we do and how we think about like Woodstock are being a hierarchy of roads impacts things from 2 pillars; namely putting throttled by this characteristic. morphological element and the environmentalism nature first, working with it and One can also see traces of liveability of cities. not against it, and the second improvement and regeneration. What are the current pillar is humanism which has to So now you have a centre that 2. is eccentrically located and conditions of the spatial do with people and the equality of people having implications sprawl which looks for the least economy in Cape Town?

Interview |Piet Louw

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design structure. It can even be at regional level where you need to ask the question as to what are the elements of structure. Most disciplines now tag onto the scale issue, saying that if it is more than a few buildings it is urban design. Urban design does not hold to scale and is a specialised profession. If you have architectural, planning 5. What is the role of and urban design knowledge is spatial planning and how a significant advantage. It’s only can it intervene in the built the urban design profession that can bring together in a environment? holistic understanding of all the Planning and design should be different elements of a design driven by the same pillars. To problem. what end are we doing things. You need planning as well as Pulling it together at the design. Planning is about the totality, all the different layers 2d relationships of activities of significance, and it is the and design gives form to that. only discipline that can bring Yet there is a huge overlap form to the larger scale. between the two disciplines. You cannot leave this to the Planning would be the physical planners, landscape architects organisation of activities in for example, but they all have space which has to do with their own speciality at the relationships, design gives form level of layer. But to pull them together is the role of the urban to this. designer. This is not to say that Planning doesn’t only have to you need to design every square do with statutorily and legal millimetre, now you must take issues it also has to deal with the elements of structure that is direction giving. This is the condition of people. working with green structure 6. What is the role of in various forms, movement urban design and how is (sequence of that : pedestrian, this important for spatial NMT, public transport, then roads)( we do need roads interventions? but that is for economic Urban Design is a confused efficiency for trucks extra and profession at the moment and the transport engineers play a being attributed to a scale big form in that reflected into bigger than architecture. I don’t the city), public institutions believe that, urban design is because ultimately your role more design at a variety of as the professional in the built scales; it’s how you understand environment is for the public on the city in terms of equity of access and movement on foot. This new sustainability trend that world is forced to take seriously reinforces these two pillars. If this is your starting point you can then begin to question what the implications of that are of that and what the role of design in it.

good (you cannot work for the development only), space and urban space especially related to parks, squares etc as our main field of operation is at the settlement level, and the last one is utilities and services the main infrastructure of supplies where you need the engineers to give the input. Now you take all these factors and you organise them as they all have a relationship with another. Like hierarchy of access must correlate with hierarchy of institutions and so on and so on. That is why we can call it a spatial and urban design framework because it contains all these elements. But it gets a little more complex, the way the world is going with globalisation, structural unemployment has come into it as a few groups make all the money and people are getting poorer and poorer. So the emphasis must be on small scale economic activities. This even has implications for frontage, moving away from the long store front and creates smaller spaces that are economically accessible. This thing about closed economies related to pedestrianism has certain implications for how you think of settlement. What I’m interested in is within the pillars what are the global issues at the moment; water scarcity, food security. What does this mean for structuring cities? Perhaps instead of 10% of land being allocated to structured open space could this not be urban agriculture.

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view and the same should be done in completing missing links in the South East, Mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plain ect. So the modes ought 7. What is the role of to serve each other, buses spatial economy in developing serving trains and minibuses to buss yet they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do this and the urban framework? instead replicate very similar It comes back to what is your movement patterns. role in this process. I have not really thought so much of this All the disciplines need to get as I think that there are more together to assess the city, how important things than that. can we achieve a more equitable Ultimately one must identify city. At the moment everything where public infrastructure is focused on the city centre. investment must form, Part of that definition would combined with the equation be preventing urban sprawl of good environment gives and defining the urban edge as good economics, if capital a no go zone. And then what expenditure is spent in the right you need is more than one way and right form there will be large interchange, equitably placed with varied associated a private sector reaction. industries, where everything 8. What is the role of comes together and then the transport interchanges in inter modal system comes to play. supporting economic nodes? Urban design has a huge role to play at the level of settlement making.

You need an integrated and coordinated multi movement system where different modes do different jobs in response to different urban structural considerations. So there is a hierarchy of interchanges, where trains come together at a regional level, then at train stations you have buses and minibuses followed by pedestrian movement. If you look at it like that they have different routes to follow to serve these coordinated systems. That is the problem of Cape Town, we have an excellent rail system but the buses need to support the train stations. The BRT has begun doing it by its route to table

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9. Is spatial quality a key factor to developing interchanges? Of courseâ&#x20AC;Ś there are preconditions to design followed by economy. Density is the key factor and what are the qualities as to a human scale perspective and how does this framework of public space in its various forms offer opportunities for people to interact. You cannot have one density across the whole city, it needs to reflect the urban structure. Such as interchanges which need higher densities. Our

highest densities occur on the periphery, so we need to find ways of densifying the city around the idea of a more equitable city. Not around the hierarchy of roads. The problem lies with the professions; we are still doing the same things as we did 20 years ago after 20 years into democracy.

Interview |Andrew Fleming A strategic researcher in urban dynamics with an economic background 26 August 2014

If planning is designed to increase the methods of projection and that methods of production is linked to an economic system that is inequitable, by virtue there is a really strong argument that spatial planning may continue to perpetuate those problems.

The cities planning department is really forward thinking in The following interview The spatial condition of the terms of a lot of the things that with Andrew Fleming does city is divided to say the least they are doing around data, not represent the views of but structured on access to economic intelligence We used Cape Town Partnership the centre and most cities are to be very mono-nodal with and is not the complete similar. From a theoretical point the CBD driving all economic of view I recommended reading modes of production, but we interview script. David Harvey or Noami Klien. have shifted over the past years 1. Briefly describe the The idea of urban splintering, to become ever more multispatial condition of Cape where capital connects cities nodal. Bellville being seen as a by spatial linkages, also the second CBD, then there is Town? disconnects other people Tygerberg and many more in Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a combination of the natural through spatial linkages. This is the south an north, all these spatial configuration of the city represented in how highways, smaller nodes and smaller and then a very convoluted and infrastructure and everything modes of production are divided one as well. The way that is set up, to connect centres of connected through the efforts everything is laid out in the city capital not necessarily people. of spatial planning. This could be a really good thing in terms is based on strong constructs of division and appropriation. Where Cape Town is at the of connecting more people to Where people live is by no moment is a spatial result, as access the economic activity means an effect of the market, during apartheid the connection of those areas. But in terms the city was designed in a of capital was clearly to the of infrastructure it is right to manner that deliberately kept advantage of the minority and query how that plays out. If you people out. So if you look at disadvantage of the majority. look at population density, the where the economy happens So now we are stuck in a city poorest areas are the ones with and where people live, you where infrastructural linkages the highest human density. will find correlations and remain, privileging a minority divisions between wealth. and impacting the ability of the Spatial planning is often seen This had early been started in majority to actually accessing as an engine for economic the colonial process and then capital to grow. So because growth. enforced further by actual we are so structured based on Draw on the comparison segregation in the 1900â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. This the patterns of the previous 2. had been further exacerbated government structure, with of density and economic during apartheid looking at problems that persist till this distribution? the economy and segregation day, means the city remains It needs to be proactive. spatially divided and spatially based on labour and race. Things like looking at spatial defunct.

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planning differently. Housing, how can we use planning as a support tool to aid a better urban environment that opens up the opportunity for people to live and work in areas, which previously they could not. The city can use social housing, national government can support through subsidising infrastructure for social housing, which they are already doing. But really about targeting these things. Often these efforts are influenced by factors such as land pricing and due to the natural influences, the mountain, and the ocean are built around these areas where structures of capital and costs are the highest. Build more social housing in the CBD is a great solution. However, to make that cost effective to developers is a huge challenge. The best land is often owned by a form of government or parastatal, you need to find how to unlock that and access it then provide some form of return on that for the state or convince state to use that land to drive their initiatives forward. Convincing state to do this, and a lot of the time they want the return on expensive land. So the point is that there are ways of doing this but it becomes very tricky especially around land prices and commodities.

still based on that mono-nodal structure as transport is focused on the CBD as well as buses and highways which do the same thing. A lot of people, more and more, do not need to go into the CBD and need to go the M5, N7 direction for instance. We don’t have a train track in this direction and building them is capital intensive, so how could you connect these new desire lines, perhaps buses. The point is that we don’t have a transportation links that could serve the lower income groups more efficiently. The work being done on the Vootrekker corridor will be great but that follows the N1 in a lot of ways so spatially does that help to expand connections across a larger city grid so that it meshes a little bit better? 3. Briefly describe the relationship between the City of Cape Town and developers/ property investors?

Of course the City has keen interest in promoting and facilitating stronger development. They have a development facilitation unit for instance, so they do have initiatives to encourage stronger development. Of course the more development and the more business that goes into that development means more rates and the more the city Transportation is another one, can expand. There are a lot of which can be used to break potential benefits to come from down the economic divisions that. By virtue of the planning in the city. If you look at how system in general; spatial transport is distributed now, its planning, zoning, approvals

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and what not, the city has to have a strong relationship with developers and if they did not developers would do as they want and have no regard for things like spatial planning and zones and other things. The city needs to be more orderly. The ‘red carpet’ process seems to me a political gimmick, but I’m not close enough to the approval process to know whether they have reduced the red tape for developers or not. The city is also a conduit for other government programs that are not its own, so National government programs, such as tax incentives. The city at the end of the day is the custodian of a lot of these things but not necessarily the controller. So for instance, the Urban Development Zone, the tax incentive from SARS, is a tax incentive, which rewards developers for building in certain areas. This has very key spatial implications. So it privileges people in Woodstock giving a massive tax incentive for people there, but then do you talk about whether the city of Cape Town is promoting gentrification in Woodstock. Not directly, nor would they ever, but what they do is administer the SARS levy or the lack there of, which has direct effect on property prices in the Woodstock area as more development raises the price of property rates and the surrounding property values. The City, so people say that they privilege development, in some ways they do, in other

ways they do not and rightfully so. But in other ways perhaps a more spatially inclusive projectory would be a little better placed. Tim Harres at the City is doing exactly this, driving economic development, trying to get more of it going, investor relations and the like. But this is all linked to spatial form and development and where it is happening. Even the mayors relationship with developers on her own, something that is often misunderstood. How some things get approved and how other things do not get approved, whether there are some targets that make some developments happen faster than others. I do not know, but some of them do. 4. What are the key spatial conditions when investing in an area? The quality of the urban environment in the CBD for instance has huge implications for developers. Depending on what you are whiling to development. So if I were looking to develop an industrial space, I might not really care for the quality of the urban environment. I am primarily looking for a good rate. If I were looking to develop a 5 star tower, the fabric of the city was vitally important to building Portside. Developers need to think of what there tenants are going to want. For Portside we need to help people understand how to use the city better. The

fact that you are in a great CBD environment that is safe and is well looked after as well as having a lot of opportunity on the ground level, is a big component to making those offices letable, for clients that want to pay a premium. In South Africa, the trend of malls and centres like that means that people are saying that we like a controlled environment, people looking for the convenience of a restaurant, gym and shopping all in one place, but more and more people are beginning to look for alternative options. So the answer is yes the spatial quality of places is important.

on investment and returns on scale. With little regard of where low income housing is built. This is partly why you see so much of it being green field development, do they care where it is, probably not. This of course has implications on income, inequality and how people use the city. a. To what effect can urban management aid investment?

Cape Town Partnership started the first Central City Improvement district and is still operational now. Since then there have been around 30 other improvement districts that have formed across the city by various institutions 5. Could you briefly and groups. Some of them describe the conditions that are bigger; some of them are developerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use/ need to really small. The CBD one is evaluate the feasibility of the biggest and by virtue of its location is the best funded, due investment? to the levy collected and the Portside was looking at a lot density of the area. of locations but chose the CBD for that reason. More and There is a lot of literature on more they are going to have to the model itself and how it attract tenants because of the manages urban spaces. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very way the office environment is effective in some ways. The shaping up. Employees want to one in Cape Town for instance live close to work or work in an makes it a better environment environment that is dynamic to be in however there is and exciting. Developers are an issue with inclusion and going to really need to start exclusion. City improvement taking more cognisances of districts should be questioned that. On the other hand, it as to their effectiveness and depends on the development their ability to provide inclusive urban management. A lot of the that you are looking at. time what happens, whether it If you look at affordable is the security incentives or the housing, developers are social development challenges looking to get the biggest and being pushed into other areas. cost effect land to get return So what starts to happen is that

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you will see islands where there are city improvements districts and in-between those districts is where some of the problems will just get sandwiched into. So a spatial issue forms as you have these ‘nice’ islands and inbetween the spaces are defunct and non-managed. The areas that can afford to mobilise and get the city improvement district going that’s fine and well, but those that cannot are undermined. It’s a big challenge and with the model of improvement districts, imported from America and to a lesser extent the UK, are not done in abit more of a symphonic fashion, they can be really exclusionary supporting those you can pay higher rates and feel entitled because their interests must be looked after first. So in the CBD, does it make sense that a business that operates here’s interests get prioritised over a ruff sleeper for instance. In some ways yes because the business is paying a levy to have services which look after it. Where as the ruff sleeper cannot afford to pay a levy and does not have a resident’s per say, which can be levied on. There have been experiments in Johannesburg and Pretoria where it has been implemented as an upside down model for lower income areas. They have had a relative degree of success. So it is something that has been played with, how to make urban management more

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operating in the same city and operating towards the same It gives investors a lot of goals. It does not necessarily confidence, as they know benefit the larger idea of somebody is looking after their spatial management or spatial interests. Its really nice thing development. to tell developers, hey we are the central city improvement From a developer’s point of district, here is information view CIDs work. on the CBD, we have some How can urban design business intelligence for you, 6. we keep the streets safer for impact or improve investor the people that are going to be confidence? in your building, we make the streets nice because we sweep It can promote it in a lot of them and have flower boxes ways, if you have an urban and tons of other stuff and design that says this is where communication going around. it is at, you have plans, going Developers like that, it is an to build various pieces of incentive for developers to be infrastructure, it gives investors in the zone even though you a lot of confidence and it gives developers feel better about pay a for it, you get a reward. developing in that area. My challenge is that we need to look at CID’s and find a way One of the interesting things we of making them inclusive and had at Cape Town partnership more responsible for social was the fringe in the east city, development. So what do where it began building this you do with those no man urban design over the area but lands, [on the periphery]. Is it in a way that did not include acceptable that we have no any of the history and memory mans lands. Should CIDs be components of district six. required to touch borders of Rightfully so, the project had other CIDs, and then is that been brought out by many of a fair expectation to have on the district six stakeholders and property owners. This infers academics at UWC, saying that that no matter where you are it was exclusionary. That you you will always be paying a CID are trying to design a city that already had people living on levy, in one form or another. there before. So urban design This drives up competition can be beneficial but it can also between the CIDs. Currently, not be. CIDs don’t speak to each other as they see each other In a larger metropolitan view it as competition, because it is has great benefits as it allows in our interest to have more an understanding of how other tenants here that pay higher areas are going to work with each levies. It is absurd as we are all other spatially. Urban design inclusive.

allows you to look at things like housing, and prioritise them in terms of locations. It allows you to look at Wescape and ask whether that makes any sense. So urban design really allows us to identify what we want from our city and how we are going to achieve it. Giving the city ideas as to what it may look like 30 to 40 years into the future, again, does that make any sense either when working with very short term constraints. In my opinion, urban design and economic activity are sometimes not as closely aligned. Again looking at these larger visions, one cape 2040, we don’t know what the economy is going to be like in 2040, we have know idea whether we would be here, whether we would be under water, whether we will be economically important or whether South Africa will be economically redundant and all of that structures the way we build our city. So it makes sense to say that spatially we need to look more in the short term. a. How can momentum influence growth? One of the things we are doing here is looking at a precinct community like Woodstock and to address issues such as social housing. Not from the perspective of design a building (as we don’t build but we facilitate those who do), a problem with social housing is that a lot of the people around it, hate it because they think it’s going to be a problem. What

we want to do is look at urban design, from a loser construct and help the community of Woodstock to be leaders for what they want, given that social housing is going to be a reality in that area. Helping people to understand the issues surrounding housing, affordability, inequality and urban design. It is really linking the community through a process of urban design. Eventually you help people come to the realisation that social housing is not only beneficial for the new people but also the whole community. This has been done from the premise of urban design. It is not something that is top down, it is not something a bunch of architects came in to do and said oh if we plan Woodstock out like this we can have social housing here and here and a walkway between them and all these really nice designs. Its actually what the community has said, if we can come to act together, social housing facilities bring with them infrastructure investment grants that can maybe start to help us access better infrastructure for our cities like walking paths that are safely lit or new transport corridors. That is using urban design in a strategic way that empowers people on the ground and developers as well.

nice, here is what modern best practise teaches us with little regard to what is actually happening on the ground.

I just sometimes do not think that there is enough of it, because you get the top down perspective of architects who say ohh cool we want to do a precinct, let’s make it really

Things that are taking place for instance are informal settlement reblocking. That is awesome that is actually a strategy to say what do communities themselves know

Modern best practise comes mostly from western planning typologies. In south African cities, cape town not been an exception, we have serious challenges and we take western planning, western planning does not have solutions for the challenges that we face and it does not bring the best ideas in order to confront these solutions either. Just look what western planning has done to American cities, its created giant ghettos and very serious issues of inequality built into the city fabric, because ideas from the 60s 70s 80s said that was best practise at the time. This is where organisations such as ACC need to come in and say what South Africa can do to become a leader in the global south urban planning with lack of a better term. How can we rethink the way we are planning our cities to turn this idea of conventional planning theories on its head. Informality is real, so how can we plan with informality rather than around informality. How can we better enable residents through planning to take a more active role in the way that we plan our cities?

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about where things are. Its data driven but community collected. They know how the best way to reconfigure their settlement. Lets work with the City of Cape Town to give the recourses needed, to make the informal space a more structured space and one that functions better economically, environmentally more protected against flooding. These key issues, relevant to planning, have been reinvented through the work of NGO’s in a hyper local context. Reblocking is not something that can work on a grand area, you cannot reblock Khayelitsha for instance but what you can do is look at areas within Khayelitsha and do that. Those kinds of things that from a spatial planning perspective have a lot to teach the way development interacts with people. Is this trickling into the City of Cape Town for instance, in very small ways and slowly perhaps, but the planning department is still structured on thoughts and ideas generated from this conventional western thought planning typology. 7. City competitiveness, what is it and what does it mean for Cape Town? Off course, the globe is now structured on globalisation and global resources. I don’t think we have a choice necessarily. But it is how we position ourselves, which will make the biggest difference. For a while there was this idea that Cape Town should be a worldclass city. I hate that term; it’s

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a horrible term. It has a lot of very specific connotations, but does it benefit us to have these aspirations of being a worldclass city, not really. We never are going to be able to be a New York or Singapore. We are an African City and we need to come to grips with what that means and also the benefits that come with that. There is such great things that could happen if we empower the attributes of being an African city which makes this such a unique space. Trying to compete with other cities can to easily result in a race to the bottom. Earlier this year the economist had an article on how great Mexico is, because they have managed to get there minimum wage lower than china’s and so many companies are relocating to Mexico. I’m like, if Mexico’s minimum wage is lower than China’s then what are they paying people, and why are we celebrating that. You don’t want to be so competitively that you have development to the detriment of your citizens. That’s the really big challenge. How do we globally compete, when we have 27% unemployment? As city we cannot provide enough infrastructure to people. My friend who just got back from Dare Salem and the city is not beautiful or pretty. But everybody has a house and everybody has a toilet and the unemployment rate is low and everybody has access to electricity. Although a call

centre from Europe may not want to locate there, they are doing something right. So this is the thing. How can we begin learning and using knowledge relations to change our own thought of what is global competitive. How do we compete with the globe and what are our aspirations. Do our supply chains matchup more with European structures or are they based on looking at South South tangents. Increasingly the South South tangents are being advocated for by organisations like economic development partnership (edp). 8. Can transportation be used as a guiding mechanism? These days transport orientated development is slowly catching on here. In the new integrated zoning scheme you have transport overlay zones that prioritise specific areas around transport hubs, with the ability to build hire and things like that. So the role of transport can be seen to be something that can enhance economic activity, social inclusion. The city knows this; the whole transport for Cape Town is premised on the idea of connecting more people to more opportunity. So the intention is there to use transportation for more than transporting people from A to B. A high majority of people do not have the choice to have a car, which is a blessing in that if everybody had a car we would be incredibly polluted, and simply our city cannot deal with more cars. We should

in fact be incentivising no motorised transport. What’s interesting is the relationship with capital as people say, well fine, we want to go to centaury city which is more accessible by car so people develop there, and that’s Greenfield. Why not prioritise buildings in this area that are linked to public transport, and say well we are going to give some form an incentive because want people to be using the trains, buses, minibuses to get in to work everyday. This allows for a more sustainable city in a lot of ways, its integrated. You take any form of transportation and you see totally different sides of Cape Town. From a social point is the roll of transportation, which is only now beginning to be explored, bringing people together on a bus, on a train as a way of integrating cities. 9. What is the role of transport interchanges (ie. train stations) as economic nodes? It can connect them and also grow them. This is what is behind transport orientated development, and trying to prioritise zoning around areas to have higher buildings. You want to stimulate economic growth along transport corridors. What they are doing with Voortrecker road corridor, through transportation and movement, trying to stimulate growth through connecting more people to an area. So from a spatial planning perspective they are trying to

use this to connect these and stimulate economic growth as well. 10. What is the impact of transport on economic activity? It brings more customers by your door if you are a retail shop. So yes a bus can stimulate economic activity if it is designed properly. It can also decrease based on if you are going in line with existing transport or bringing people in a completely new direction. So theoretically if you said we are not going to do Voortrecker road and we are going to take the buses off it and put it on this new road. Well all the businesses will die along Voortrecker road. So you have to understand the push and pull, even with new implementation of transportation. It impacts other areas and other existing patterns, because as soon as you start moving people that will be the death of some businesses. 11. What does disposable income mean to you in terms of the city and the relationship between the southeast with the northern areas? Disposable income is what money I have to spend. So I guess it means that at the cities context just at much bigger scale and where the city spends that money.

it, at the sea point promenade, which is a relatively affluent area, or do you spend more money rolling out toilets to Khayelitsha. That’s a choice of what to do with disposable income in terms of space. You cannot necessarily pick one or another. If you do not maintain infrastructure where they already exist, things slip and they go to hell and capital flees or flights (such a terrible term privileging a high income people) but you cannot neglect rolling out money to other areas. Disposable income for the city is money that is generated from the sales of electricity. This is also one of the problems of urban planning as we want people to live more sustainably and use less electricity, but the city is funded by the sales of electricity. So as people are saving power the city is making less money to roll out basic electricity provisions to low income areas that do not pay. The budget idea, becomes this really big thing about inequality, the money is diverted to providing basic services whether they are sufficient enough. The city spends a lot of money on contracts and contractors who don’t necessarily do their job. So perhaps there is need for the city to reprioritise what the city is spending money on.

So it goes back to the debate of, do you spend more money on a new public toilet, enhancing

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Interview |Stephan Claassen The First National Bank provisional representative for the Western Cape 26 August 2014

The following interview with Stephan Claassen does not represent the views of FNB and is not the complete interview script.

The city is spread out and should be orientated to building vertically. Public transport being implemented early on would enable and curb of the potential growth. They are 1. Briefly describe the doing that now with the Mycity spatial condition of Cape buses. We need to make peace with people coming into the Town? city. How you approach Cape Town. What are the current Traffic is a major problem. You 2. have two major roads coming conditions of the spatial in and only these two roads economy in Cape Town? unlick Johannesburg which is built like a hub and spokes with Cape Town is experiencing a revival but many of our clients many routes coming in. do not need to be in the city Secondly, once you in the city it’s bowl and are moving out to not that difficult to get around. other areas. A good example is Its just to get through that initial the growth of Klapmuts in the border of the city. Its easier for last 10 years, it was a farm stall me to travel through cape town and now there is a proliferation compared to Johannesburg and of industrial buildings in the Durban. Also walking is enabled area. Alternatively tygerburg or by safety and short distance, durbanville. A separate industry 20min from the waterfront to is the shopping centres which are now moving to Gugulethu gardens. and Mitchell’s plain and people. The third element is the Private sector is investing there weather. If it rains or if the as there is money to made here. wind blows walking does not These new hubs are supporting happen and the traffic is really other areas, which seems to be congested. These are issues of a trend across the city. daily occurrences. In the case of klapmuts farm

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workers are now able to work in varied industries. This trend is alleviating congestion issues as people are moving into alternative locations. This is where people are investing in new industries and job creation.

The point is that government should provide the overall infrastructure and private sector will provide the rest of the development. Investors follow where the money and where the money is going. So money is popping up in anything from social grants and job creation in areas like Mitchells plain and Gugulethu is stimulating the growth of shopping centres. This is competing with alternatives such as Century City as Gugulthu and Mitchell’s plain are becoming more feasible locations. That’s the current trend. This will be followed by other industries, commercial office parks, and private hospitals go there. If you look at Miromed which started in Michelle’s plain and is now moving to other areas. 3. What are the key spatial conditions when investing in an area? It depends on what industry you are in. As bank we looked first and foremost at whether we are going to be here for a long time otherwise we would be renting in the city. Another factor had been the influence of the main business district of Cape

Town (we looked at centuary city for example and we could never go there as it is not the main business district). The city bowl due to agglomeration and the important support of the harbour has led to businesses moving into this the city bowl, further supporting the City Bowl as the Main Business District. The third factor had been public transport There are numerous other factors as well. a. You mentioned that FNB is considering moving a headquarters to Stellenbosch. What has informed this decision? Why Stellenbosch? We have three head offices in downtown Johannesburg, Sandton and randberg, and each of them are bigger than Port Side. But South Africa needs a New York and a Chicago, so we need Johannesburg and Cape town or Durban, infact you need all three. We are going to be here for the long term. A key factor is that Cape Town currently holds 16% of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP and Durban has 14%. So you have to be here to tap into these markets. The other factor is that as business one wants to tap into the talent pools of these locations. You go to where the other big businesses are, so in Cape Town there are a few key industries, retail (pick n pay, Shoprite ect) and oil industry (chevron, Caltex and engine) and the financial services industries (Alan Grey,

Sanlam ect), the key is tapping into all of those talent pools. A new influential sector is the IT industry and 8000 members of silicon cape. These offices are interconnected so by attracting the talent here you are drawing on them for your national and international footprint.

primary issue of investment. 4. Could you describe the conditions that developers use/ need to evaluate the feasibility of investment?

You go to where the other businesses are. Most developers will look at what is In the Central business the spending power in that area District we are in the Urban which translates into buying Redevelopment Zone. The zone from shops which translates creates a massive tax benefit into rental and translates into for being here, in short you can feasibility of investment. right of a building from tax in 20 years (5% a year), and inside Negative considerations in the UDZ you can do this in 11 Cape Town had been the issue years (20% in year one and 8% of congestion. a year the next 10 years). So we spent R600million on the Another key disincentive factor top structure of portside, so we to Cape Town had been the effectively get that money back cities process of approval, we faster over the following 10 almost lost momentum at a years faster and if you take this point. and invest it at basic interest How do the City of Cape rates you make three hundred 5. million rand, so the tax benefit Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policies, infrastructure was R300million cash. This investment or other measures in itself will not work as one stimulate investor confidence can see in the city centre of in the property market? Johannesburg which lacks some of the other influential factors The city needs one overarching influencing business locations body that project managers the and this is not incentivising approval process through all people to move back into the these committees. By taking a centre, but it is working in other rep from each committee and areas (Cape Town, Durban and pre-screening the development and making recommendations. PE). This would enable Committee Another financial consideration presentations to be synthesised is whether the building will in order to avoid overlap. appreciate over the next 15 Thereafter all the stakeholders years. In the case of Cape Town know what to expect from the this has been the case over the process. This bodies objective last 100 years. The chance that should be to incentivise it would dip is fairly small, it development in cape town by may flatten out but this was a improving the process.

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business when an interchange is present allows for fewer costs for the firm investing into salaries. If this is the issue for us then it’s the same issue for India has an interesting our clients. approach with special economic zones. These zones *Airports are an interesting are ascribed themes which case. Cape Town is trying to are linked towards specialised position itself as a world class industries to draw such activity city for foreign investment. and stimulate investment in We have a big airport but these areas. Urban design can not enough flights coming definitely draw on this role as into the city, from London or guiding through theme and America. Most international goals. Allowing an interesting organisations, like FNB, put the environment for businesses, foreign office in foreign country because there are social not more than 1 flight away from networks that industries build. your head office, a direct flight. Urban design can advise the In India it would be Mumbai, city in creating those spaces Kenya Nairobi, Nigeria Lagos. and direct developers to know If direct flights open to new where to go if they want deli investment will be drawn to invest. Informally these to that city. By not having an processes exist but why not interchange that’s connected to make it formal allowing ‘the the international flights enough, story to go beyond Cape Town’. Cape Town is compromised Eg. We know that Cape Town as investment into the city is has a key industry in call centres directly affected. but firms in Johannesburg do What is the role of not know that and choose India 8. disposable income in areas for as a call centre location. possible investment? 7. What is the role of a You have various income groups, transport interchange? but let’s define two income There are two elements to groups. There are those that this. If we move a building, earn a salary and have forced the managerial employees obligations of food, house, are not affected as they drive electricity and other needs and cars however it’s the staff that some have discretionary spend comes in by public transport over and above that to going are effected. We then have to shopping; the second group are often adjust salaries if they do those living on social grants, 10 need to travel further. A big million people and 25% of the interchange allows for flexibility population, these people do not and accessibility beneficial for necessarily have discretionary cost and staff. Meaning the spend. So what we have is two 6. How could/does urban design mitigate the relationship between private investment and the city?

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groups, those earning a salary with some having discretionary spend and those on social grants. The social grant guys do not have anything else other than disposable income. By government giving so many social grants they have pumped a lot of money back into the economy, its South Africa’s version of quantitative easing. That in itself is good for investment. The bottom 10 million of the economy that would not be economically active is actually now active. The upper end is going better and better for them everyday with enough disposable income and yes seeing discretionary spend for other things. In Cape Town we have a disproportionately large share of people with extra discretionary spend and that is why you see art galleries, shopping centres and restaurants popping up. This is has also been distorted by tourism. 9. How can consumerist markets change to other industries? Ie. Gugelethu and Michelle’s plain Education is lifting in these areas, it comes back to the point of government providing basic infrastructure, as people move to being more educated they become much more employable. If this is happening then why have the call centre in Woodstock and not Mitchell’s plain. If you have it there they don’t need to drive here and

and airports. Government can do more to privatise those developers. Many other developing markets are doing so such as India. This is the case, as private investors are awarded 20 year concessions or different periods and there are different revenue sharing models for government that comes out of that. So government needs to place together the legal infrastructure so that the private sector will 10. To what extent does take it over from there. There surplus capital flow into larger is more than enough surplus infrastructural projects from funding available in the world, the private sector in relation as long as there is a certainty about the institutional system to state? in place, our banks are so well Its not surplus capital its surplus connected international that funding. What happens is that they can raise that funding very these projects are funded on quickly and bring it in. det. A big consortium would put in 10% capital /equity and Another key infrastructural banks would through debt, intervention point is creating gear that equity nine times. places that people can connect Governments create the from, they do not need to concession and banks source be necessarily present. Withe funding through debt. So Fi enables people to sit there its surplus funding which is and work without coming into creating infrastructure projects the city bowl. Infrastructure and is driving emerging markets, and spatial planning will be India, China, Brazil and South significantly influenced by the availability of this kind of Africa. technology especially in the What is happening is foreign service industry. Most clients investors are placing debt here, also do not have to come which is a 20 year loan yielding in anymore and processes 6-7% which is still a very high are done via IT orientated yield for foreign investors, connection which is influencing pension funds and det houses. the way people use the city. The role of bankers is to be the â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Rather dig tunnels for Wi-Fi merchant banker changing the channels than roads. face of the city by packaging those deals together. FNB has facilitated large infrastructure from prisons, guatrain, harbours thus you can pay lower wages. This has happened in China, they put the factory where the people are but as people get more educated they demand more as consumers and able to retain higher paying jobs. The factories then move on deeper into rural china, but this is good as vacancies occur a new factory moves in which needs higher education rolls and pay higher wages.

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Interview |Frank Cummings An advisor for the Provincial Regeneration Programme of the Western Cape Government 27 August 2014

The following interview with Frank Cummings does not represent the views of Western Cape Government and is not the complete interview script. 1. Could you describe the spatial condition of Cape Town? The pressures facing the Western Cape is undoubtedly rapid urbanisation. It is the enormous challenge facing the city and how do we accommodate the unprecedented scale of growth not only in population but more importantly household formation. Household formation, the key determinant for housing, is outstripping population growth by a factor of a third, 133%, over population growth. That trend is not waning, in fact it is accelerating, if you look at the last three census figures. How do we contend with that when households require services putting strain on very limited public budget for social infrastructure (clinics, hospitals, education. Ect). The most pressing and on-

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going challenge which we face is rapid urbanisation. This has other consequences with increasing pressures on land, namely harmful degradation to the environment as a development paradigm is one that supports sprawl, which the city is combating through densification approaches yet we still have to see the product of the policies put in place, so we face increasing environmental challenges. We are also facing a major infrastructure deficit, principally provision of electricity, water, solid waste management. We are also facing critical challenges of communities growing, which are very poor predominately black families with limited skills, placing an additional strain on education requirements and the like.

infrastructure provision. With an average density below 10 dwelling units per hectare and taking the rate of urbanisation, projecting that through to 2040, one cape 2040, we can expect our household formation to double. So imagine the consequent impact that this would have so we need to find ways of managing that. Equally, urbanisation can also be a positive force for change; increasing numbers of people create threshold populations which in turn generates economies of scale. This makes public transport and housing ect increasingly more viable. If we do follow through with density we can achieve a more compact city which is in itself a more competitive city and one which can accommodate and absorb a lot more people into the economy. a. What is driving household formation?

House hold formation is a demographic term which is the simplest unit at which housing is required. If there is a family of 4 that live in a home and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a divorce now you need 2 homes to accommodate the Our economy is not growing people. The Western Cape has as fast as urbanisation and the highest rate of divorce, and household formation, which just from that we need 50 000 intern means that we are new homes annually. Household increasingly facing a fiscal formation is also influenced by deficit where fewer people are life styles, people deciding to contributing to the tax base that live longer at home for instance dampens demand is supporting larger population which demands. This has large for housing or alternatively implications for public service reinforces investment into

existing housing which in turn could be a positive influence of household formation. b. Is the demand for household formation being met? No, we have a structural backlog of housing demand approaching 550 000 homes, if you believe the official number from the department of human settlement. Given the average size of a household in the Western Cape sizes at 3.5 people per home, in that particular market where affordable housing is being met average household sizes are larger. If you apply 550,000 to 3.5 people per house hold in effect it shows that half of our population live informally. That has consequences. Our highest 48% of population is between the age of 18-34 and if they are increasingly accommodated informally that has implications for our economy and where we need to grow jobs. If you look at household formation and rate of urbanisation, our structural backlog is growing at 29000 homes per anum, in the province we build between 8 and 12 thousand homes per anum and that last time we build 12000 was pre 2010 when our market was most buoyant. If you look at stats SA we produce fewer than half the number of homes today in the open market than we did in 2007 at the peak of the market. So we are increasingly facing a challenge of housing provision.

the economy are growing. But Western Cape claims to be at the forefront of growth We live in a global economy; and the economy but its not the city likes to consider out performing urbanisation itself as a world city, and and household formation and increasingly economies are therefore we are increasingly more integrated. Capital facing a deficit. nowadays is more fleet a foot, What are the current at a push of a button billions of 2. Rands can be transferred from conditions of the spatial accounts across the world, at economy in Cape Town? a matter of second’s money moves. Increasingly companies We live in an incredibly divided and investors, people looking city. Adrian frith’s mapping to deploy capital, look to do demonstrates the concentration so in environments that are of population groups that conducive to investment, persist today. It makes for that are enabled, have the sobering reading. Through right demographics, and are the unintended consequences increasingly competitive. So if of all the good meaning we are to attract some of that policies and visions we have foreign capital into our city we not meaningfully started to need to look at our level of address transformation in our competitiveness, and you only city. The poor remain isolated need to look at the international in the metro south east away figures which shows that our from economic opportunity. global competiveness is sliding, They need to spend inordinate that means we won’t attract amounts of time and their own investment against other income to travel. They leave competing economies will. I very early and arrive very late think that our spatial economy and this has a societal impact. is a function of that, increasingly more compact cities and more The structural economy has efficient cities have a lower those unintended impacts cost base as people don’t which are difficult to quantify. need to transport themselves But they are real so Cape Town periphery and we don’t not and other South African cities need to extend infrastructure to has a legacy of the apartheid the periphery of the city, which spatial model to deal with. is very expensive. Anecdotally, Yet twenty years after the perpetuating a sprawling advent of democracy that city is making us increasingly model is perpetuated on uncompetitive and therefore the basis that cheap land is less attractive for investment situated on the periphery. The and indeed we need to use claim is that in the Western other means to incentivize Cape, unlick Johannesburg, investment. Other sectors in the costs associated are still c. What is Competitiveness as you referred to it earlier?

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very high, perpetuity the development of affordable housing on the periphery. The question is governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in transformation and using one of its key resources being land, well located land in the inner city, to provide affordable housing opportunity. Again, do it in a responsible way, mixed tenure, mixed use environments. We should learn from other cities in the world that face up to these challenges, there are ways that we can deliver a transformed city and overcome the issue of viability and the like. You need just look at the geni coefficient, where South Africa is consistently right at the top.

resources that we have. Land is a finite resource, you cannot manufacture land, so what happens when the government exhausts all this land that it has in the city which it has at its disposal. Is this sustainable, I have my doubts. I think we need more innovative ways, and that will require a review of legislature and better understanding of the drivers of development and trying to find models that marry the provision of service delivery to the return requirements of that the private sector hold. There are models that achieve both and these are more sustainable, for instance long concessions which allows government kept in public hands and facilitate development interests.

3. Briefly describe the relationship between the City Loosely, other mechanisms, of Cape Town and developers/ housing delivery on the affordable side where massive property investors? demand sits, where we are Depends on who you speak providing a maximum 12000 to. Obviously as a sphere of per anum over the last decade government it has to abide but the growth in the backlog by the law, and the law is is approaching 30 000 and the prescriptive in the way that structural backlog is 550000. government is able to engage There are limited resources in the private sector. It tends from government to address to do so by making land this problem and needs to be available from the public more innovative and creative sector to the private sector and needs to recognise and and service delivery occurs as engage with the private sector. a result. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a far deeper issue This is the only show in town than we are going to resolve quite frankly. now but I think that model is counterproductive and there Government beats itself on the are more innovative ways which chest and rightly so, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s delivered are used internationally which 2.1 million homes second only could enable and facilitate to china in the world, but look more being with the limited at the quality which is numbers

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driven. It is now wonder that the department has renamed itself the Department of Human Settlement and expanded its mandate because the RDP program has failed in a qualitative sense, the quality of spaces are not conducive to human settlement and they fail to provide dignity to people by en large. It traps people into an increasingly negative cycle as they are dormitory towns forcing people to commute to even shop. So it requires more creative thinking its not just about having the vision and the policy, its about meaningfully creating an enabling environment with those instruments to meaningfully attract private sector into these spaces. Through that partnership will we only begin making a real difference in the city. 4. What are the key spatial conditions when investing in an area? Absolutely, high density, economies of scale, means that you can deliver more with less. This is the fundamental rational for densifing the city. Mixed use development allow for the cross-subsidisation of different uses commercial, retail perhaps industrial alongside residential. Having a business model and a funding model to cater for that, you can include higher proportions of affordable tenancies, social housing and the like and use the revenues that are generated to cross subsidise. The planning system

increasingly viable in blighted parts of the city. We should be directing those UDZ into public land. So if you make public land available for development you can reap the double benefit of not only the land but the incentive attached to it. Then there are other leavers that government can introduce to enable and attract private investment. Internationally there are a whole range of different leavers. Some of these being tax increment finance that allows for investment into blighted areas for government and local authorities to invest in these areas and to recoup that over time in bond financing structures. Those are things that we should be looking at far more closely. I believe that the government is starting to at national level so watch the space, hopefully things will change. Very often it is not about creating one incentive, one lever, the more levers that you can place in a geographic location the greater the opportunity to overcome the barriers to viability. Once you make these things stack up We have the Urban financially the private sector Development Zone, in our city. will follow through. There are two of them, that have Do spatial qualities now gone through the second 5. iteration and been extended of the locality influence to 2022. It seems bizarre to investment and if so please me that a substantial part of elaborate? that incentive is focused on the CBD when the area where Absolutely. Location, location, development opportunity is the location never has the truism greatest is the CBD. However been more the case. Looking at there is not enough being done a local example, the Guatrain in using this incentive and and the impact it has had directing it towards making sites on property values. Public does provide additional rights to developers where they promote more residential. That tends to be banded around GB 5, GB 6 and GB 7, but substantially our city is not a GB 5 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7 as it happens in very limited locations which are inherently very expensive sites. So you are facing barriers and obstacles to viability inherent and now you still trying to introduce social housing. This seems counterproductive and the planning system should be revisited in that context. Mixed income communities as well, offer opportunities for cross subsidisation, where there is an element of market housing alongside some rental stock, social housing and indeed affordable housing. So the receipts from this model could be used to cross subsidise increasing proportions of social housing in mixed income communities. So there is a whole plethora of things that could be brought to bear. The public sector also has a range of fiscal levers which can be introduced into transactions.

investment into transport infrastructure has had a knock on effect to property values and that is largely because it has increased demand, people want to be there because they are more accessible, more convenient, there are economies of scale because there is more concentrated development which in turn is self-perpetuating and the net effect is an increase in land values. If that focus is about catalysing public investment, principally transport infrastructure, and bringing on the other levers, planning and enhanced rights, those are double whammy of benefits to the private sector. The pannasier at the moment is transport orientated development. TODS work well in mobility corridors, the city has identified five mobility corridors but private investment is not flowing into those locations and perhaps that will change. Our BRT investment, for whatever reason has not seen the response from the private sector. 6. Could you briefly describe the conditions that developers use/ need to evaluate the feasibility of investment? So retail evaluation is the function of footfall, the more successful the retail development the more people are there, the more trading densities, the more it reflects on the rent role, extra. The same applies for any other use. Office business likes to be

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where there is infrastructure, where there is amenity and where their staff can get to where it is safe. So by investing in urban locations where there is transport, where there is accessibility where there is a retail footprint and so on which people demand then it is a selfperpetuating thing again a. Is public-private partnership important to influence spatial economic trends? It is imperative, the government t needs to find more creative ways of engaging the private sector. If you think of our affordable housing space for instance, in efficient markets using pure economic principals now, economic theory, in efficient markets supply will always rise to meet demand thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called market equilibrium. In South Africa, in Cape Town we have 550000 homes and rather than supply rising to reach that demand, prices are rising, perpetuating that cycle. That is called the inelasticity of supply and basically what that means is that it has a knock-on effect which is negative and harmful for our economy. In effect it is the perfect description of a dysfunctional market. In a dysfunctional market, government has a mandate, has a duty, under the constitution 26 2 to engage more creatively in that space. To improve efficiency, once the market is efficient and operating and supply is coming into space. In other words where the private

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sector is adjusting and meeting the structural demand. Then government must withdraw itself in that market. This is not happening. My argument is why the private sector is not engaging in this space. One must understand why those root causes exist and it must alleviate them. So private sector and partnerships are very critical, it is the only answer as government has demonstrated that its limited resources can only achieve so much which is woefully short of what the demand really is and what it will be because of urbanisation and household formation. Policy at nation, provincial and national collaboration ought to take place. A possible means could be through pilot projects demonstrating to the private sector that you can participate in this space and can mate risk adjusted returns which satisfy shareholder demands which will increasingly influence private sector confidence b. Does urban have a role to play?

design

Increasingly quality of space is important and a lot of literature has arisen around the walkable city and the liveable city, the public realm, quality of space which attracts and retains people in these locations. Urban design is very important in that context as it goes to the very heart of having all these nice to have things. But also from a regulatory and policy perspective urban planning

is important in encouraging modal shift from the car to nonmotorised transport. We are starting to see that happen very slowly. So urban design is very important in that context, but it is only one important leaver in a plethora of other important things. Perhaps because we spend so much time focused on policy and vision that we lose touch with implementation. Implementation is ultimately around transactions and finance. It is very important lever but it must be read in unison with whole range of other levers which bear on opportunity, a parcel of land, transaction, whatever the dominator is. 7. What are the characteristics of transport interchanges and how is this of value to developers? Concentration of people in one geographic location means that you can develop a response to a potential market and having the footfall and the buying power of that community on your door step is very attractive from the private sector perspective. Guatrain and its influences is a very good example. People use those stations and pass through them and the adjoining land has risen in value made more desirable because of its inherent qualities. Accessibility, focused investment, transport infrastructure, having integrated communities that live within walking distance of such a station and providing the entire infrastructure necessary to support. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

not something that Cape Town, South Africa and most international cities have adopted. The urban renaissance has only really begun to happen since the mid-late 80’s as its begun to be more attractive to people, increasingly younger people because of all the convenience, opportunities and cultural centres, the mix of use and interests that are there. The suburbs don’t provide that vitality, the range, concentration and mix of uses. Rail infrastructure, the backbone of transport in our city is vital as they transport very large numbers of people and those people exist and enter onto that network of via points, stations. Leveraging that locations and seizing the opportunity we are having these larger populations and indeed trying to capture them, so having more people live there means that that investment can be leveraged yet further. This would increasingly making our cities more competitive because people are traveling less. Anecdotally, if you look at historic cities the renaissance itself emanated in urban centres in Italy. Why, because for the first time in centuries increasing numbers of people were living in close proximity to one another. They were sharing ideas, growing as individuals and growing as societies. Developing new technology for the challenges that they face. That unlocked all sorts of opportunity that we read about in text books. The Dark ages

follow the renaissance when cities fell out of favour, there was lots of war and people were dispersed. Therein lies the opportunity. Rail infrastructure is a vital ingredient in that space. 8. What is the role of transport interchanges (ie. train stations) as economic nodes? Absolutely, economies of scale are one side of things, but you aggregating demand, you are focusing demand on a geographical location. Increasing number of people are there. People require a bottle of water, a sandwich. So that is provided for in these locations, one restaurant feeds of another, there is a symbiotic relationship there to offer choice and variety. By aggregating demand you start introducing other uses in having scalable locations that why around transport orientated developments you want a range of uses, you want to intensify the uses. But make them increasingly more accessible and convenient so that people want to be there. They are increasingly desirable locations as more people drive more investment. In South Africa we increasingly isolate ourselves from society through retail experiences as we drive in a car to a mall in the middle of nowhere. The mall doesn’t even have any windows on it, it’s like a contrived sought of Disney space. Its not the way people live.

Looking at the rail node and the station as an example, people lead their lives on that. Everyday people get on a train or the bus and commute to work , it’s a function of their existence. There are good examples around the world, where rail because of its inherent characteristics and its geographic location to urban centres and the like are increasingly more viable and make more sense than suburban sprawl. Sprawl being car dominated and requiring inordinate amounts of roads therefore all the services associated with it. This is made worse as the development densities are so low in our suburbs. 9. What income?

disposable

It is an economic term which is the money you have in your pocket as an individual after you have settled all of your expenses. You receive a net income after tax from your employer, you pay your bills, you may have a mortgage, you may need to pay of a car, food and all of your basic needs and whatever is left after you have satisfied those needs or requirements is what you can spend as discretionary spend. 10. Could this characteristic be used to identify areas of potential investment and improvement? Why or why not? Discretionary spend is an elective spend. So people say

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that I have ten rand in my pocket, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the middle of the month and I have to be mindful, something might happen but I really fancy that pair of shoes and its only five rand. You go and buy. The spatial economy has the ability to increase or enhance the disposable income in peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pockets because they would be spending an inordinately less money on transport, they have more time available to themselves by living in closer proximity with work centres and the like. They will have more ability to spend. We live in a consumerist economy, we follow a sort of anglophile sort of approach, our economy is based largely on consumer spending. In our current economy, our amount of debt to disposable income is just shy of 80%. So another unintended consequence or perhaps intended consequence of looking at the spatial economy and approaching a more densified development is the knock on effect is people have more disposable income. They will spend more as a consequence and that will have knock on effect to local businesses, making them more viable. So if we did nothing more than focus on our spatial economy, we would transform our city through simple fundamental economics and human behaviour.

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There are very positive spinoffs that result from focusing on our spatial economy and the impact that would have on our poorer communities. A good indicator of a competitive economy is where an individual spends less than 20% of their disposable income on transport. In South Africa, particularly for our poorest, they spend near 40% of their disposable income on transport. If we did nothing more than place them closer to work, then they will be spending less of a proportion on transport and more of a proportion of disposable income on other things. It is the other things that are going to drive the economy. A car or a bus, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just petrol being consumed, so the environmental influence as well, more compact cities extra.

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