In a way, the 2010 World Cup legacy projects has represented almost a parenthesis in public space policies since the focus – and therefore municipal money – shifted from the more disadvantaged areas to the city centre. The current policy about public space in Cape Town is called by CoCT Integrative Projects approach, but it doesn’t refer to an official published policy or programme252. The CoCT stance is that – learning from DPP, QPS and World Cup experience – the implementation of public space has to face management, maintenance and operational challenges that can be dealt just with an integrative approach. The integrative approach can be considered the natural continuation of public space policies. It seems to be the answer to the difficulties of dealing with complex urban problems. Nevertheless, the methodology proposed contrasts with the existing municipal system of compartmentalised blocks253. This existing division of sectors became evident during the research work. It involves not only the bureaucratic organization, but it concerns also the disciplinary level. Is a department composed only by architects, urban designers and planners be able to design integrative spaces with a holistic approach? The goal to be achieved is integrative spaces, or inclusive254 ones? That is a situation common to many others: the same question could be asked in an Italian context for example. At a theoretical level, we are talking about a holistic and integrative approach, but at the practical level it is difficult to find a system capable of being resilient enough to bring together different professionals and mediators able to orchestrate a truly integrated design. Public space policies have been useful to slightly move the attention from the housing issue to the urban organization of the public realm.
However, they have not explicitly discussed the political and structural needs to trigger this change.
This thesis states that the current approach of the City about public space is strictly linked to the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) programme255. Even if the name of the programme seems to be not strictly addressed to public space, one of the main focus of the programme is urban design and implementation of public spaces. The programme started around 2000 with “a conversation between the German government and the South African government about the main constrains to development in South Africa” (interview
252 Considering the data collected by the author during the sojourn.
253 As an example, it has been impossible for the author to find an official vector map of Cape Town identifying public spaces and buildings (there would be one for libraries, one for parks, one for schools…). This episode is a tiny demonstration that line departments are used to work in silos, each dealing with its own sector.
254 About the differences between integrative and inclusive spaces see chapter 5.1.
255 This statement has been confirmed during the interviews with main stakeholders, especially interviewing people working for or with the CoCT (Alastair Graham, Andreas Gensinke, Michael Krause among others).
4.2 The pursuit of (spatial) inclusion: post-1994 policies 111 with Michael Krause256, 2017). Relating also to the UN-Habitat Safer cities programme257, urban crime and violence has been chosen as main challenges to be faced. The mission of VPUU is “reducing crime, increasing safety and security and improving the living and social conditions of communities through urban improvements and social interventions”258. For the scope of this research, the most relevant part of VPUU programme is the so-called situational crime prevention since it is linked to the infrastructure development, and in particular to the construction of safe public spaces. The programme is complex and interdisciplinary, including different spheres of interventions (Figure 47). This approach can also be called integrative and then it relates directly to the current strategy of the CoCT that deals with public spaces. For this reason, the VPUU pilot project in Harare (Khayelitsha) will be analysed in-depth the chapter 5.3. In fact, this project is considered the most vaunted public spaces project of the city and an extreme case study to learn from. Evaluating the process of creation, implementation and occupation of this space may be relevant in understanding actual desegregation process of Cape Town. Furthermore, the analysis of this project is useful to understand the real situation and the limits of the integrative approach proposed by the CoCT.
Fig. 47: VPUU concept, 2014259
256 Michael Krause is the actual CEO and Director of VPUU programme. He is a German urban designer who joined the programme in 2006.
257 Launched in 1996. Retrieved May 5, 2017.
https://www.google.it/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwjkyI2L94 TaAhXBVywKHT9LAzoQFggvMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmirror.unhabitat.org%2Fpmss%2F getElectronicVersion.aspx%3Fnr%3D1919%26alt%3D1&usg=AOvVaw3JK4QjQqxdtgYIzFeCH gaa
258 http://vpuu.org.za/who-we-are/ (retrieved January 26, 2018).
259 (Krause et al. 2014, 17).
The integrative approach of the CoCT is relevant also because it demonstrates that “there has been a gradual shift from informal settlement eradication to informal settlement upgrading in recent years” (Cirolia et al. 2016, 3)260. In fact, the integrative approach is applied not just in public space programmes and policies; it also questions how to deal with informal settlements. Moreover, some provincial prevention policies adopt a whole of society approach, recognizing that
“successful implementation requires intersectoral cooperation across the whole of society including role-players in the public health, criminal justice, educational and social development sectors, and the active participation and partnership of citizens and civil society more broadly” (Cassidy et al. 2015, 4). Since VPUU was not explicitly created for the improvement of the public realm, the programme does not deal directly with the need to improve public space as a problem of the discipline of architecture. For example, it is never mentioned the need to reframe the references, or to retrace the definition and the role of public space. Moreover, the lack of structural and political will to reclaim the public space as a tool to restructure the city is not even questioned. According the author, this is a fundamental missing requirement.
260 This shift reflects the “international thinking and practice that calls for the incremental improvement of informal or extra-legal modalities of urban settlements” (Cirolia et al. 2016, 3).
More reflection on informal settlement upgrading in Cape Town in a DAG paper produced for UCT (DAG 2014).