CORC

Today Tanja Winkler, senior lecturer in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Cape Town, joined CORC staff and the Europe informal settlement leadership on a planning session at Europe, an informal settlement located in Gugulethu, just of the N2 national highway in Cape Town.  The purpose of the planning meeting was to align the 2014 UCT Urban Planning practical learnership with that of the Europe community leaderships’s agendas in a “planning studio”. This studio will form part of the Master Students in Urban and Regional Planning curriculum, and have direct interactions with the community.  The aim of the studio is to expose the students to alternative planning approaches when considering one of the most pressing challenges of our post-apartheid cities: urban informality in its various expressions. Moreover, the nature of the studio also means that technical support is given to the community’s plans for upgrading the settlements, and hence a two way beneficial relationship is established from where new tools of engagement with the state can be created.

The discussion included drawing experiences from the last studio, which was in 2011. Since that time, many dynamics in the settlement has changed. Read more about the interactions with the Europe community in 2011. Observations on a new planning practice from the 2011 experience included:

• Involvement of the government from commencement and the community can use the platform to engage with the municipality to solve the water and sanitation issues.
• Language barrier – this could cause communication breakdown between the students and the community.
• Sensitivity, the community and the leaders need to be aware that some of the students have never been to an informal settlement in their lives.
• The community needs to take charge of the project and they need to set their vision for the project from the beginning.
• Political climate- the leadership made it clear that the unstable political climate which caused disruptions in the past studio still exists but assured CORC and Tanya that the community now has a unified vision for the settlement.
• Commitment of the ISN and community leadership in leading the process, facilitating engagements between other stakeholders in the community with the students.
• Clarity on results expected after the studio, Tanya clarified that the students are town planning students and not engineers.  Thus the expectations from the community must not be aligned to projects rather on the production of maps that can be used as engagement tools with the state.

This collaborative approach supports community initiatives by pairing technical support with social innovation through an engaging and co-productive process to create a shared vision. Community Studios are therefore spaces of collaboration, and some of the outcomes have included best practice case study research, graphic and drawing skills, conceptual designs, site analysis workshops, and facilitation of multi–stakeholder engagement.  The collaboration works with community groups, local government and local non-profit organizations. Projects are accepted on the basis that there is a community involvement whilst matching the learning interests of students.

CORC and ISN will continue to share experiences on the 2014 Community Studios in the new year.

The City of Cape Town adopted the re-blocking policy on 5 November after an announcement by Councillor Thandeka Gqada, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, City of Cape Town. In a City of Cape Town media statement, Cllr. Gqada reported

We view this as a turning point in our commitment to redress and a new model of shared responsibility that can change the face of our informal settlements

The informal settlements of Flamingo Crescent in Lansdowne, Kuku Town in Kensington and Mtshini Wam in Milnerton are mentioned as pilot projects the City seeks to push forward in the next financial year. But how did these settlements come on the City’s radar? Perhaps more importantly, what does this mean for the City’s renewed commitment to providing better located services in the 204 informal settlements in the City? For these answers to be answered, context is needed.

What is re-blocking all about?

“Blocking-out” and “re-blocking” are interchangeable terms the South African SDI Alliance uses to refer to the reconfiguration and repositioning of shacks in very dense informal settlements in accordance to a community-drafted spatial framework. The aim is to better utilize the spaces in informal settlements to allow for better service provision. Moreover, re-blocking is done in “clusters” identified by the community, and after implementation, “courtyard” are created to ensure a safer environment for woman and children via neighborhood watches (all shacks face the courtyard), productive places (such as washing lines, food gardens), and generally provides space for local government to install better services.

Read more about reblocking in Chapter 2 of our Project Report Masekhase: The Community Upgrading Finance Facility.

Blocking out is actually a mobilization tool more than anything else. We are saying that we are an informal settlement network. So we need to be preaching informal settlement upgrading.

Rose Molokoane, national coordinator of FEDUP, and regional coordinator with SDI

The successful re-blocking of Mtshini Wam

Through the process of “re-blocking”—an incremental in-situ re-arrangement of shacks in accordance to a community design framework which open up safer and more dignified public spaces (called “courtyards”)—45 short term employment opportunities have been created through the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP). The special characteristic of this EPWP contract is that the community has taken full ownership of the development project. The EPWP initiative therefore builds on the community’s initiatives to save towards their own development, to conduct a self-census, to establish community project committees, and to design their future settlement layout. See this report on Mtshini Wam’s inclusion in the World Design Capital 2014 official programme.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/52466961[/vimeo]

The community of Mtshini Wam has also worked with Touching The Earth Lightly (a Cape Town-based design NGO) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) from Massachusetts, USA around growing vertical vegetable gardens and have installed “the litre of light”, which amplifies natural light through a chemical-based dispenser installed in the roof of the shack. This was called the “green shack” and drew a lot of media attention at the Design Indaba 2013.

Mtshini Wam has also become a regional learning centre for communities local and international to share experience around engaging government agencies around more inclusive measures of improving living conditions in informal settlements.  Read about the SDI Five Cities conference hosted in Mtshini Wam in February 2013.

“Prior to re-blocking, the settlement was very dense,” said community leader Nokwezi Klaas, “There were no passageways and when there were fires it was virtually impossible to get into the settlement. All the toilets were on the outskirts and there were only three water taps for over 200 households in the settlement.”

Background to the partnership between the City and communities

CORC reported on the initial partnership formation with the City of Cape Town in August 2011 where the new Mayor Alderman Patricia de Lille made an in-principle commitment to furthering the evolving partnership. Initially 23 projects were identified for pilots to experiment in the new people-centered development approaches the ISN presents. Monthly partnership meetings were held in each of the four City regions: South/Central; Strand/Khayalitsha; Eastern; and Blauwberg.

In April 2012, 22 new pilot partnership projects were agreed to and Mayor Patricia De Lille signed partnership accord Memorandum of Understanding with ISN and CORC at a mass gathering held in Vygieskraal – a settlement of 300 households located behind the formal housing development with the same name in Athlone – the Mayor was introduced to the programmes of the ISN. The geographical spread of these projects were true to the need of the City, with eleven projects in the South / Central area, and six in the Khayelitsha / Strand area. Some of the projects (20%) included consolidation and relocation of settlements (those settlements less than 15 households where development is not feasible), some included (40%) formalization and subdivision, and some include (40%) blocking out.

So what does the City of Cape Town’s reblocking policy mean to practice?

The City of Cape Town, after sustained engagement with the ISN/FEDUP and CORC/iKhayalami through innovative learning-by-doing approach to upgrading informal settlements, put out the draft policy in July 2013. After all comments were received, including those of the Alliance, the City officially adopted the policy. The policy is aligned with the City’s The five strategic focus areas of the City’s Integrated Development Plan, The National Development Plan 2030, OneCape2040 and the City Development Strategy, and the City’s five-year Integrated Human Settlements Plan. This means there is a long term commitment to making meaningful interventions in informal settlements.

You can download the entire policy document here

The policy document outlines the criteria for viable reblocking projects, the preventative measures to be installed in the reblocking project, alignment with different government departments, and very importantly, the governance interface between the City, communities and supportive NGOs.

In lieu of conclusion: Moving forward

Reblocking is now in the public sphere. The policy space now exists and the City can, after more than three years of lobbying and demonstrating innovative alternatives, commit resources to the projects and ensure departmental alignment.

The Alliance supports this policy innovation. Communities’ vast experience in making dignified and livable spaces, supported by innovative partners and agencies that we have worked alongside, point to the following core lessons learnt:

 

 

• No internal displacement has occurred even though spaces have been opened for community courtyards, water and sanitation service delivery, electrification, and creating primary and secondary road hierarchies;
• Scarce spaces in informal settlements are consolidated and productivity is maximized for communal purposes (safety and security, daily domestic chores) and delivering better services
• The process of negotiating floor sizes builds social cohesion and solidarity. Governance support is part of ISN’s mobilisation and capacity building support in communities.
• Top-structures are improved by using high-quality Inverted Box Rib (“IBR”) galvanised steel sheets with high fire resistance ratings.
• Social mobilization through woman’s savings schemes, enumeration, spatial mapping and design, and eventual collaboration in the implementation of this settlement-wide upgrading strategy generates internal learning (which is shared through the ISN and FEDUP), and builds stronger partnerships with the local government.

There is a buzz in Cape Town on the possibilities of design thinking, doing and living leading a transformation role in the city. But what does Cape Town, with its legacy of spatial segregation through the Group Areas Act of 1950, massive movement restrictions and a burgeoning post-apartheid divide between the rich and the poor, know about design? How can we claim to be a city displaying transformation through design if we lived such divided lives? And what does Cape Town have in common with world class cities and previous World Design Capital winners Turin/Torino, Italy (2008 winner), Seoul, Korea (2010 winner) and Helsinki, Finland (2012 winner)?

The core proposal driving the bid seems to be simple but powerful. According to the World Design Capital 2014 website,

Cape Town’s bid was not about the city claiming that it is already an established ‘design capital’, but instead it was a bid to acknowledge that we are using design thinking as a tool for transformation…

Contemporary Cape Town is a tale of two cities: one a postcard narrative of wild beauty and sophisticated cosmopolitanism, the other a story of poverty and urban degradation….

In the past we were divided by design – by the social engineering of the apartheid era. It is by design, and a reshaping of the cityscape, that a safer, more efficient and inclusive home for all our residents is being forged…

… It is also a chance for Cape Town to help articulate design-based solutions to challenges faced by the 90% of the world’s populations that live in the developing world.

The prestigious accolade of World Design Capital is awarded by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design every two years. It recognises that “the future success of each city is therefore largely reliant on those who plan, design and manage the shared spaces and functions of their city”.

The Alliance of community organisations and social networks Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor (FEDUP) and support organisations CORC, uTshani Fund and iKhayalami saw this as an opportunity to display, on a global stage, how communities go about designing, inhabiting and reproducing spaces that increase accessibility and productivity of poor people in the city. Informal settlements present the lived spaces of more than 30% of City’s population. 

Cape Town Design NPC, the implementation agency for World Design Capital Cape Town 2014 (WDC 2014), announced the official list of programmes on 31 October 2013. 1,253 projects were submitted over a 10-month window consisting of two calls for public submissions. After rigorous curating and evaluation, the official list of 450 projects was announced.

In the first window of submission, different Alliance organisations  submitted four project proposals to the WDC2014 committee. We are excited to report that all four projects have been officially acknowledged by the World Design Capital 2014 committee and these will form part of the official programme.

Project Title	Project partners	Project Description	Twitter shortcode
Re-blocking of Mtshini Wam	CORC and ISN/FEDUP and the City of Cape Town	Re-blocking Mtshini Wam showcases the co-production value in upgrading informal settlements. Once threatened through evictions, the community initiated a self-design process that re-organised shacks into “clusters” with safer and more dignified public spaces, making  way for the City install basic services.	#WDC238
Langrug informal settlement upgrading	CORC and ISN/FEDUP and Stellenbosch Municipality	Langrug is located on the picturesque hills of Mont Rochelle nature reserve, Franschhoek home to a very poor community. Langrug in-situ upgrading has drawn local and international attention. A path towards regularisation and development now exists due to the community design interventions.	#WDC542
Solid Waste Network	Solid Waste Network, CORC and ISN/FEDUP	The Solid Waste Network, a collective of 350 informal waste pickers, creates an interface between communities and industry. It removes 40 – 60 tonnes of solid waste from the stream each month and provides a steady income stream for poor people. The unique design of the programme puts people first.	#WDC615
Community led spatial design and reconfiguration of informal settlements both pre and post disaster	iKhayalami and ISN/FEDUP	The spatial reconfiguration of informal settlements to those that are more rationalized leads to social cohesion, shelter upgrade and infrastructural improvements . It builds community, acknowledges the positive aspects of informality & helps bridge the urban divide including not removing the poor.	#WDC236

Note: Use the shortcodes to search where the projects are positioned in the Programme Calendar. 

According to the Programme Calendar, Mtshini Wam (#238) and iKhayalami (#236) proposals are year long programmes. The projects have already received news coverage in popular newspapers such as the Cape Argus. At the same time, communities in informal settlements continue to showcase their design potential. In many ways, here lies the potential to rethink and redesign our cities: starting from a bottom-up approach. When the international community considers Cape Town’s design culture, informal settlements will be central to the global spotlight.