A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and ... more A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and Gerhard Bruyns.
In contemporary South Africa, urban design has the potential to transform the spatial legacy of a... more In contemporary South Africa, urban design has the potential to transform the spatial legacy of apartheid, and thereby to contribute to social and economic reconciliation. However, the contest between conflicting interests has not necessarily contributed to desirable public outcomes. The limitations of budgets, professional capacity and community participation each influence design interpretation and consequently the final ability to deliver. 'State' projects, in particular, attract limited budgets and must compete within the general laissez faire attitude to the development process that favours the private sector. However, a clear and distinguishable role for urban design has begun to emerge through the mechanism of the City's Muni-Spatial Development Framework. By working within this framework, the experiences of project implementation is contributing interpretative capacity through both realisation and post occupancy of projects. This paper will attempt to locate urban design attributes in the spatial transformation in South African cities and Cape Town in particular. In locating a range of competing projects, the paper will identify emerging and piecemeal sensibilities to design that rely on an individual architect's interpretation with both negative and positive consequences for urban renewal.'
The proposition of this paper presents Urban Commoning as a counteraction to the current global t... more The proposition of this paper presents Urban Commoning as a counteraction to the current global trend of capitalism and its neo-liberal urbanism. In the face of radical dispossession and marginalisation that is accompanying global urbanisation, we are experiencing the negative logic of ‘privatisation’ with its public appropriations of exclusionary and dispossessive ‘fencing off’ of ‘new urban enclosures’. The resultant calls to replace the extractive and exclusionary logic of the city with a generative and inclusive ordering has been responded to in the notion of the commons and complementary practices of commoning as counter to this conflict. The urban commons is posited as a means of transforming the urban. By expanding the notion of the commons a new inclusiveness and normative approach can be established. However, in order to understand the commons as a possible just and inclusive urban order, we view it as inhabiting the intermediate space between imposed and popular change. We...
As the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest... more As the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest legacy of the apartheid state. The Afrikaner nationalist government's policy of 'setting apart' contributed in constructing a built environment that was characterised by both segregation and a concomitant absence of diversity. State agencies, such as the [NBRI] National Building Research Institute, produced impoverished dwelling environments which conflicted with the culture and practices of local/black people.
The advent of mega cites is a phenomenon confronting all nations competing in the current wave of... more The advent of mega cites is a phenomenon confronting all nations competing in the current wave of globalization. They have emerged as a result of rapid urbanization accompanying current economic shifts and serve to compound the problems associated with urban concentrations. Despite that South Africa has not yet an ‘official’ mega city, we are confronted by similar challenges to other States. However, in South Africa this is compounded by local exigencies, most specifically the legacy of apartheid with its spatial and demographic segregation. Consequently a concomitant extreme poverty, inequity and underemployment complicates the problems that accompany mega city inmigration, posing a significant challenge to the future development of SA cities. Yet, the relative smallness and our distinct spatial character afford opportunity to simultaneously manage and leverage urban growth toward socio–economic and developmental advantage. It is time for South Africa to become serious regarding th...
The Routledge Companion to Architecture and Social Engagement, 2018
This essay explores a concept of engagement that privileges the social over the spatial. This pri... more This essay explores a concept of engagement that privileges the social over the spatial. This privileging is considered particularly significant in postcolonial contexts where entire populations have been historically marginalized. Spatial tactics of including people who have previously been excluded from decision-making processes because of race and gender are now being identified as a forceful means of expanding social engagement. Within this context, self-reliance has emerged as a unifying attribute capable of building community and shelter in parallel. This essay explores social engagement through a diverse range of participatory projects.
The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apart... more The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apartheid South Africa’ derive from the 2nd Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture delivered in Ghent in 2015. Its source as my topic is located in the intersection of three interrelated trajectories. The most obvious is the issue of my disciplinary grounding and the locus of intellectual thought, that of architecture and the complexity associated with the production of space, particularly under conditions of change. The other is the life work and philosophical teaching of this extraordinary man Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the third is the condition of the world, and South Africa in particular, as we experience it today at what appears to be this unique historic intersectional moment of globalization and expansive tech- nological shift within our nations’ democratic emergence. The essay draws on texts derived from other disciplines, such as literature and philosophy, particularly those that have rel...
... Intermodal transport interchanges, the formalisation of the informal markets, public open spa... more ... Intermodal transport interchanges, the formalisation of the informal markets, public open space and cultural ... comprising both free stand-ing and linear blocks, interspersed by inner public spaces.Design guidelines ensured a uniform aesthetic and consistency in the building ...
The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apart... more The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apartheid South Africa’ derive from the 2nd Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture delivered in Ghent in 2015. Its source as my topic is located in the intersection of three interrelated trajectories. The most obvious is the issue of my disciplinary grounding and the locus of intellectual thought, that of architecture and the complexity associated with the production of space, particularly under conditions of change. The other is the life work and philosophical teaching of this extraordinary man Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the third is the condition of the world, and South Africa in particular, as we experience it today at what appears to be this unique historic intersectional moment of globalization and expansive tech- nological shift within our nations’ democratic emergence. The essay draws on texts derived from other disciplines, such as literature and philosophy, particularly those that have rel...
A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and ... more A dialogue on the conditions and future of South African urban development, between Iain Low and Gerhard Bruyns.
In contemporary South Africa, urban design has the potential to transform the spatial legacy of a... more In contemporary South Africa, urban design has the potential to transform the spatial legacy of apartheid, and thereby to contribute to social and economic reconciliation. However, the contest between conflicting interests has not necessarily contributed to desirable public outcomes. The limitations of budgets, professional capacity and community participation each influence design interpretation and consequently the final ability to deliver. 'State' projects, in particular, attract limited budgets and must compete within the general laissez faire attitude to the development process that favours the private sector. However, a clear and distinguishable role for urban design has begun to emerge through the mechanism of the City's Muni-Spatial Development Framework. By working within this framework, the experiences of project implementation is contributing interpretative capacity through both realisation and post occupancy of projects. This paper will attempt to locate urban design attributes in the spatial transformation in South African cities and Cape Town in particular. In locating a range of competing projects, the paper will identify emerging and piecemeal sensibilities to design that rely on an individual architect's interpretation with both negative and positive consequences for urban renewal.'
The proposition of this paper presents Urban Commoning as a counteraction to the current global t... more The proposition of this paper presents Urban Commoning as a counteraction to the current global trend of capitalism and its neo-liberal urbanism. In the face of radical dispossession and marginalisation that is accompanying global urbanisation, we are experiencing the negative logic of ‘privatisation’ with its public appropriations of exclusionary and dispossessive ‘fencing off’ of ‘new urban enclosures’. The resultant calls to replace the extractive and exclusionary logic of the city with a generative and inclusive ordering has been responded to in the notion of the commons and complementary practices of commoning as counter to this conflict. The urban commons is posited as a means of transforming the urban. By expanding the notion of the commons a new inclusiveness and normative approach can be established. However, in order to understand the commons as a possible just and inclusive urban order, we view it as inhabiting the intermediate space between imposed and popular change. We...
As the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest... more As the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest legacy of the apartheid state. The Afrikaner nationalist government's policy of 'setting apart' contributed in constructing a built environment that was characterised by both segregation and a concomitant absence of diversity. State agencies, such as the [NBRI] National Building Research Institute, produced impoverished dwelling environments which conflicted with the culture and practices of local/black people.
The advent of mega cites is a phenomenon confronting all nations competing in the current wave of... more The advent of mega cites is a phenomenon confronting all nations competing in the current wave of globalization. They have emerged as a result of rapid urbanization accompanying current economic shifts and serve to compound the problems associated with urban concentrations. Despite that South Africa has not yet an ‘official’ mega city, we are confronted by similar challenges to other States. However, in South Africa this is compounded by local exigencies, most specifically the legacy of apartheid with its spatial and demographic segregation. Consequently a concomitant extreme poverty, inequity and underemployment complicates the problems that accompany mega city inmigration, posing a significant challenge to the future development of SA cities. Yet, the relative smallness and our distinct spatial character afford opportunity to simultaneously manage and leverage urban growth toward socio–economic and developmental advantage. It is time for South Africa to become serious regarding th...
The Routledge Companion to Architecture and Social Engagement, 2018
This essay explores a concept of engagement that privileges the social over the spatial. This pri... more This essay explores a concept of engagement that privileges the social over the spatial. This privileging is considered particularly significant in postcolonial contexts where entire populations have been historically marginalized. Spatial tactics of including people who have previously been excluded from decision-making processes because of race and gender are now being identified as a forceful means of expanding social engagement. Within this context, self-reliance has emerged as a unifying attribute capable of building community and shelter in parallel. This essay explores social engagement through a diverse range of participatory projects.
The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apart... more The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apartheid South Africa’ derive from the 2nd Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture delivered in Ghent in 2015. Its source as my topic is located in the intersection of three interrelated trajectories. The most obvious is the issue of my disciplinary grounding and the locus of intellectual thought, that of architecture and the complexity associated with the production of space, particularly under conditions of change. The other is the life work and philosophical teaching of this extraordinary man Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the third is the condition of the world, and South Africa in particular, as we experience it today at what appears to be this unique historic intersectional moment of globalization and expansive tech- nological shift within our nations’ democratic emergence. The essay draws on texts derived from other disciplines, such as literature and philosophy, particularly those that have rel...
... Intermodal transport interchanges, the formalisation of the informal markets, public open spa... more ... Intermodal transport interchanges, the formalisation of the informal markets, public open space and cultural ... comprising both free stand-ing and linear blocks, interspersed by inner public spaces.Design guidelines ensured a uniform aesthetic and consistency in the building ...
The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apart... more The title and this essay, ‘Space and Transformation – the struggle for architecture in post-apartheid South Africa’ derive from the 2nd Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture delivered in Ghent in 2015. Its source as my topic is located in the intersection of three interrelated trajectories. The most obvious is the issue of my disciplinary grounding and the locus of intellectual thought, that of architecture and the complexity associated with the production of space, particularly under conditions of change. The other is the life work and philosophical teaching of this extraordinary man Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and the third is the condition of the world, and South Africa in particular, as we experience it today at what appears to be this unique historic intersectional moment of globalization and expansive tech- nological shift within our nations’ democratic emergence. The essay draws on texts derived from other disciplines, such as literature and philosophy, particularly those that have rel...
The Language of the Becoming City is about the urban environment, and how it is transformed by pe... more The Language of the Becoming City is about the urban environment, and how it is transformed by people interacting with the world that surrounds them by evoking more just living conditions. It is also an effort to demonstrate how the urban environment could be imagined in ways that differ from a neoliberalist view. Other imaginations, arising from different perspectives on and incentives for development, such as equity and inclusiveness, might produce another city entirely. From urban practices in four different contexts in Sweden, South Africa, India and Brazil, this book investigates four dynamics of change: conflicts, commons, networks and hybridity. From this framing, new concepts and radical imaginaries emerge, presented here as a Language of the Becoming City.
The proposition of this paper presents Urban Commoning as a counteraction to the current global t... more The proposition of this paper presents Urban Commoning as a counteraction to the current global trend of capitalism and its neo-liberal urbanism. In the face of radical dispossession and marginalisation that is accompanying global urbanisation, we are experiencing the negative logic of 'privatisation' with its public appropriations of exclusionary and dispossessive 'fencing off' of 'new urban enclosures'. The resultant calls to replace the extractive and exclusionary logic of the city with a generative and inclusive ordering has been responded to in the notion of the commons and complementary practices of commoning as counter to this conflict. The urban commons is posited as a means of transforming the urban. By expanding the notion of the commons a new inclusiveness and normative approach can be established. However, in order to understand the commons as a possible just and inclusive urban order, we view it as inhabiting the intermediate space between imposed and popular change. We attempt to excavate from real life urban commons valuable lessons from their emergence, maintenance and transference; contributing toward a new urban episteme. These explorations are grounded in the case of Cape Town, South Africa and the experience of capitalism's different phases-early colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid-demonstrating consistently reproduced patterns of spatial segregation for the vast majority of its 'non-white' population. Urban commoning has historically existed in different forms but recently found renewed emergence in response to urban enclosuring. Located within this context and re-conceptualised through a more inclusive notion of the commons, this essay identifies background details of the empirical case by describing the legacy of capitalist exclusion and enclosures in Cape Town, followed by an account of historical commoning practices in the city. The essay concludes by locating some main findings from the real life cases of emergent communing, reflecting on the transformative potential of urban commons.
Uploads
Papers by Iain Low