The Master Builders Association of the Western Cape (MBAWC) held an event for members of the built environment industry last month in Cape Town, where University of Cape Town dean of engineering and the built environment Professor Francis Petersen discussed seven of the many World Design Capital (WDC) 2014 construction-related projects. He noted that the projects were selected for their ability to offer tangible evidence of how design could improve lives.

During the presentation on the projects at Belmont Square, Petersen, who is also a board member of Cape Town Design – the implementation company of WDC Cape Town 2014 – said the city received its WDC designation from the International Council for Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), which bestowed this honour on cities that used design as a social, cultural and economic development tool.

WDC 2014 comprises more than 460 WDC projects, which is an initiative by the ICSID – an international nongovernmental organisation that aims to protect and promote the profession of industrial design.

Petersen presented the Better Living challenge, the Salt River Village development, the Oude Molen Eco Village design project, the Shaping Stellenbosch project, the Rex Trueform Office Park refurbishment, the Future Tyger programme and the Two Rivers Urban Park regeneration as the seven WDC 2014 projects from which the City of Cape Town will benefit this year.

With millions of South Africans living in dire conditions in informal settlements, backyard shacks and below-standard reconstruction and development programme homes, the continually growing need for homes outstripped the capacity and resources of government to deliver, said Petersen during his presentation.

He explained that the Better Living Challenge was a call to designers and innovators, manufacturers and retailers, students and professionals, self-taught designers and tradesmen, as well as architects and engineers, to develop solutions that supported a better quality of life.

Salt River was once the industrial heart of Cape Town and it reflected a vibrant sense of community, but has since become an area dominated by crime, gangs and drug abuse. Bordering Woodstock – an area that has been enjoying urban renewal since the late 1990s – Salt River is ripe for upliftment and has been pegged for revival, as part of a R20-billion urban-renewal initiative across Cape Town. The Salt River Village urban renewal project integrates several related space-creating projects – from the renovation of industrial buildings and the upgrading of pavements and streetscapes to the remaking of a community playpark and public art installations.

“The restoration of this historically and culturally rich area will take place in conjunction with the assistance of relevant contractors and stakeholders, as well as engagement from city officials and members of the community, who can look forward to an invigorating place to live, play and work,” Petersen pointed out.

The Oude Molen Eco Village is a former abandoned and vandalised hospital complex, and is regarded as a means through which socioeconomic and environmental challenges in the region can be addressed, while generating income for the provincial government. The aim of this project is to stimulate and mobilise local citizens to share their ideas on and their aspirations for the future eco village. It is hoped that direct and indirect employment – from the building phase to the maintenance phase – will be created.

Further, Petersen stated that the project managers’ ambition was to create healthy social and recreational activities, youth skills development opportunities, crosscultural interaction and reconciliation-producing social cohesion, together with food security through urban agriculture.
Shaping Stellenbosch is a process-oriented project that has been carefully designed to practically demonstrate how it is possible for the residents of a historically divided South African town to generate a future vision of urban development that connects economic development, social inclusion and ecological sustainability.

Rex Trueform Office Park is an iconic building with a history that dates back 60 years. Rex Trueform was the largest clothing manufacturer in Southern Africa in the 1940s. This project aims to not only refurbish this landmark building by turning it into a functioning unit but also revitalise the area.
Petersen highlighted that this historical city block comprised three buildings, built between 1948 and 1962, which would be renovated as a single-unit office park and used for office and retail purposes. The development aims to reconnect the local community with the broader Cape Town community and create jobs in the area, bridging the divide between what Rex Trueform once meant to the community and the future impact it can have on the community.

The Greater Tygerberg Partnership, supported by the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Urban Regeneration Programme, proposes to bridge the divide between the City Bowl and Cape Town’s emerging second metropolitan centre in Tygerberg. To this effect, the Future Tyger programme was established. The four-stage collaboration aims to transform the Voortrekker road corridor into an area where communities, interest groups, students, knowledge institutions, local and international planners, designers and innovators can come together to facilitate urban transformation.

Situated at the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black rivers, the Two Rivers Urban Park has been earmarked as an important social, historical, environmental and economic site. Currently an unused tract of land, it will be transformed into a mixed-use development that provides housing and encompasses opportunities for working, shopping, recreation and other activities. An underdeveloped part of the city will, therefore, become a liveable area that enhances quality of life.

MBAWC executive director Rob Johnson concluded that the WDC 2014 projects were not simply developments, but an invitation to bring collaborators together to create new conversations, connections and possibilities that would last well beyond 2014.