Reframing Urban Design to sequence developing world cities: designing for patterns in Yeoville/Bellevue, Johannesburg
Date
2015-05-12
Authors
Abed, Abdul Aziz
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Abstract
Current understandings of Urban Design point towards the fact that
it is the art and science of city making. Like other aspects of Architecture,
it begins with a site analysis, followed by the formulation of
a vision for the built environment and thereafter a process of transforming
the vision into reality (Carmona et.al, 2003). Thus, Urban
Design is perceived as a discipline that gives rise to the form and
defi nition of the full spectrum of forces including social, economic,
cultural, ecological, political and aesthetic dynamics (Dixon,
2005). The role of the Urban Designer can therefore be understood
as central to a number of other stakeholders such as Traffi c Engineers
dealing with vehicular movement, Civil Engineers concerned
with structural design, Architects designing built form, Landscape
Architects designing open space, Urban Planners formulating policy
and the Property Developers involved in aspects of land investment.
However, as urban populations grow, become more diverse
and fragmented, the function of Urban Design and the role of the
Urban Designer becomes questionable (Madanipour, 1996).
The past tradition of thought in Urban Design (visual artistic approach)
incorporated a fi rm belief in the physical aspects of city
making relying on built form as a primary informant. This tradition
has, however, been replaced by a more recent tradition (social
usage approach) which incorporates a fi rm belief in interpreting
phenomena occurring in public space. This served as a response
married to the phenomenon of increased population density and
rapid urbanisation persistent in the developing city context due
to global migration patterns (Watson, 2009). Consequently, in its
plight to reframe Urban Design to sequence developing cities, this
thesis conducts a comparative analysis between developed and
developing world cities regarding national migratory, population
density and urbanisation trends and the effects that it poses on regions, cities and localities. In so doing, it progresses to a realisation
that increased living densities in turn spills over into
the public realm and onto the street edge for retail and social
service access purposes. Thus, a greater mix of uses in the
built environment is forged. The increased density of people
on sidewalks in essence stimulates transport movement as a
collector service which structures street connectivity systems
around retail facilities and social services. From the analytical
fi ndings here, this thesis recognises that there exist relationships
between built form confi guration and socio-economic activities
occurring in public space. In light of the above, the thesis
employs the combination of the visual artistic and social usage
approaches to form the making places approach, which
can be appropriate for Urban Design in developing cities.
After establishing a new approach, the thesis structures the
above-mentioned operations into an evolved conceptual
framework. Thus, the conceptual framework recognises that
time change in developing cities in conjunction with population
density and migration cause overlapping relationships between
building density, housing and social services, retailing,
land use mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity
across various scales and within the formal, semi-formal/semiinformal
and informal realms. With this being the case, the thesis
analyses current literature which argues that the broader
problem is the fact that the interrelatedness of the above-mentioned
concepts is negated in theory. It develops the problem
statement further by stating that a lack of the interrelatedness
of the concepts contained in the conceptual framework has in
turn infl uenced a lack of such in current research and urban
design practice in developing cities. This is confi rmed through measuring the extent to which three South African Urban
Design practice case studies consider concepts of building
density, housing and social services, retailing, land use
mixes, transport/movement and street connectivity across
various scales and acknowledging the lack thereof.
As a means of responding to the problem identifi ed
above, a set of research techniques is investigated using
a Yeoville/Bellevue, Johannesburg site-specifi c case with
the aim of assisting designers to better apply the evolved
conceptual framework. Simultaneously, the thesis uses
Yeoville/Bellevue as a focus area to illustrate the manner
in which building density, housing and social services,
retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and street
connectivity can be considered across various scales. This
essentially progresses into the creation of an Urban Design
Framework for Yeoville/Bellevue that strengthens the linkages
between housing and social services, retailing and
transport/movement through using principles of street connectivity,
land use mix and building density creation. An
implementation strategy for the Design Framework is then
established.
Through the execution of the above process the collective
consideration of building density, housing and social services,
retailing, land use mixes, transport/movement and
street connectivity across various scales serves as the basis
for reframing Urban Design to suit developing cities.
Description
This thesis is being submitted for the Degree of Masters In Urban Design at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.