The Ruth & Ralph Erskine Award 2003

The Ruth & Ralph Erskine Award 2003 is given to Barbara Southworth as the leader of the Dignified Spaces Programme, Cape Town, South Africa.

Barbara Southworth has, with enthusiasm, skill and diplomacy managed this unique program that aims at improving urban and social qualities and thereby bringing dignity to deprived areas in the Cape Town. The project has, so far, realised nearly 20 liveable public spaces and market squares, associated with public transportation and other facilities. Several professional architects and consultants have, under the guidance of Barbara Southworth and her dedicated team, in the development of these places and in the design of buildings linked to them managed to achieve high architectural qualities. The realised projects can hence act as catalysts for further developments.

Barbara Southworths own description of the awarded project

The City of Cape Town's Uluntu Plaza - Dignified Places Programme

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Decades of under investment in the poor parts of Cape Town have resulted in extreme degradation of the built and natural environment. Many of these environments are not livable, they are characterized by dirty, degraded and unsafe public spaces, polluted rivers and an absence of trees, proper sidewalks, poor quality civic amenities. Associated with this physical degradation are severe social and economic problems including gangsterism, crime and inadequate access to economic opportunities. These problems require an integrated solution that begins to improve the physical quality of local environments as well as addressing social and economic issues.

The City of Cape Town's Dignified Places Programme involves the establishment of a city-wide system of liveable public spaces and market squares, associated with the public transportation interchanges as well as local markets and clusters of social facilities. The projects in this programme involve the creation of new landscaped squares with paved surfaces, tress, seating, lighting and, where appropriate, facilities for traders and local small businesses. The projects are located at structurally significant locations - at public transport interchanges, community facilities, where there are large groups of traders and on the busiest pedestrian routes. These are the places where people are, and spend their time on a daily basis and improving these can have a positive impact on the lives of many people.

The strategy is being expanded to include the provision of a dignified community space as part of each informal settlement upgrade project under the City's Informal Settlement Upgrade Programme. These well lit, landscaped multi-purpose spaces are intended to provide a sense of dignity and permanence that could be a catalyst for social, economic investment as well as the consolidation of residences into more permanent and durable dwellings by the residents themselves.

PROJECT SUMMARY

The Uluntu Plaza Dignified Places Programme was conceptualized during the preparation of the Spatial Development Framework for the City of Cape Town in 1999. Amongst other recommendations, the framework proposed on-going public space and place programmes, intended to reclaim the city for the people 'point by point':

Underpinning the public spaces programme is a recognition of the need to concentrate investment in order to create a growing family of special places in the poorer areas. These are conceived as becoming centres of community life: places which will be collectively 'owned' by, and give dignity to, entire communities. The projects are intended to be catalytic, in the sense of positively influencing and attracting private investment of many kinds to and around them over time. Rather than one-off events, therefore, they are viewed as instruments of urban renewal.

Although the form and character of these spaces vary according to location and role, they usually exhibit and number of common characteristics:

• They occur at highly accessible, strategic locations.
• They have as their focus carefully designed and landscaped public spaces.
• Whenever possible, they are associated with clusters of social facilities.
• Whenever appropriate, and this is commonly the case, they are associated with markets.

They are all made as multi-functional social spaces.

The programme was initiated and has been driven by the Urban Design Branch of the City, headed by Barbara Southworth. A series of projects have been identified both through the Spatial Framework and through an on-going process of local area planning. Budgets are assembled through contributions from the line function budgets of departments who have a stake in the project: commonly, design services, transportation, economic development, community development and parks and bathing. Projects are designed by inter-disciplinary teams headed by Urban Designers while specialist input is obtained from contributing line function departments: the process has been deliberately designed to maximize its potential educational impact and to generate a more common urban vision across the 'silos' of specialist disciplinary knowledge.

The identification, refinement and implementation of each project has been undertaken in consultation with existing or specially constituted task teams representing community organisations and stake-holders. The task teams are also typically involved in matters relating to on-going management and maintenance of the projects after completion.

The aim of the programme is to implement 100 new Uluntu Plaza - Dignified Place projects across the city over the next 5 years. Budgetary constraints however are likely to slow the rate of delivery on this programme as the City of Cape Town faces a major budget crisis.

Another major challenge that faces the programme is the management and maintenance of completed projects. The projects require integrated work between different disciplines and this has not been part of the typical delivery of public services in South African cities. It has been a struggle to maintain the commitment of other services such as Parks. Transport and Community services. Increasing pressure on their human and financial resources have resulted in them retreating to a focus on their core business. As a result many of the projects are not currently being maintained. The project coordinators are, however preparing a proposal that promotes management and maintenance by local community.

It is too early to assess the impact of the programme fully. There is little doubt, however, that it has achieved considerable successes.

• The speed of implementation has been rapid. The first projects were completed within six to nine months of the completion of the spatial framework, a remarkable achievement when compared to the long lead-up times normally associated with city-wide planning.
• The projects have had demonstratively positive impacts on the living environments in what are in most cases environmentally and socially very tough areas.
• There has been a high level of community acceptance and satisfaction, evidenced verbally and through observation of the use and maintenance of the spaces. In a number of cases, elected representatives and communities have asked for extensions to, and roll-outs of, projects already completed.
• Other initiatives in local areas have responded to the projects and there is some evidence of spontaneous renewal around them.
• There is a much greater awareness within the consulting community of local government development challenges and strategies.
• Within local government, the programme has illustrated the developmental opportunities associated with integrated and interdisciplinary work. It has established new alliances across functional and cultural boundaries as well as a better understanding of, and trust in, the different contributions of a range of professional specializations, of other support staff and of community members in the development and management process. Although considerable progress has been made there is still a way to go in this regard. There is still evidence of disciplinary 'culture-clash' in some of the projects as particular disciplines over-promote their area of disciplinary interest.
• Staff involved in the process recognize the benefits of achieving incremental impacts by combining budgets and feel a sense of purpose and achievement.