This seminar is open to students enrolled in the studio project “COMMUNITY-BASED CO-PRODUCTION – CAPE TOWN STUDIO” offered by the Department of International Urbanism at SI. The seminar aims to create an understanding of the complex challenges faced by informal settlement communities in Cape Town, South Africa. It also aims to generate knowledge about coping strategies through self-organization, co-production and community engagement.
In the course of this seminar, we will investigate urban interventions that were implemented in and with an informal settlement community on the southern outskirts of Cape Town. Both the seminar and the studio will start off with a Community Workshop in Cape Town (27.10. – 03.11.24) in cooperation with the NGO VPUU (Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading) and the local community. The workshop includes field research to examine the socio-spatial structure of the settlement as well as specific, co-produced spaces and facilities. We will collect data in a joint effort using transect walks, observation, focus group discussions, qualitative interviews and mapping.
On the basis of the knowledge gathered during the Community Workshop and through further investigations, the goal of this seminar will be to create a holistic description of co-production in this specific context and its effect on quality of life and well-being. We will address fundamentals of qualitative research and use cartographic and narrative methods for visualizing key findings. The intensive and structured research carried out during the seminar is intended to support the studio‘s design process and provide inspiration for the development of strategies for co-produced interventions. The seminar will be accompanied by interactive elements like lectures, guest critiques or film screenings with practitioners and scholars from South Africa.
The seminar will be taught mainly in person and the participants will work in teams (2 – 4 person) with group tutoring session at the University. However, a number of additional lectures from experts around the world supporting the content of the studio will be held over WebEx and ILIAS as well as Conceptboard will serve as the platform for exchange. All tools are available for free.
