The studio aims to develop ideas and strategies for co-produced interventions in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa.
The concept of co-production has gained momentum against top-down urban planning acknowledging its potential to address the need for urban transformation and urban justice. The context of Cape Town, South Africa, is characterized by Apartheid legacy and extreme inequality. A majority of citizens have to live in so-called informal settlements at the periphery excluded from the quality of life of the rest of the city; often without access to housing and basic infrastructures and other social services.
To address these challenges, planners need to both explore new approaches to mobilize resources effectively and to empower communities to deepen citizenship with the hope to improve their quality of life. The co-production of shared spaces and infrastructures together with civil society groups and local communities can partially compensate for a lack of public resources and also strengthen social cohesion at the local level and initiate appropriation processes – with correspondingly positive effects on the usage, preservation and security of these spaces and infrastructures.
This studio and the accompanying seminar “Learning from Cape Town – Investigating co-production and well-being in an informal settlement community” will focus on urban interventions that were implemented in and with an informal settlement community on the southern outskirts of Cape Town. The studio and the seminar will start off with a Community Workshop in Cape Town (27/10 – 03/11) in cooperation with the NGO VPUU (Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading) and the local community. The workshop includes field research to examine both the socio-spatial structure of the settlement as well as specific, co-produced spaces and facilities. Building on the findings of the on-site research, students will develop proposals for an alternative urban practice that is rooted in a critical reflection of both the processes and spaces of co-production. These proposals will be supplemented by implementation strategies and formats that aim to use local resources and include and strengthen existing initiatives. The studio will be accompanied by interactive engagements like lectures, guest critiques or film screenings with practitioners and scholars from South Africa.
