A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, Johannesburg 2017 / This research sought to identify the key success factors associated with industrial brownfields site redevelopment projects in urban areas of South Africa. Nine such success factors were identified from international and local literature. Through documentary research, three brownfield case studies in Johannesburg were investigated. These included the Newtown Cultural Precinct, the Egoli Gas site and the AECI Modderfontein site. Commonalities includes location within the urban edge, original industrial land use, and the redevelopment intent of the landowners. Aspects differing among the sites include distance from the inner city, size, the certainty of contamination and redevelopment success. Based on the findings of the three case studies, the nine success factors were refined. The factors are no or low contamination, brownfields policy maturity, certainty regarding liability for remediation, risk-based land use options, favourable market conditions, quick funding access with rapid statutory approvals, readily available municipal services and transport infrastructure, and strong political and community support. The case study findings provide indications towards generalisation for success factors that may apply to future brownfields projects. Further research required includes a larger database of brownfields redevelopment case studies to be developed for South African, in order to further test associated success factors. / XL2018

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Urban Design to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / The modern day cultural landscape of man is no longer shaped by mere geology – but by the forces of culture, economics, social activity, politics and technology (Silva, 2012). Still, there are cases where geographical scars divide the cityscape, leaving voids in infrastructure and islands of open space within a thriving metropolis around these vacant patches of land. These vacant patches of land are often termed brownfield sites – once productive infrastructural components actively contributing to the formation of cities and industry. The mining belt of Johannesburg and some of its surrounds (particularly the area around the Heidelberg interchange and Faraday taxi rank) is a classic example where open patches of land exist, surrounded by a concrete jungle which is Johannesburg – “a world class African city” (joburg. org). According to Steyn (2007) the rate of urbanisation in Africa far exceeds that of the western world, which means that un-programmed, unprotected open land becomes soft targets for those prospecting ‘statistics’ flocking to the city – lured by the illusion of opportunity. Centrally located open land therefore becomes an extremely valuable commodity – a commodity that may aid in dealing with the rapid urbanisation issues that 21st century cities face. Not only are urbanities of the 21st century confronted by issues of rapid urbanisation and urban sprawl, but these urbanities need to combat issues in three omnipresent spheres – environmental, social and economic. It is within urban planning that these spheres have their closest overlap (Un-Habitat, 2009) and it is within this overlap that the concepts of resilience and sustainability can be best explored. As a result of their primary use, these fragmented wastelands are not well-suited for living, but do sometimes become the dwelling places of people willing to live in sub-standard living conditions. The mining belt of Johannesburg and its immediate surrounds is littered with brownfield sites - sites that share the characteristics of polluted, underutilised, fragmented, large stretches of vacant land, and are lacking in programme and urban form. This dissertation aims to pioneer a type of urban design uniquely developed for urban void landscapes – leftover sites otherwiseknown as brownfields – whilst addressing greater issues of sustainability and resilience. The study strives to understand how a landscape approach to urban design can be applied to revive and reclaim the drosscapes of Johannesburg. By reviewing a body of literature surrounding the theme of sustainable urbanism and investigating theories such as landscape urbanism, ecological urbanism, and compact cities, combined with understanding the life cycles of brownfield sites and how these sites can be revived to aid in solving issues faced by the 21st century city, the designer hopes to distill a set of urban design principles that can be applied over a variety of scales and integrated with other disciplines to revive brownfield sites and transform them into productive urban landscapes. Additionally, the designer endeavors to express the value of centrally located land; bridge the divide created by post-industrial landscapes; understand brownfield remediation processes and time-lines; integrate urban programmes and systems and link to and expand existing urban networks, based on the assumption that the drosscapes of Johannesburg possess the latent potential to positively add new dimensions to the current urban condition / XL2018