The way in which a city is spatially laid out effects the natural environment of the planet (for example: pollution and the depletion of natural resources) as well as the social environment (the community and daily life) of its residents. Through the exploration of various modern urban planning theories, I will begin to look at some different approaches to urban planning. This document favours the compact city approach which advocates higher densities, mixed use development, public transport and community living. This approach relates to initiatives currently underway in the inner city of Johannesburg. This document is about the exploration of how people live in the city and the issues surrounding housing in the urban context. The proposed architectural project is a housing scheme located in Newtown, Johannesburg. Central concepts include: urban regeneration, inner city living, visual variety in the urban realm, street edge conditions and public to private hierarchies

The Grandview Woodland local area of Vancouver, British Columbia, is an area in transition. Retail, demographic, residential occupancy, and changes to built structures indicate that gentrification has escalated in the past seven years. Long standing impediments to gentrification, including industrial manufacturing, social housing, and crime, are not deterring change in this area to the extent they once did. This thesis examines how public policy has affected these changes in Grandview Woodland. Public policies embodied in laws and regulations have the capacity to either encourage or dissuade gentrification; however, other variables also influence gentrification making it difficult to determine the importance and influence of public policy in the process. This thesis uses semi-structured interviews and a document review in a case study of Grandview Woodland, to gain a better understanding of how public policies can influence gentrification in a local area where gentrification was previously impeded. The findings from this study suggest that public policies can have a substantial, but not autonomous, effect on gentrification in such an area. In Grandview Woodland, policy makers facilitate gentrification through city-wide and province-wide policies, including zoning changes, the Strata Title Act, and the Residential Tenancy Act. While these public policies have streamlined the advance of gentrification in Grandview Woodland, the catalysts for gentrification are the wider national trend of increased popularity of inner-city living, and the middle class moving eastwards in search of affordable homes in response to the massive property value increases in Vancouver’s West Side. / Graduate / 0617 / 0615 / 0999 / p.b.kasman@gmail.com