In its aim to redress the inequalities of the past, the South African cities of today turned a blind eye to the urban, rural, natural & social needs of citizens. Our cities, as they stand today, reflect an urban form that is neither sustainable nor equitable. Our cities do not invest in social capital nor aim to react to the reality of diminishing recourses. They are not ‘civic in nature, pedestrian friendly, nor environmentally smart’. When did our cities become so unimportant and disconnected from society? Through this Research & Design Report it is explored whether South African cities (case study: Springs, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa) can be transformed through retrofitting cities, building cities, making cities, unmaking cities, redeveloping cities, restructuring cities by placing the needs of citizens and nature first_ to inform urbanization, natural resources and the infrastructure that feeds it. It is examined here whether the answer could lie with the application of measured urbanization. It is within the measurement of these urban elements that the future of South African cities can be imagined, it is through the SMART application of these measured responses that broad based realistic and true change will be brought about; that the urban barriers of segregation, isolation & exclusion will be overcome.

A dissertation submitted as partial fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Urban Design in the Department of Architecture, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, October 1993 / No abstract supplied.

In the six decades since the mid 20th century, the world has experienced phenomenal urban growth, especially in the developing world. This growth has been closely associated with increasing levels of poverty and deprivation characterized by lack of access to safe water supplies, proper sanitation and access to assets. Other features include slums, informal settlements and low employment. This demographic shift is taking place within a context of low rates of economic growth and political engagement between the state and civil society. Lesotho, while sharing these experiences, is also one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 158 out of 177 according to the UN Human Development Index. This has largely determined the nature of urbanization, with deepening economic problems in most of the country, rural and urban, resulting in poverty. Nevertheless, there has been a profound shift in location of that poverty. Whereas before it was overwhelmingly a rural phenomenon, now poverty is urbanized. In addition, due to the nature of urban development in the country, poverty is primarily concentrated in Maseru – the primary city of this small, land-locked country. While literature concentrates much on developing world cities, including those of Africa, it is silent on the impact of urbanization on poverty in Maseru. This thesis attempts to fill this gap and argues that rapid and differentiated forms of urbanization have increased poverty in Maseru. It studies how differentiated forms and patterns of urbanization have affected the manifestations of poverty in different parts of Maseru. It also analyses the different livelihood strategies employed by the poor residents of the three communities (Thibella, Sekamaneng and Motimposo) in Maseru as the increase in urbanization has unsettled conventional livelihood strategies, compelling them to employ different livelihood strategies to survive. Further, the study examines how the urban governance systems and people within them are coping with these pressures. The study concludes that the increased poverty in Maseru resulted from Lesotho and Maseru’s historic development trends, as the results confirm. However, urbanization significantly exacerbated this poverty. The varied processes of urban growth (inward migration and urban encroachment) have affected the manifestations of poverty and created different experiences of poverty in Maseru and, in turn, shaped the livelihood strategies of its inhabitants. The urban governance is failing to cope with the demands of this growth further increasing poverty.

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 Masters of Science in Property Development and Management / Design development is a stage of the construction procurement process where the requirements of a project are specified including the technical and performance specifications. Thus the design development stage provides a significant opportunity in construction to incorporate green principles into building procurement to achieve energy efficiency, resource efficiency and environmental friendliness in the life cycle of built assets thus producing green buildings. However, this does not always happen in practice and in South Africa some of the reasons underlying this problem have not yet been fully researched and understood. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to conduct a study into factors that undermine the incorporation of green principles into building projects at the Design Development Stage. This research aims to examine the factors in the Design Development Stage in projects that undermine it from producing green buildings in South Africa’s construction industry, the Gauteng province being the focus of the study. The study investigated what is required from procurement processes generally to result in green buildings, then further narrowed down what is specifically required from actions undertaken at the Design Development Stage of projects to produce green buildings. Actions undertaken by the main practitioners involved in the Design Development Stage in Gauteng was then investigated in order to determine the factors within the Design Development Stage that undermine it from producing green buildings. Based on the critical review of the literature, six factors were systematically identified to facilitate each phase of the Design Development Stage producing green buildings, namely; “green concepts”, “green design”, “green specifications”, “green cost systems”, “green financial viability systems” and “green programmes”. Based on the knowledge acquired from the literature about the processes involved in the Design Development Stage, questions were developed to enable semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey to be conducted. The questionnaire was designed and administered online to architects and quantity surveyors using the Qualtrics software which also supports the analysis of data provided by respondents. Data collection for the study was restricted to the Gauteng Province of South Africa which contains the country's largest city, Johannesburg, its administrative capital, Pretoria, and a population of around 13 million. Hence there is a significant concentration of building projects and professionals in this Province to provide a useful setting for the collection and analysis of data to achieve the study objectives.Results flowing from the analysis of information collected from 25 architects and 20 quantity surveyors indicate that the main factors undermining the incorporation of green principles in the Design Development Stage are “Green cost systems”, “Green financial viability systems” and “Green Programmes”. The six factors identified that facilitate the Design Development Stage producing green buildings were as follows; “Green concepts”, “Green design”, “Green specifications”, “Green cost systems”, “Green financial viability systems” and “Green programmes”. Although the findings indicate that the incorporation of green principles at the Financial Planning Phase and Project Programme Phase are the main hindrance towards producing green buildings; this must be looked at with care as the Design Phase offers the greatest chance to produce green buildings. It is recommended that further research to other provinces with a larger sample size and frame is undertaken to gain a more accurate depiction of South Africa’s construction industry. Furthermore a study to why these factors are underperforming and how they can be configured to work to green buildings is recommended.

A research report on a study presented to the School of Architecture and Planning, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand / The research is a comparison of two state-owned housing institutions namely, the Johannesburg Social Housing Company and the Malawi Housing Corporation and how they are contributing to affordable housing and social integration in the housing sector. It uses a qualitative approach. Objectives of the research were achieved through obtaining primary written data that was collected through document reviews from the relevant organisations and interviews. The interviews were supported through the use of secondary materials. The research strategy was comparative in nature and content analysis was used to analyse the data obtained. The study showed that integration ensures that housing institutions provide housing without segregation and discrimination bias while affordability is a mechanism for housing provision to households whose housing needs are not met by the housing market. The research results portrayed that JOSHCO’s housing affordability is more meaningful than MHC’s because JOSHCO offers housing within the social economic opportunities in the inner city while MHC provides housing estates outside the inner city. It also showed that both institutions consider issues of income, gender, race and disability in their housing projects and programmes to ensure that integration occurs.

Este trabalho propõe uma reflexão a respeito de aspectos da produção do espaço implicados na modernização e urbanização da Martinica, a partir da segunda metade do século XX. Compondo o ultramar francês desde 1946, na condição de departamento, essa ilha do Caribe apresenta desde então um amplo processo de modernização e urbanização que toca profundamente a vida cotidiana. Embora muitas vezes apresentada e entendida pela ótica do benefício e do direito, essa situação provoca incômodos e gera críticas no sentido de uma imposição cultural e de uma continuidade da dominação colonial. No quadro de um desenvolvimento crítico e contraditório, o processo de modernização e urbanização da ilha acena com a ideia e progresso e melhoria das condições de vida, mas revela uma ilusão de acesso à cidade, direito à cidade e cidadania, que vão sendo reduzidos à noção de direito ao consumo, e mesmo nesse âmbito realizam-se precariamente. / This work proposes a reflection on aspects of the production of space involved in the modernization and urbanization of Martinique, from the second half of the twentieth century. Compounding the French overseas since 1946, on condition that department, this Caribbean island has since then an extensive process of modernization and urbanization that deeply touches everyday life. Although often presented and understood from the perspective of the benefit and the rights, this situation causes discomfort and generates critical towards a cultural imposition and a continuity of colonial domination. Under a critical development and contradictory process of modernization and urbanization of the island beckons with the idea and progress and improvement of living conditions, but revealed an illusion of access to the city, right to the city and citizenship, which will be reduced to concept of the right to consumer, and even in this context are held precariously.

Levantamento e análise de uma Vila Operária de 1924 da cidade de Salto, Estado de São Paulo. Demonstração dos elementos de composição da implantação identificando os modelos de urbanização vinculados a correntes ideológicas e da arquitetura da época de construção da Vila Operária Brasital. Análise de modelos de urbanização da cidade industrial através do desenho identificando os elementos de urbanização, semelhanças e dessemelhanças. A unidade de vizinhança como elemento estruturador da cidade e a necessidade de seu dimensionamento. O Direito de Parcelar. / Survey and analysis of a vila (group of similar houses) built for industrial workers in the city of Salto, State of São Paulo. Demonstration of the composition elements of implementation related to ideological and architectural trends at the time of construction of the Vila Operária Brasital. Analysis of industrial citys urbanization models through drawings, identifying the urbanization elements, similarities and dissimilarities. The neighborhood unit as the citys structural element and the need to size it up. The Right of Land Split.

As human populations increase and city borders grow, many animals have to modify their foraging behaviours to exploit evolutionarily novel urban food sources that could aid their survival. Neophobia, the fear of novelty, can lead to missed opportunities in these cases. Novelty is therefore expected to elicit different responses in urban and rural populations, a difference that has been frequently studied, but with mixed results. The main objective of my thesis was to study the novelty response of wild black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in ecologically relevant conditions while controlling for individual characteristics and potential differences in foraging group size. I predicted that urban black-capped chickadees would be more likely to initially contact novelty than rural chickadees, and that subordinates and juveniles would be more likely to first contact novelty than dominants and adults, respectively. I ran replicated experiments using three novelty types (object, colour, or food) on six sites, during which I registered feeder choice of 71 tagged individuals. I found that urban chickadees showed less neophobia than their rural counterparts, the latter initially contacting the familiar feeder before approaching the novel feeder, while the former were equally likely to contact any feeder. There was no significant effect of an individual’s dominance, age or sex on its first choice of feeder, nor was there an effect of novelty type. Overall, my results suggest that urban chickadees exhibit less neophobia than their rural counterparts, because they have generally learned to tolerate novelty in their habitat and/or they have adapted to live in an environment that rewards low neophobia.

Em 1944, Macapá foi transformada na capital do recém-criado Território Federal do Amapá. Nos vinte anos seguintes, as obras realizadas nesta cidade, a fim de modernizá-la, ensejaram que aí ocorresse um boom populacional. Milhares de migrantes paraenses e nordestinos formaram rapidamente grandes bairros. Estes novos assentamentos não eram assistidos pelos serviços públicos. Moradias e empregos eram insuficientes. Insuficiente era também o fornecimento de gêneros alimentícios. A carestia tornava a sobrevivência um enorme desafio para os mais pobres. O súbito crescimento demográfico, os obstáculos criados pela Segunda Guerra Mundial e a defesa governamental das margens de lucro das classes proprietárias fizeram tal problema ganhar proporções muito dramáticas. Dentro deste quadro de insegurança estrutural, os trabalhadores criaram uma série de táticas para sobreviver. Nosso estudo consiste, fundamentalmente, num inventário de tais táticas e num esforço para compreendê-las como combinações de elementos oriundos da tradição e da improvisação. Estas táticas tinham como base uma sociabilidade caracterizada principalmente pela solidariedade horizontal. / On 1944, Macapá was transformed in Federal Territory Amapás capital. On the next twenty years, buildings realized to get modern this city induced a demographic boom. Thousands migrators composed new quarters, where they didnt have public services. Homes end employments were insufficient. Alimentary provision was insufficient too. High prices challenged the poor survival. Sudden demographic boom, obstacles created by Word War II and government defense of the proprietary gain aggravated this problem. To face this structural insecurity context, workers created many survival tactics. Doing a wide inventory of this tactics is our aim. This tactics combine tradition and improvised actions and they were based on horizontal solidarity.

Based on the author's long term fieldwork from 2005 to 2008 in Qiaoxiang, a rural Hakka community in Xingning County, Guangdong Province, Southeastern China, this dissertation examines how the revival of tradition in contemporary China can be understood through the dynamic interaction and negotiation among state, villagers and local elites. This ethnography describes the history and reality of tumultuous social change in the community, especially in Maoist and post-Maoist times, and shows how the villagers living in weilongwu, a characteristic lineage or multi-family compound of the Hakka heartland, have managed to mobilize political, social and cultural resources to deal with outside forces in contemporary China. I analyze how the Maoist state's attempts to break down kinship ties failed and how kinship's importance has been maintained and strengthened in both collective and post-collective periods. This dissertation focuses on how the participation and collaboration of ordinary villagers and village elites facilitates a vigorous revival of tradition, including the establishment of organizations at the level of lineage and community, the reediting of genealogies, the rebuilding and renovation of ancestral halls, and most importantly, the reactivation of kinship rituals. I demonstrate how the active engagement and complicated entanglement of socialist state, overseas power and other contemporary forces has shaped and reshaped the social and cultural landscape of the local community. I argue that the revival of tradition is by no means a remnant of the past or a total invention; instead, traditions are forming within the fluctuating context of Late Imperial legacy, state imposition and uncertain modernity. I also argue that the ordinary villagers are not passive subjects of domination by state power or other forces; instead, they are sophisticated activists possessing the strategic competence and wisdom to deal with the circumstances in which they live. In this sense, tradition should be taken as the practice of ordinary people in an ongoing process of inventing and becoming.