This document is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree: Master of Arch[Prof] at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in the year 2015 / Domestic workers in South Africa are a vulnerable work force who are not financially or socially recognised for the significant role they play in sustaining homes, suburbs and society. The topic of domestic work serves as a lens through which to analyse the intersectional issues of race, gender and class in South Africa and their spatial manifestations. I have found that spatial principles employed, historically and currently, play a substantial role in creating or upholding the unbalanced power relationship governing domestic work. The spatial techniques of separation, isolation, concealment, surveillance, front to back and leisure to work relationships for example, have become so mundane and normalized in South African society that it is difficult to identify these factors as facilitators of race, gender and class discrimination. My spatial approach is to utilize these principles in a way that disrupts and draws attention to their original objective. The program aims to recognise the significance of this occupation, give domestic Workers collective power to negotiate their working conditions and facilitate social mobility. The building is a mix-use centre which incorporates business, accommodation, communal and public facilities, activities and gathering spaces a landscaped park. The business facilities incorporate existing services in a more formalized, professionalized manner, ensuring fair remuneration and recognition for quality services. The centre additionally provides services in more interactive, sustainable and economically efficient ways than they are traditionally provided for in individual private homes. These communal services include a children’s day care, public laundry and eatery. The intention is to create a prototype that may be reproduced in any suburb thereby creating a network of centres. The selection of the park in Norwood as a site serves to reactivate an underutilized public space and in so doing challenge the existing relationships of work and leisure, public and private and social hierarchies in the suburb. The position of this project in the relatively, sparsely populated suburbs would change the racial and financial demographic. It would be a new typology for high density, low cost/ government subsidised housing in a way that integrates infrastructure and public space. / EM2017

Urbanisation and suburban housing development are the foci subjects of this thesis. The process of urbanisation may differ from one country to another in terms of socio-economic and political structures, environmental characteristics and also local features. In this context, housing areas at the urban fringe of Ankara were found to have been developed highly compatible with urban land use theories / but different from the process experienced in developed countries. In this thesis, a different dimension of suburbanisation has been discussed with regards to middle and lower-middle income groups&rsquo / suburban movement. The reasons why lower-middle and lower income residents prefer to live at the urban fringe have been found out. Suburban developments have various opportunities for the households such as larger housing unit due to cheap and available land, better urban services, quiet and clean environment and privacy. However, households living in urban fringe who are relatively from middle and lower-middle income are subject to high transportation cost. It is expected that they make a trade off between lower housing units and greater commuting distances and also many opportunities of living in such a suburb. With regard to these, the process of suburbanisation of middle and lower-middle income groups in Ankara within the boundaries of Sincan and Etimesgut Quarters in terms of their social characters and the features of using their urban space and house is discussed according to plan decisions, house builder and households&rsquo / characteristics, urban development pattern of Turkey and Ankara and then Etimesgut and Sincan, considering the theoretical basis and historical process.

This thesis is concerned with the housing and service needs of the poor (slum dwellers) in Bombay and how they are articulated and satisfied. It discusses how the poor perceive the constraints on slum servicing and improvement, their involvement in community organizations, and the role the community and its leaders play in influencing state action. Since housing and servicing issues directly impinge on the interests of politicians and bureaucrats as well as on those of the poor, patterns of provision mirror closely the nature of the relationship between the poor and how political and administrative power operates at various levels. Chapter 1 provides the research aims and objectives while Chapter 2 reviews the literature on community participation. Chapter 3 on Bombay places housing development in context and also serves as background study to the thesis. This research studies three different slum settlements housing migrants to Bombay. Two surveys of these three slum settlements were carried out, involving interviews with 135 households. Chapter 4 describes the characteristics of these households, while chapters 5, 6, and 7 give the arguments of the thesis. It is shown that, despite an established system of representative community organisations and a pro-participation rhetoric in bureaucratic discourse, most slum dwellers are excluded from participating in decision-making. A patron-client relationship exists between politicians, bureaucrats and community leaders, both in determining the community leaders' power as well as the level of services and physical benefits that he/she could win for the slum community. Leaders are generally better educated, better employed, more prosperous and highly motivated than most of their community. The NGO in this study has acted mainly as intermediary between the government and the slum-dwellers.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This is a case study of a project focused on organizing community economic development (CED) in the inner-city neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant, in Vancouver. Participant-observation research techniques, combining the roles of organizer and researcher, were used in this exploratory study. The ethnic and cultural diversity of this inner-city neighbourhood, with its various "communities of interest, “presents challenges to CED organization. This study examines these challenges in relation to the process of organizing CED and identifies the relevant factors for determining a community's readiness for CED. Key aspects of the organizing process are explored in depth (e.g., gaining legitimacy within the community, assessing the community’s readiness for CED, determining a development approach, cultivating leadership and developing an organizational base). This study proposes a framework for organizing CED which identifies the major stages, activities and critical factors in organizing CED. The research identifies and discusses the major roles of the organizer and the beliefs and values which guided the organizing process.

Rooted in the theories of urban entrepreneurialism, this dissertation employs a political economy framework as a means of analyzing urban governance and economic development in the contemporary US city. This case study of Orlando adds to our understanding of how entrepreneurial narratives are being applied to transportation infrastructure projects in pursuit of local economic development. The empirical case study explores the relationship between planning narratives, urban governance and economic development in the establishment of the SunRail commuter rail system in central Florida. I present the political history of economic development and the role of local boosters in shaping the sociospatial distribution of urban infrastructure and public investment in Central Florida. Utilizing a qualitative research methodology, the case study is based on a series of extended interviews with transportation planners, urban policymakers and community leaders in the Orlando area. The empirical data was complemented with official documents and archival records concerning the planning of transit-oriented developments along the SunRail system. This research presents the current efforts of Central Florida boosters to apply governance approaches to reshape the urban form and to direct the ensuing flows of capital investment through the restructuring of the region’s transportation infrastructure and employing planning narratives that draw heavily on creating amenity growth strategies. Local boosters expect that by providing dense development corridors through the region, including transit-oriented development centers, the city will have met the pre-conditions for attracting private capital investment. Specifically, local leaders are seeking to attract investment by the type of firms that will provide high-wage jobs to the region to balance the glut of low-wage service sectors jobs found in the region’s theme park industry. In the case of Central Florida, early private investment in SunRail adjacent property has come from local firms that tend to have a high level of local fixity and existing investments in the Orlando market.

This thesis investigates five types of informal and self-built settlements in Panama City, Panama. The major part of the thesis focuses on precedents that are related to personal experiences encountered while researching a question developed during an independent study course at Ball State University. These experiences are germane to the place I have resided for virtually, my whole life, at the outskirts of an informal settlement in Panama City -- Barriada Nueve de Enero -- along with my personal relationship with Mrs. Emilia, my family's domestic worker for more than thirteen years. In addition, the study of the five settlements will be accompanied by a set of minor design interventions that address immediate and local needs encountered while investigating each area. In a country where already more than half the population (56%) resides in urban centers, and approximately sixty thousand people live in informal settlements, one might ask: What do rural immigrants bring with them to the informal settlements? And, what are the connections found that relate to their past lives in the rural areas? According to the UN-Habitat report of 2008, in the developing world there are approximately 5 million people making thier trek each month to urban centers, and most of them end up squatting and self-building in some informal settlement, making them, as stated by Robert Neuwirth in Shadow Cities, "the largest builders of the housing world." If it is in fact, the 'precaristas - informal builders' and 'invasores - inavders' of the world who are shaping our current and future cities, should we not be more interested in their knowledge, lifestyles, and building techniques? This thesis does not aim to answer all the questions about informal settlements in Panama, but it does try to expose a reality and hopefully generate an understanding towards one city, and at least one informal settler contributing to the fast-growing informal building phenonmenon of the world. / Department of Architecture

This creative project for the Master of Architecture degree focuses on the building design and landscape design of a urban development, in particular on the mixed cultural basis of deteriorating inner city neighborhoods in the U.S. A.I have lived in America for over two years. During this time, I acquired substantial knowledge on environments and architecture from traveling and studying. Then, I found the characteristics of a mixed culture in this country. We all know that the Chinese people are an important group in America, and they work hard to establish and contribute to the American culture, economy, and environment, now and forever. Although Chinese Americans do not comprise a large portion of the U.S. population, the Chinese patterns of architecture have had some impact on American culture as a whole. However, Chinatown has become a major element in the fabric of many cities in the U.S.A., like Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. For this reason, I chose to explore the design of a new environment for Chinese immigrants in the U.S.A.The topics of this thesis work are the design of the convention center and the planning of Chinatown Square Project. I tried to apply concepts from the Chinese culture, my experience, and professional education in Taiwan, the Republic of China and America. Therefore, the site plan of Chinatown Square Project was designed according to the Chinese Courtyard System. The tower shape of the hotel of the convention center is the transition of the Pagoda. Moreover, the idea of the curved roof comes from the Chinese bowl and tile. Finally, I merged a western feel, and an eastern spirit in the whole design process.I dedicate this thesis to the community of Chinatown in Chicago and America. / Department of Architecture

Field research was carried out in the community of Notre Dame de Grace, an urban environment typical of the kind in which more and more older women will reside as Canada's population ages. Results of a questionnaire administered to 232 older urban dwellers demonstrate there are significant differences, especially with regard to fearfulness, in the ways in which elderly women who live alone, elderly women who do not live alone and elderly men know and use urban environments. Recommendations are made for changes to the planning process which would result in urban communities better suited to the needs of elderly women. / Anthony Gidden's structuration theory is applied as a framework for explaining why older women are more fearful than elderly men, and why older women alone are the most fearful group. Deficiencies in feminist and gerontological approaches are identified, and an argument is made for greater integration of these perspectives.

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