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Public open spaces are major environmental, social and economic resource, but, these spaces are depleting at an alarming rate and are often undervalued (Cilliers, 2015). Within a South Africa context there are many challenges that coincide with public open spaces especially in informal settlements and established townships where rapid urbanisation leads to increasing pressure to provide housing which often competes with these spaces (Cilliers et al., 2021). The challenges faced by public open spaces and the importance of protecting them will be explored. This research project lands within Gugulethu Township along the Lotus River canal and aims to explore how this public area along the river can be utilised as a sustainable public open space, designed for all role players within the Gugulethu community. The project seek to discover the role that an urban designer can play in highlighting the potential of such spaces and how urban design interventions can be used improve these open spaces.

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Among the many problems that exist in the urban built environment today, uninviting pedestrian spaces is a prominent characteristic especially adjacent to inner-city shopping centres. Often, this is accompanied by a divorce of the building from the street, where the irony is that the street, which is a prominent public pedestrian space and connector of people, places and everyday lives, is often an underappreciated and unrealised pedestrian space. In the CBD of Claremont suburb, Cape Town, this is a reality and the resulting social ills such as dead zones, a lack of public surveillance, high crime rates, poor quality of space and lack of sense of place- all which can clearly be seen in this area. To realise the dual role that the street can play as both a public pedestrian space and a connector of people and place, professionals and role-players in the built environment should challenge the norms around street form, street-building interaction, people's perceptions that shaped the current day street and continue to influence its physical and perceived position within our cities and town. The literature component of this study seeks to unpack the qualities and functions of urban streets and their possible role as quality public space. The design component of this study seeks to explore and identify interventions at a local scale.