Urban interventions : approach to urban regeneration in South Africa since 1994

Abstract

The discussion on our urban challenges are in part more reflections based on a body of work concluded in Johannesburg and Pretoria over the last 15 years. The paper will attempt to provide a partial representation of the spatial realities evident in our cities, of urban development and also some of its implementation. We have come to understand that our South African urban environments are fraught with tensions and disjunctions; places that require a broader in-depth understanding of its inner working, integrating on varied levels and scales with its urban form and also involving its citizens to result a clearer way forward. Questionable is if current thinking on urban planning and development has over the past fifteen years not expanded design principles applied prior to 1994, and that our cities have still not recognised that they are places of hope for millions of urban migrants.