Category:

Urban Agriculture

Housing and shelter

Public space

CAPE TOWN2012

225LOF WATER / PERSON PER DAY

SCOTTSDENE RESIDENTS

15,875

/ ENT3,076

17%

CURRENT HOUSE-HOLDS IN SCOTTSDENE

STAY IN INFORMALSETTLEMENTS

84%TRAINED NON-PROFFESSIONAL JOBS

26%INCOME IS BELOW THE POVERTY LINE

1500CURRENT DENSITY OF PEOPLE PER KM²

1 in 4 ARE UNEMPLOYEDIN SCOTTSDENE

573kgOF WASTE GENERATED PER PERSON PER YEAR

Category:

Urban Agriculture

Housing and shelter

Public space

Hous

Category:

Urban Agriculture

Hous

Urban Agriculture

Hous

225LOF WATER / PERSON PER DAY

Hous

Public space

Hous

Public space

WHATIF

WECOULD

?

“Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract – sustainable development – and make it into a daily reality for all the world’s people” -Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, March 2001

/// ENT

GRAFT, means to unite and implant new ideas on small scale urban agriculture and how it can inform place making, housing and the nautral environment...

2 / Community Engagement

1 / Community Engagement GRAFT is a practise led environmental and housing action group, working with the

existing context to initiate new organic food growing systems within the urban context. Through various nurture conservation projects as the basis of sustainable lifestyles, GRAFT promotes building social capital, self-help job creation, poverty alleviation, local food security and urban renewal. Secondly GRAFT informs local Government and Housing development companies on its livelihood activities as a key influence for sustainable and resilient urban development. Community engagement occurs on multiple levels between various participants and actors to achieve the core principles of GRAFT:

GRAFT is community: strengthening existing social engagement within the community, while re-establishing existing links between residents in formalised social housing and informal dwellings.

GRAFT with “agri-urban” NGO’s [Abalimi Bezekhaya and Soil for Life]: shared expertise and practical capacity building for regional solutions with urban agriculture; to establish a local seed exchange program with active food banks, providing food security for the City of Cape Town.

GRAFT with adjacent Stellenbosch farmers: capacity building through shared knowledge of commercial agriculture and neighbouring conservation, generating new income opportunities for the local community of Scottsdene.

GRAFT with professional team/ academics: with support from the professionals /academics in the built environment, GRAFT themselves are empowered to play the critical role in initiating growth, housing and long term sustainability within Scottsdene. The critical engagement between GRAFT, local government and the project team is key to the success of community led resilient urban design.

1//SOCIAL INNOVATION

GRAFT: A new approach to social

innovation within urban areas. It is

derived from the local agenda where

the need to foster innovation, facilitate

local enterprise and built social

capital demands a responsive urban

fabric. Social innovation through

a self-organised system of people,

agriculture, space making, housing and

governance.

1

EMPOWER OURSELVESWHAT IF WE COULD ?

$

NGO

12

3

4

DEVELOPERLED GROWTH

URBAN AGRICULTURE

PLACE MAKING ANDINCLUSIVE HOUSING

FOOD SECURITY/SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

SELF-GOVERNINGCOMMUNITY

SELF- ORGANIZEDSYSTEM

EXISTINGSCENARIO

OUR OWN SOCIAL CAPITAL

PERCEIVED SOC

IAL CAPITAL

3 / Urban Design Principles

2 / ACTIONS FOR A RESPONSIVE URBAN FABRICPhysical Connections: good access and connections are paramount. The pedestrian

and vehicular connections between the site and its built and unbuilt surroundings becomes the basis for urban linkage. Provision should be made for all forms of movement, with positive discrimination in favour of existing walking and cycling; responding to the local context.

Place making: traditional place making within Scottsdene focuses on agricultural activity areas, and the public support network therein. Providing this comfortable and stimulating public realm encourages social interaction but requires detailed attention to the structure / phasing and the elements contained in places. This involves detailed surface articulation, for multiple users. Issues of security, public art, street furniture and lighting are further articulated according to the urban context and agricultural land.

Allow for densities: higher densities in a compact urban form benefi ts:a. Social proximity with positive interaction and diversity. Preserves and helps fund maintenance of public open space and amenities.b. Improves quality and access to community services and public amenities. Enables more and better integrated housing; avoiding urban sprawl.c. Enhances economic viability of the project. Provides economies of infrastructure and urban agriculture and supports public transport.d. Increase energy effi ciency; decrease resource consumption, waste and pollution.

Public amenities: public facilities should closely correlate with the order of movement and its relationship with agricultural activities. These facilities support the practice of GRAFT. The public amenities further help defi ne a unique character of space within the context of Scottsdene.

2//MICRO AND MACRO CONTEXT

GRAFT aims to produce more food

than the Scottsdene community can

consume, sustain jobs and become

a regional food bank for Cape Town.

Secondly, GRAFT aims to take urban

development and governance in their

own hands. “Pastoral”, productive

agricultural landscape and energetic,

dense urban landscapes appeared

diametrically opposed, until we

develop a shared vision agricultural

urbanism” GRAFT.

2

HARNESS URBAN AGRICULTURE

BUILT SOCIAL CAPITAL

INCLUSIVE HOUSING

SUSTAIN PUBLIC AMENITIES

STRENGTHEN RECYCLING

Cape Town

UrbanEdge

AtlanticOcean

IndianOcean

SCOTTSDENE

BUILT SOCIAL CAPITAL

INCLUSIVE HOUSING

SUSTAIN PUBLIC AMENITIES

HARNESS URBAN AGRICULTURE

4 / Financial Model

3 / Financial ModelInnovative ideas around financing and mobilising resources for resilient urban

development includes three tiers: a. Micro “self-help”: “stokvel”/ household savings from existing agricultural profits.b. Macro: state funds for inclusive housing and infrastructure development through the Urban Settlement Development Grant. Integrated model with subsidy and cross subsidisation for various housing typologies include the National Housing Subsidy, Community Residential Unit subsidy and subsidy from other Social Housing NGO’s. c. External: private sector investments in housing, public amenities and space making.

“Self-help” financed small scale food production in existing gardens with local labour/skills [social capital], own equipment and farming knowledge is the corner stone for the financial model. Pockets of existing land have been earmarked and will be supplied/ financed by the State. The importance and allocation of land to communal ownership will be done with GRAFT. Any external funding, will contribute mainly towards GRAFT’s start-up capital for purchasing better seed, material for public space place making elements and food nutrition/ urban agricultural programmes.

4 / Public / Private PartnershipTo sustain massive small change, GRAFT envisages urban agricultural space making

initiatives and ongoing formations of public/ private and private/ private partnerships as essential concepts. GRAFT attempts to put in place an innovative “top down” approach to partnerships that is more “open” from the “bottom up” for responses by a range of urban actors. It essentially allows the community to become the main actor in urban development and to establish a “needs list” to guide planning, design and implementation of the development of Scottsdene.

$ CREATE AND SUSTAININCOME OPPORTUNITIES

BUILD SOCIAL & RECREATIONALACTIVITES

NEGATIVEURBAN SPACE

PUBLIC / PRIVATEPARTNERSHIPS

DEVELOPERLED GROWTH

SUSTAIN FOODPRODUCTION

CREATE OWNPOSITIVE PUBLIC SPACE

TAKE OWNERSHIPOF PUBLIC SPACE

COMMUNITYLED GROWTH

NEW GRAFTSCENARIO

EXISTINGSCENARIO

WHAT IF WE COULD ?EMPOWER COMMUNITIES

3//COMMUNITIES PARTNERSHIPS

Alternatives to precarious State or

Developer driven partnerships are

proposed. Innovative community led

partnerships between GRAFT [broad

based community action group]

the State, Developers and other

stakeholders has been initialised.

3

5 / Images // Drawings

WALKING TIME TOSTELLENBOSCHFARMLANDS

15MINDRIVING DISTANCETO CAPE TOWN CITY

30MIN

17%STAY IN INFORMALDWELLINGS

MAKE CONNECTIONS

STELLENBOSCHFARMS

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES

TO LOCALGOVERNMENT

CONNECTING LOCAL FARMERS

?SCOTTSDENE

CAPETOWN

NEW RESIDNETIAL UNITS

2084

NEW GRAFTSCENARIO

EXISTINGSCENARIO

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

5

4

4/5//CONNECTIONS

Multiple connections are achieved,

both physically and visually, between

existing community members. GRAFT

brings together the community,

local government and local farming

communities.

Movement through space creates a

continuity of experience. This is derived

from the nature and form of the spaces

through which the movement occurs.

This is key to the concept of movement

as a system that dominates organising

force in architectural and urban design.

URBAN EDGE

INFORMAL

DWELLINGS

FORMALISED

DWELLINGS

PROPOSED

SCOTTSDENE INFILL

EX. FARMLANDS

EX. SPORTS

FIELDS

1

6 / Images // Drawings

RESIDENTS

NEW RESIDENTIAL UNITS

15,875

2084

SUPPORT PEOPLEAND PROVIDINGFOOD SECURITY

441781

2

3

SUPPORTING NEWRESIDENTS

6252

3,076 CURRENT HOUSE-HOLDS IN SCOTTSDENE

22,089m²NEW AREA OF PRODUCTIVE URBAN LANDSCAPE

SCOTTSDENE

NEW GRAFTSCENARIO

EXISTINGSCENARIO

WHAT IF WE COULD ?MAKE RESILIENT PLACES AND SPACES

7

6/7//RESILIENT PLACE MAKING

Spaces and places are defined by

GRAFT related activities, where urban

agriculture is a key tool in developing

the local context.

The intervention is an infill that provides

continuity within the public structure,

which integrates public space with

urban agriculture. A variety of scales

and elements are implemented to

create a hierarchy of spaces; these

range from public, semi-private and

private.

6

DESIGN FOR A MIXTURE OF DENSITIES / OPPORTUNITIES

1500CURRENT DENSITY OF PEOPLE PER KM²

2100

52%

PROPOSED DENSITY OF PEOPLE PER KM²

OF FOOD PRODUCED WILL ALLOWFOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

MIX A RANGE OF NEW HOUSING TYPOLOGIES AND TENURE

GENERIC HOUSINGTYPOLOGIES

1 in 4 ARE UNEMPLOYEDIN SCOTTSDENE

1

2

3

NEW GRAFTSCENARIO

EXISTINGSCENARIO

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

9

8

8/9//DESIGNING FOR DENSITIES

A range of inclusive housing typologies

is proposed in order to accommodate

the greatest possible range of income

groups and housing preferences. It is

critical that densities are increased in

order to sustain public facilities. With

the establishment of this dense centre,

better urban services, public transport

and complexed living environments

are created where peripheral sprawl is

contained. GRAFT attempts to sustain

a critical mass thereby sustaining a

resilient urban environment.

7 / Images // Drawings

BONDED HOUSING[private funded]GAP HOUSING[part subsidised]HYBRID HOUSING[gap/social/fully subsidised]URBAN AGRICULTUREPUBLIC AMENITIES

INFORMAL

DWELLINGS

FORMALISED

DWELLINGS

PROPOSED

SCOTTSDENE INFILL

EX. FARMLANDS

EX. SPORTS

FIELDS

URBAN EDGE

8 / Images // Drawings

10

11

10/11//PUBLIC AMENITIES

Public amenities provided revolve

around the concept of urban agriculture,

to sustain the community of Scottsdene.

Facilities should be located as an

integral part of the urban fabric

providing continuity and coherence to

the urban realm. Furthermore public

amenities should contribute towards

urban definition, creating edges, axis

and habitable spaces. Rather than

grouping public amenities, they are

distributed throughout.

SUSTAIN PUBLIC AMMENITIES

84%TRAINED NON-PROFFESSIONAL JOBS

52%OF FOOD PRODUCED TOBE STORED IN FOODBANKOR PROVIDE INCOME

CONNECTING COMMUNITIESTO PUBLIC AMMENITIES

RECYCLING WASTE /PROVIDING INCOME

URBAN AGRICULTUREFOR FOOD SECURITY

POSITIVE HOUSINGTYPOLOGIES WITHRECREATION AMMENITIES

22,089m²

NEW GRAFTSCENARIO

EXISTINGSCENARIO

573kgOF WASTE GENERATED PER PERSON PER YEAR

DISLOCATED PUBLICAMMENITIES AND COMMUNITY

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

URBAN AGRICULTURE

EDUCATION - “GRAFT”

FOODBANK

EX. COMMUNITY

HALL

CIVIC SPACE

“STOKVEL” BANK

CRÈCHE

RECYCLING

CENTRE

CHURCH

SPORTS &

AGRICULTURE

WIND TURBINES TRANSPORT HUB