vanessa watson - isocarp
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Vanessa Watson
Vanessa Watson is professor of city planning in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics at
the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Deputy Dean of the faculty. She holds degrees from
the Universities of Natal, Cape Town and the Architectural Association of London, and a PhD from the
University of Witwatersrand, and is a Fellow of the University of Cape Town.
Her research over the last thirty years has focussed on urban planning in the global South and the
effects of inappropriate planning practices and theories especially in Africa. Her work seeks to unsettle
the geo-politics of knowledge production in planning by providing alternative theoretical perspectives
from the global South.
She is the author/co-author of seven books, some fifty journal articles and numerous chapters,
conference papers and keynotes in the field of planning. Her book: Change and Continuity in Spatial
Planning: metropolitan planning in Cape Town under political transition (Routledge), won national and
university book prizes. She is an editor of the journal Planning Theory, and on the editorial boards of
Planning Practice and Research, the Journal of Planning Education and Research and Progress in
Planning.
She was the lead consultant for UN Habitat’s 2009 Global Report on Planning Sustainable Cities and
is on their global reports Advisory Board. She was chair and co-chair of the Global Planning Education
Association Network (2007-2011). She is a founder of the Association of African Planning Schools and
is a founder and on the executive of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town.
Title of Speech: African Cities for Sale! Smart, Eco or just Profitable?
Abstract: The reality in most sub-Saharan African cities today is well known: they are largely informal,
their populations earn unequally but most are poor and they are growing rapidly under conditions of
inadequate service provision, outdated planning systems and weak local governments. Yet in the last
few years Africa has been labelled by international growth coalitions of property developers, architects
and engineers as the globe’s ‘last development frontier’, awaiting urban make-overs which combine
the worst architectural fantasy features of Dubai, Shanghai and Singapore, and packaged for
consumption as smart cities, eco cities and life-style retreats of various kinds. These globally
circulating urban models ignore place, identity, culture, histories and the needs of the majority of urban
occupants. Their impact on African cities, as elsewhere, will be socially and environmentally
devastating. Are there alternative visions for global South cities which can counter the hegemony of
Dubai-ification and respond to the urgent imperatives of real cities?
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AFRICAN CITIES FOR SALE! SMART, ECO OR JUST PROFITABLE?
Vanessa WatsonUniversity of Cape Town and African
Centre for Cities
Lagos
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• Africa’s urban population doubles in the next 20 years and triples over the next 40.
• 43% of the urban population li b l th t lilives below the poverty line; 62% live in slums; 60% of urban jobs are informal.
• MDG reports say inequality has increased, child mortality and HIV have declined only slightly.y g y
• There will be 7‐10 m new entrants to the labour market pa, many in cities.
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But things may be changing…..Africa as “The Hopeful Continent” or “the site of the next wave of global economic development”.p
African economies growing faster than Asian economies on the basis of a resource and emerging market boom.
Over 12 years cellphone use has grown from 2% to 70%.The urban middle‐class has tripled over the last 30 years and is now the fastest growing in the world.
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Urban spatial impacts of middle‐class growth:
‐ More cars demanding more road space
‐ More shopping malls
‐ More suburban houses
‐ Changing tastes and life‐styles attuned to western consumer society
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AFRICA AS THE ‘LAST FRONTIER FOR THE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY’ 6
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New plans for Africa’s major cities ‐ high level graphics on the websites of international firms of architects, engineers and property developers.architects, engineers and property developers.
Three types of city plan:
• Full city make‐over• Edge city• Satellite city
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Full city make‐over: Kigale – capital of Rwanda
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By: the Oz Architecture Team (US). Adopted by the Rwandan parliament in 2008 9
Edge city plans – Kinshasa (DRC)
La Cité du Fleuve ‐ Hawkwood Properties, US, (Mukwa Investment Company – US/UK)“This will be a model for the rest of Africa and showcase the new era of African economic development”
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Eko‐Atlantic: on land reclaimed from the sea on the edge of the Lagos CBD
Dar El‐ Handasah Shair + MZ Architects.Head office: Beruit
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Kigambone City – Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) – an eco‐city
Planned: state‐owned Korean company, LH Consortium. Developers: Mi World from Dubai‐United Arabs Emirates and China Hope Limited
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Satellite cities – Luanda (Angola)
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HOPE CITY – SATELLITE OF ACCRA (GHANA)
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Nairobi’s satellite cities: KonzaTechno City
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Kibera informal settlement (Nairobi): 2030 metro plan
Plan and reality…..
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Rationales – real and imagined
What is driving this (largely post 2008) scramble for AfricanWhat is driving this (largely post‐2008) scramble for African urban real‐estate?
‐ Profit, untapped markets, consumerism‐ World class city status (symbolic power)‐ Smart city and eco city rhetoric
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What makes ‘world class cities’?
Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources and TourismProf Maghembe said: g“the government decided to revoke the protection of historical buildings and monuments to pave the way for the construction of high‐rise structures that would help to boost economic growth.As you are aware, we are transforming from a poor country into a middle income nation, and this cannot be realised by keeping old buildings intact.The demolished buildings will be replaced by high rise buildings that will speedThe demolished buildings will be replaced by high‐rise buildings that will speed up economic growth”.
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WINNERS AND LOSERS:
Africa can learn from elsewhereGujarat International Finance & Tech City ‐ Ahmedabad
elsewhere
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Most obvious impact is eviction and spatial marginalization as both the poor and real‐estate developers seek well‐located urban land.
Evictions taking place in Kigale, Addis, Dar, Lagos.
Loss of peri‐urban land in Kinshasa, Nairobi, Luanda…The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again.
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Satellite city plans considered to occupy ‘empty land’ but this land is i it bl f d dinevitably farmed or used for grazing.
Owners rarely have title d d l d b i
Konza satellite city (Nairobi) –structures within a 10km radius
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deeds, land may be in customary holding.
marked for destruction.2km buffer (cordon sanitaire?) around the town for ‘wildlife’.
State spending on infrastructure will be skewed in the direction of the new urban developments and away from the existing poorer parts of the cities.
Tax base and spending power of the middle‐class lost to the
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class lost to the existing city.
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Growing urban social and spatial inequalities
Distorted planning and expenditure
‘Speculative urbanism’
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Serious environmentalimpacts
Upsurge of property developer interest in African cities hard to counter. It will happen.
Alignment of interests between politicians, middle‐classes and developers.
Problem of growing urban inequalities recognized in the agendas for 2014 World Urban Forum, Habitat 3 and the post‐2015 development agenda.
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development agenda.
Recognition that the market will not address these and state intervention (planning) is required.
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Many bottom‐up efforts in slum upgrade
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Muungano Kabimotoproject ‐ Nairobi
Planning education …
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