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As the imperative to deliver vast numbers of houses grows by the day, the interpretation of traditional values becomes increasingly threatened. Whereas globalisation elevates a singular purpose of economic utility, claiming local practice may afford a basis for both a redress of past injustice and the reconstructing of civil society. Currently, contemporary society is faced with multiple contradictions. The approach privileges a policy driven, economic-quantitative housing model and realises impoverished living environments for poor communities. Despite the claims embedded in various policy driven initiatives of the post apartheid African National Congress government, the current delivery of housing in South Africa remains a quantitative and reductive endeavour. Originating in a desire for justice and democracy, the 9th statement of the Freedom Charter, 'there shall be housing, security and comfort' aspires toward a more equitable society in which difference comfortably co-exists. State agencies, such as the National Building Research Institute, produced impoverished dwelling environments which conflicted with the culture and practices of local/black people. The Afrikaner nationalist government's policy of 'setting apart' contributed in constructing a built environment that was characterised by both segregation and a concomitant absence of diversity. In locating a range of competing projects, the paper will identify emerging and piecemeal sensibilities to design that rely on an individual architect's interpretation with both negative and positive consequences for urban renewal.'Īs the physical manifestation of a set of power relations, space represents perhaps, the greatest legacy of the apartheid state. This paper will attempt to locate urban design attributes in the spatial transformation in South African cities and Cape Town in particular. By working within this framework, the experiences of project implementation is contributing interpretative capacity through both realisation and post occupancy of projects. However, a clear and distinguishable role for urban design has begun to emerge through the mechanism of the City's Muni-Spatial Development Framework. ‘State’ projects, in particular, attract limited budgets and must compete within the general laissez faire attitude to the development process that favours the private sector.
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The limitations of budgets, professional capacity and community participation each influence design interpretation and consequently the final ability to deliver. However, the contest between conflicting interests has not necessarily contributed to desirable public outcomes. In contemporary South Africa, urban design has the potential to transform the spatial legacy of apartheid, and thereby to contribute to social and economic reconciliation.