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Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South

With regard to low-income settlemnts in Cape Town, it has become apparent that the private relam is prioritised over the public realm. It is essential that we regard the public realm as an integral component of the lives of the people who inhabit this environment. Because of the living conditions, l...

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Main Author: Arnold, Anees
Other Authors: Silverman, Melinda
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Arnold, Anees
author2 Silverman, Melinda
author_browse Arnold, Anees
Silverman, Melinda
author_facet Silverman, Melinda
Arnold, Anees
author_sort Arnold, Anees
collection Thesis
description With regard to low-income settlemnts in Cape Town, it has become apparent that the private relam is prioritised over the public realm. It is essential that we regard the public realm as an integral component of the lives of the people who inhabit this environment. Because of the living conditions, large portions of people's lives are conducted outside of this prioritised private realm. It is evident that public spaces within these environments become neglected due to a lack of ownership and management. The intention of this research is to find strategies of enhancing public life through encouraging shared open spaces – the urban commons. This thesis is process driven as opposed to product driven. The objective is to determine a replicable strategy that possesses generic solutions as well as providing strategies to address the specific. These strategies are explored and hypothetically tested using Delft South, Western Cape, as a site. With regard to the public spaces the present condition of the public spaces are not dissimilar to that in other areas of the same socioeconomic condition in South Africa. The public spaces have been neglected and there is limited space to provide additional public spaces within these areas. Therefore this dissertation explores the possibility of activating existing residual open spaces as well as neglected parks. It aims to use these as opportunities to provide shared public spaces nestled within neighbourhoods to meet the needs of the respective communities. Ultimately, the objective of this thesis is to develop a series of strategies which can be applied to specific conditions. This is to be to be done by interrogating my own design processes with the objective of being able to reorder it in a suitable manner. Specific to Delft South the areas positioned away from the active Main Road require attention. For the case of this thesis theses areas are referred to the backquarters and I have highlighted it as my interest of concern An introduction to my interest of adding new life to the public back quarters through enhancing the neglected open spaces. I will start off by problematising public spaces in low-income suburbs to outline the underlying issues specific to South Africa. This is followed by general principles that public spaces should embody. A large section, thereafter, will analyse the spatial structure of Delft South and how it is being inhabited. This analysis was done using various exercises to get both a quantitative and qualitative understanding. Using this as a basis, desired outcomes are explained in the chapter following this. All of these aspects are used to inform the architectural interventions.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:33.643Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
publisherStr School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/23036 Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South Arnold, Anees Silverman, Melinda Isaacs, Fadly Louw, Mike Architecure and Planning With regard to low-income settlemnts in Cape Town, it has become apparent that the private relam is prioritised over the public realm. It is essential that we regard the public realm as an integral component of the lives of the people who inhabit this environment. Because of the living conditions, large portions of people's lives are conducted outside of this prioritised private realm. It is evident that public spaces within these environments become neglected due to a lack of ownership and management. The intention of this research is to find strategies of enhancing public life through encouraging shared open spaces – the urban commons. This thesis is process driven as opposed to product driven. The objective is to determine a replicable strategy that possesses generic solutions as well as providing strategies to address the specific. These strategies are explored and hypothetically tested using Delft South, Western Cape, as a site. With regard to the public spaces the present condition of the public spaces are not dissimilar to that in other areas of the same socioeconomic condition in South Africa. The public spaces have been neglected and there is limited space to provide additional public spaces within these areas. Therefore this dissertation explores the possibility of activating existing residual open spaces as well as neglected parks. It aims to use these as opportunities to provide shared public spaces nestled within neighbourhoods to meet the needs of the respective communities. Ultimately, the objective of this thesis is to develop a series of strategies which can be applied to specific conditions. This is to be to be done by interrogating my own design processes with the objective of being able to reorder it in a suitable manner. Specific to Delft South the areas positioned away from the active Main Road require attention. For the case of this thesis theses areas are referred to the backquarters and I have highlighted it as my interest of concern An introduction to my interest of adding new life to the public back quarters through enhancing the neglected open spaces. I will start off by problematising public spaces in low-income suburbs to outline the underlying issues specific to South Africa. This is followed by general principles that public spaces should embody. A large section, thereafter, will analyse the spatial structure of Delft South and how it is being inhabited. This analysis was done using various exercises to get both a quantitative and qualitative understanding. Using this as a basis, desired outcomes are explained in the chapter following this. All of these aspects are used to inform the architectural interventions. 2017-01-25T13:50:15Z 2017-01-25T13:50:15Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MArch (Prof) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23036 eng application/pdf School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Architecure and Planning
Arnold, Anees
Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
title_full Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
title_fullStr Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
title_full_unstemmed Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
title_short Activating the back-quarters: strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of Delft South
title_sort activating the back quarters strategies of acupuncture for the neglected open spaces of delft south
topic Architecure and Planning
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23036
work_keys_str_mv AT arnoldanees activatingthebackquartersstrategiesofacupuncturefortheneglectedopenspacesofdelftsouth