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[Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor

This dissertation investigates the urban anchoring of Retreat Road in the Southern Suburbs as a potential transverse connector for the metropolitan urban corridor around Main Road linking Central Cape Town and the Southern Suburbs in the Western Cape of South Africa. Its close proximity to Main Road...

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Main Author: Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind
Other Authors: Comrie, Henri
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind
author2 Comrie, Henri
author_browse Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind
Comrie, Henri
author_facet Comrie, Henri
Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind
author_sort Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind
collection Thesis
description This dissertation investigates the urban anchoring of Retreat Road in the Southern Suburbs as a potential transverse connector for the metropolitan urban corridor around Main Road linking Central Cape Town and the Southern Suburbs in the Western Cape of South Africa. Its close proximity to Main Road makes it into a potential transverse connector providing energy and life to that portion of the metropolitan urban corridor. Even though showing great promise as a possible localised activity strip, the development of Retreat Road seems to have been frozen in time. The awkward geometry of the connection of Retreat Road to Main Road is one of the main causes of this stagnation. To facilitate the flow of energy, this dissertation proposes the realignment of Retreat Road, thus giving birth to a New Retreat Road while at the same time keeping the Old Retreat Road. This new simple geometry also provides the possibility of creating a gateway for Retreat Road on Main Road. Urban anchoring of Retreat Road is investigated through an urban design strategy of a properly structured public realm. Theory along the lines of Dynamic City, The Capital Web and Neo-Rationalism was very useful in understanding the incremental, catalytic and complex nature of urbanism and subsequently the notion of public anchoring. Various case studies and precedents, local ones as far as possible, were consulted with a view to understand the practical application of theory. A significant conclusion drawn from this investigation is that a transverse connector is very crucial in aiming to achieve integration between an urban corridor and the surrounding tissue falling short of the corridor. Transverse connectors are usually associated with nodes or cores of high energy in a corridor. Usually, these cores situate themselves around or next to a transport interchange as an urban anchoring element.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:56.154Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
publisherStr School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7532 [Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind Comrie, Henri This dissertation investigates the urban anchoring of Retreat Road in the Southern Suburbs as a potential transverse connector for the metropolitan urban corridor around Main Road linking Central Cape Town and the Southern Suburbs in the Western Cape of South Africa. Its close proximity to Main Road makes it into a potential transverse connector providing energy and life to that portion of the metropolitan urban corridor. Even though showing great promise as a possible localised activity strip, the development of Retreat Road seems to have been frozen in time. The awkward geometry of the connection of Retreat Road to Main Road is one of the main causes of this stagnation. To facilitate the flow of energy, this dissertation proposes the realignment of Retreat Road, thus giving birth to a New Retreat Road while at the same time keeping the Old Retreat Road. This new simple geometry also provides the possibility of creating a gateway for Retreat Road on Main Road. Urban anchoring of Retreat Road is investigated through an urban design strategy of a properly structured public realm. Theory along the lines of Dynamic City, The Capital Web and Neo-Rationalism was very useful in understanding the incremental, catalytic and complex nature of urbanism and subsequently the notion of public anchoring. Various case studies and precedents, local ones as far as possible, were consulted with a view to understand the practical application of theory. A significant conclusion drawn from this investigation is that a transverse connector is very crucial in aiming to achieve integration between an urban corridor and the surrounding tissue falling short of the corridor. Transverse connectors are usually associated with nodes or cores of high energy in a corridor. Usually, these cores situate themselves around or next to a transport interchange as an urban anchoring element. 2014-09-17T12:16:50Z 2014-09-17T12:16:50Z 2009 Master Thesis Masters MCRP http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7532 eng application/pdf School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Beetul, Sajjiv Ashvind
[Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor
thesis_degree_str Master's
title [Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor
title_full [Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor
title_fullStr [Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor
title_full_unstemmed [Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor
title_short [Urban] anchoring of Retreat Road: The contribution of a [transverse connector] into an urban development corridor
title_sort urban anchoring of retreat road the contribution of a transverse connector into an urban development corridor
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7532
work_keys_str_mv AT beetulsajjivashvind urbananchoringofretreatroadthecontributionofatransverseconnectorintoanurbandevelopmentcorridor