Place, Urban Design and Poverty: Lessons from a comparison of Cape Town and Ahmedabad

Abstract

The paper selectively reports on aspects of a research project conducted over several years aimed at a comparative evaluation of a number of local areas drawn from two cities: Ahmedabad, in the State of Gujarat, India; and Cape Town in the Western Cape Region of South Africa. The purpose of the project was to derive a set of understandings that are useful in the making of place and settlements in developing countries.The research was undertaken as a consequence of the growing realization that urban problems facing cities in the global north and south are, in many respects, very different (ironically, with accelerating globalization, in some respects and increasingly, cities of the north are having to face many of the problems of the developing world, albeit at a different scale). Not least of the differences is that, in developed countries, the primary urban problem is that of renewal in the face of relatively static, or even declining, population, while in developing countries it is primarily one of accommodating rapid rates of new urban growth. The issue of making and managing new settlements is high on the developmental agenda in the global south. Despite these differences, most of the published urban design precedent stems from the more developed countries. There has been insufficient cross-cultural learning between less developed countries. The project has made some contribution in this regard.The methodology utilized in the research is set out and illustrated by selected material relating to Ahmedabad only, since the paper does not afford sufficient space to also illustrate the work undertaken in Cape Town. The paper then dwells on some of the significant lessons learned across many dimensions of place, urban design, urban structure and the density/grain of urban fabric. In the process, there are considerations reflecting on aspects of livability, livelihood generation, formality and informality, in contexts where poverty is relatively endemic.