Public Interest Design in South Africa

This book presents salient examples of architectural projects and practices in South Africa since 1994 that collectively subscribe to the paradigm shift towards Public Interest Design. Despite radical political transformation in the country, the people of South Africa remain adversely affected by the socio-spatial legacies of a segregated urban landscape. The contributions by architects to address these challenges go largely unnoticed and remain a marginalised practice, even within the mainstream profession.

Kim’s (2018) Conceptual Taxonomy, along with relevant themes of Spatial Agency (Awan et al 2011) are unpacked in terms of the South African context, learning from a selection of local architectural examples. Projects include the Warwick Markets in eThekwini, the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrade programme in Cape Town, projects undertaken by Carin Smuts of CS Studios, as well as a collection of smaller but impactful interventions across the country. The selection illustrates the deliberate and necessary shift from a culture of segregation, fortification and private interest, to one of intense collaboration, democratic engagement and responsive design thinking.

Serving as a microcosm of the challenges to integration and democracy faced by society globally, this book will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of architecture, urban planning, and development studies in South Africa, but also internationally.