GRAFT

“Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract – sustainable development – and make it into

GRAFT, means to unite and implant new ideas on small scale urban agriculture and how it can inform place making, housing and the nautral environment...

a daily reality for all the world’s people” -Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, March 2001

/ ENT

CAPE TOWN 2012

3,076

CURRENT HOUSEHOLDS IN SCOTTSDENE

15,875 SCOTTSDENE RESIDENTS

1500 CURRENT DENSITY OF PEOPLE PER KM²

17% STAY IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

1 in 4

84%

ARE UNEMPLOYED IN SCOTTSDENE

TRAINED NONPROFFESSIONAL JOBS

WHAT IF 225 WE COULD L

OF WATER / PERSON PER DAY

Category:

573kg OF WASTE GENERATED PER PERSON PER YEAR

26% INCOME IS BELOW THE POVERTY LINE

Urban Agriculture Housing and shelter Hous Public space

?

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

EMPOWER OURSELVES

DEVELOPER LED GROWTH

1

2

URBAN AGRICULTURE OUR OW N

D

CIAL C SO

PERC EIV E

PLACE MAKING AND INCLUSIVE HOUSING

SOCIAL

L ITA AP

4

AL PIT CA

SELF-GOVERNING COMMUNITY

$

NGO EXISTING SCENARIO

3

FOOD SECURITY/ SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

SELF- ORGANIZED SYSTEM

1

1 / Community Engagement 1//SOCIAL INNOVATION GRAFT: A new approach to social innovation within urban areas. It is derived from the local agenda where the need to foster innovation, facilitate local

enterprise

and

built

social

capital demands a responsive urban fabric.

Social innovation through

GRAFT is a practise led environmental and housing action group, working with the existing context to initiate new organic food growing systems within the urban context.

Through various nurture conservation projects as the basis of sustainable lifestyles, GRAFT promotes building social capital, self-help job creation, poverty alleviation, local food security and urban renewal. Secondly GRAFT informs local Government and Housing development companies on its livelihood activities as a key influence for sustainable and resilient urban development. Community engagement occurs on multiple levels between various participants and actors to achieve the core principles of GRAFT:

a self-organised system of people, agriculture, space making, housing and governance.

GRAFT is community: strengthening existing social engagement within the community, while re-establishing existing links between residents in formalised social housing and informal dwellings.

GRAFT with “agri-urban” NGO’s [Abalimi Bezekhaya and Soil for Life]: shared expertise and practical capacity building for regional solutions with urban agriculture; to establish a local seed exchange program with active food banks, providing food security for the City of Cape Town.

GRAFT with adjacent Stellenbosch farmers: capacity building through shared knowledge of commercial agriculture and neighbouring conservation, generating new income opportunities for the local community of Scottsdene.

2 / Community Engagement

GRAFT with professional team/ academics: with support from the professionals / academics in the built environment, GRAFT themselves are empowered to play the critical role in initiating growth, housing and long term sustainability within Scottsdene.

The critical engagement between GRAFT, local government and the project team is key to the success of community led resilient urban design.

ESS

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2

2 / ACTIONS FOR A RESPONSIVE URBAN FABRIC

SCOTTSDENE

Atlantic Ocean

Urban Edge

Cape Town

Physical Connections: good access and connections are paramount. The pedestrian and vehicular connections between the site and its built and unbuilt surroundings becomes the basis for urban linkage. Provision should be made for all forms of movement, with positive discrimination in favour of existing walking and cycling; responding to the local context.

Place making: traditional place making within Scottsdene focuses on agricultural activity areas, and the public support network therein. Providing this comfortable and stimulating public realm encourages social interaction but requires detailed attention to the structure / phasing and the elements contained in places. This involves detailed surface articulation, for multiple users. Issues of security, public art, street furniture and lighting are further articulated according to the urban context and agricultural land.

Indian Ocean

2//MICRO AND MACRO CONTEXT GRAFT aims to produce more food than the Scottsdene community can consume, sustain jobs and become a regional food bank for Cape Town.

Secondly, GRAFT aims to take urban development and governance in their own hands. “Pastoral”, productive agricultural landscape and energetic,

Allow for densities: higher densities in a compact urban form benefits: a. Social proximity with positive interaction and diversity. Preserves and helps fund maintenance of public open space and amenities. b. Improves quality and access to community services and public amenities. Enables more and better integrated housing; avoiding urban sprawl. c. Enhances economic viability of the project. Provides economies of infrastructure and urban agriculture and supports public transport. d. Increase energy efficiency; decrease resource consumption, waste and pollution.

dense urban landscapes appeared diametrically

opposed,

until

we

develop a shared vision agricultural urbanism” GRAFT.

3 / Urban Design Principles

Public amenities: public facilities should closely correlate with the order of movement and its relationship with agricultural activities. These facilities support the practice of GRAFT. The public amenities further help define a unique character of space within the context of Scottsdene.

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

EMPOWER COMMUNITIES

$

DEVELOPER LED GROWTH

CREATE AND SUSTAIN INCOME OPPORTUNITIES

COMMUNITY LED GROWTH

SUSTAIN FOOD PRODUCTION

PUBLIC / PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TAKE OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC SPACE

NEGATIVE URBAN SPACE

CREATE OWN POSITIVE PUBLIC SPACE BUILD SOCIAL & RECREATIONAL ACTIVITES

EXISTING SCENARIO

3//COMMUNITIES PARTNERSHIPS Alternatives to precarious State or Developer

driven

partnerships

are

proposed. Innovative community led partnerships between GRAFT [broad based the

community

State,

action

Developers

group]

and

stakeholders has been initialised.

other

NEW GRAFT SCENARIO

3

3 / Financial Model

Innovative ideas around financing and mobilising resources for resilient urban development includes three tiers: a. Micro “self-help”: “stokvel”/ household savings from existing agricultural profits. b. Macro: state funds for inclusive housing and infrastructure development through the Urban Settlement Development Grant. Integrated model with subsidy and cross subsidisation for various housing typologies include the National Housing Subsidy, Community Residential Unit subsidy and subsidy from other Social Housing NGO’s. c. External: private sector investments in housing, public amenities and space making.

“Self-help” financed small scale food production in existing gardens with local labour/ skills [social capital], own equipment and farming knowledge is the corner stone for the financial model. Pockets of existing land have been earmarked and will be supplied/ financed by the State. The importance and allocation of land to communal ownership will be done with GRAFT. Any external funding, will contribute mainly towards GRAFT’s start-up capital for purchasing better seed, material for public space place making elements and food nutrition/ urban agricultural programmes.

4 / Public / Private Partnership

To sustain massive small change, GRAFT envisages urban agricultural space making initiatives and ongoing formations of public/ private and private/ private partnerships as essential concepts. GRAFT attempts to put in place an innovative “top down” approach to partnerships that is more “open” from the “bottom up” for responses by a range of urban actors. It essentially allows the community to become the main actor in urban development and to establish a “needs list” to guide planning, design and implementation of the development of Scottsdene.

4 / Financial Model

L RMA INFO GS IN LL DWE

ISED MAL FOR GS LLIN DWE

DGE

AN E

URB ED L POS INFIL PRO ENE D S T T SCO S

T POR EX. S S FIELD

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ARM EX. F

4/5//CONNECTIONS Multiple connections are achieved, both physically and visually, between

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

MAKE CONNECTIONS

existing community members. GRAFT brings

together

the

4

community,

local government and local farming communities.

Movement through space creates a

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES

continuity of experience. This is derived from the nature and form of the spaces through which the movement occurs.

This is key to the concept of movement

2084

TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT

NEW RESIDNETIAL UNITS

as a system that dominates organising force in architectural and urban design.

CONNECTING LOCAL FARMERS

17%

STAY IN INFORMAL DWELLINGS

?

30MIN

DRIVING DISTANCE TO CAPE TOWN CITY

CAPE TOWN

STELLENBOSCH FARMS

SCOTTSDENE

15MIN

WALKING TIME TO STELLENBOSCH FARMLANDS

5

5 / Images // Drawings

EXISTING SCENARIO

NEW GRAFT SCENARIO

1 6

6/7//RESILIENT PLACE MAKING Spaces and places are defined by GRAFT related activities, where urban

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

MAKE RESILIENT PLACES AND SPACES

agriculture is a key tool in developing the local context.

The intervention is an infill that provides continuity within the public structure,

22,089m²

44178

NEW AREA OF PRODUCTIVE URBAN LANDSCAPE

1

which integrates public space with

SUPPORT PEOPLE AND PROVIDING FOOD SECURITY

urban agriculture. A variety of scales and elements are implemented to create a hierarchy of spaces; these range from public, semi-private and private.

3,076

CURRENT HOUSEHOLDS IN SCOTTSDENE

2

2084

NEW RESIDENTIAL UNITS

15,875

SCOTTSDENE

RESIDENTS

3

6252

SUPPORTING NEW RESIDENTS

7

6 / Images // Drawings

EXISTING SCENARIO

NEW GRAFT SCENARIO

L RMA INFO GS IN LL DWE

ISED MAL FOR GS LLIN DWE

DGE

AN E

URB ED L POS INFIL PRO ENE D S T T SCO S

T POR EX. S S FIELD

BONDED HOUSING [private funded] GAP HOUSING [part subsidised] HYBRID HOUSING [gap/social/fully subsidised] URBAN AGRICULTURE PUBLIC AMENITIES

S

LAND

ARM EX. F

8/9//DESIGNING FOR DENSITIES A range of inclusive housing typologies is proposed in order to accommodate

8

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

DESIGN FOR A MIXTURE OF DENSITIES / OPPORTUNITIES

the greatest possible range of income groups and housing preferences. It is critical that densities are increased in order to sustain public facilities. With the establishment of this dense centre, better urban services, public transport and complexed living environments are created where peripheral sprawl is contained. GRAFT attempts to sustain

1 in 4

1

52%

OF FOOD PRODUCED WILL ALLOW FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

ARE UNEMPLOYED IN SCOTTSDENE

a critical mass thereby sustaining a resilient urban environment.

2 GENERIC HOUSING TYPOLOGIES

1500

CURRENT DENSITY OF PEOPLE PER KM²

7 / Images // Drawings

EXISTING SCENARIO

MIX A RANGE OF NEW HOUSING TYPOLOGIES AND TENURE

3

2100

PROPOSED DENSITY OF PEOPLE PER KM² NEW GRAFT SCENARIO

9

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10

10/11//PUBLIC AMENITIES Public

amenities

provided

revolve

around the concept of urban agriculture,

WHAT IF WE COULD ?

SUSTAIN PUBLIC AMMENITIES

to sustain the community of Scottsdene.

Facilities should be located as an integral

part

of

the

urban

fabric

providing continuity and coherence to the urban realm. Furthermore public amenities should contribute towards urban definition, creating edges, axis

573kg

OF WASTE GENERATED PER PERSON PER YEAR

POSITIVE HOUSING TYPOLOGIES WITH RECREATION AMMENITIES RECYCLING WASTE / PROVIDING INCOME

and habitable spaces. Rather than grouping public amenities, they are distributed throughout.

DISLOCATED PUBLIC AMMENITIES AND COMMUNITY

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES TO PUBLIC AMMENITIES

22,089m² URBAN AGRICULTURE FOR FOOD SECURITY

84%

TRAINED NONPROFFESSIONAL JOBS

8 / Images // Drawings

EXISTING SCENARIO

52%

OF FOOD PRODUCED TO BE STORED IN FOODBANK OR PROVIDE INCOME NEW GRAFT SCENARIO

11