Abstract

The city of Cape Town, South Africa is an economically prosperous and dynamic city that has all of the elements and luxuries of a highly successful community. However, less than an hour outside of this thriving city is a multitude of informal settlements beset with problems of poverty, corruption, crime, disease and other hardships. Over the last 20 years the City of Cape Town has been struggling to devise new ways to support the informal settlements surrounding the city. The problems informal settlements face are directly related to the NAE Grand Challenges themes of sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living. This project investigates how local economic activity in Cape Town's informal settlements can grow and expand with an emphasis on community-based redevelopment and eco-village principles. Community-based redevelopment considers aspects of sustainable housing development and energy, urban planning, local community communications, and water and sanitation. Through the redevelopment process people are able to develop technical skills, leadership skills, and grow as a community in order to improve their quality of life. Working with NGO's, the City of Cape Town, fellow students, and local members of the informal settlement Monwabisi Park, the project team proposes a comprehensive plan for stimulating job creation and skills development through an overall community redevelopment effort. The project team explains the logistics of managing the redevelopment process within the community and provides a strategy for allocating resources to make this community-based process a success.

Submission Document

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