Site visits

Site Visit 1: Spatial Transformation in the Voortrekker Road Corridor Integration Zone (VRCIZ)

The VRCIZ is one of the City of Cape Town’s three spatial integration zones. Join us for a visit to the Western part of the VRCIZ as we engage with the municipality’s plans for the VRCIZ and reflect on the role of strategic parcels of vacant land for the advancement of the spatial transformation agenda in Cape Town.

Lead: Mercy Brown-Luthango

Maximum participants: 40

Site Visit 2: Philippi Horticultural Area: Contested spaces, contested perspectives

The Philippi Horticultural Area is an area of over 3000 hectares, encircled by the City of Cape Town. The area is unique in that it falls outside the so-called urban edge of the city. The area plays a significant role in the supply of fresh vegetables to the City, and yet it is an area of significant contestation. This site visit will present recent research on the area while at the same time pose critical questions about urban food governance and the role that cities play in the urban food system

Lead: Gareth Haysom and Inken Oldsen-thor Straten

Maximum participants: 40

Site Visit 3: The Cape Town food system: Actors, agents and food access

Cape Town’s food system is complex. Through visits to the Epping Fresh Produce Market and the Bellville Public Transport Interchange, this excursion will provide views into how central food is to the city’s food system, and how most city departments, from planning to health, from transport to local economic development, from law enforcement to environment, play an unrecognised but direct role in the functioning of the food system. In Cape Town, no government department is responsible for the food system. 

Maximum participants:  15

Lead: Robyn Park-Ross

Site Visit 4: Transit-Oriented Development in Cape Town: Maitland Station

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has become a priority for spatial transformation and accessibility in Cape Town. This site visit will explore the concept of TOD in Cape Town by looking at the case of Maitland Station, an inner city train station that is growing in importance as a multi-modal hub and has been identified by the property market as a potential area for higher density redevelopment. The visit will examine the conflict between different geographic scales of justice, the transport justice related to more equitable metropolitan accessibility and the local injustice of the gentrification that creating TOD may induce. 

Leads: Craig Davies and Sean Cooke
 

Site Visit 5: Cultural Heritage and Just Cities

Cape Town has embraced the identity of a creative city, particularly in relation to design. This has resulted in a thriving art and design market on the one hand, and culture-based gentrification on the other, revealing multiple urban tensions and trade-offs. This site visit will take the form of a walk, largely through District exploring a range of cultural sites, spaces and markers. 

Please note that space in this site visit is limited and will be entirely based on walking for around 3 hours. 

Lead: Vaughn Sadie

Maximum participants:  25

Site Visit 6: The politics of public space and contested residential agendas 

Cape Town has seen increasing struggles over municipally owned spaces – including parks, green spaces, and residential and business stock. Sea Point is one neighbourhood where these contestations have come to the fore – from struggles around social housing and controversies around public art and public spaces. This site visit will involve exploring the Seapoint promenade as a site of socio-spatial and cultural struggle.

Lead: Alicia Fortuin   

Maximum participants:  35