AC Batchelor
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Sustaining livability and a sense of place in a changing South African urban context - an environmental management pilot case study AC Batchelor orcid.org 0000-0002-6429-463X Mini-dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Environmental Management at the North-West University Supervisor: Prof JA du Pisani Graduation May 2018 23125268 1 Quotes: Livability concerns a state of meaningful life-experience within an environment that is safe and life sustaining, where social and political stability prevails and where people can relate to their social and spatial life-context with a positive sense of place and place attachment. Livability implies a context where people can access and cope with their real and tangible, as well as their remembered and perceived intangible realities (author‘s definition inspired by various sources 2017). Place is a geographical space that is defined by meanings, sentiments and stories, rather than by a set of co-ordinates. As a phenomenological concept, place is powerful both theoretically and practically because it offers a way to articulate more precisely the experienced wholeness of people-in-the-world, which phenomenologists call the lifeworld – the everyday world of taken-for-grantedness normally unnoticed and thus concealed as a phenomenon. This phenomenon is integral to human life and place holds lifeworlds together spatially and environmentally, marking out centres of human meaning, intention and comportment that, in turn, help make a place (Relph 1976). Sense of place (or genius loci), involves a concern for the familiar and implies a sense of belonging, rootedness, stability and identity (Horn 1998). The sense of place experience is determined by the physical context and also springs from the perceived intangible context and the sum of the social energy and agency that forms the collective consciousness (Giddens 1984). The sense of place is, in the end, the result of a complex mixture of physical, social and personal factors – the choices we make, the attitudes we assume, and the extent to which we seek quality place experiences for ourselves and promote them for others (Steele 1981). Identification is the basis for man‘s sense of belonging and ‗dwelling‘ means belonging to a concrete place [home] (Norberg-Schulz 1976). To say that mortals are, is to say that, in dwelling they persist through spaces by virtue of their story among things and locations (Heidegger trans. 1962). It is evident that the eye is educated by the things it sees from childhood on (Goethe 1786). 2 Transforming space to place implies an open accountable process during which people can influence decision-making about how and what their physical spaces should become (Strydom and Puren 2014). Sense of place can be enhanced and strengthened through appropriate architecture and townscape planning and appropriate design of streetscapes, buildings and avenues. Yet it can be impacted upon and compromised through interventions such as destruction of features within the tangible landscape/townscape as well as through disturbance of the intangible surrounds (Loots 2014). We have to transform to create walkability, equity and sustainability, but we also have to protect to create identity … towards a densified city that is sustainable, liveable and memorable (Loots 2017). Keywords: South African urban case study, livability, sense of place, sustainability, environmental and social management, heritage management, Tshwane, Pretoria, Arcadia 3 Table of Contents 1 Introduction: context of study, problem statement, objectives, research questions .......................................................................................................................8 1.1 Arcadia Precinct case study context .................................................................................................. 8 1.1.1 Historical and geographical context ........................................................................................ 8 1.1.2 Lived-experience research – the author ............................................................................... 12 1.2 Outline of the research ..................................................................................................................... 13 1.3 Problem statement ........................................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Objectives of the study and research questions .............................................................................. 17 1.5 Governance context and legislative framework ............................................................................... 18 1.6 Literature review ............................................................................................................................... 27 1.6.1 Purpose of the literature review ............................................................................................ 27 1.6.2 Sources - international .......................................................................................................... 28 1.6.3 Literature - South African ...................................................................................................... 31 2 Methods used in the pilot study ................................................................................ 35 2.1 Approaches used in the research ..................................................................................................... 35 2.2 Type of study .................................................................................................................................... 37 2.3 Case study research ......................................................................................................................... 38 2.4 Empirical study ................................................................................................................................. 41 2.4.1 Developing a model for future action .................................................................................... 48 2.5 Limitations of the study ..................................................................................................................... 49 3 Sense of place, place, livability and sustainability .................................................. 51 3.1 Sense of place and related concepts ............................................................................................... 51 3.1.1 Place ..................................................................................................................................... 51 3.1.2 Sense of place ...................................................................................................................... 51 3.1.3 Place attachment .................................................................................................................. 55 3.1.4 Livability ................................................................................................................................ 56 3.2 Sustainability .................................................................................................................................... 56 3.2.1 Sustain/Sustainable/Sustainability/Sustainable Development ............................................. 56 3.2.2 Sense of place, sustainability and the socio-spatial approach ............................................. 57 3.2.3 Further discussion on strengthening sustainability ............................................................... 58 3.2.4 Comparative research related to sustainability..................................................................... 60 3.2.5 Urban neighbourhood sustainability ..................................................................................... 61 3.2.6 Principles and guidelines associated with sustainability ...................................................... 62 3.2.7 Local and international principles for sustainability .............................................................. 63 3.2.8 Form-based design supporting livability, sense of place and sustainability ......................... 69 4 Analysis of the outcomes of the research ................................................................ 70 4.1 Spatial data: Outcomes of the street-view survey ............................................................................ 70 4.2 Social data: outcomes of stakeholder engagement ......................................................................... 71 4 5 Processes put forward ............................................................................................... 77 5.1 Framework to sustain sense of place in the case study area .......................................................... 77 5.2 Model for future implementation ....................................................................................................... 78 5.2.1 The Urban Profile Process .................................................................................................... 79 5.2.2 Soft-systems methodology ................................................................................................... 80 5.3 Spatial Development Framework and Management plan ................................................................ 81 5.3.1 Spatial Development Framework ......................................................................................... 81 5.3.2 Development-management plan .........................................................................................