Exploring the effectiveness of in situ upgrading on improving the quality of life : a case study of Slovo Park informal settlement

Abstract: Globally, the urban population is predicted to reach 6.5 billion by 2050. Various studies have shown that in sub-Saharan Africa approximately 14 million people migrate to urban areas every year. Of this number, about 61.7% live in informal settlements. It was predicted that the developing countries alone will constitute about 80% of the global urban population by 2030. Informal settlements have been a recurring problem in South Africa. Failure to eradicate informal settlement in South Africa has shifted the focus to an attempt to improve the quality of life for residents of informal settlements. This study is inspired by the introduction of Upgrading Informal Settlement Programme as an intervention to eradicate informality in human settlements. Thus, the study is set out to explore the effectiveness of in situ upgrading in improving the quality of life of beneficiaries living in informal settlement, studying Slovo Park informal settlement...M.Eng. ( Sustainable Urban Planning and Development

The Privatisation of a National Project

In Israel, the development of new settlements is a leading national project. This began in the turn of the 20th century as national Zionist organisations established new frontier settlements in Palestine, in the efforts to secure the territory needed for a future state and to encourage a spiritual national renaissance. With its establishment in 1948, the young state of Israel took over the process, continuing the pre-state settlement endeavours of securing spatial control while endorsing a new unified national identity. Accordingly, the state promoted, directed, and executed the construction of a series of rural and industrial settlements that corresponded with the national geopolitical agenda and the hegemonic socialisation policy. Consequently, the architectural and urban features of these settlements were parallel to the ruling political, economic and social values and were thus characterised by reproduced homogeneous and economical residential environments. During the 1970s, the monolithic state-led development began to transform with the growing privatisation of the Israeli economy. These transformations reached a point of no return with the election of the first liberal and anti-socialist government in 1977; eventually turning into a national consensus. At the same time, the state did not abandon its geopolitical agenda and the attempts of securing spatial control through settlement. Nevertheless, it began dismantling its monopoly over the establishment of new localities, granting selected group spatial privileges and thus turning them into spatial agents that develop the frontier on its behalf. Initially, the privatisation of the national settlement project began with ex-urban and suburban communities, serving favoured societal groups. Eventually, with the growing involvement of private capital, it turned into a large-scale corporate-led development venture, dictated by financial interests while fulfilling geopolitical objectives. Privatisation, neoliberalism and market-economy are usually used as an antithesis to state involvement, regulation and nationalism. Conversely, this dissertation illustrates that the privatisation of the national territorial project was a statedirected effort intended to align the geopolitical agenda with the prevailing neoliberal order; using the market-economy as a means to enhance the state’s control over space. This dissertation focuses on the border area with the occupied Palestinian West-Bank, the Green-Line. Scarcely populated in the first three decades after the establishment of Israel, this area witnessed an ever-growing state-directed development effort following the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. Developed by an increasing private involvement, this area constitutes a unique case study on the relationship between geopolitics and market economy; marked by the construction of the first privately developed national infrastructure project in the early 2000s – the Trans-Israel Highway. To understand the privatisation of this national project since 1977, this dissertation proposes focusing on the settlement mechanism. This comprises the reciprocal interests of the state and various private groups to develop and domesticate the frontier area of the Green-Line. Centring on the spatial privileges the state granted diverse spatial agents, this dissertation examines how different favoured groups were given the power to colonise, plan, develop and market space in return for enhancing the state’s power over it. Investigating how this settlement mechanism transformed over the years, including a variety of spatial agents and diverse spatial privileges, this research explores the increasing privatisation of the local economy and culture, as well as the manner in which it was manifested in the built environment. Examining the modifications in the architectural and urban products this mechanism produced, this research analyses the materialisation of the privatised national settlement project and how it transformed together with the changing political and economic interests. Focusing on the area along the Green-Line, this dissertation starts with examining the Community Settlements of the late 1970s and then moves to the Suburban Settlements of the 1980s. Examining both phenomena, the dissertation explains how their ex-urban and suburban qualities corresponded with the granted spatial privileges, forming a geopolitical tool intended to domesticate the Green-Line. Subsequently, the dissertation concentrates on the mass suburbanisation of the 1990s and the financialisation of the 2000s. Examining both stages, this dissertation illustrates how the state asked to domesticate the frontier by turning it into a real estate market; directing investment while securing the developers’ profitability and rentability concerns. Observing these four stages, this dissertation examines the gradual privatisation of the settlement mechanism. Analysing the different settlement phenomena, this research explains how the transforming individual and corporate interests were manifested in the built environment. Eventually, enabling the continuation of the national geopolitical agenda by tying it to the rationale of the market; replacing the former monolithic state-led development by uniform and reproduced corporate-led projects

The Privatisation of a National Project:

The settlements along the Trans-Israel Highway illustrate the privatisation of the national settlement enterprise. To understand this process, this dissertation focuses on the settlement production mechanism, which consists of the reciprocal interests of the government and various private groups to develop and domesticate the border area between the State of Israel and the occupied West-Bank -  the Green-Line. Centring on the spatial privileges the state granted to diverse spatial agents, this dissertation examines the manner in which different favoured groups were given the power to colonise, plan, develop and market space as a means to enhance the state’s power over it. Investigating the gradual transformation of this production mechanism, this dissertation explores the increasing privatisation of the local economy and culture, as well as how this was manifested in the built environment. Examining the modifications in the architectural and urban products this mechanism produced, this dissertation analyses the materialisation of the privatised national settlement project and how it transformed together with the changing political and economic interests

Designing a Framework for Exchanging Partial Sets of BIM Information on a Cloud-Based Service

The rationale behind this research study was based on the recognised difficulty of exchanging data at element or object level due to the inefficiencies of compatible hardware and software. Interoperability depicts the need to pass data between applications, allowing multiple types of experts and applications to contribute to the work at hand. The only way that software file exchanges between two applications can produce consistent data and change management results for large projects is through a building model repository. The overall aim of this thesis was to design and develop an integrated process that would advance key decisions at an early design stage through faster information exchanges during collaborative work. In the construction industry, Building Information Modeling is the most integrated shared model between all disciplines. It is based on a manufacturing-like process where standardised deliverables are used throughout the life cycle with effective collaboration as its main driving force. However, the dilemma is how to share these properties of BIM applications on one single platform asynchronously. Cloud Computing is a centralized heterogeneous network that enables different applications to be connected to each other. The methodology used in the research was based on triangulation of data which incorporated many techniques featuring a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The results identified the need to re-engineer Simplified Markup Language, in order to exchange partial data sets of intelligent object architecture on an integrated platform. The designed and tested prototype produced findings that enhanced project decisions at a relatively early design stage, improved communication and collaboration techniques and cross disciple co-ordination

Politics and Community-Based Research

Politics and Community-Based Research: Perspectives from Yeoville Studio, Johannesburg offers a substantive and compelling analysis for a diverse readership interested in urban politics, community mapping and the built environment. The book draws on a critical reflection of Yeoville Studio, a research project conducted by Wits University academics from a diversity of disciplinary backgrounds, together with community partners and postgraduate students. A collection of vignettes portraying people and places in Yeoville interwoven with theoretically analytical chapters, it explores the politics of community research at a neighbourhood scale in its multiple facets, and will resonate with similar contested and complex neighbourhoods across the world. The mix of analysis, vignettes, photographs, architectural design and graphics builds the discussion in engaging, rich and integrated ways, to capture the many participatory approaches taken to this city-community studio

Bringing Nordic mathematics education into the future : Preceedings of Norma 20 : The ninth Nordic conference on mathematics education Oslo, 2021

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Bringing Nordic mathematics education into the future : Preceedings of Norma 20 : The ninth Nordic conference on mathematics education Oslo, 2021

This volume presents Nordic mathematics education research, which will be presented at the Ninth Nordic Conference on Mathematics Education, NORMA 20, in Oslo, Norway, in June 2021. The theme of NORMA 20 regards what it takes or means to bring Nordic mathematics education into the future, highlighting that mathematics education is continuous and represents stability just as much as change.publishedVersio