Unused private and public buildings: Re-discussing merely empty and truly abandoned situations, with particular reference to the case of Italy and the city of Milan

There is much debate today over the problem of unused buildings. This debate is often conducted in alarmed and concerned tones. Our idea is that it is indispensable to reconsider the issue with greater critical reflection and some necessary distinctions: in particular, between situations and aspects relating to public buildings and situations and aspects relating to private buildings; and, within the latter category, between totally natural and legitimate situations and truly problematic ones. To this end, we shall focus on definitory issues, quantitative issues, ethical issues and policy issues. We shall do so with particular attention to the Italian situation, which we believe is especially challenging, and to a specific case study, the city of Milan. However, part of what we shall say also applies to other contexts

RESIDENTIAL DESEGREGATION DYNAMICS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CITY OF POLOKWANE (PIETERSBURG)

This paper revisits the city of Pietersburg more than ten years after the repealing of the Group Areas Act in order to determine the extent to which the socio-spatial impress of apartheid segregation has been changed. The socio-spatial changes that have taken place in the city were brought about mainly through residential desegregation. The scrapping of the Group Areas Act in 1991 saw the movement of blacks into the city's former white, Indian and coloured suburbs. Initially the percentage in this regard was low: in 1992 the city's suburbs were one per cent desegregated. Ten years later, the city's desegregation level had increased to 32 per cent. In all neigbourhoods except three, the number of black property-owners had doubled. New Pietersburg remained undeveloped until informal squatters invaded it in the 1990s after the fall of apartheid. This area was earmarked for the development of low-income housing units in the 1997 Land Development Objectives. More than 300 land claims were lodged at the time. Because of the complexity of land claims and urban restructuring, the problem was still unresolved by 2005. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd..