From Fragmentation to Compaction? The Case of Durban, South Africa

Abstract

Introduction The concept of compact cities has been influential in academic and policy circles in South Africa, and has informed the spatial development frameworks formulated in the 1990s. However, the compact city idea has had to be modified in important ways in the South African context in order to respond to the realities of the inherited urban form (namely, racially divided and spatially fragmented cities), and to emerging social, political and economic forces. As policy has moved towards implementation it has become evident that the vast majority of the black urban poor will remain within the townships and informal settlements on the urban periphery. This acceptance has shifted the focus away from compaction through ‘infill’ and ‘densification’ within the urban core, to strategies to upgrade and improve black residential areas internally, and to link and integrate them more effectively to the core.

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