A model for integrated, high-rise urban living : learning from Durban's beachfront

Abstract

This study explores the potential of architecture, specifically the residential high-rise, to act as an instrument of spatial justice. It does so by raising a socio-spatial lens to the flats on Durban Beachfront and to the diverse people who inhabit these blocks today. As the research illustrates, the status quo in the study area stands contrary to persistent economic and racial residential segregation in South Africa, thereby challenging low-density development in the country—still the norm 25 years after apartheid. Framed around the notion of spatial justice and the Right to the City, theoretical investigations consider the relationship between inequality and city form, and the role that new housing should play in moving from fragmented to integrated city fabric. The living environments found on Durban Beachfront are counterposed with contemporary housing in South Africa and abroad, to establish what activates ‘the commons’ and to better understand the advantages, disadvantages, and potentialities of vertical urban living. The dissertation interrogates the high-rise building in terms of its suitability for human habitation, the residential density enabled by height, and the possibilities it engenders for meaningful contact and diverse living. Combining interviews and observational data in an ethnographic approach, the study moves between different types of analysis—descriptive, analytical, and normative—to unlock the operational complexity embedded in this unique place and learn about its successes and failures from the user perspective. Immersive fieldwork comprised 101 questionnaire-based interviews, selfadministered in participants’ flats, enquiring into their dwelling experience at four spatial scales, from Individual to Neighbourhood. Results confirmed the human diversity present in this urban strip and found high satisfaction levels across the board, regardless of demographic profile or moderating factors such as floor level, indoor density, or relationship between occupants. Findings reaffirm the improved quality of life that results from inner-city convenience; access to quality public space and nature; and the peace of mind offered by a secure high-rise in a high-crime society. I develop a term, ‘verticolopa’, to describe a high-rise, high-density structure that combines climatically and culturally responsive architectural design with new social landscapes to optimise vertical urban living in this context. The dissertation ends on a normative note, with a set of design guidelines for a new model of mixed-use, mixed-tenure, mixedincome urban housing—the ideal type Verticolapa—which promises real possibilities for urban living that is integrated, affordable, accessible, attractive, and which takes Anthropocene challenges into account.