Abstract
Globally, several studies have been commissioned on informal settlements, particularly in cities such as Barcelona, Johannesburg, Cairo and Lagos. Much of the literature on urban informality from several disciplines maintain that informality occurs as a result of globalisation and population exclusions that occur due to development and urbanisation. Besides the prevalence of this phenomenon, there still lacks scholarly work that fully tackles the epistemology behind informal “otherness” of the urban form. Apparent gaps are notable in informal economies and communities which are detached from formal communities and thus, function to a greater or lesser extent without the intervention of formal economies. This research focuses on investigating pathways to transforming informal settlements into sustainable urban neighborhoods. This will further be contextualised under the spatial theme with reference to the urban form of the informal regions. Therefore, the research adopted a mixed method approach making reference to both a quantitative and qualitative research approach by means of a case study research design wherein various spatial planning tools are reviewed pertinent to the research objectives and offered a narrative perspective to the research aim and questions. We further conducted multiple interviews with various role-players as a primary data collection method and a thematic analysis was respectively employed as a tool of analysing the data. The findings indicate that Kaalfontein informal settlement functions as a partial satellite city with sub-cities (Rabie ridge, Winne Mandela and Ivory park) connecting to it, much like Johannesburg. They form behind commercial spaces for the convenience of accessibility. A common trend across these settlements is their informal design typology and the lack of formal masterplans in conjunction to the city’s spatial development initiatives. Proximity to existing economic nodes such as Midrand, Kempton Park, and Sandton, provides a vantage point to both informal, transitioning, and formal urban forms. Across Kaalfontein, the informal urban form comprises natural and formalised street layouts. The erven are densely divided and are often influenced by the spatial landscape and density of the population. These findings indicate that there exists a need to critically and intrinsically query the expectations and rationale that lies behind local government strategies and policies that purport to be directed towards the sustainable upgrading of informal settlements and slums. Set against a background of entrenched socio-cultural protocols, limiting institutional processes, and economic disparity as noted in other strategic documents of the city, there exists a difficulty in integrating informal settlements into sustainable urban forms. In an era of joint ventures and ascendancy of neo-liberal market policy, informal settlements are increasingly at risk of being subject to the “full force” of formal state law to enable the redevelopment process to proceed. Consequently, the research concludes by generating new perspectives on sustainable urban forms under the context of informal settlements and provides clarity on how the city can employ the proposed indicator matrix toolkit to gauge informal settlements urban form sustainability performance. Key to the application of this matrix tool is geographic information systems software and spatial processing tools that can effectively deduce the relationship performance of various elements in facilitating the desired growth.
Keyboards: Informal Settlements; informal urban form; sustainable urban form; Informal settlement upgrading; spatial transformation.