It is a fact well known that the creative design of a city creates an environment conducive to creative thinking and living. If all of your street-facing property is entrances to parking lots, your city is dead. Put shops and cafés and galleries at street level and your city opens up. Make it easy for people to catch public transport or to walk and they’ll naturally network and connect. When there are passersby, people can perform or advertise events or sell art or hand out ‘zines. Create a park and then put up a public sculpture and some benches: people may congregate. A well-lit city filled with restaurants, bars and theatres encourages people to engage with it at night. So, what is Cape Town doing to create an environment conducive to creative thinking and living?
Open spaces in Cape Town’s Central City are gradually being transformed as projects take shape to upgrade squares and public venues as part of the City’s vision of becoming a truly people-friendly city. These are supported by Cape Town Partnership whose Public Space for Public Life programme draws on the pedestrian-focused concepts of renowned architect Jan Gehl.
These projects not only make the Central City a more creative place to be in, but take into account the historical and economic needs of Cape Town and Capetonians. Until recently, the Grand Parade was being used entirely as a parking lot. Being situated at the node of bus, taxi and train lines bringing people into the City, it was a totally dehumanising use of public space. A large part of the Grand Parade has been converted to a market and the old Drill Hall on its perimeter is the new home of the Cape Town Central Library, which buzzes with people, especially at the end of the workday. Church Square, next to the Company Gardens, was also a parking lot, but has been pedestrianised and the City has erected a memorial to the people who built Cape Town – its slaves – there. The 300-year-old Greenmarket Square has has an upgrade and the new ablution block will be topped with a stage for lunchtime concerts.
In one of the most important legacies of 2010 is the upgrading of our public transport system. Cape Town’s new Bus Rapid Transit system offers safe, efficient and environmentally friendly urban transport with dedicated bus lanes and a smart-card payment system. Buses will arrive at stations every few minutes (during peak hours, every minute) from 5am to midnight 365 days a year. This project is part of a broader Integrated Rapid Transport system, which places a focus on pedestrian and non-motorised transport linkages. Bicycles are being promoted as a key way of traversing the City.
The upgrade to the Cape Town Station has been done with an eye on creating a vibier, more inclusive public space. The station forecourt, which used to be a grassy area that was badly maintained and under-utilised, has been replaced with an events space for outdoor jazz concerts, fashion shows and other community events. Fashion and food stores will open on the visible, soon to be accessible Adderley street side of the station.
Several projects are making it easier for people to walk the City. An upgrade currently underway on Waterkant Street is going to make it possible to walk from the Station to the Greenpoint Stadium, Two lightweight steel pedestrian bridges – one at Coen Steytler Avenue and the other at Waterkant Street – are expected to make walking a lot safer for the 4 500 people who cross Buitengracht Street daily.
Falling on the “fan walk” between the Cape Town Station and Greenpoint is ST Andrew’s Square, a public space that is also the site of the Prestwich Memorial. Designed by internationally renowned architect Lucien Le Grange, the memorial holds the bones of hundreds of slaves whose unmarked graves were discovered during development of the area in 2003.
Around the impressive and beautifully designed new Greenpoint Stadium an Urban Park is being developed. The 103-hectare park includes sports fields, a golf course. a tennis stadium and a trading plaza. Forty-eight hectares of the park is pedestrian-friendly public space, creating the potential for open-air performances, vibrant markets, public sculpture projects, impromtu barefoot soccer games and more.
Looking to the far future, a visionary project that Cape Town Partnership supports is Reclaim Camissa. Cape Town was called Camissa (“the place of sweet waters”) by the Khoi, but as the City has grown, the rivers that run from the mountain and the sea have been lost under our urban infrastructure. Reclaim Camissa aims to reconnect Capetonians with these lost rivers. Water will flow through the City to the sea through a series of green public spaces, incorporating fountains, stages, education centres and other civic resources.
