SA Affordable Housing May - June 2020 // ISSUE: 82 | Page 39

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY
CNN
New York is famous for its integrated housing.
‘Densification’ is another issue likely to generate momentum
towards integrated housing, as evidenced by Cape Town’s Spatial
Development Plan which encourages housing in corridors,
normally along ‘high accessibility points’. White points out that
these may be relatively far from economic nodes but are in such
a location that access is rapid.
“Location is not always about distance, and traffic from a
node isn’t always heavy in every direction – there are underdeveloped
corridors capable of being densified with some
infrastructure investment. However, we are far from being
there yet.”
He notes that much of the separation of income groups in
South Africa is as much to do with banks’ previous redlining
policy, as it was to apartheid social stratification.
There is a different model of integration already taking
place in South Africa, points out White, and it is a transitional
model. “We see mixed use taking place on a horizontal
rather than vertical plane. For instance, we see one street of
affordable housing, another of social housing and yet another
a commercial development. However, the true definition of
integrated is for all categories to be included within a single
building: the bottom floor being shops, a couple of floors of
business offices, then residential with its mix of units aimed at
different income groups.
“This seldom happens in South Africa yet, for a number of
reasons:
• Developments are mostly greenfield projects with no
commercial development at the commencement
• We don’t have any integrated developers in South Africa
at the moment, only developers who occasionally do an
integrated development
• Financial institutions all act in silos and are themselves
not integrated as to their market segments,” he says.
“Developments currently may be horizontal – but they are
still integrated and will evolve over time to the vertical
integration model. It will be driven by market need rather
than government policy and will do so as available land fills
up and there is a need for greater densification. For instance,
PINTEREST
Integrated, mixed-use developments contribute enormously to
round the clock lifestyles.
www.saaffordablehousing.co.za MAY - JUNE 2020 37