Books by Fabio Todeschini
CHAPTERS IN BOOKS by Fabio Todeschini
The Urban Transport Crisis in Emerging Economies, Nov 2016
Carlos Nunes Silva (Ed.) Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa: colonial and postcolonial planning cultures, Jan 2015
, in Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (ed) Guidelines for Human Settlement Planning and Design, ISBN 0-7988-5498-7, Pretoria, 2000
Papers by Fabio Todeschini
The jurisdiction of Stellenbosch, located adjacent to, but outside of, the Cape Town metropolitan... more The jurisdiction of Stellenbosch, located adjacent to, but outside of, the Cape Town metropolitan area in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, comprises over one thousand square kilometers of landscapes spanning: spectacular mountain wilderness areas; many productive rural valleys that are an integral part of the celebrated Cape Winelands; and a number of historic, characterful urban centres founded during the 17 th century. Overall, this blend of domains attracts increasing numbers of tourists, while the places are also home to a growing population. The pressures for change and growth are significant: so is the need for appropriate policies and plans in the longer-term public interest. The authors report on a three-year project they are conducting for the local authority that focuses on the definition of the natural and cultural heritage and, in principle, on how development should be channelled.
Open letter about the status of our urban settlements and a way forward. The current state of hum... more Open letter about the status of our urban settlements and a way forward. The current state of human settlements in Namibia is increasingly coming under the spotlight and deservedly so. Unfortunately, these settlements reflect the indelible legacy of three historic ideologies: 'European colonialism' from way back; 'international modernist town planning' that emerged about 100 years ago in Europe and North America; and 'South African apartheid' from the mid-1900's, which found in the other two ideologies precisely the spatial dicta it needed to entrench blunt separation between peoples of different race and class, and between the urban functions of live, work, play and move. The operative result is settlements and cities characterised by separation, fragmentation, sprawl and inequitable access to the benefits of urbanity. This southern African legacy has been perpetuated in action if not in name in post independence settlement growth in Namibia. Indeed, because of significant waves of urbanisation in recent decades, urban growth is accelerating and continues to be propelled in terms of these dominant urban constructs that maintain and increase the historic fragmentation and separation of communities due to lateral suburban growth planned at low densities. The inevitable dominant consequence is that a suburban rather than an urban model continues to be pursued and that such an outcome is socially unjust and environmentally and economically unsustainable. The operative spatial fragmentation, separation of urban functions and general low-density of our settlements requires extensive road networks to service them. Long travel distances and low numbers of passengers per vehicle have led to inefficient and uneconomic public transport services. In turn, this encourages the use and ownership of ever more private vehicles, leading to the need for more roads, with more money spent on travelling to and from work, with inevitable strains on already limited household incomes. The lack of integration at all levels takes its toll and is endemic. A further characteristic of our settlements is reflected in the lack of quality public urban open space in which social interaction can occur for citizens, irrespective of race and class. A lopsided focus on seemingly overall financial prosperity has led to growing inequalities between rich and poor, has generated serious distortions in the form and operation of our towns and settlements, also causing serious damage to the environment. We need to act to encourage the development of settlements that foster economically, socially, politically and environmentally responsible, coherent and prosperous urban futures. To do so we need not only to reshape our approach to formal settlement-making, top-down, as an essential component of public service and of state governance. We need to make space for, include and integrate the informal bottom-up processes that are an inescapable part of the urban reality in Africa, South America and much of Asia. We need a fresh approach for the development of our settlements: one that is holistic and integrated and which is essential for the promotion of collective well being and fulfillment
A number of settlement-making paradigms have been operative in South Africa: the pre-colonial; th... more A number of settlement-making paradigms have been operative in South Africa: the pre-colonial; the earlier and later colonial; and the 'modern town planning'. In recent times there have been numerous calls for a shift away from the mechanistic, reductionist and functionalist 'modern town planning' paradigm, which continues to be based on a programmatic land-use planning approach and which was appropriated by the operative apartheid ideology in South Africa for very many decades, leading to universally acknowledged pathological societal and settlement actualities that endure.
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Books by Fabio Todeschini
CHAPTERS IN BOOKS by Fabio Todeschini
Papers by Fabio Todeschini