At the core of this project is a strategic plan for Duncan Village, a township in East London on the southeast coast of South Africa. The situation in Duncan Village is symptomatic of the problems generated by five decades of apartheid rule. The outcome is a segregated society in which property and means of subsistence could not be more unevenly distributed. Duncan Village is a settlement for blacks and coloureds. An area with a whole host of problems, it is home to some 120,000 people, many of whom are living in the most atrocious conditions. The density is high, some parts having upward of 400 huts per hectare. Most inhabitants of the overpopulated area possess little or nothing; many have no education and no work either. The township has virtually no facilities and is almost completely isolated, in spite of its close proximity to the city centre of East London.
With Nelson Mandela's election as president came the end of apartheid; current policy is targeted at creating an integrated society. What form this is to take is anybody's guess at present. In the first instance the aim is more accessibility, as they call it in South Africa. By this is meant greater availability of such qualities as work, accommodation, education, medical care, social and cultural facilities for sections of the population put at a disadvantage by the apartheid policy. This requires new physical planning methods, and these are sought within the framework of this project. The aim is to achieve a single integrated city with the two networks, at present utterly distinct, linking arms in a new totality. Within this whole, the disparities will not disappear immediately but there will be a certain levelling out. In real terms this means for Duncan Village that the task then is to erase the present isolation and generate and encourage social and economic activity. To underpin this development urbanistically the means to be deployed were carefully selected and worked up into a strategic plan. The road separating Duncan Village from East London and thereby symbolizing the town's dichotomy, has been transmuted into an element that draws the two worlds together. Three key sites in Duncan Village were subsequently fleshed out into a detailed plan which absorbs all the researched aspects - topography, infrastructure, housing and facilities. The designers of this scheme spent seven months working on this project in East London to get it as close as possible to the actual situation and to tie it in with South African planning practice. To this end they consulted residents' associations from Duncan Village, planners and urban designers from East London and officials and staff of the NGO Afesis Corplan.

Institution: Rotterdam
Tutors: Endry van Velzen & Han Beumer
Specialization: urban design