by Aidan Africa, Mashego Molemane, and Raíra Fróes
In 2014, the United Nations designated October 31 as World Cities Day – an annual day aimed at celebrating and promoting awareness of global urbanisation challenges, while advocating for concerted efforts towards sustainable urban development.
The 10th anniversary of World Cities Day is being observed under the theme “Youth Leading Climate and Local Action for Cities”, against the backdrop of a rapidly urbanising world. By 2030, young people under the age of 18 are expected to make up an estimated 60% of urban dwellers.
The importance of involving young people in ongoing discussions on climate action and their role in imagining alternative futures cannot be overstated.
The ReBuilt Cape Town project provides young emerging scholars, practitioners, and activists with an opportunity to do just that.
The ReBuilt project, convened by Bauhaus Earth (BE) and the African Centre for Cities (ACC), aims to explore a stakeholder-driven transition strategy that promotes a more regenerative future for the built environment across four countries: Germany, Bhutan, Indonesia, and South Africa.
In South Africa, ReBuilt is focused on Cape Town, with efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change caused by carbon emissions associated with the built environment.
The project proposes a materials transition, away from traditional materials such as cement, bricks, and steel, and instead towards naturebased or bio-based “regenerative” building materials. These alternatives include cross-laminated timber (CLT), hempcrete, hemp bricks, aggregates derived from invasive species, straw, and rammed earth construction techniques.
Regenerativity is an increasingly relevant term in contemporary urban theory and practice. It stands in stark contrast to the previous notion of “sustainability”.
A 2014 report by Fiona Woo for the World Future Council describes “urban sustainable practice” as a movement that has become devoid of true meaning, often serving as a catch-all term for positive impact.
Regenerativity, on the other hand, promises a paradigm shift from the linear transformations suggested by “sustainable development” towards a “circular metabolism” for the urban fabric.
Scholars Thomson and Newman (2018) describe this shift as one characterised by renewable energy systems, restored urban-ecological relationships, and bio-based design, all of which are incorporated into ReBuilt’s framework.
The rejection of linear thinking and the embrace of circular models is both promising and necessary. However, a new framework does not guarantee immunity from the same forces that co-opted the sustainability movement.
In South Africa, sustainability is often associated with upper middle-class interests, overlooking the socio-spatial histories and injustices prevalent in cities like Cape Town.
To move beyond that, it is essential to centre climate-positive and bio-based solutions in conversations that also address the socio-spatial and power dynamics at play in urban environments.
The rising popularity and (re)conceptualisation of regenerativity come at a time when the Earth’s climate system is on the brink of disaster, and cities are seeking innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions. With a population of 4.9 million people, Cape Town is no exception.
This project, and others like it, are crucial in contributing to the mitigation of catastrophic climate change, which disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, particularly in the Global South.
The interconnectedness of social and ecological factors demands a regenerativity that challenges siloed thinking, where social justice and climate action can work hand in hand.
However, the geopolitical histories that have shaped cities in the Global South, like Cape Town, compound the challenge of addressing climate change – largely caused by the industrialisation of the Global North – alongside equally pressing urban challenges. These variable histories mean that projects like ReBuilt cannot be generalised across cities, or even within different parts of the same city, as is the case in Cape Town.
In Cape Town, a city marked by familiar socio-spatial challenges, the notion of a regenerative shift can be daunting. It is easy to misplace the focus of this shift, both in terms of where it gains traction and how it is implemented.
Given the severity of the climate crisis, it is clear that a shift towards carbon neutrality is necessary. However, the key questions remain: where and how will this shift take place, and who will lead it?
We propose that the project be strategically situated within Cape Town’s housing struggles, exploring how it can help address these challenges with minimal climate impact. This means targeting neighbourhoods where the housing shortage is most acute.
While affluent areas are not excluded – many of these areas have the resources to do much more but do not – the greatest value and opportunities for a regenerative shift lie in those areas where it is most urgently needed.
The potential of regenerativity here lies in its capacity to be critically engaged, reimagining climate action in socially just and inclusive ways.
Methodologically, this means acknowledging the heterogeneous nature of Cape Town’s socio-spatial landscape. No two places in Cape Town are the same, and the implementation of regenerative principles in Sea Point would differ from their application in Dunoon or Athlone.
In these latter neighbourhoods, where financial resources may be limited but creativity and resilience abound, we advocate for a focus on circular economy practices that residents have engaged in for decades. These include autoconstruction techniques, where residents build and maintain their homes using locally available materials and resources.
Embedded in these practices are not only ingenuity and resilience, but also a culture of “making do”, often expressed through sayings like “’n boer maak ’n plan” or the more decolonial “’n kleurling het ’n plan” (a coloured person makes a plan). These sayings reflect the communal efforts and innovative solutions that people devise in times of need, displaying both resilience and creativity. This culture of “MacGyvering”, and the social networks that underpin it, offers localised action and provides a pathway for the regenerative shift to succeed despite the many challenges.
Incorporating the voices of young people in the socio-ecological regeneration of our cities is not just beneficial – it is essential. New questions arise regarding how to engage the youth and how existing spaces and conversations might be limiting their creativity.
Next month, ReBuilt will host a student/youth symposium, where emerging scholars will share alternative ideas and imaginations with the research team. By workshopping the concept of regenerativity with young, engaged individuals, we hope to take a speculative approach to reimagining what this shift could look like for Cape Town, fostering a forward-thinking, fluid, and creative response to building a carbon-neutral environment.
The centrality of youth and local communities in climate action for cities is a key entry point for this collaboration, aligning perfectly with this year’s World Cities Day theme.
* The authors are research assistants at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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