University of Cape Town’s Frank Kleinschmidt, has been named the winner of Corobrik Most Innovative Landscape Architecture Award 2015.
Frank Kleinschmidt, a landscape architecture graduate scooped the award thanks to his innovative dissertation whereby he used an experimental board game known as Street Tactics to explore the contemporary urban design theory known as ‘tactical urbanism’.
Kleinschmidt explains tactical urbanism as a form of civic intervention that allows private citizens and communities to use economical and temporary measures at neighbourhood level to improve problem areas on their own. This in turn makes it possible for them to avoid the prolonged bureaucratic and resource-intensive processes used by governments and private institutions.
The experimental board game experiments how different ideas would work through creating hypothetical scenarios. Characters attempt to upgrade areas using different ideas and a limited palette of materials.
The board game, in practical sense, allows a player to evaluate the relative success of different design scenarios put forward by different characters with different agendas and resources. They then can consider the legacy that these temporary installations leave behind.
To illustrate how the game could be played, Kleinschmidt used the stretch of Foundry Road running from Salt River Station to the vehicular nexus that is Salt River Circle.
He used various items ranging from skate parks to a bus shelter which were developed to create a more vibrant and enriched set of spaces. These scenarios were then developed into designs, with each building upon each other.
Kleinschmidt adds that his board game explains just how various measures within ‘tactical urbanism’ can address another global trend, ‘spatial inequality’. Defined as the development of public space that benefits certain, often more affluent, groups to the detriment of others, spatial inequality determines how space is used.
This is particularly one of South Africa’s greatest challenges. People become dissatisfied with living in downtrodden areas over time, whilst others are living in upmarket suburbs. This can therefore contribute to social and political conflict and unrest.
Kleinschmidt says spatial inequality in Cape Town traces its origin mainly through apartheid era strategic planning. He however notes that in contemporary Cape Town, this planning focused on large-scale infrastructure projects, requiring massive amounts of capital and the city was tasked with economic generation in areas that were already yielding returns.
