Urban and Regional Planning students recently shared their views on the making of modern African cities at the Young Planners Colloquium.
The Colloquium is a side event of Planning Africa – the largest conference of its kind on the African continent.
The CPUT Planning School was one of the hosting partners.
“This year’s theme ‘The making of modern African cities’ resulted in one of the hotly debated issues: namely what is our vision for African cities, is it Dubai-like, and if not, what does the modern African city then look like. How do we stay authentic and contextually sensitive within a highly technological world that is driven by the global North,” said senior lecturer Belinda Verster.
She said the third term was devoted to challenging students to respond to the conference theme and produce posters of their vision.
Third-year student Alica Jooste’s poster project was selected for presentation.
Verster also presented her paper titled Collaborative planning and learning in collaboration: a theoretical perspective at the conference.
The paper argues for foregrounding value attributes in the planning curriculum as a lens for contextualising content and skills knowledge.
“My biggest take away from the conference is the renewed sense of hope in the profession, that urban planners are central to making the changes our country so desperately needs and that planning education is key to realising our professional responsibility.”
Two other staff members, junior lecturer Rayner Moodley (as a South African Planning Institute representative and part of the organising panel) and technician Mzee Muluse (as photographer and programme manager) were also involved in the conference.
