Re-Imagining the Street as Placemaking Tool in Claremont CBD

Among the many problems that exist in the urban built environment today, uninviting pedestrian spaces is a prominent characteristic especially adjacent to inner-city shopping centres. Often, this is accompanied by a divorce of the building from the street, where the irony is that the street, which is a prominent public pedestrian space and connector of people, places and everyday lives, is often an underappreciated and unrealised pedestrian space. In the CBD of Claremont suburb, Cape Town, this is a reality and the resulting social ills such as dead zones, a lack of public surveillance, high crime rates, poor quality of space and lack of sense of place- all which can clearly be seen in this area. To realise the dual role that the street can play as both a public pedestrian space and a connector of people and place, professionals and role-players in the built environment should challenge the norms around street form, street-building interaction, people's perceptions that shaped the current day street and continue to influence its physical and perceived position within our cities and town. The literature component of this study seeks to unpack the qualities and functions of urban streets and their possible role as quality public space. The design component of this study seeks to explore and identify interventions at a local scale.