Doctoral Dissertation Research: New Housing Design Models and Sustainable Urban Growth

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

Already more than half the world lives in urban areas. As urban growth continues planning experts and government officials are working to design new models for housing and urban development that make more efficient use of public resources and create more livable cities. In particular, some experts are promoting "densification" through designing compact, higher-density housing as a way of creating a more sustainable city and fostering social integration. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous, empirically grounded scientific fieldwork, explores the impact of these sustainable design practices on urban governance, housing policy, and social relations. Understanding the societal impact of these new design principles is critical for developing better policies that will create more robust urban infrastructures, optimize public resources, and create a better quality of life for American citizens. University of California, Irvine doctoral candidate Melissa Wrapp, supervised by Dr. Keith M. Murphy, will examine the implementation of principles of sustainable urban development in the context of public housing policy. The researcher asks how changes in the technical aspects of housing design impact the management of urbanization and shape social relations, both between residents and with local government. She will undertake twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town, which will involve extended participant observation and structured interviews with municipal urban designers, architects, and residents involved in public housing provision. The African continent is urbanizing at one of the fastest rates in the world. Because of South Africa's unique political and legal history, it has become an important site for active experimentation with urban policy. The research will be conducted in Cape Town, South Africa, where municipal officials have worked to implement densification policies since 2012. Cape Town has the most competitive property market in the country, and also has a reputation for being the country's most segregated city, making it an ideal site to situate this research. This study will provide a timely contribution to interdisciplinary social science research on the global issue of sustainable development and design, particularly in contexts of economic and social inequality. Findings will also increase knowledge of socio-cultural drivers in land use patterns and improve the execution of public policy in light of ongoing urbanization.