SA set to reembrace the high-rise - SA set to reembrace the high-rise - Balancing the desire for icons with good sense will be key as South Africa warms to the high-rise once more
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World Urban Forum highlights SA's housing programmes - By Proffesor Ndawonde
China - As a leader in building integrated human settlements, South Africa's housing programmes and projects have been profiled at the World Urban Forum.
The forum provided a platform for dialogue and discussions among different role-players in housing, construction and urbanisation to find solutions to create integrated human settlements.

Nigeria: Population to Hit 296 Million in 2030 - UNFPA - The United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) has stated that with the current growth rate of 3.2 per cent, Nigeria's population would increase to 296 million in 2030. [AA Urbanisation]

Mozambique: Bridge Will Come to Catembe, Promises Simango - The candidate of Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party for mayor of Maputo, David Simango, on Saturday promised residents of Catembe that a bridge will soon be built across Maputo Bay, linking Catembe to the centre of the city. [AA Construction]

Nigeria: Lagos - Haven of Opportunities, Hell of Miseries - The poor arrive in Lagos to escape the poverty of rural Nigeria and nearby countries; the rich come to the city to escape the violence in other parts of the country. About 6,000 people move to Lagos everyday, according to estimates, adding to the already bursting population of about 15 million. [AA Urbanisation]

The East African (Nairobi) http://www.nation.co.ke
26 October 2008 / Posted to the web 30 October 2008
Halima Abdallah K - Nairobi

Architects from East Africa want to play a more active role in government construction and planning departments to correct the current mess in the region's urban centres.

According to the architects, underqualified or unqualified personnel have usurped the role of professionals with political heads such as mayors and councillors taking over technical roles like approval of plans.

by David Parker. October 12, 2008. Interview with Jon Elmer.

In the 2007 publication “Hollow Land“, Eyal Weizman, the Israeli-born, London-based architect, reconceptualized geopolitics in the Occupied Territories. The political space created by Israeli apartheid is a web of total domination and control over Palestinians. The architecture and urban planning inside the territories demonstrate a late-modern colonial occupation. Israel owns the subterranean aquifers beneath Gaza and the West Bank, controls the airspace above, and has weaved a web of Israeli only settlements, highways, and security perimeters throughout the West Bank, while turning Gaza into an open-air prison.

According to Weizman, the natural and built features of the landscape function as weapons and ammunition for the conflict. The Occupied Territories have become a series of layers and territories, each manipulated by the Israeli authorities. Borders are porous for Israelis but solid for Palestinians. Checkpoints are a source of humiliation.

The political power of Israel re-inscribes relationships of force in the organization of the built environment. Contemporary urban warfare in the West Bank and Gaza is a constant destruction and construction of space. At the root of the warfare lies Israeli racism and colonialism.

Africa: UN Report Warns of Urban Housing Crisis - A new report on the state of the world's cities by UN-Habitat shows that the total urban populations of the developing world will be more than double by the middle of the 21st century. [AA Urbanisation]

Gauteng identifies 20 townships for improved services - By Bathandwa Mbola
Midrand - The Gauteng Provincial Government has prioritised 20 townships which will see major improvements to better the lives of its citizens.
"In various townships we are rolling out a programme called the '20 Priority Townships' and essentially its to improve the standard of living of people in those areas," Gauteng Premier Paul Mashatile told the community of Tembisa during an Imbizo on Wednesday.