Negotiating difference in post-apartheid housing design

Abstract

This article considers the visual qualities of design practice in post-apartheid housing for the poor. We specifically address the visual power of social mapping within the context of a ‘coloured’ housing development in the Cape Town suburb of Mitchells Plain. Considering South Africa's history, expanded design practice helps to commence the undoing of apartheid's embedded and lingering impact by mitigating power differentials between planners and designers, on the one hand, and informal housing residents, on the other.