Guidelines for human settlement planning and design: The red book

Abstract

This document provides performance-based guidelines for informed decision-making. The purpose is essentially to indicate the qualities that should be sought in South African settlements, and to provide practical guidance on how these qualities can be achieved. The document is therefore intended to be educative, providing ideas and useful information, and not as a substitute for innovative planning and engineering practice. The purpose of this document is not merely to assist professionals in producing efficiently serviced 'townships', but rather to create sustainable and vibrant human settlements. In this context, a 'human settlement' is regarded as any built environment where people live, work and play, with the provision that only residential areas, and other developments associated therewith, are considered in this book.