Does participating in the development of Medium-Density Mixed Housing projects make a difference in the residents’ satisfaction with the quality of their environment?

Abstract

CSIR Built Environment has recently completed a multiyear research project, undertaken by Landman et al, that aimed to determine the appropriateness and applicability of medium-density mixed housing (MDMH) developments in South Africa. The research identified and described five critical factors that various stakeholders, including residents, financiers, officials and developers, consider necessary for MDMH to be successful. These critical success factors include affordability, design and layout, safety and security, management and maintenance, and neighbourliness. The premise of this paper is that the quality of the built environment directly influences the people who use it. Good-quality spaces, for example, promote social inclusion, socially cohesive behaviour and citizenship, whereas a decline in the quality of urban space can contribute to anti-social behaviour. The built environment is created by professionals who, in the context of social housing, may never know the users of the buildings they develop. This has created a widening gap between built environment professionals (particularly designers) and end-users, resulting in created environments increasingly failing to meet the needs of users. This paper will use two case studies from the multiyear research project to investigate whether perceptions about the quality of the built environment were affected by the residents’ participation, or lack thereof, at the planning and design stages of the developments