The Slovo Park ProjectSocio-Technical support through service learning

University of Johannesburg - FADADesign Society DevelopmentSouth AfricaJhono Bennett, 1to1 – Agency of Engagement, 1to1 – Student League and the Slovo Park Community

Promoter(s).Jhono Bennett1to1 – Agency of Engagement & the Slovo Park Community Development Forum.

Funder(s).In-funded

Aknowledgements.Mohau Melani, Carin Combrinck, Jacqueline Cuyler, Isabel Van Wyk, Claudia Fillip, 1to1 – Student League, The Unviersity of Pretoria, The University of Johannesburg, the Slovo Park Community Development Forum, Slovo Park Youth Forum, South African Shack/Slum Dwellers International Alliance.

Context:The informal settlement community of Slovo Park, Soweto, has been in a on-going battle with the City of Jo’burg for development since the early 1990’s.

This struggle has been fought through constant shifts in policy and disappearing development budgets and resulting in service delivery protest, time wasting supply chain processes and currently a pending lawsuit against the City of Johannesburg.

The project:The Slovo Park Project began in 2010 when university students began working with the community structures of Slovo Park and offered the leadership spatial design support through their course. This assistance was implemented at a small scale, but aimed to have larger impact on the greater development needs of Slovo.

The original students have provided ongoing support since 2010 through various design/build projects.

The design process:Participative research, design and construction methods have been used since the project’s inception.

These tools have been crucial in the development of not only Slovo Park’s Development, but have been used to develop more effective co-design and research methodologies for similar engagement in other informal settlement communities.

The development needs of Slovo Park are represented by the Slovo Park Community Development Forum (SPCDF). The SPCDF is leading the current lawsuit against the City of Jo’burg with the support of the pro-bono legal Socio-Economic Research Institute (SERI).

key concept

key concept

Governance and Policy Making

Slovo Park: established in 1986

Development was approved and budgeted for in 1995, but

dissapeared in a corrption scandal

Activism and Civic Participation

The SPCDF is part of much larger network of informal settlement leadership structures known as the Informal Settlement Network (ISN)– who are supported by South African Shack Dwellers International Alliance (SASDI). Each project initiated by the SPCDF is strategically conceived to unlock larger development opportunities.

Strategic small projects have the power to unlock larger development oppurtunities

Many key role-players support the community needs, 1to1 has assisted in this facilitation by making easing access to leadership, translating important information into strategy and knowledge and allowing for the public legitimatization of Slovo Park’s struggle.

Social Interactions and Relations

Sometimes facilitation is more important

than product creation

The Slovo Park Project has shown that organized communities are viable and crucial partners in their own development. This being crucial due to our government’s current stigma towards informal settlements in South Africa. The project has also demonstrated the missing aspects of education in architectural schools in South Africa and given those involved the means to address this in the curriculum.

Organized community structures are key partners in their own

development – and need to be recognized as so

City and Environmental Planning

Through the participative mapping, research and design the project has uncovered a vision for Slovo Park to be self-sustaining community – as many of these activities exist in Slovo, but require a strategic linking to larger networks and distribution systems.

Slovo Park has the vision to be a self-sustaining community

Production, Distribution and Consumption

Lessons from the Slovo Park Project have been distilled into both the University of Pretoria & the University of Johannesburg Architecture Degrees – as well as shifting the South African Council for the Architectural Profession’s to include community architecture in their accreditation for pre-professionals.

Spatial design students are the missing link between grass roots & large scale development

Skill Training and Design Education

Students of spatial design disciplines need critical

experience in complex spaces

Job Creation

The Slovo Park Project has laid the foundation for a new type of spatial design practitioner, a socio-technical designer that not only provides technical services, but additionally assists in larger social and policy processes with and for residents in poor or unsafe areas in South Africa.

The project aims to foster the development of a new type of

spatial design practitioner

Clear, effective and human based communication tools including tangible models, graphic posters and even the creation of ‘Slovonopoly’, a research outcomes board game have been used to great effect in the Slovo Park Project.

Co-research

Participative mapping & design

Storytelling and Visualisation

www.designsocietydevelopment.org

www.uj.ac.za/fada

www.slovo-park.blogspot.com

www.1to1.org.za

info@1to1.org.za

University of Johannesburg - FADADesign Society DevelopmentSouth AfricaJhono Bennett, 1to1 – Agency of Engagement, 1to1 – Student League and the Slovo Park Community