THE CONGRESS SCHEME FOR A NATIVE TOWNSHIP

DESIGNED BY : P. CO N N ELL

C. IRVINE-SMITH

R. K A N TO RO W IC H

J . W EPEN ER

K. JO N A S

The next question to be considered is how to pay for this. The whole scheme will cost ten times £80,000—that is, £800,000. The proposal is that the money be raised, let us say, by American capital; a prominent American capitalist is approached to raise the money at the normal rate of interest— 6 per cent. Rent will be charged at 15/- rather than 25/-. Any type of flat, whether two, three, or four-roomed, will be given for this rent, not according to whether one family is wealthier than its neighbours, but whether it possesses more children. This would mean that one would realise an income of £32,000 per year from rent. This amount would be divided up in two ways—£8,000 would go towards paying the interest on the capital that was advanced by our capitalist, and the £24,000 of the remainder would be used to repay the capital advanced. The capital being decreased every year by £24,000, the interest charged annually would therefore decrease. To start with, the £8,000 put forward would not be sufficient to cover the interest, and an interest loan would be obtained from the Government and the Municipality. After 30 years the capital would be so decreased that the £8,000 left to pay interest would be sufficient to pay the complete interest on the remaining portion of the capital; in other words, one does not borrow any more money from the Municipality to pay for interest. From then onwards, the capital further decreasing, the £8,000 would be too much— that would go to repay the interest that the Municipality originally lent. So when we get to 50 years, we find that the scheme has become economically sound: the interest lent by the Municipality has been repaid, and the scheme is an economic, not a sub-economic, proposition any more.

However, it is not quite so nice as it sounds. There is such a thing as upkeep. For that an allowance of f per cent, of the income derived per year would be sufficient. Therefore it would take another ten years for the scheme to reach the economic stage. After sixty years then this scheme would be an economic one.

The rent of 15s. per month does not include the provision of light and water, and this would have to be paid for by the owners of the flats them­selves. It was reckoned out that, at the very maximum, electricity for cooking and lighting, and water for washing, and for drinking, would not cost more than 6s. a month. Special rates, of course, would have to be given to the location for this water and light. The electricity and water would be supplied in bulk, and the Location Committee or organisation would distribute it to the people using it. Everybody would therefore not be charged individual meter rates, as is the case in the city, but the location would get it, so to speak, wholesale, and would distribute it at the reduced price.

Now as far as roads and things like that are concerned, this financial scheme does not provide for them. The scheme being economic, the roads can now be safely regarded as being the duty of the Municipality or the Government to provide. That would not be so difficult to do. At present the Municipality and the Government each provide 2J per cent, interest on all housing loans raised for Natives. A further one per cent, on Native housing loans is paid by the rates. The amount on this scheme would amount to £40,000 a year. This could very easily be turned into roads and to the provision of boulevards and general amenities of the type we have indicated.

Forty thousand pounds sounds a lot of money to give to a Native location, but it is found that at least £10,000 is collected from a Native population of 20,000 in some manner or other (for example, by the imposition of the poll tax, although, having been taxed, the Native is not allowed to poll, and by other methods like fines, etc.). So the £10,000 which the Native provides to the Municipality ought to come back, and the remainder, which is not much (which perhaps keeps half a dozen lions in our Zoo) can be provided.

In this scheme which has been presented we find that the economic difficulties have been overcome; the minimum requirements have been over-

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T H E N A T I V E T O W N S H I P ( M O D E L )

come—the right number of rooms, of a decent size, and the necessary amenities have been provided. Morally the Natives would be able to live in a better background. Psychologically, I think there is no doubt that this scheme would provide some background for the Natives in their new urban life.

It will have been noticed that the general principle of modern flat design enumerated in the previous lectures, where the housing portion adjoins directly those services common to the occupants (the creches, schools, gardens and sports fields, for example) is expressed in this scheme. The arrangement of the whole scheme around its communal focal interests conforms in addition with the thesis. It may be said, I think, in conclusion, that the scheme, as a demonstration in a particular case of the general thesis, can be taken as an indication of what the modern architect can do in the way of housing.

The Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen: I now call on Mr. Norman Hanson to give the lecture on the second of two schemes, viz., that for the provision, of a New Business Centre for Capetown.

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T H E B U S I N E S S C E N T R E OF C A P E T O W N

Mr. Norman Hanson: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: My subject this evening—“ The Business Centre of Capetown ”—seems to me to bring this Congress figuratively and literally down to earth. A complete ideology of town planning has now been successfully evolved and built up. The course, as well as the limits, which are set for the potential development of town planning have found definition. We now have to consider a particular prob­lem in the light of the factual research and imaginative thought which have been presented in the previous lectures. It is inevitable that a certain amount of repetition occurs in my general remarks, covering the approach to the problem of town planning, but the force of sound arguments should not be lost by reiteration, nor the main trend of the thesis diverted from its logical course.

The replanning of existing towns is, of course, not only a subject of the widest possible interest, but it is also a matter of extreme gravity in the nation’s life and development. But replanning is more than reshaping, remodelling. Town planning is the better word—once we can lay down with clarity the face, form and functioning of an ideal contemporary city. The need for town planning should, I think, be obvious to everyone. In our towns new forces, ever growing and ever more destructive, threaten us on all sides—the town planner’s task is to restore equilibrium in the lives of city-dwellers. There can be no one who is not aware of the dangers of our streets, the unhealthy menace of our slums, and the general aridity and lack of contact with nature that is the lot of the vast majority of people living- in towns. These unpleasant truths, when allied to the sure facts that figures, statistics and graphs establish, relentlessly emphasise the necessity for action, for taking the immense step forward that is implied in the term town planning and without which it is no more than a meaningless phrase. Before action we must come to primary decisions—decisions can be taken only when prin­ciples are enunciated and verified by the tests of permanence and universality. Here a lead is necessary , and at this Congress we pay a tribute to the colossal achievements in creative thought of Le Corbusier, from whose expositions and guiding principles we have taken our line of attack. We can do no more than illustrate, within the limitations imposed by site and circumstance, the validity of town planning principles, which, while embracing, go beyond local considerations or special cases.

Before considering Capetown and two schemes of replanning which have been suggested for it, it would be as well to investigate in some detail the relation of these fundamental principles of planning to the centres of cities. Basically, Le Corbusier has laid down in this connection four distinct objectives before the town planner. These are:—(1) We must de-congest the centres of cities in order to provide for the

demands of traffic.(2) We must increase the density of the centres of cities in order to bring

about the close contact demanded by business.(3) We must increase the means whereby traffic can circulate, that is, we

must completely modify the present-day conception of the street, which has shown itself useless in regard to the new phenomenon of modern means of transport, tubes, motors, trams and aeroplanes.

(4) We must increase the area of green and open spaces; this is the only way to ensure the necessary degree of health and peace to enable men to meet the anxieties of work occasioned by the new speed at which business is carried on.

With the fundamental soundness of these principles, no town planner, or layman for that matter, could possibly quibble, but it must be immediately apparent that such prevailing ideas on town planning as are capable of

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positive statement would render them utterly contradictory and irreconcilable. In other words, a complete re-organisation of our towns is urgently required, and, to approach that task with certainty, a complete revision of existing theories of town planning, more than that, of the very nature and functioning of the town itself, is needed.

Town planning to-day is everywhere becoming a matter of urgent debate, and action is being called for on all sides. When the problem is attacked it is found convenient to think and plan in terms of “ zoning” or “ housing,” paying spectacular attention to those parts of the town that lie furthest from the centre. Coming to the heart of the problem—the centres of the cities— a plan is frankly abandoned for makeshift. It is too often said, even of the relatively minor problems we are faced with in South Africa, that nothing really effective can be done—the best that is possible is to create a further problem elsewhere !

The urgent question of the centres of the towns has been abandoned, as though we are justified in attempting to house people adequately, but should disregard their working hours spent in the city’s centre. But the city is the focus of a whole country—in it the most intensely urgent and far-reaching problems are attacked and decisions made—it is the energy- producing force in the nation’s life. Should we not, then, demand from such a complex the precision and efficiency that we demand elsewhere in the “ enthusiasm for exactitude,” characteristic of this age ? With this fine purpose the town planner should approach his vast and vital problem.

A preliminary study of our towns as they are to-day inevitably reveals the inadequacy and the futility of what there is of attempt at order. Their centres are designed for methods of living and movement as obsolete as the horse-tram. And yet we crowd our streets with a great quantity of fast- moving traffic, with our pedestrians hovering, balancing (and sometimes over-balancing) on the edge of the inferno. This is bad enough, but when we partially rebuild our cities on the same sites, and achieve nothing but a further increase in confusion and congestion, it seems that the time has come to call a halt, to re-examine and re-value what we have, and to scrutinise with infinite care proposed improvements or alterations of whatever nature. Remedies, it should be realised, must be drastic and will be hard to face, but if we refuse to consider them now, then this generation dedicates to the future a chaos to which it has made its own colossal contribution.

Some suggest moving the centres elsewhere, building new sites, or extending their functions where space exists, beyond the suburbs. This argument is as specious as it is fallacious. The centres have been created from a long past, their positions determined by what surrounds them—they are fixed as irrevocably as a centre of gravity. Le Corbusier hag written that “ the present day has inherited its civic centre, which is the hub of an immense wheel, the spokes of which run from great distances and have decided the point of their convergence.” Nowhere is this determining factor better illustrated than in Capetown—a point I shall deal with later. There­fore when change is called for in the life and historical development of a town, let that change be done where the town most vitally exists, whence it takes its form and character, and where its greatness must inevitably be judged. Again Le Corbusier: “ We must concentrate on the centre of the city and change it, which is after all the simplest solution, and, more simply still, the only solution ! ” If we think this too sweeping or too upsetting for the prejudices and customs formed by long habit, we must remember that such a solution rises from theoretical analysis, the validity of which has been established, and may always be tested anew.

I shall now deal with two possible methods of approach to the replanning of the centres of cities. The first of these ruthlessly imposes a plan on what exists, the second allows the inherited plan to dictate the form and arrange­ment of any projected scheme. The latter—the plan of perpetual com­promise—is choked in itself by the ever-present forces of sentiment, insularity

or parochialism and short-sightedness. It is, however, typical of the prevailing attitude towards town planning, and, though it may have some uses, in general it causes any drastic or helpful proposal for the centre of the city to be consistently overlooked and eventually shelved. We have named this the “ Palliative Method.” When, however, the life and future greatness of a town is to be considered, we must concentrate our first activities at the city’s centre, so that freedom of movement, accessibility and breathing space can be restored where they are vital. It is possible to achieve this radical re-organisation by drastic methods only, by a fresh start on cleared ground. This ruthless eradication directed towards a re-vitalising process we have, following Le Corbusier’s lead, named the “ Surgical Method.”

Generally, surgery has made possible whatever exists of town planning in the centres of great cities. Street widening, traffic regulations, zoning— these are examples of the “ Palliative Method ’’—but they are temporary measures only and can guarantee no future to the city’s centre. The theories of town planning, as known to the public, consist in the main of enlarging or restricting elements conditioned purely by chance or by factors long since non-existent. An illusion of coming to grips with reality is created—time­worn fallacies of re-arrangement or common-sense alteration. Suggestions arising from these theories appear to the lay-mind as reasonable, practical. But, in fact, we are no longer in the position to accept a merely convenient solution—through surgery we must create order, through organisation we must make manifest the spirit of a new age. If these ideas are labelled Utopian, we must assert in reply that it is certainly the antithesis of Utopian to imagine that the city can retain its familiar form and yet survive.

The conception of order in town planning is fundamental—a readily acceptable fact, one would think—but many people are afraid of a statement as plain and unequivocal as that. Order is a creation of the human mind, in harmony with the animating spirit of nature—the town a geometrical projection of that creative faculty. With the calm and balance established by ordered planning significant advances in the nation’s welfare are possible —material things, industry, commerce—may properly function and develop, while cultural manifestations in every sphere may become an integral part of the community’s life.

If these considerations are borne in mind it should now be possible to rationalise the problem presented by Capetown and its development. The historic importance of Capetown requires no emphasis to an audience of South Africans. It can, however, be stated that Capetown is the link between South Africa and the outer world. Its position relative to hinter­land and to overseas trade and travel routes is a firmly established one; moreover, it is recovering the historic strategic value, lost in a world of greater security than we know now. It is, therefore, the key city of Southern Africa, of increasing importance in both spheres of influence. This from the material point of view. National sentiment fixes Capetown as the focal point of South African history and character. White civilisation gained its first hazardous foothold on that southern peninsula, and from there it has spread in successive waves into the great hinterland. The atmosphere and character that time alone can create can be sensed where man has established himself along the sculpturesque lower slopes of Table Mountain. The site and setting provided by Nature is one unsurpassed for town and harbour— the whole peninsula almost demands a development by man in harmony with the grandeur and inspiring scale of mountain and sea. This compelling force has been felt in the past—most certainly by the first Dutch settlers, who seized upon the natural axis so majestically indicated on the mountain side.

These early markings on the vast canvas of Table Mountain were without doubt more impressive than the sprawling, ill-considered building that has grown like a fungus along the sea shore and ever deeper on to the widespread slopes. Design, order—compact and geometrical—are apparent in the first

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work of man. What has taken place since then is a tragic story. Without thought, without foresight, with a narrowness that is becoming increasingly incomprehensible, land and more land has been swallowed up in the make­shift development that in the final analysis does no more than provide shelters, with a primitive system of communication that can hardly be said to function. The thickly-wooded slopes, man-planted with unselfish vision, are gradually being encroached upon by the haphazard and indiscriminate expansion of suburbs, whose form and shape can by no means be boasted of. The menace of total extinction lies heavily on these beautiful green belts. It becomes ever more clear that the task of the town planner is to restore what has been lost, to re-create with the same understanding and foresight that made notable and lasting the work of the early administrators at the Cape.

From the practical point of view, the existing centre of Capetown does not function adequately. The fact that people do arrive from the suburbs, do find their way along the streets that have to carry such heavy and diversified traffic, and finally do arrive at a place where it is possible to conduct business, does not mean that any standard of efficient communication or of housing business people has been reached. On the contrary, it merely demonstrates what people will put up with.

If we can anticipate a future for Capetown, and so for South Africa, then we can safely assert that every development, every increase of traffic, whether by sea, rail or road, must further embarrass the arrangements that exist to deal with these functions. The town is not planned for what may be considered the necessities of modern life—the narrow streets are antiquated and absurd, making traffic movement a constant source of irritation to all who use them, the comparatively small population is over-spread and housed without consideration of aspect or climate, the internal system of communication and the link between centre and suburbs is little more than an accident of fate. Can we talk, then, of a future for such a condition of inefficiency and muddle; is it possible to visualise a greater Capetown growing from the existing town ? It is imperative that we should no longer deceive ourselves—it is not possible to cope with the complex problem presented by the modern town by odd, indiscriminate and petty reforms. Against that policy of hesitation, doubt and futility, “ we must set up prin­ciples.” My introductory remarks covered the broad aspects of the new approach to town planning—we must remember also that every other factor in modern life has shown an accelerated development, so that to-day we possess an equipment unique in history—an equipment by means of which a new world can be built. The contradiction between the means we have created, and the aims we put before ourselves, grows ever wider and more tragic.

It is not often in the history of towns that an opportunity is given by external circumstances whereby its centre may be reorganised and re-equipped. Such an opportunity generally occurs in ancient cities, where some portion of the old town has fallen into such a ruinous state that only a complete rebuilding is a feasible course of action. Even in that case the necessity is seldom so stringent that piecemeal replacement is not an alter­native, however poor. The case of Capetown, however, is very different. Here a new harbour—an enormous basin—is already under construction. With a directness that is admirable, the position of the new basin has been deter­mined, and the work put in hand for its construction. It is tolerably certain that the engineer’s work will proceed with the organised efficiency, and with the technical resourcefulness that we now take for granted in that sphere. With this development, however, a large wedge of land must be reclaimed, and is made available to a great extent for the extension or re-adjustment of the central area of Capetown, on to which it immediately abuts. A task of the first magnitude faces the town planner, and one which is fraught with dangers of repercussion in every direction. The area itself is of sufficient

size to absorb, in the first place, the existing central area, and a good deal more besides, and, secondly, to allow of a complete re-alignment of services and communications. More important than that, even, is the fact that the new area must inevitably link the future harbour with the old town. The oppor­tunity for town planning on a scale commensurate with the technical and scientific achievements of the twentieth century is at once apparent.

There are two methods of approach to this problem open to the designer, and I shall endeavour to show that, although the one method is the more likely to be adopted, yet every consideration of logic, efficiency, workability and, on higher grounds, of contemporaneity and of aesthetic morality, points inevitably to the urgent necessity of adopting the second method (with which I shall deal when considering the “ Congress Plan ” ). I have previously stressed the type of rebuilding that is based on “ Palliative Methods ”—the acceptance of what is, and the consequent compromise, the tugging and wrenching necessary to reach any possibility of establishing working order. That outlook is, in all conscience, narrow and ineffectual enough where the town is complete in its road system and buildings, but where we are dealing with newly-created space, it takes on the aspect of a mental fixation ! By considering in detail the components of existing Capetown and its future development, I shall endeavour at this point to establish categories, under which any scheme may be analysed in itself, and relative to the peninsula as a whole.

It can be stated immediately that the position and the functioning of the railways carrying main line and local traffic in existing Capetown, block, congest and retard circulation to a degree that is increasingly a menace to the city’s life. This is the first matter calling for investigation. Then the road system linking the eastern and western portions of the peninsula with one another and with the central area is inadequate and confused, and calls urgently for systematised improvement and re-adjustment. Traffic circulation within the city itself is at the moment painful and dangerous in the extreme- parking a matter of chance and evasion, and what provision does exist cannot possibly take the increase that statistics relentlessly point to. Another problem ! Municipal transport in the central area functions at the moment in much the same way as it does in Johannesburg—that is to say, it is faster and easier to walk ! A fact that should be universally recognised before it is lost sight of in a welter of suggestions is that what the harbour develop­ment immediately does for Capetown is to release space—space, not building- sites. The gardens and squares laid out by the early Dutch settlers have been consistently encroached upon, so that little remains to-day of those open spaces. Once again opportunity is granted for planning in the complete sense—can we measure up to the same and noble standards of earlier cen­turies ? In the next few years we may judge that issue. Space, then, green and verdant space, must be restored to that historic scene. Furthermore, in the generous areas now made available to us, we should build rationally by following the dictum of Le Corbusier —we must augment the density while we de-congest the centre of the city; our buildings must bear the direction and bias natural to climatic conditions and aspect. What must be avoided is an extension of existing evils—the new development must first of all deal completely with its own problems and the relationship it bears to the peninsula as a total entity, but weight should also be attached to the effect it must immediately and of necessity produce on the existing centre, in which, after all, enormous interests are vested. Of great import, too, is the fact that irreparable damage to the Cape as a whole would result from any attempt to shift the emphasis from the position where the existing centre has gravitated and become established. It simply is not a feasible plan. This raises, too, the question of the aesthetic, as apart from the directly practical, values to be created by a plastic handling of the elements of the town in relation to their natural setting. We have seen the inherent rightness

in the selective discrimination of the first planners at the Cape. It will be found that a re-planning- leads inevitably back to the points so emphatically and decisively fixed by them—any radical departure from that basis must be disastrous and ineffective. Adderley Street and the line it traces on the lower slopes of Table Mountain fall naturally into the cleft formed by Lion’s Head on the one side and Table Mountain on the other, making possible a development along and up these even slopes. It would be short-sighted to claim merit for any scheme for Capetown that does not eventually permit absorption, as the principle line of development, of this natural axis. In other words, the new foreshore must be considered as essentially a part of the whole, an extension running out from the permanent and irrevocably fixed centre of the macrocosm, that is the Cape Peninsula. Nothing that in any way divides or separates the one part from the other can be tolerated; on the contrary, old Capetown should materially benefit from the opening-up that is now made possible by the fortuitous increase in area. And that benefit should be capable of exploitation immediately following the reclama­tion. Finally, it is essential that a long view be taken of the problem—it is not what Capetown is or what it may become in five years, but rather the changes and vicissitudes fifty or a hundred years may bring to the key city of South Africa.

A critical basis has now been formulated for measuring the fundamental value of any given attempt at solution. For convenience, I re-iterate these points under eight headings :(1) The Railways—their position and functioning.(2) The Road System—as facilitating circulation across the Peninsula.(3) The Internal Traffic circulation—including the questions of parking and

Municipal transport.(4) The Creation of Parks and Open Spaces.(5) The Approach to the Problem of Building—bearing in mind the factors

of increased density of population and the vital de-congestion in the centre.

(6) The Relationship of the Centre to old Capetown, to the new Harbour, and to the Peninsula as a whole.

(7) The Preservation of Vital Axes and Established Zoning.(8) The Functioning of the Realised Scheme as the core and circulating link

of the fully-developed Peninsula.

CO NGRESS SCHEM E

F O R C A P E T O W N

Designed by :

J . Fassler

N. Hanson

D. Howie W . G. McIntosh

C. Sinclair

N. Sinclair

A. Wilson

To illustrate the thesis that is contained in these basic points, I shall use two projects—the first one prepared, I understand, by the City Engineer of Capetown—the second the effort of a group of architects, of whom I am the spokesman to-night. I do not suggest that the first scheme will be carried out as it stands, but what it does serve to show, for my purpose, is a method of approach that is typical—typical, that is, of a commonly accepted notion of town planning, and for that reason a serious menace to town planning in the full and proper sense.

First, the railways. It is proposed that the present station be moved completely on to the north side of Strand Street, a distance of not more than, 100 ft., and all main and suburban lines diverted to that position. New goods sheds are provided, but in all other essentials the position and direction of the railways are retained as at present. The fact that the existing- railway' muddle completely blocks the town from the sea and abuts against it in the most awkward and uncomfortable manner has not been allowed to influence in any way the costly and extravagant utilisation of valuable new land. In other words, the worst features of the existing plan have been retained and even embellished. What is more important, perhaps, is the fact that the railway here totally isolates the reclaimed area from the old town, and it is only by dangerous devices that any link at all can be created and main­tained between the two parts. I refer to the two subways indicated on the drawing. Here, again, we see additional evils created in the name of improvement ! To sum up, we find that on the east side of Adderley Street the reclaimed area terminates in a welter of railway services, while to the south any possible merging with the existing town is effectively wiped out.

Secondly—the system of roads for circulation across the peninsula. It is a remarkable fact that it has been found impossible, in spite of the colossal area open for development, to create a single, uninterrupted link between the two portions of the peninsula falling to the east and west of Adderley Street. This, in spite of the fact that such links are urgently required, and would ease the unbearable pressure on the city’s centre.

Thirdly—the internal traffic circulation. The road system as developed in the new area is notable mainly for the fact that it appears to have been the object of the designer to prevent any road running consistently and uninterruptedly through the town, so that every road comes to a swift end (as would the motorist, most probably). Parking, again, is left entirely for the Traffic Department to deal with, on the principle of first creating the problem and then perennially attempting to solve it. Municipal transport remains as ever a matter of chance improvement and unending muddle, the question being, mainly, how often the new streets can be divided and sub­divided to cope with innumerable conflicting functions.

Fourthly—parks and open spaces. Some space has been allotted to gardens, but in a manner that is primitive in the extreme, and it certainly cannot be said that nature has been brought back to the city’s centre. We know that these spaces will become squares in the official sense, that is, heavily built-up with concrete paths, kerbs and gutters, and iron railings with a garden only just emerging. In any case, there is an entire lack of con­centrated parkland—essential to the city’s health and vitality.

Fifthly, the building problem. Here we have a miscellaneous collection of building blocks—each of greater area, it is true, than the existing types, but still hopelessly too many of them, and of a shape and outline that makes architectural development utterly impossible. This is judging the suggestion on its own ground, but in fact the system of placing buildings on the outer edges of absurdly proportioned blocks, which has become a fixed, rigid, totally illogical but universally accepted notion, is creating the hemmed-in, chasm-like, claustrophobia-producing character of our streets. As far as density of population is concerned, it is clear that the congestion caused by this blatant over-building would be infinitely worse than anything- yet seen in Capetown. The uniformity of planning and building principles

= B e ^ p D a t ± f g i

A sketch plan showing the first proposals of the City Engineer

tor the planning of the reclaimed area of the foreshore,

Capetown. Reproduced by permission of the Cape Argus.

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which is such an essential part of successful town planning would obviously be anathema to those responsible for this plan.

Sixthly, the relationship of the new development to old Capetown, to the New Harbour and to the Peninsula as a whole. This plan, it appears, creates an entirely new centre for Capetown—without reference to the enormous national wealth tied up in the present town, and without thought of the dire consequences of such a drastic step. As far as relationship with the new harbour is concerned, my impression is that a line has been drawn at the end of the scheme proper, in the fervent hope that someone else will take the problem over at that point. In relation to the Peninsula as a whole, the scheme needlessly and, let it be said, very inefficiently, shifts the emphasis from the present centre to the new. The fact that this new centre cannot function with even the efficiency (if one can call it that) of the old, does not appear to have acted as a deterrent.

Seventhly, the preservation of vital axes and established zoning. Adderley Street in this scheme has been continued through the new area, though its circulation or continuity has been broken at the last moment for no valid reason, but it cannot be called the focal point in the totality of old and new Capetown, nor does it provide the fixed axial line on which this present development or any future development devolves. This is a basic error. The present positions in Capetown of the various functions (shops, places of amusement, offices, civic centre) in relation to Adderley Street and to main arterial roads are, though somewhat confused, by now completely estab­lished, and, on the whole, rightly placed. On the other hand, any trans­ference of these functions to the lower area would be most inadvisable, and, to my mind, frankly unworkable.

Eighthly, the realised scheme as the core and circulating link in the fully-developed Peninsula. If this scheme were carried out, the centre of greater Capetown would be split irrevocably into an old and a new, with poor provision for inter-communication, and ill-conceived and inadequate traffic links with all essential circulation across the Peninsula.

Inflexible, incapable of expansion or partial development, a standing- invitation to slum encroachment, the completed scheme would inevitably bring about its own downfall, and lead ultimately to a drastic clearance of an enormous area in order to restore life and movement to the outgrown and outdated husk. Why postpone decisions to that fateful day ? The time for these momentous thoughts is now, and from thought should spring action, deliberate, directed, and drastic, in full apprehension of the great future awaiting these timely decisions.

I shall now pass on to an analytical description of the “ Congress Plan ” for Capetown. I should like to make it clear that this scheme is no more than a preliminary one, but what we have attempted to do is to adhere to “ principles ” as opposed to makeshifts, and in this way to build up a case for complete town planning that answers all considerations, whether practical, moral or aesthetic. The programme indicates four main divisions in my thesis—Circulations, Zoning, the Business Centre and Future Development. These four headings are capable of expansion into the eight points which I have previously established as reasonable criteria. I shall consider the “ Congress Plan ” in the light of these points. By building up again, step by step, the process of creative design, I hope it will be possible to realise, finally, the complete solution. From detailed analysis, and the consequent establishing of true constants, a result may be deduced at once satisfying in its relationship to the individual parts, and to the complex whole.See Frontispiece.

(1) After a most thorough investigation, it was decided to place the station serving the passenger traffic at the heart of the developed scheme, that is to say, at the point where the new harbour links up with the town.

This strategic position allows of the discharge of motor and pedestrian traffic from the station on to the principal axis of the complete centre—Adderley Street. At the same time, passengers arriving by car from the docks will have the advantage of the same crucial approach and will be placed in an identical position to receive first impressions of the developed city, extending back with wide spatial accent to the Mountain behind. The railway lines that serve the station will be laid on a level lower than the natural ground, though if filling-in is required on the reclaimed land the placing in position of the tubes would be the first structural work to be undertaken. By this method no interruption to the ground level and above-ground circulation is caused. Goods traffic is terminated and handled at a point considerably further to the west, but in close juxtaposition to the harbour itself, and in immediate contact with the principal lines of circulation. By concentrating the railway services at the northern end of the scheme, the continuity of the existing centre down to the new Basin is maintained without interruption.

(2) The system of roads for circulation across the Peninsula. It has been considered essential to facilitate the movement of traffic inwards from those portions of the Peninsula extending to the east and to the west of the centre of the city, as well as providing direct and economic links between these two zones, across the city itself. The existing main roads serving in both directions have been brought into line with the main arteries of the new centre so that the shortest possible distance has to be traversed across the city to move from one to the other.

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(3) The internal traffic circulation, including the questions of parking and of Municipal transport. A study of the problem of traffic circulation in the contemporary city impelled us to separate and differentiate between types of traffic. We assume rapidly increasing load and greater speed as the primary conditions in the design of roads. On this basis a division into heavy and into light fast traffic is a first essential. We have therefore planned our highways on two levels—heavy traffic (goods delivery, etc.), running on the natural ground level, while the light traffic moves swiftly at high minimum speeds on an elevated roadway directly over the lower road. Pedestrians are accommodated on the natural ground level, and cross roads by means of underground ramps. (Presumably the hopping and jumping propensities of the pedestrian mentioned by Dr. Biesheuvel will swiftly dis­appear in the new city.) No traffic can move at speed when interrupted by frequent crossings, so that intersections are as widely spaced as possible, giving, in this scheme, clear runs of 1,000 ft. (i.e., five normal Johannesburg blocks). In addition, no cross circulation is permitted on the elevated road­way—the one road is bridged over its right-angle cross-road, and access from one to the other made possible by the device known as the clover-leaf. This may be studied in detailed drawings reproduced on page 322. The question of providing adequate parking facilities throughout the city’s centre has been carefully considered. In the blocks as arranged on this drawing, great spaces are made available on the southern sides of our buildings, and here are constructed parking platforms, arranged on two levels. Access

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to these platforms from the roadways is achieved by fly-over ramps, and a one-way circulation devised within the parking area itself. By these means an allowance of one car to every six persons is made possible—a figure which may be considered as permitting a commensurate increase in the numbers of privately-owned cars. Thus the streets have been freed from the burden of parking, while people may still exercise the privilege of driving their cars to their places of business or amusement—a fundamental right. We have allocated two strategic positions on the plan for bus termini, again situated off the highways, so that no inconvenience or congestion may be caused in the steady line of moving traffic. In addition, a fully re-built and developed Capetown has been envisaged, and provision made for an underground railway system which would serve expeditiously the entire central area, stations being- opened in positions from which all parts of the town could be properly served. That completes the picture of movement within the city.

(4) The creation of parks and open spaces. An urgent necessity in the centre of Capetown (indeed, of all South African towns to-day) is the provision of open spaces—green belts of re-vitalising trees and plant-life. By open spaces I mean parks on the scale of London’s Hyde Park or Regent’s Park, or Paris’ Bois, not the mean little squares which here so frequently pass for gardens. The reclaimed land in Capetown in this respect plays into our hands. The shifting of the railway has released a further space to the north of the Castle, retained in the park as an historic landmark. By taking this area right through to the New Basin we are enabled to create immediately an extensive belt at the very point where it is required most, that is, between the working centre of the city and the railway and commercial services. We have further suggested a continuation of this belt in the future, when the complete scheme may be realised. So much for parkland. Open spaces automatically emerge from the method of building proposed. As the propor­tion of built-on ground in each block is approximately only 5 per cent., it is clear that what remains can be developed as garden. Thus we bring the lovely green of trees and lawns right into the heart of the working centre of the city,

(5) The approach to the problem of building. A new conception of the town as an organism is apparent in the proposals we put forward. If we wish to build cities which may represent this age of colossal technical advance and achievement, we must scrap for ever the framework of towns handed down to us from infinitely less complex times. Where before change in the life of the town was a hardly perceptible process, a universal upheaval in the last fifty years has revolutionised the life within, and re-constituted the face of, the town. We cannot stretch the existing pattern to receive functions for which it was never intended or designed. How, then, are we to express this cataclysmic change in terms of architectural planning ? Fundamentally, by exploiting to the full the technical equipment which by constant research and brilliant discovery has been made available to the architect. With the ever-present factors of increased density of population and vital de-congestion in mind, a solution, capable to-day of realisation, immediately suggests itself. For de-congestion we must space our buildings convenient distances apart, while for increased density of population we must build vertically. These beautifully simple postulates make possible a solution just as simple. Our fully-extended business centre proper is contained in six blocks (approximately 350 yards square), each with a central building of rectangular shape and of about 5 per cent, coverage. The offices contained on each floor face two directions only—north to the sea and south to Table Mountain, so that the building presents two narrow elevations to east and west, aspects suffering con­siderable disadvantage at the Cape due to the very persistent and unpleasant prevailing winds. Each building is designed to house 10,000 people, so that in order to achieve compact circulation the height has been extended to forty floors, by no means difficult of construction if we remember American skyscrapers of much greater height. These enormous buildings cover

relatively small areas of ground, contained in each block so that the spacing between them is as much as 1,200 feet—and is utilised for parking platforms on the south and gardens and occasional small, low buildings on the northern sides. I must emphasise that free space is retained under these skyscrapers by raising the lowest floor on the columns which support the total structure, so that access to points of entry and circulation can be directly reached. All other buildings indicated on this plan have a common basis in design, so that a uniformity in architectural approach and aspect would be discernible throughout the entire city’s centre. In the past, all great examples of town planning have been notable for a strict adherence to this attitude—indeed, it is difficult to conceive of any successful town plan which does not basically conform to these conditions.

(6) The relationship of the centre to old Capetown, to the new harbour, and to the Peninsula as whole. It has been our endeavour to affect as little as possible the existing town, in the first stages of the development of the reclaimed area. We have considered it possible to construct firstly portions of our arterial road system, with the necessary links with the old town, and the servicing of the new goods and passenger stations, and secondly, the park belt, which contains in the first stage only existing free ground or space liberated by the reclamation of the new foreshore. The first buildings would be erected only when considered desirable to do so by the authorities in

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control. In linking the centre with the harbour, it is assumed that all service (i.e., lower level) roads would run through to the wharf level of the docks, and would circulate freely from the points of entry. In addition, we have carried our main axis of Adderley Street as a high-level road round the Basin itself. On this road all passengers arriving by boat would depart for the town, so that the fullest advantage will be taken of the vistas created in the great business centre. In relation to the Peninsula, this scheme sets out to maintain existing accents, having due regard to the essential development down to the new harbour. In other respects the re-built Capetown is imposed upon the old town, with very much the same relationship between the elements of the scheme as subsist at present.

(7) The preservation' of vital axes and established zoning. It is apparentthat the strong accent given originally to Adderley Street is now fast disappearing as Capetown spreads in its random development. This is asevere loss to the fine plastic relationship possible between the natural line of circulation and the mountain formation surrounding it. We have deemed it a necessity to restore the emphasis on this axis—in fact, to develop it to a degree not previously attempted. It now constitutes the essential artery, the axis in the ultimate realisation of greater Capetown. The zoning of functions has been subjected to a drastic process of simplification. Although an approximate separation of functions occurs naturally in every town, there is constant overlapping and unnecessary repetition, with a subsequent con­fusion and loss of contact. We believe it better to concentrate each function in its allotted area and thus simplify circulation and general efficiency of working. We have the services situated at the eastern end of the grid, with the goods portion of the railways and the market arranged conveniently to contact town and harbour. A considerable area is devoted to warehouses, immediately adjacent to these services. We then establish our park belt, running parallel to the north-south axis of the city, and ultimately embracing in a broad curve the highest points in the building programme. The business centre, with its six skyscrapers, falls naturally into position along the Adderley Street axis, and we arrive, on the one side, at the civic centre, with its City Hall and Piazza, Magistrates’ Courts, libraries and museums—a cultural centre in effect. Adderley Street is here developed up the lower slopes of the Mountains and curves in sympathy with the contours. At this point, to the west of Adderley Street, we are enabled to preserve the original gardens and the Cathedral. In this area a large shopping centre is planned, with possi­bilities of expansion if required. In direct relation to this centre, the theatres, cinemas and amusement park are to be built. At the highest point of the scheme, and in considerable stretches of parkland, the Houses of Parliament and the Supreme Court are established, with Table Mountain and the New Forest as background and the complete developed centre of Capetown stretching below to the great new harbour, as panorama.

(8) The realised scheme as the core and circulating link in the fully-developed Peninsula. A cursory examination of this plan as it sits in relation to the Peninsula, reveals the fact that unrestricted circulation is possible firstly to the south, by means of the magnificent autostrade curving its way through the hollow between Table Mountain and Lion’s Head, and then to the east and west by direct and clear points of contact. Account is taken of likely housing developments—on the east, where “ District 6 ” at present mars the approach by rail and road to Capetown, and along the southern shores at and beyond Camp’s Bay, where a freer and more spacious housing scheme is a decided and attractive possibility. Circulation, then, through and around this great centre, with its anticipated working population of 75,000 people, is established with a freedom and ease of movement that is essential to the proper functioning of this city of a half-million white inhabitants. More than that, a centre has been created which, in its scope and plastic achieve­ment, may fittingly function as an index to a civilisation satisfying the loftiest needs and aspiration of Man. - —.— _______

My final heading is Realisation. I had originally intended at this point to enter with some detail into the possibilities of such a scheme as ours coming to fruition. I find, however, that that portion of my task has been handled with such thoroughness and insight by the previous lecturers that it would be an impertinence on my part to attempt either an amplification or a sum­mary of their brilliant conclusions. What I can do is to extract a few salient points from their general dissertations which illustrate or indicate what the future holds for town planning. In this process I do not wish to usurp the functions of our chairman, or of the speakers who may follow, so that it will not be a summing-up, but merely an extraction of those arguments which bolster-up our personal thesis.

Mr. Farrell, speaking as the sociologist, has indicated with the utmost clarity the limits set on the imaginative conceptions of the town planner (using the word in the complete sense) within the existing social structure. As I do not anticipate an immediate change in this structure (except, possibly, for the worse), I may confine my remarks to that one aspect. It seems to me, as far as Capetown as a special case is concerned, that the town planner turns the tables on the private speculator or landowner. A choice has been placed before the interests of capital by the most unpremeditated and incon­siderate action of a national government. I refer to the construction of the new harbour. The capitalist must either buy up completely the new land which has been presented to Capetown, and, by an unnatural forbearance, resist the temptation to speculate in building on that ground, or face the unpleasant alternative of a landslide in values on the ground at present owned and exploited by his class in existing Capetown. The town planner, on the other hand, looks primarily on the reclaimed land as liberated space, a fact which ought not to offend the sensibilities of even the more unscrupulous type of speculator. The snag, perhaps, is that we do insist on erecting some few, but very large buildings on that land. But, to start with, our activities are limited and under a central control, so that the rate of change from old Capetown to new is a known calculable factor. In fact, we would welcome the financial interest of that very necessary class, and it could make its own contribution to the possibilities of realisation of the new plan. As for the ultimate realisation of the complete scheme, it seems to me that we have simply and logically extended what we have started at one given point, taking into account the fourth dimension of time. The effort has been directed in all essentials towards a fulfilment of the doctrines and conclusions which emerge from the psychological views of Dr. Biesheuvel, who saw no serious difficulties in living in such a town; from the architectural interpretation of the underlying principles put forward by Mr. McIntosh, which gave hope of a contemporary solution; and from the biological and historical background depicted by Professor Thornton-White, which finally laid down the complete desirability of such town planning. On that note of potential achievement, I conclude my elucidation of the plan for the future of Capetown.

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The Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen: In the two lectures of to-night, as you were promised last night, we have finally come down to homely grounds. No longer are theories put before you, but concrete proposals. And for concrete proposals to get beyond the stage of being presented in a model to that further stage of being actually built, it is necessary for them to have the approval, if not the enthusiam, of a large public. This we can only hope to achieve if all the points raised by the actual proposals are fully and intensely discussed, and I therefore think that the discussion to-night is not only a matter of venting one’s personal opinion, but indeed a public service, because every further point that may be elucidated by discussion to-night will bring us one step further to a realisation of one or both of these schemes. It is in this spirit that I appeal to you to raise any objections you have to raise against either or both of the schemes and to make any comments and criticisms which you believe to be of constructive value

Mr. Howie asked Mr. Kantorowich if the question of the total number of the Native population had been considered, and whether the Native housing scheme put forward which, he understood, would house 20,000, would be a complete single scheme. He further asked how development would be provided for—whether alongside, or in another satellite township nearby.

Mr. Kantorowich said he was sorry that he had forgotten to deal with this point in his lecture, and he was glad that Mr. Howie had brought it up. He replied that the development of the eventual size of the city depended very much on the ease of circulating' within it. It one had motor cars, it was possible for the city to reach quite an enormous size, up to 3,000,000 inhabi­tants as in Le Corbusier’s scheme. However, the Native population was pedestrian in character, as he had previously remarked, and although when they originally started on the scheme, they took 20,000 as a useful number, when they eventually came to tackling the problem they found that, even with the concentration that they had in the scheme, it was not advisable to extend the township as a whole very much more. In other words, the distance from the extreme flat block to the cultural centre was about the maximum that a person could be expected to walk. The necessary connection from any future development to that centre would be effected by some means other than walking. It therefore appeared that if another 20,000 or 30,000 Natives were to be housed, a new satellite township would have to be developed It really would not amount to a ring of satellite towns, as had been demon­strated the previous evening, but rather to a new scheme growing' further along the line. This new scheme would have its civic and cultural centre just as the present scheme had. ’

Mr. Jacobs, referring to the Capetown scheme, said it was not quite clear to him how it was possible to force private owners to build the six skyscrapers of a certain type. It only seemed possible to have them built by the Municipality itself. He wondered how it was possible to arrange for this His second point was in regard to the Native township scheme As far as he understood, there were ten blocks of 2,000 inhabitants each; these ten units formed the township, and for each unit there was one group provided He thought there were too many schools. He considered that for 2 000 persons, one school was too big. Thirdly, he pointed out that experience had shown that blocks such as those which would be built in this scheme would, after sixty years, be in a stage in which they could not be used anv more, 3

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Mr. Hanson, replying to Mr. Jacobs’ first point, said that he thought that had been dealt with to a great extent by Mr. Farrell in the modifications that he had suggested for the functioning of our present society. They had actually proposed that private individuals would be able to partake in that development by public utility or other means, and that in fact it should be possible for individuals to buy portions of the skyscraper, which in the main would consist only of the structure, the internal arrangements being left to the discretion or the requirements of any particular group or any particular person. The parts that were bought up or rented would be capable of being sub-let again, if necessary, or direct letting to the tenants of the skyscrapers could take place, and in fact they would then function as part of the whole scheme. Actually the scheme had to be under direct control set up by the Government or by Municipal means.

The Chairman dealt with the question raised by Mr. Jacobs as to whether there were too many schools in the Native housing scheme. He said that the calculations for that had been done very carefully. The whole point was that the present schools were too big, and that a school should not exceed 250 to 300 pupils. Even that figure would be considered by many modern pedagogues as a maximum which it was dangerous to approach. Then he pointed out that in a Native township population, the percentage of children of the school-going age was higher than it was in a European population, for the particular reason that bachelors were not allowed in Native locations, as the audience were probably aware. For that reason the male population between the ages of 18 and 25 or 30 was, to a considerable extent, absent. Therefore the normal percentage rates of school-going children could not be applied, but had to be worked out by taking into account all these particular factors. From an analysis of the statistics of the Union and of the tables showing the children of school-going age, they had been led to the conclusion that for a population of 20,000, the size of the flat blocks should be fixed at that for about 2,000 inhabitants. In regard to Mr. Jacobs’ third point, the Chairman said that by the time the township was 60 years old, a new one could be started, on principle. The scheme would have paid for itself in every respect; it would have repaid the complete capital, the interest, and the interest loan advanced by the Government and the Municipality, and it would have allowed a considerable sum for upkeep alone every year. So that, with good and solid methods of construction, it should be possible to keep the scheme in a very habitable state of repair for sixty years. After that time it would be possible to start a new scheme, or to pull down the one under consideration. He thought the view taken was extremely pessimistic. Although it appeared that for the next ten or twenty years the living of Natives was not going to improve, there was little doubt that, within 40 or 60 years, this would be changed radically. It would therefore be possible to raise loans and start rebuilding the scheme at a very much earlier date than 60 years. If it did not prove possible, it would be too bad, but then it would be due more to the economic situation of the Natives, and not due to the town planner.

Mr. Greathorn said he was sorry to have to mention this point, as it was one which nobody liked to hear, but he would like to ask if Mr. Hanson had approached the Capetown scheme from a defensive point of view, the Capetown harbour being a very important strategic point in the future.

Mr. Hanson replied that their main line of approach was this—that aerial warfare is something that shouldn’t be ! In fact, they thought that their scheme would perhaps be just as capable of defence from aerial attack as could reasonably be expected. They had large spaces between the buildings. It was difficult to say whether that would assist or not. But there was one main factor which might prove of considerable value, viz., that they had facilitated circulation away from the city, which was considered by many as a fairly effective form of aerial defence—that is to say, evacuation,

such as they were trying to work out in Paris to-day. That, at least, they had achieved in the Capetown scheme.

Mr. Mauthner, referring to the question of the limitation of the Native township, said he was not quite satisfied with the explanation that 20,000 people would be about the limit. He was quite happy about the explanation that the pedestrian was dictating a certain limit, but he did not see that ribbon development would not be possible. He thought the limits of the township should rather be dictated by a relation between the working place and the 2ilace where people were housed, which would fix the limits at probably more than the figure of 20,000. That point led him to some considerations referring to circulation. He thought that the question of motor car transport was in some way exaggerated. In planning new towns or reconstructing towns, they had—as was explained and pointed out in the first brilliant lecture by Mr. Farrell to reckon with completely different conditions, which would reorganise our whole social life. There would be a definite relation between the housing zones and the zones for working. They would be able to situate or relate their new towns so that the traffic would be as simple as possible. He could, very well imagine a small town of 20,000 inhabitants related to a factory, where the inhabitants might work. They could take, for instance, light industry, and in that case they could accept pedestrian traffic between the township and the working place. That, he said, might be the case in the scheme which had been demonstrated that evening. If one were talking about bigger towns, they had definitely to organise a circulation scheme by railway, by trains underground, by buses, and so on. In any case he thought that, under new conditions, the individual owner-driven car would not play the part it was at present playing. If it was thought that it would still play that part, then he did not understand why similar provision should not be made for aeroplanes. He did not see why mass transport—and that was the main thing—could not be carried out greatly by underground railways or railways which would go into the ground, which would be well planned and well related to the places where people worked, where people took their recreation, and where people lived; and he found evidence for that in the excellent scheme for the reconstruction of the centre of Capetown. So he did not see any reason why costly motor roads and huge parking areas should be constructed, if an excellent railway transport was provided for. He did not deny that in some incidental cases motor car ramps were necessary, but, generally, he did not feel that the motor car would play such a part, so most of those ramps could be avoided. Another factor which made transport circulation simpler was to increase the blocks. He thought that a block of 600 x 400 yards, roughly, would make travelling on an urban road much more convenient, and intersections occurring on a thoroughfare every 600 yards were not so terrible that ramps had to be provided for everywhere. Further, having in mind that the motor car would not play a big role, he thought that a far-reaching differentiation of roads would still further regulate the system of circulation.

The Chairman, replying to the first point in regard to the Native housing scheme, said that this was quite clearly considered as a scheme built for present-day conditions, which could be started on the next day. That made impossible probably all Mr. Mauthner’s objections, which would be applicable only in a changed stage of society. They could not put the location as near to the place of work as to make pedestrian traffic possible, because present politics required the segregation of the Natives. ^Vhether they agreed with that or not, once the policy of segregation was accepted, they had in this scheme, tried to do the best they could under existing conditions.

Dealing with Mr. Mauthner’s second point, the Chairman said it would b© impossible to plan the towns as satellite towns round, a ring’, because naturally, they would have to be spaced along the southern border of Johan-

nesburg, the whole of which was the industrial area, into which the Natives had to travel to and fro, and it would be impossible to supply ample conveyance between them. The third point raised by Mr. Mauthner was that the size of the township should be related to the working area and the area where the people were housed; it was certainly an admirable principle, that one industry should have its own township, and would probably be a guiding factor in future society, but it certainly did not apply at present. Any particular area of Johannesburg, on any particular industry, would not find a sufficient number number of Natives to be put together in one township. Therefore they had to accept the standard of size decided on in designing the township.

The Chairman then proceeded to deal with Mr. Mauthner’s remarks in regard to the overstatement of the road system in the Capetown scheme. He said he thought it rather dangerous to assume that the future state of society would involve a decrease of individual means of transport. The aim, in the long run, of any such change was no doubt a far-reaching liberation of the individual, which would necessitate individual means of transport. The motor car was nothing but the direct projection of the human personality for the purpose of movement. Even although European conditions of the present time did not make the motor car the universal means of transport, he had no doubt that in the future society—perhaps further away in time— the motor car would play a larger role even than to-day.— But they had designed the scheme so that it could be started in the present society, where they had the extensive use of the motor car and accordingly had to make provision for it. In Johannesburg the approximate ratio was one motor car to every five people, and in Capetown it was almost the same.

In regard to Mr. Mauthner’s opinion that the size of the blocks should be increased, the Chairman said that Mr. McIntosh had placed the ideal size of blocks at from 1,200 to 1,800 ft., which agreed with Mr. Mauthner’s figure. But in the Capetown scheme, if they started on the reclaimed area—and the whole scheme was dependent on being commenced on the reclaimed area— they could not have a larger block. That was quite clear from looking at the scheme. Two such blocks would crowd out the complete park area. He therefore thought that Mr. Mauthner’s objections, even though they were possibly correct in their theory, would be defeated.

Mr. Fassler said, in relation to the point that had been mentioned about transport from the distant residential suburbs to Capetown, that they had fully realised at the time of designing the scheme, that Capetown was unique in that the suburbs, as they existed at present, were fairly far flung. He thought that more use was made in Capetown of mechanical means of transport, with the train systems, and from that point of view there was a great element of truth in Mr. Mauthner’s statement about utilising rail transport for future towns. In the Capetown scheme they depended to quite a large extent on the train services to the suburbs. He thought that Mr. Hanson had mentioned the figure of one in six as the ratio of motor cars to the number of people. That did not permit of any great increase in the number of cars, although, to give the audience some idea of the latent congestion that was possible, he mentioned the fact that in some parts of America the ratio was two cars per person. In the Capetown scheme they had adopted that figure of one in six on the assumption that the number of cars in use, to the central part of the city, would not increase, but use would be made of the excellent transport facilities which would be available.

Mr. Welsh said there were one or two points he would like to ask regarding the Capetown scheme:(1) As regards rail transport, he understood that the suburban trains

would deposit their passengers at the main station, and they would then

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take the tube. He asked Mr. Hanson why this method had been chosenrather than that which was in vogue in both Berlin and Hamburg.

(2) How was it proposed to extend the business centre of the futureCapetown, in case of the necessity arising ?Mr. Hanson said it had not been made clear—not to him, at any rate—

what system was in vogue in Hamburg.Mr. Welsh explained that in both Hamburg and Berlin they had a circle,

and the trains from the suburbs came in at different points and continued round the circle, depositing the passengers where they wanted to go on the circle, nearest their business.

Mr. Hanson, in reply to Mr. Welsh’s first question, said they had adopted the particular system in the Capetown scheme because they thought that the passengers could be discharged at the point referred to and could then quite conveniently and with great ease be transferred on to the other purely internal circulation system, which was a direct and efficient method of getting from one place to the other.

In reply to the second question, Mr. Hanson said that, in designing the scheme, they had actually set themselves a figure for the future development of Capetown over a given number of years and a proportion of that figure would be placed in the centre of the town. Of course, limits had to be imposed somewhere. They had considered the development of Capetown that would extend over say fifty years. It seemed to him that was a sufficient figure to take for working at the present time. It was suggested that the buildings that were proposed in the scheme should be erected, not simultaneously, but when required, and so ultimately the town would be fully built up. He did not think that, in a scheme for an existing town, anything else but that could be done. It was possible for a new town such as the Ville Radieuse, for example, to extend, but he did not think that anything more was possible in the Capetown scheme than had been done.

The Chairman added that the limitations were very rigid indeed, in that one could not go on building into the sea, whilst at the other end the site commenced sloping very steeply. Ultimately it would probably be possible to build up the civic centre as a whole and to put up two more blocks. As the scheme stood at present, one and a half of the blocks would house the complete office population of Capetown as at present, so he thought that fair provision for extension had been made in the scheme.

Mr. Welsh said the scheme provided excellent facilities for sea arrivals and also train arrivals, and he certainly admired the road arrangements, which he thought were fully adequate and vitally necessary for future development. But there was one further point he would like to ask, viz., what arrangements had been made for centralising the air arrivals ? Was it considered that the present Wingfield Aerodrome, which he thought was the most central, was sufficiently near for the amazing development that would follow such a scheme ?

Mr. Hanson replied that he understood that the new harbour development was designed in one respect to provide for the landing of seaplanes, and, of course, that would bring passengers direct to the centre. In other respects they would have to rely on the land communications to convey people from the existing aerodrome to the centre of the city.

The Chairman: As it is getting rather too late for any possible further contributions, I must now close the discussion.

Before calling on Mr. Glyn Thomas to give the vote of thanks, I would like to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to a number of people.

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We have first of all to thank the Principal and the authorities of the University for the great help which they have extended to us, both financially and. morally, which has made this Congress possible; and we have to thank particularly Professor Pearse, whose really enthusiastic support and help during every stage of preparing for it has been invaluable.

Then we have to thank Professor Thornton-White and the students of the University of Capetown for coming up all this way, under conditions of travelling which are not yet ideal, in order not so much to enjoy a holiday as to do hard work all the time—and not only had they to do all the work here, but also a very considerable amount at Capetown, the result of which you saw in the drawings of Algiers. So I would like to express, on behalf of our Society, our hearty thanks to Professor Thornton-White and his students.

Lastly, if not first and foremost, the thanks of the Society have to go to all those Johannesburg students and architects who have put the time of three months and an enormous amount of work into the preparation of drawings, models, and so on. This Congress has been a collective effort of a high order. It was a matter of common enthusiasm and common work, producing finally what I think are very satisfactory results indeed. So I would like to extend my very hearty thanks to all those students and architects who have so selflessly helped in making this Congress a success. And I think, indeed, it was a success in establishing not only a general approach and thesis for town planning, but showing—I believe for the first time in South Africa—by practical examples what town planning could do within present limitations and adapted to South African conditions. Through this means of theoretical approach and practical demonstration we have made a contribution which may one day prove fruitful in the future of this country.

I believe Professor Thornton-White would now like to say a few words.Professor Thornton-White: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: On

Monday we are having an informal meeting which is to be attended by the students, at which I propose to voice some personal thanks. At this, the last formal occasion, I would like to express the sentiments of the University of Capetown School of Architecture—of the staff and students of that School —at the combined enthusiasm which has come to the surface in this historic meeting of the two University Schools of Architecture in this Congress. It is an exceedingly important historic occasion. I believe I am right in saying it is the first occasion on which the two main architectural centres of South Africa have met in some bulk in a common constructive effort. The fact that such an effort was possible is very largely due to the Architectural Students’ Society of the University of the Witwatersrand, combined with the immediate taking up of their approach with a great deal of enthusiasm by a very young similar Society, which has only just sprung into existence in Capetown. On this occasion, because it is such an important one, I would like, as a member of the staff of one of these Schools, to extend as it were a vote of thanks to the Chairman, as expressed to the two Students' Societies collectively, and to wish them the very best of luck for future collaboration.

The Chairman: I would now like to call on the Vice-President of our Society—although not an architect (it does seem possible for a layman to become Vice-President of an Architectural Students’ Society)—to extend a vote of thanks to the lecturers of to-night and to conclude our Congress—Mr. Glyn Thomas.

Mr. Glyn Thomas: Mr. Chairman, I can see no reason for having been chosen to propose this vote of thanks, except that I am not a philosopher, a sociologist, or an architect. I have very great pleasure indeed in rising to

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move it. I do not think actually that any words of praise from me are necessary for you who are here to-night—words of praise for the two admirable papers that have been read. I myself have been particularly struck by the very noble social feeling as well as the singular aesthetic and techno­logical qualities which we have in the schemes.

I would like, as a layman, to make a few remarks about a number of things. Speaking for the University authorities, I would like to say how pleased we are to have Professor Thornton-White and the Capetown students in Johannesburg, and we are indebted to your Society for having arranged this very pleasant function.

Now I would like to make some remarks about the Congress as a whole. It seems to me that it has resolved itself really into a debate between the ideas presented by Mr. Farrel on the one side and the remainder of the speakers on the other—perhaps Dr. Biesheuvel was excluded; he pointed to certain limitations in the present conditions capable of being removed' by town planning; he is not being taken into this debate. To my mind it is quite obvious. Mr. Farrell attempted to demonstrate, in a very brilliant paper, the identity of socialism and town planning. He endeavoured to show that without a very radical change, which he called a minimal change —for the sake of politeness—in the social order, the success of town planning was highly inconceivable. I think he is wrong in that, because the terminal papers of the Congress have proved, to me anyhow, that town planning has had very considerable success; that there are schemes which have been carried into practice; that there are other schemes planned, and drawn out and modelled, which are practicable schemes, and about which the authors have even calculated the necessary interest and means of raising money ! It really disconcerts me to find that town planning and socialism are by no means identical, and socialism is perhaps rather unnecessary.

In this debate, which has gone on sub rosa, as an under-current, I must say that the architects are right. And although Mr. Farrell is not here to controvert me, I think I should say that his divergence from the facts presented by the architects is due to a theoretical mistake. In the first place I do not think he is thinking of town planning other than as conceived by socialism; the point of view put forward was a socialist point of view. But what he did was to accept the architect’s conception of town planning. And the architect’s conception of town planning is different from the socialist’s. For a socialist of the Marxian tradition, the end purpose and ideal of town planning is to do away with towns. Towns certainly are, firstly, an historical form necessary for human progress—they are perhaps the form of living together that has contributed most to human development. But they are an historical form destined to pass away, and from the Marxian point of view one of the functions of the socialist is the fulfilling of that task by the removing of the differentiation between town and country. Town is town as against country; in one place you concentrate people, you concentrate wealth, and amenities, and theatres, libraries, books, telephones, and so on —all the things about which you have been speaking here to-night—so marking off that part of the country from the rest, where there are not these theatres, telephones, fire brigades, and what not.

Mr. Farrell tackled the problem from the point of view that the develop­ment of capitalism had produced towns with an appalling face, but it was necessary to overthrow capitalism before those towns could be improved and replanned. I do not think he is right that that can be done only given a new order of society. It pleases me to find, from the last two lectures to-night, that the architects do not agree with this, but have shown us that town planning can be carried out under the present form of society. It is not necessary to build 3,000,000 population towns, but to spread the amenities of town life over the whole countryside, until finally you cannot say what

is town and what is not. I found a glimpse of that idea in Professor White's lecture, where he spoke about having some real earth in towns. I would like to see a great deal of earth in towns, and a great deal of “town” in country.

The other theoretical mistake, I think, on the part of the first speaker, which accounts for his being at loggerheads in substance with the architect, is his conception of capitalism. Capitalism is many things. Capitalism is alleged to be represented by private ownership and by competition. Well, I can’t endeavour to prove my point to-night. But I would just say that those things, while having happened, are not “ essential.” The essence is class monopoly of ownership. And all the resistance to town planning that Mr. Farrell spoke about arose, not from that class monopoly, but from individual interests.

I can see no reason why, in capitalist society, it should not be possible,- under certain circumstances, for really effective town planning schemes to be put into operation. The actual town planning schemes that have been put forward bear the mark of capitalism. I feel sure that the town planning scheme for Johannesburg is more likely to be on the dump side of the town than, say, on the Houghton Ridge. Under capitalism town planning schemes —and very good ones too—can be put into operation, but under certain circumstances only.

Actually Mr. Jonas knows—and I hope he will support me if I am questioned about it—that capitalism to-day is decadent and reactionary. Just as, in the 19th century, legislation to protect the health and safety of workmen was necessary in the interests of industry, in the interests of capitalism, but no individual capitalists could be found to support it, so to-day town planning is necessary in the interests of the capitalist community. It is very difficult indeed to find capitalists themselves who are prepared to support it—to provide funds for it; to push it through Parliament. One has to force it upon the capitalist for his own good. It means that these schemes can be put through, can be developed and carried into effect, only if there is a very strong feeling amongst the mass of people that they want to have well-planned, beautiful towns.

This Congress, I think, will have done a great deal if it lends impetus amongst the mass to a desire for the better life.

Before putting my motion for a vote of thanks to the two speakers of to-night, I would like to join with it, as it were, a vote of congratulation to the Architectural Students’ Society and the officers of the Society for the miraculous project they have arranged—an ambitious project, carried out in a successful way. I move a vote of thanks to the speakers and to the Society.

The Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen: But for the difficulty which that might provoke, I think Mr. Glyn Thomas’ final speech would make it essential to have a Congress on Country Planning next year !

I now declare this Congress on Town Planning closed.

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Journal of the SA Architectural Institute PUBLISHER: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

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