City to pilot innovative, safe and inclusive parks

24 May 2017

 

Through its partnership with UN-Habitat and Ericsson, the City of Johannesburg is to pilot small-scale public open space projects in the following key areas Diepsloot, the Johannesburg Inner City and the Empire Perth Corridor, as part of its aim to create safe, inclusive and green open spaces for its residents.

 

The objective is to build vibrant and accessible public spaces where residents can unwind, engage or retreat to.

UN-Habitat is the United Nations’ Human Settlements Programme and Ericsson is a leading international mobile and internet communications company.

The City is represented in the partnership by City Transformation in the Development Planning Department, the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo (JCPZ) and Johannesburg City Safety Programme (JCSP).

Speaking during a workshop with UN-Habitat and Ericsson officials this week, JDA Development Facilitation Manager Nicolette Pingo said the City wanted to create spaces where people would want to spend time instead of just passing through.

She said the City did not have enough open spaces and parks to cater for its existing and rapidly growing population. For example, there were only 57 parks in the Johannesburg inner city for 400 000 potential park users.

Due to a multitude of social and economic challenges, the parks are perceived as chaotic, unsafe and undesirable spaces used for illicit activities such as gambling and drug trade.

This experimental project also aims to address the safety element by ensuring that the parks are located within high density residential areas so they can be in constant use by members of the public and have passive surveillance eliminating the possibility of them being abused by criminals and drug dealers.

The pilot project is funded by a grant provided by the UN-Habitat as part of the Global Public Spaces Programme as well as contributions from various City departments as well as engagement with city residents. It also aims to develop a sound governance model for integrated urban development that can be used in Johannesburg.

Pingo said the City wanted to build a network of green spaces and hoped the public participation factor would create a sense of ownership among park users, through the co-design, co-implementation and co-management processes.

Joakim Formo of the Ericsson Strategic Design Development Department said the organisation was looking into finding innovative ways of designing open spaces.

“We are a part of this project because we are interested in coming up with innovative solutions and seeing to it that technology is pulled by the needs of society,” said Formo.

“Technology can be the driver of urban prosperity and enable change. Now is the time to use virtual reality to visualise future developments,” concluded Formo.