Meantime Design: Architecture, Infrastructure, and Housing Struggles in Post-Apartheid Cape Town

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dc.contributor.advisorHowe, Cymeneen_US
dc.creatorBaumgardt, Laurinen_US
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-29T19:59:10Zen_US
dc.date.available2025-05-29T19:59:10Zen_US
dc.date.created2025-05en_US
dc.date.issued2025-04-22en_US
dc.date.submittedMay 2025en_US
dc.date.updated2025-05-29T19:59:10Zen_US
dc.description.abstractThree decades after the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime, Cape Town remains a deeply fractured city with little prospect for transformation or systemic change. It is still one of the least integrated and most segregated cities in the world. Based on long-term ethnographic research conducted in Cape Town between 2018 and 2024, this dissertation examines how architects, housing activists, and other built environment professionals have developed alternative designs and participatory initiatives to address the urgent needs of residents living in flood- and fire-prone informal settlements and occupations. Designing in and with the meantime was a common denominator in many of these architecture initiatives. While liberatory promises of the post-apartheid era have been repeatedly deferred, the “meantime” emerged as a temporal horizon for alternative designs, including public housing upgrades, adaptive reuse models, and incremental building typologies. By emphasizing small-scale, imaginative, and participatory models and upgrades that negotiate alternative urban futures and improved infrastructural conditions, this dissertation complements anthropological research on architecture, infrastructural temporalities, and housing struggles. Through an analysis of various “meantime designs” and their characteristics in each chapter, it also contributes to a deeper understanding of design interventions that may reflect potential urban futures yet perpetuate South Africa’s most exclusionary housing landscape.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/118437en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectarchitectureen_US
dc.subjectdesignen_US
dc.subjectinfrastructureen_US
dc.subjecttemporalityen_US
dc.subjecthousing justiceen_US
dc.subjectreblockingen_US
dc.subjectincremental developmenten_US
dc.subjectpost-apartheiden_US
dc.subjectCape Townen_US
dc.subjectKhayelitshaen_US
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_US
dc.titleMeantime Design: Architecture, Infrastructure, and Housing Struggles in Post-Apartheid Cape Townen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentAnthropologyen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineAnthropologyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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