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J l Description
o f the
'Sown Hall Organ, Johannesburg
Opened on 4th March, 1916, by
Mr. ALFRED HOLLINS,Hon. F.R.C.O. ;
Organist,St. George’s United Free Church,
Edinburgh
E. H. A dlin cto n , L t d ., P rin ters, Johannesburg
19 16
<>I❖4 Municipal Council of Johannesburg,
M A R C H , 1916.
/Ihagor:
J. W. O’Hara, J.P.
Bcputw=/l|Sagor:
G. B. Steer, M.P.C.
Councillors:B. Alexander. H. Kroomer.T. F. Allen. P. L. W. Lourens.D. Anderson. Mrs. P. B. Lys.N. Anstey. W. J. MacIntyre.Mrs. H. Atkins. A. Metcalfe.R. G. Barlow. J. J. Mulvey.C. V. Becker. G. W. Nelson.B. I. Bloom. S. J. Nicholas.J. Christie. L. U. Partridge.J. A. Clark, M.P.C. C. Rowe.G. Cooper. S. Scott.D. Dingwall, M.P.C. D. P. Simson.T. E. Drew. S. A. Srnit, M.P.C.Mrs. M. Fitzgerald. H. W. Soutter.S. Hancock. J. W. Treu, J.P.R. H. Henderson, C.M.G. O. J. J . van Wijk,Mrs. A. Krause. Senator the Hon. J.
C o w n Clerk:D. B. Pattison.
©CSiiillCC o f O r g a n :
Alfred Hollins, Hon. F.R.C.O., Edinburgh.
.ïB u ilD ers o f © r g a n :Norman & Beard, Ltd.., London and Norwich.
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N preparing the following description of this truly magnificent organ, 1 have endeavoured, not only to interest the actual organ student, but especially those of the general public who enjoy listening to the many and varied tones of an organ, but to whom the way in which those tones are produced
is a mystery.
It has always seemed a pity to me that the actual organ must be hidden behind a case, and all that can be seen are a few front pipes, three or four rows of keys, a pedal board and an array of stop knobs. A ll this is, of course, very pretty, but it conveys no idea to the lay mind as to how “ the wheels go round.” If the layman could only realise what infinite thought and labour it takes to produce a great and noble organ such as this, we would hear fewer expressions of dissatisfaction as to the (what seems at first sight) enormous cost, and the name “ kist o ’ whistles” would soon die a natural death.
May I, in conclusion, congratulate the citizens of Johannesburg on the possession of what I regard as an instrument which marks a distinct epoch in the history of organ building, and, like the donor of the organ to the People’s Palace in the East End of London, express the hope that its “ solemn and sweet tones may bring rest to many a weary mind.”
A lfred H ollins.Johannesburg,
March, 1916.
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Town Hall Organ, Johannesburg.
HIS Organ may justly claim a premier position in the ranks of the largest organs in the world, not entirely from tlie number of its stops and accessory movements, or the number of its keyboards, but in the variety and individuality of tone colour and absence of unnecessary duplication of stops of a similar character in the seven departments into which the Organ is divided. Each stop will be found a study in tone colour, so accurately and scientifically proportioned that
every possible combination will fall satisfactorily on the ear, whether it be the broad, massive tone of the Great Organ, the rich grandeur of the Swell, the plaintive delicacy of the Choir, the vivid colouring and striking contrasts of the Orchestral, the brilliant and martial effects of the Bombarde, or the range of nuance from the most delicate whisper of the Yox Angelica to the over-mastering crash and power of the Tubas in the Solo Organ; these, supported by the solid dignity of the ample Pedal Organ, combine to form one grand magnificent whole. An ample number of accessory movements has been provided whereby any or all of these varied tones can be brought under the control of the performer with the greatest ease and without undue tax on the memory. It should be borne in mind that in building an instrument of this magnitude for such an altitude as that of Johannesburg, it necessitated considerable departure from orthodox lines, and we can safely say the result is a remarkably successful organ, with an individuality of tone and mechanism which elevates it as a work of art far above those instruments whose reputation depends largely on the total number of their stop handles. It goes without saying that the success of any organ depends, perhaps to the
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greatest extent, upon the proper scaling and voicing of the pipes to suit the building in which the instrument is placed. By “ scaling” is meant the determining of the diameter of every pipe, and by “ voicing” giving each pipe its proper speech and tone quality. In the present Organ this work was entrusted to Mr. Herbert Norman, of the firm of Messrs. Norman & Beard, Ltd., the builders of the instrument. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists in his profession. At the outset Mr. Norman had to judge of the acoustic properties of the Johannesburg Town Hall merely from plans sent to him. The effect of the high altitude of Johannesburg on many of the stops had to be allowed for. Fortunately, Mr. Norman has been able to come to Johannesburg and finally regulate and adapt every single pipe to the hall, and the result is a great artistic achievement. The designing of the entire mechanism was undertaken by Mr. E. W . Norman, who has a wide knowledge and experience of this branch of the work. Another triumph of skill in this connection is the erection of the Organ in the hall by Mr. A. Fellows Tomkins, of the firm of Cooper, Gill & Tomkins, Capetown and Johannesburg. As the work progressed Mr. Tomkins had some difficulties to contend with, but he has surmounted all these most successfully. It may be of interest to mention that Mr. Tomkins was trained in Messrs. Norman & Beard’s Norwich works.
A brief explanation of the scheme may be interesting to organ students.
There are seven tonal departments, viz. :—(1) Pedal,(2) Choir,(3) Great,(4) Swell,(5) Solo,(6) Orchestral, and(7) Bombarde,
of which Nos. 4, 5,6 and 7, and a small part of the Pedal, are enclosed in Swell boxes under the control of three balanced
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pedals. The Choir, Great, Swell and Solo occupy the usual position on the four manuals. An outstanding and unique feature in this Organ is the possibility of playing two of the :departments, viz., Orchestral and Bombarde Organs, from any of the four keyboards, e.g. : Two rocking tablets are placed on the left-hand key cheek of each manual to control the stops of the Orchestral Organ. These stops are so arranged as not to speak when drawn until one of the rocking tablets is pressed; that nearest the keys brings on any combination which may have been previously drawn on the Orchestral Organ in conjunction with any combination on that manual, while the farther tablet cuts off the manual combination, leaving the Orchestral only. There is a clever device by which, when one rocking tablet is depressed and another is afterwards required, the pressing of the second automatically releases the first. The Bombarde Organ is similarly treated by rocking tablets placed on the right-hand key cheek of each manual. It will readily be seen that here we have in effect a six-manual organ with a flexibility that would be impossible if each department had a keyboard to itself.Every department is provided with adjustable pistons in addition to the fixed combination pistons. By means of rocking tablets placed on the key bench a suitable Pedal Organ can be switched on to any manual fixed piston. For sforzando effects a balanced pedal is placed at the extreme right of the pedal pistons, and controls Great, Bombarde and Pedal Stops without moving the drawstop knobs. The Pedal Stops are controlled by a novel form of foot piston instead of the usual composition pedals, placed to the right of the Swell pedals.On the left, six similar pistons control the three Tremulant drawstops— Great to Pedal, Solo to Great Couplers and Tuba.The Drums (Bass and Side), Carillon Dampers and Triangle are controlled by rocking tablets placed on left side of the key bench, and playable from each pedal key. The Carillon (two octaves) is of specially rolled fine Bessemer steel bars, struck by heavy cast-iron hammers, which are operated by compressed air motors, the lowest note of the peal weighing
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2-j01bs.; these were supplied by the Church Bell Carillon Co., London. The Glockenspiel (thirty-two notes) is also of Bessemer steel, and is original to this Organ. Like the Carillon, it is operated by compressed air motors, its brilliant clear tone being the result of the finely tempered and great weight of steel employed.
The Organ occupies a. wide, shallow chamber at the back of the Orchestra, Lift, x 10ft., height dfift. It is arranged in three vertical sections, which are again divided into three levels. On the top level are placed, in the order from left to right, Orchestral Organ with Carillon and Glockenspiel, Swell Organ, and Solo Organ; directly in front of the Swell is the Solo Tuba. On the lower level, in the same order, the Choir Organ and Basses of Great, Great Organ in three separate sections and Bombarde Organ. On the floor level are placed the distributing reservoirs, adjustable piston and fixed piston machines, the pneumatic coupling machines and Console mechanism. The Pedal Organ is grouped on both sides of the central sections, all 16ft. stops being on the left, 32ft. stops on the right. The Pedal Trombone, Saxophone, Super Octave and Pedal Harmonics are enclosed in the Bombarde Swell Box; the String Bass is in the Orchestral Swell Box, and the Contra Bass in the Swell Box.
The blowing is by means of two 12 h.p. electric motors driving four blocks of series fans (the “ Discus,” by Watkins & Watson, of London), and is the largest installation in the world yet built on this system— it delivers 4,200 cubic feet of wind per minute. The whole apparatus is placed directly underneath the Orchestra; the wind is conveyed to the organ by two galvanised steel trunks, 12in. and 24in. in diameter respectively. It is undoubtedly the most successful plant yet executed by this firm. The starting and stopping of the motors are under the control of the organist by two push switches placed on the left-hand side of the Console, above the stops of the Orchestral Organ.
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T h e O r g a n .] [H et O r g e l .
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-Y- The approximate weight of the Organ, including blowers, is GO tons. Ten miles of pneumatic tubing have been used for connecting the various departments to their respective keyboards. The total number of pipes is 6,532. The largest pipe, CCCC of the 32ft. Double Open Diapason, contains 256 superficial feet of 2in. timber, and weighs over half a ton. About 18 tons of tin, lead and zinc were used in the manufacture of the metal pipes. There are 17 reservoirs for distributing wind at various pressures as required. The combined area of these is 380 feet super., and they have a lifting power of about 15,0001bs. It takes 30 sound boards or wind idiests to accommodate the 6,532 pipes. The wind chest pallets are controlled by 10,383 valves operated by 4,900 compressed air motors (or bellows). Attenuated and compressed air systems are used in the various control mechanisms. It took the skins of 520 sheep for the covering of the reservoirs, motors and valves; this quantity would more than half cover the floor of the hall. The Organ was shipped in 71 packing cases, varying in size from 4 to 300 cubic feet. The instrument is enclosed by a massive mahogany case, in the Renaissance style, to the design of the architects of the hall, Messrs. Hawke & MacKiiday, of Capetown, and was made and erected by Messrs. II. IL. Martvn & Co., Cheltenham.
The total cost of this magnificent Organ and case is £13,153 16s. 7d.
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/ T \ R. ALFRED HOLLINS, who prepared the specifica- tion for the Organ for the Johannesburg Town Hall and subsequently. supervised its construction and tested it on behalf of the Municipal Council, was born in Hull on the 11th September, 1865. At the age of nine lie entered the Wilberf'orce School for the Blind, York, where he studied the pianoforte under Mr. William Barnby, brother of the late Sir Joseph Barnby, whose church music is so well known. When he was twelve,
Mr. Hollins became a pupil at the Royal Normal College for the Blind, London, where he studied the piano under Mr. Frits Hartvigson, Court Pianist to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, and the organ under the late celebrated organist of the Temple Church, London, Dr. E, J. Hopkins. Mr. Hollins’ public career began as a pianist, but after a few years the organ absorbed his attention. His first church organ appointment was at St. John’s Church, Redhill, Surrey, which he obtained at the age of nineteen. Later, Mr. Hollins was the first to hold the appointment of organist to the People’s Palace in the East End of London. In 189T Mr. Hollins accepted the appointment of organist of St. George’s United Free Church, Edinburgh, which position he still holds. He has travelled a good deal professionally, visiting the United States in 1886 and again in 1888; Sydney in 1904, under engagement from the Sydney Municipal Council to give a series of recitals on the Town Hall organ there. Mr. Hollins’ present visit to Johannesburg to pass the Town Hall Organ and give a series of recitals is his third visit to South Africa. It has been often asked how Mr. Hollins learns his music. Of course, he has to memorise everything, and there are two ways of doing this—one by having the notes played or read by a competent musician, and the other from the Braille type.
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M r . A lfred H o l l in s . ] [ D e H eer A l f r e d H o l l in s .
B l o w in g I n st a l l a t io n .] [ B laas A pp a r a a t .
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‘Detailed Specificationo f
O R G A N
AS DRAWN UP BY
Mr. A L F R E D H O L L IN S
AND BUILT BY
Messrs. N O R M A N & B E A R D , Ltd.,L O N D O N a n d N O R W IC H
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SPECIFICATION.Manuals CC to C (61 Notes). Pedals CCC to G (32 Notes).
PEDAL ORGAN. G REAT ORGAN .
20 Stops; 4 Couplers. FEET 18 Stops; 5 Couplers. FEET
1. Double Open W ood ............ Wood, 32 30. Sub Bordun (tenor C)............ Wood, 322. Open Diapason ............ Metal, 16 31. Gross Geigen ...................... Metal, 163. Great Bass W ood ............ Wood, 16 32 Contra Ilohlflote (open to4. Open W ood (20 from No. 1) ,, 16 tenor C) ................................ Wood, 165. Yiolone (from No. 31) Metal, 16 33. Open Diapason (large) Metal, 86. Contra Bass (from No. 48)... ,, 16 34. Open Diapason (medium) ... 87. Bordun (from No. 30) Wood, 16 35. Open Diapason (small) 88. String Bass (from No. 73) ... Metal, 16 36. Geigen ................................ „ 89. Contra Salicional (from No. 21) „ 16 37. Claribel Flute (open through
10. Principal (20 from No. 2) ... „ 8 out) ................................ Wood, 811. Octave (20 from No. 3) Wood, 8 38. Stopped Diapason ............ „ 812. Flute Bass (from No. 30) „ 8 39. Principal ................................ Metal, 413. Super Octave ...................... Metal, 4 40. Octave Geigen ...................... „ 414. Harmonics, Y. ranks, 12, 17 41. Waldflote (triangular). Wood, 4
19, 21, 22 (in Solo Box) ... — 42. Sesquialtera, II. ranks, 5,15. Contre Bombarde ............ 32 10 .......................................... Metal, —16. Ophicleide (20 from No. 15) 16 43. Twelfth ................................ „ 2§17. Trom bone (from No. 92) 16 44. Fifteenth ................................ „ 218. Saxophone (from No. 69) ... 16 45. Harmonics, IV. ranks, 17, 19,19. Posaune (20 from No. 16) ... 8 21, 22 (5 ranks in treble)... „ —20. Harm onic Clarion (20 notes 46. Trom ba (harmonig treble)... „ 8
from No. 19) ....................... 4 47. Octave Trom ba (harmonicI. Choir to Pedal (Mechanical). treble) ... ..................... 4
II. Great to Pedal , IX. Choir to Great.
III. Swell to Pedal X. Swell to Great.
IV. Solo to Pedal XI. Solo to Great.XII . Orchestral to Great
(by rocking tablet).C H O IR ORGAN .
XIII . Bombarde to Great9 Stops; 4 Couplers. (by rocking tablet).
21. Contra Salicional ............ Metal, 1622.23.
Bell Gamba ......................Spitzflóte ................................
>* 8SWELL ORGAN.», 8
24. Waldflote (open throughout) Wood, 8 15 Stops; 4 Couplers.25. Flauto Traverso (harmonic) Metal, 4 48. Contra G a m b a ...................... Metal, 1626. Gemshorn ...................... ,, 4 49. Open D ia p a s o n ...................... „ 827. Gem shorn ...................... 2 50. Cor de Nuit ...................... 828. Dulciana Cornet, III . ranks. 51. Gamba ................................ 8
12, 15, 1 7 ................................ ,, — 52. Voix Celestes (to FF) „ 829 Cornopean (harmonic treble)
V. Swell to Choir.
8 53. Octave G a m b a ......................54. S u a b e fló te ...............................
„ 4 Wood, 4
55. Super Octave Gamba Metal, 2VI. Solo to Choir. 56. Mixture, VI. ranks, 12, 15,
VII. Orchestral to Choir 17, 19, 21, 22 ...................... —(by rocking tablet) 57. Horn ................................ „ 8
VIII. Bombarde to Choir 58. Oboe „ 8(by rocking tablet) 59. Vox Humana ...................... 8
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SWELL ORGAN continued.FEET
60. Double Trumpet ............ Metal, 1661. Trumpet (harmonic treble) ,, 862. Clarion (harmonic treble) ... ,, 4
XIV. Tremulant (to light wind stops).
XV. Octave.XVI. Solo to Swell.
XVII . Orchestral to Swell (by rocking tablet).
XVIII . Bombardc to Swell (by rocking tablet).
SOLO O RGAN (enclosed except No. 71).9 Stops; 4 Couplers.
63. V ioloncello ........................ Metal, 864. Salicional ,, 865. Vox Angelica (to AA) ... ,, 866. Harm onic Flute ................ ,, 867. Concert Flute (harmonic) ... „ 468. Harm onic Piccolo ................ ,, 269. Corno di Bassetto ................ ,, 1670. Clarinet .................................... ,, 871. Tuba (first harm onic from
tenor G; secqjid harm onic from .1' C ;' third harmonic for top octave) ... ... ,, 8
XIX. Tremulant.XX. Sub Octave.
XXI . Octave.XXII . Orchestral to Solo
(by rocking tablet).XXIII . Bombardc to Solo
(by rocking tablet).
ORCH ESTRAL ORGAN.(Playable from any or all four m anuals; enclosed in separate Swell Box.)
19 Stops; 3 Couplers.72. Quintaton ............Wood-Metal, 1673. Contra V iola ...................... Metal, 16
ORCH ESTRAL ORGAN — continued.FEET
74. Viole ...................................Metal, 875. Viole Céleste (2 ranks to FF) „ 876. Viole Octaviante ................ ,, 477. Viole Cornette (3 ranks, 10,
12, 15) „ -78. Harm onic Claribel Flute ... Wood, 879. Zauberflote (harm 'nic Gedeckt) ,, 880. Unda Maris (Flute Céleste,
ten. C, to undulate withNo. 79) Metal, 8
81. Lieblich Gedeckt ............ „ 882. Orchestral Flute ............W ood, 483. Lieblich Flote ........................ Metal, 484. Lieblich Piccolo ................ „ 285. Cor Anglais .......................... „ 1686. Clarinet (smaller scale than
on S o l o ) .................................... ,, 887. Orchestral Hautboy ................ ,, 888. Orchestral Trumpet ................ ,, 889. Carillon (by the Church &
Carillon Bell C o.; two octaves from fiddle G) ........... 8
90. Glockenspiel (from tenor Fto C") .......................................... 2
XXIV. Tremulant.XXV. Sub Octave.
XXVI . Octave.XXVII . Unison off.
BOM BARDE ORGAN .(Enclosed in Solo Box; playable from any or all four manuals.)
7 Stops.91. Contra Trom bone (tenor G) Metal, 3292. Trom bone „ 1693. Harm onic Horn ............ ,, 894. Trom pette Harm onique ... ,, 895. Horn Quint ...................... ,, 5i96. Clarion (harmonic) ............ ,, 497. Grande Fourniture (VI.
ranks, 12, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29; VII. ranks in treble)...
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ACCESSORIES.MANUAL PISTONS.
8 com bination pistons to Great (2 adjustable).7 com bination pistons to Swell (2 adjustable).5 com bination pistons to Solo (2 adjustable).4 com bination pistons to Choir (1 adjustable).7 com bination pistons to Orchestral Organ in Choir key slip (2 adjustable).7 key touches to Orchestral Organ over Solo keys (2 adjustable) duplicate of
pistons.3 com bination pistons to Bombarde Organ (1 adjustable).1 reversible piston for Great to Pedal Coupler.1 reversible piston for Swell to Great Coupler.1 reversible piston for Solo to Great Coupler.1 reversible piston for Pedal Ophicleide.
PEDAL PISTONS.
8 com bination pedal pistons to Pedal Organ (1 adjustable).1 pedal piston to bring on Solo to Great Coupler and Tuba.1 pedal piston to take off Solo, to Great Coupler and Tuba.1 reversible pedal piston for Great to Pedal Coupler.1 reversible pedal piston for Orchestral Tremulant.1 reversible pedal piston for Solo Tremulant.1 reversible pedal piston for Swell Tremulant.
ACCESSORY COUPLERS.
1 rocking tablet to connect Great Pistons and Pedal Combinations.1 rocking tablet to connect Choir Pistons and Pedal Combinations.1 rocking tablet to connect Swell Pistons and Pedal Combinations.1 rocking tablet to connect Orchestral Pistons and Pedal Combinations.
CRESCENDO PEDALS.
1 balanced crescendo pedal to bring on Great and Pedal Stops, Bombarde to Great Coupler and Bombarde Stops (without m oving stop knobs).
1 balanced pedal to Swell.1 balanced pedal to Solo and Bombarde.1 balanced pedal to Orchestral.
PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS.
Bass drum tap action connected to each o f the pedal keys and operated by rocking tablet.
Side drum tap action connected to each o f the pedal keys and operated by rocking tablet.
Bass drum roll by rocking tablet.Side drum roll by rocking tablet.Triangle connected to each pedal key and operated by rocking tablet.Carillon dampers by rocking tablet.
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W IND PRESSURES.
Pedal flue-work, 4 inches to 6 inches. Pedal Harmonics, 8 inches.Pedal Reeds, 16 inches.Choir, 4 inches.Great flue-work, 4̂ inches.Great Reeds and Large Open Diapason,
8 inches.
Swell flue-work and Light Reeds, 5 ins. Swell Chorus Reeds and Open Diapason,
8 inches.Solo, 8 inches.Solo Tuba, 16 inches.Orchestral, 6 inches.Bombarde, 12 inches.
The Organ has been specially constructed to suit the high altitude o f Johannesburg. The action is tubular pneumatic throughout, incorporating all tlie Builders’ latest improvements.
The wind is generated by “ Discus ” blowers actuated by “ Bull ” motors.
SYNOPSIS.
Pedal Organ ............Stops.
20Couplers.
4Pistons.
8
RockingTablets.
No. o f Pipes.
504Choir Organ ............ 9 4 4 4; 671Great Organ ............ 18 5 8 4 1,476Swell Organ ............ 15 4 7 4 1,288Solo Organ ............ 9 4 5 4 592Orchestral Organ 19 3 7 - 1,255Bombarde Organ 7 - 3 - 746
97
3 Tremulants.
24 42 16 6,532
10 Reversible Pistons.4 Accessory Rocking Tablets.6 Rocking Tablets for Percussion Instruments. 3 Swell Pedals.I Crescendo.
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T he C o n so le .] [ D e V o o u zijd e .
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❖AA V O O R W O O R D .
N de opstelling van de hier volgende beschrijving ’ ’ van dit waarhjk prachtige orgel voor dit souvenir-
boekje, heb ík met alleen getracht belangstelling te wekken bij den echten orgel-kenner maar in het bizonder bij dat algemeen publiek, dat gaarne luistert naar de vele en zeer verscheidene orgel-
tonen, doch voor wien de wijze, waarop die tonen worden voortgebracht, een geheim is.
Ik heb het altijd betreurt dat het eigenlijke orgel achter een kast moet verscholen blijven en dat al wat gezien kan worden eemge weinige frontpijpen, drie of vier reien sleutels, een pedaal en een reeks stoppen zijn. Dit alles is natuurlijk zeer fraai, doch het geeft aan de leek geen begrip, hoe het orgel eigenlijk in elkaar zit. Indien de leekslechts de eigenlijke vindingnjkheid en de arbeid kon vatten, die noodig zijn om zulk een groot en heerlijk orgel te bouwen, als dit is, zou men minder ontevreden aanmerkingen hooren over de (op het eerste gezicht) enorme kosten, en de naam “ fluiten kist zou spoedig een natuurhjke dood sterven.
Mag lk, ten slotte, de burgers van Johannesburg gelukwenschen met het bezit van, wat lk beschouw als een instrument, dat een bepaalde gebeurtems daarstelt in de geschiedenis der orgelbouw, en, evenals de schenker van het orgel in het Volkspaleis in het Eastend van Londen, de hoop uitspreken dat, deszelfs “ plechtige en zoete tonen rust mogen brengen aan menige droeve geest.”
A lfred H ollins.Johannesburg,
Maart, 1916.
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H et Stedelyk Orgel te Johannesburg.
IT Orgel mag met lee lit aanspraak op maken de eerste plaats in te lienien onder de grootste orgels ter wereld en dit niet zoo zeer om Let groot aantal registers en bybeboorende deelen, of liet aantal klavierborden dan wel om zyn verscbeiden- Leid en eigenaardigbeid van de tonen; die bet voortbrengt en doordien bet geen onnoodige ver- meerdering vail registers van gelyken aard beet't aangebraclit in de zeven afdeelingen waarin bet Orgel verdeeld is.
Elk register is op zicli zelf een studie van toon en is zoo nauwkeurig en wetenscbappelyk samengesteld, dat elke moge- lyke combinatie bet oor aangenaam aandoet, lietzy liet Orgel de zware toon doet liooren, of de zwellende gelniden, of bet klagend geluid van bet Koor voortbrengt of de levendige en treffende kontrasten van bet Orkest, of liet gedrenu van de Groote Brompyp laat liooren of de reeks van zaclite over- gangen ten geboore brengt die nu eens zacdit flnisteren om dadelyk over te gaan in macbtige gelniden; dit alles, gesteund door een sterk voetregister, inaakt een pracbtig en indruk- wekkend gelieel uit.
Een voldoend aantal zyregisters staat den speler ten dienste waardoor die verscbeidenbeid van tonen met bet grootste gemak en zonder veel van des spelers memorie te vergen, binnen zyn bereik zyn.
Men moet niet vergeten dat men by den bonw van zulk een groot instrument, dat gebruikt moet worden in znlk een booggelegen stad als Johannesburg, men gelieel af moest wyken van de oude inanier van orgelbouw en wy mogen gerust zeggen, dat er een opmerkelyk goed sink verb geleverd is, dat een zeldzaambeid van toon en mecbanisme bezit, die bet als kunstwerk verre verlietfen boven die instrumenten, die grootendeels bun beroemdbeid danken aan bun groot aantal van registers. Het spreekt van zelf dat bet sueces
[ 23 ]
van een Orgel voornamelyk daarvan afhangt, dat de pypen, waardoor liet geluid wordt voortgebracht, bruikbaar zyn voor liet vertrek, waarin liet Orgel geplaatst wordt. Bit wil zeggen, dat de pypen de juiste grootte hebbeu en ook de juiste muziek- tonen weergeven. ])e Heer Herbert Norman van de firm a Norman & Beard, Beperkt, de makers van bet Orgel, was in bet bizonder met dit werk belast. 11y is zonder twyfel een der grootste kunstenaars op dit gebicd. In bet begin moest de Heer Norman de klank-hoedanigheid (aconstiek) van de Groote Zaal in bet Stadhuis slechts beoordeelen nit de teek- eningen die men bem gezonden bad. He invloed van de booge ligging van Johannesburg op vele der registers, moest in aanmerking worden genomen. Gelukkig kon de Heer Norman naar Johannesburg komen, om de grootte en de lioe- danigbeden van elke orgelpyp vast te stellen en de uitkomst van zyn arbeid is een kunstwerk.
Ilet on twerp van al de meclianisebe deelen is door den Heer Norman, die veel kennis en onderwinding in dit soort van werk lieeft, ondernomen. Het in elkaar zetten van bet Orgel in de Zaal is een andere triomf van vakkennis, die de Heer A. Fellows Tomkins, van de firma Cooper, Gill & Tomkins, van Kaapstad en Johannesburg beeft behaald. He Heer Tomkins had met eenige moeielykheden te kampen by zyn werk, maar by is die alien met succes teboven gekomen. Het mag in dit verband vermeld worden, dat de Heer Tomkins zyn opleiding beeft genoten in de fabriek van de Heeren Norman & Beard te Norwich.
Een korte opgave van de inriehting mag van belang zyn voor beoefenaars van orgelmuziek.
Er zyn zeven toonafdeelingen : —(1) Het Yoetregister,(2) Ilet Koor,(3) Be Zwaare Toon,(4) He Zwellende Toon,(5) He Solo,(6) He Orkesttoon, en(7) He Bromtoon, of Bombardon,
van welke Nos. 4, 5, G en 7, en een klein gedeelte van het voetregister besloten zyn in zoogenoemde zweller huisjes, die
4
A
t 24 ]
4-
gecontroleerd worden door drie gebalanceerde pedalen. líet Koor, de zware toon, de zwellende toon en de solo-toon nemen de gewone plants in by de vier registers. Het is een bizondere en eenige eigeuscliap van dit Orgel, dat bet mogelyk is twee van de toon-afdeelingen te gelyk te kunnen bespelen van een van de vier klavierborden, zooals byv : De orkesttoon en de Bromtoon, en wel op de volgende wyze: men plaatst twee been en weer wiegende plaatjes tegen de linkerzyde van bet klavier van elk manuaal ten einde de registers van bet orkest te bebeersclien. Deze registers zyn aldus aangebracbt, dat zy geen geluid voortbrengen, wanneer zy uitgetrokken worden, totdat men op een van de wiegplaatjes drukt; die, welke liet naast by bet klavier is, brengt zulk een samenstelling van tonen voort als men vooruit op bet orkest-orgel lieeft uitgetrokken, en vloeit samen met de samenstelling op dat manuaal, terwyl bet verderliggende plaatje de manuaal- samenstelling afsnydt en de orkesttoon alleen aan bet woord laat. Er is tevens een handige inricbting aangebracbt, waar- door bet mogelyk is, om wanneer een plaatje aangedrukt is en men een ander wil aandrukken, deze laatste aandrukking bet eerste plaatje van zelf vry maakt. De Bombardon wordt op gelyke wyze beheerscbt. Men zal gereedelyk verstaan dat wy bier in werkelykbeid met een Orgel met zes manualen te doen bebben, waardoor bet een buigzaamheid bezit, die onbestaanbaar zou zyn, indien elke toonafdeeling zyn eigen klavierbord bad.
Elke toonafdeeling is voorzien van verstelbare pistons, behalve de vaste pistons. Door middel van beweegbare plaatjes, die aangebracbt zyn op de klavierbank, kan een passend pedaal-register worden te voorschyn gebracbt op elk van de band pistons. Om sf'orzando (kracbtige) tonen voort te brengen, is er een pedaal in evenwicbt ter recliterzyde van de pedale pistons, en men beheerscbt zoodoende Yolspel, de Bombardon en de pedaal, zonder de knoppen der trekregisters aan te raken. De Yoetregisters worden beheerscbt door een nieuw soort van voetpiston in de plants van de gewone samen- gestelde pedalen, die aan de recliterzyde van de voet-zwel liggen. Aan de linkerliand bebeersclien zes dergelyke pistons de drie triller-trek-registers, van de zware tot de aangehondene toon, van de Solo tot de Groote Koppelaars en de Tuba. De Trommels (Groote en Ivleine Trom), de Klokkenspel klank-
fÝi
[ 25 ]
-<y.
-<y-. 4
-1 y>
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1 4-1
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dempers, en de Triangel worden belieersclit door middel van beweegbare plaatjes, die aangebracbt zyn aan de linkerzyde van de klavierbank, en zyn te bespelen door elke voetregister- toets. Het klokkenspel (twee octaven) is vervaardigd uit speciaal gerolde Bessemer stalen staven, die geslagen worden door zware gegoten yzeren liamers, die in werking gebracht worden door lucbt motoren, en waarvan de laagste noot 2301bs. weegt; deze zyn geleverd door de Cliurcb Bell Carillon Co. te Londen.
Het Glockenspiel (bestaande uit 32 noten) is ook uit Bessemer staal vervaardigd en is een eigenaardigheid van dit Orgel. Evenals bet Carillon (klokkenspel) wordt liet in werking gebracht door lucht motoren en zyn duidelyke tonen zyn bet gevolg van bet fynbewerkte en zware staal, waaruit bet vervaardigd is en van bet groot gewicht daarvan.
Het Orgel vult een wyde, doch niet zeer diepe plaats achter bet orkest, n.l. 43 voet by 10 voet en beeft een boogte van 36 voet. Het bestaat uit drie verticale (rechtopstaande) deelen, die ook weer verdeeld zyn in drie vakken. Op bet bovenste van zyn van links naar rechts: het orkest met bet Carillon en bet Glockenspiel, bet Zwel-orgel en het Solo- orgel aangebracbt; vóór het Zwel-orgel is de Solo-tuba. Op bet lagere vak vindt men in dezelfde orde het Koor-orgel en de groote Bassen en bet zware Orgel in drie afzonderlike secties, en het Bombardon. Op bet lagere vak zyn luchtreser- voirs, de machines voor de verstelbare en vaste piston, de door lucht dr uk werkende Ivoppelaars, en bet Console werktuig. Het pedaal bevindt zicb aan beide zyden van de midden- vakken en beeft registers van 16 voet ter linker en van 32 voet ter recliter zyde. He Pedaal Trombonen (16 voet), de Saxo- foon (16 voet), de hooge Octaaf zyn besloten in bet Bombardon zwel-huisje; de Strykmuziek-Bas is in de kasten van de Orkest zweller, en de Contra-Bas in bet zweller-buisje. De wind aanvoer, noodig voor de bespeling, gescbiedt door middel van elektrische motors, die vier reeksen waaiers in beweging brengen en deze inrichting is in zyn soort de grootste ter wereld; zy levert 4,200 cubieke voet wind per minuut.
Het geheele apparent is onmiddelyk onder bet Orkest geplaatst; de wind wordt in bet Orgel gevoerd door middel van twee gegalvaniseerde stalen kokers, die onderscheidenlyk
a
r 26 ]
i -’;y s ■'*;:- ■ * - -ý' J 'ó -i-;)> i y - 1 ■■’> '< )' 1 'v'í 'v“ 1"̂ '
12in. en 24in. in doorsnede zyn. Die inricliting is zonder twyfel de beste die deze firma tot nogtoe keeí't vervaardigd.
De Motoren worden in beweging gebracht of stop gezet door den Organist zelf, door middel van twee knoppen a an de linkerzyde van de Console, boven de registers van bet Orkest.
Het gewicbt van liet Orgel, met inbegrip van de blaas- inrichtmg, wordt begroot op 60 ton. De gezamenlyke lengte van de lucbtdruk pypen die benoodigd zyn voor de aan- sluiting der verscliillende afdeelingen aan bun respectieve klavier-borden is tien mylen.
Het geheele aantal pypen bedraagt 6,532. De grootste pyp CCCC van de 32 voet lange Dubbele open Diapason bevat 256 voet bout in vlaktemaat en weegt meer dan een halve ton. Zoowat 18 ton tin, lood en zink zyn er gebruikt by de aanmaak van de metalen pypen.
Er zyn IT reservoirs om de wind te verdeelen, op de versebillende graden van druk, die vereisclit wordt.
De gelieele vlaktemaat tesamen geuomen, bedraagt 3,810 voet, en de druk 15,0001bs. Er zyn 30 klankborden noodig ten behoeve der 6,532 pypen. De wind aanvoer wordt gecontroleerd door 10,383 kranen, die bewogen worden door 4,900 sainengepersteluckt motoren of blaas balken. Men gebruikt by de versebillende controleereude inriebtingen verdunde of samengeperste lucht.
Men beeft voor bet bedekken van de reservoirs, de motoren en kranen 520 scbaapsvellen noodig gebad; deze boeveellieid kon meer dan de lielft van de de vloer vande zaal bedekken. Het Orgel is versebeept in 71 pakkisten, die van 4 tot 300 cubieke voet in grootte van elkaar verscbillen. Het instrument is bekleed met een massieve mahonie-bouten least, in Renaissance styl, en die vervaardigd is naar bet ontwerp van de Arcbitecten van bet Stadliuis, de Heeren Hawke & MacKinlay van Kaapstad, en gefabriceerd en opge.steld door de Heeren H. Martyn & Co., Cheltenham.
De totale kostprys van dit prachtig instrument en zyn bekleeding is £13,153 16s. Td.
[ 27 ]
E HEEE ALFBED HOLLINS die liet ontwerp maakte voor het orgel van de het Joliannesburgsch Stadhuis en vervolgens het opzicht Field over den bouw daavan en het ten belioeve van de Stadsraad beproefde is geboren te Hull op 11 September, 1865. In den ouderdom van negen jaar kwarn liij in bet Wilberforce Blinden Instituut te York, waar liij piano leerde spelen, onder den Heer William Barnby, broeder van
wijlen Sir Joseph Barnby, wiens kerkmuziek zoo wel bekend is. Toen bij twaalf jaar oud was werd liij een leerling aan de koninklijke Normaal Sebool voor Blinden te Londen waar bij bet piano spel bestudeerde onder den Heer Erits Hartvigson, de Hofpianist van Hare Majesteit Koningin Alexandra, en bet orgel-spel leerde onder leiding van de wijlen den beroemden orgelist van de Temple Cburcb te Londen, Hr. E. J. Hopkins.
De Heer Hollins begon zijn publieke loopbaan als pianist, maar na enkele jaren wijdde bij zijn aandacbt uitsluitend aan bet orgelspel. Zijn eerste aanstelling als kerk-orgelist was die aan de St. John’ s Church, Eedhill, Surrey, die bij op zijn negentiende jaar ontving. Later was de Heer Hollins de eerste persoon, die aangesteld werd als orgelist in bet Yolks-paleis in bet East End van Londen. In 1897 aanvaardde de Heer Hollins de benoeming als orgelist van St. George’s Dnited Eree Cburcb te Edenburg, welke betrekking bij tbans nog bekleedt.
Hij beeft veel kunstreizen gemaakt, de Yereenigde Staten in 1886 en daarna weer in 1888 bezocht, Sydney in 1904 bezocbt onder een verbintenis met de Stadsraad van Sydney om een reeks concerten te geven op het orgel van bet Stadhuis aldaar.
Het tegenwoordig bezoek van den Heer Hollins aan Johannesburg ten einde bet stedelijke orgel te beproeven en een reeks van concerten te geven is zijn derde bezoek aan Zuid Afrika. Men beeft zich dikwerf afgevraagd hoe de Heer Hollins zijn muziek instudeert. Het spreekt van zelf, dat bij alles uit bet lioofd moet leeren, en er zijn twee manieren dit te doen—de eene door de muziek te laten voor- spelen door bevoegde muziek beoefenaars, en de andere door middel van bet Braille Schrift of blinden-schrift.t
t[ 28 ]
PLANNING PLACES FOR LIVING
Transcripted proceedings of a course co-ordinated
by Professor N.N. Patricios assisted by Professor
I. Schlapobersky at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Summer School, January 1975
Institute for Adult Education and External Studies in conjunction
with the Department of Town and Regional Planning,
University of the Witwatersrand,
Jan Smuts Avenue,
Johannesburg.
CONTENTS
PAGE
1. BASIC HUMAN NEEDS 1
Professor C.H. Wyndham 2
Mr M. Jacobs
Miss J. Verster 17nn
Discussion CL
2. HOUSING: THE CHOICES 33
Mr G. Gallagher 34
Professor I. Schlapobersky 39
Mr G. Bowker 46
Discussion
3. COMMUNITY ASPECTS OF RESIDENTIAL AREAS 68
Dr B. Unterhalter 70
Mr B. Bristow 77
Mr J. koep 85figDiscussion 03
4 . AFRICAN, INDIAN AND COLOURED TOWNSHIPS: THE
PEOPLE'S PROBLEM 97
Mrs D. Mabiletsa 99
Mr A. Tayob ^97
Mr L. Myles ^ 3
Discussion
5. AFRICAN, INDIAN AND COLOURED TOWNSHIPS: THE
ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECT 125
Councillor S. Moss 127
Dr E.J. Jammine ^33
Mr V. Bolitho 138
Discussion ^48
PAGE
6. SHOPPING CENTRES 156
Professor I. Schlapobersky 158
Mrs K. Hughes 166172Mr R. Spies179Discussion
7. JOHANNESBURG CENTRAL AREA 189190
Mr N. Mandy
Professor E.W.N. Mallows 193197
Mr G. Gallagher„. 204Discussion
8. URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE 214
Mr V. Bolitho 216
Mr R.I. Jackson??1
Mr J. Joslin234Discussion
9. LANDSCAPE PLANNING 237
Mr J. Clarke
Mr P. le S. Mil stein 245253Mr M. Kriastiansenp r o
Discussion
10. DECISION-MAKING 264
Councillor A.B. Widman 26t
Dr G.E. Gale 2/S
Mr A. Pike 280287Discussion
SUMMING UP
Professor N.N, Patricios 296
1
PLANNING PLACES FOR LIVING
1. BASIC HUMAN NEEDS
Objective: To identify the biological, social, cultural and
psychological needs of people in relation to housing and the environment.
Chairman: Professor N. Patricios Professor C.H. Wyndham
Mr M. Jacobs Miss J. Verster
tea.
2
PROFESSOR C.H. WYNDHAM
Introduction by Chairman
Professor Wyndhatn is the Director of the Human Sciences Laboratory of the
Chamber of Mines. The Laboratory is involved in climatic and Work
physiology, manpower and human productivity problems and industrial medicine.
He is honorary professor of Environmental and Work Physiology at this
University and is expert advisor and convenor of the Human Adaptability
section of the International Biological Program. He is a member of the
Expert Advisory Committee on cardiovascular diseases of the World Health
Organization, a member of the Thermal Physiology Commission of the
International Union of Physiological Sciences, and a member of the National
Environmental Sciences Committee of the C.S.I.R. He qualified in medicine
at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1941 and is a Fellow
of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He was awarded a Doctor of
Science degree by this University in 1968.
The subject I am talking on is the biological needs to be fulfilled in
proper housing design and the physical environment in urban areas. This is
an open ended subject which one can continue to talk on for the whole of
this session, but I have restricted myself to a number of subjects which I
think are important and more particularly where I have a little expertise.
On housing design the subjects which I would like to highlight are:
thermal comfort, freedom from noise, use of ergonomic principles and
adequate illumination. In the physical environment in urban areas there
are two negative factors, a healthy climate which is primarily freedom
from disease: vector borne disease - malaria, water borne disease -
these are public health measures, and freedom from air pollution. The
second major factor is freedom from noise and the third is provision of
adequate open spaces; physical activities of different intensities is an
increasingly important subject.
Now clearly in the fifteen minutes which I have at my disposal, I cannot
attempt to cover all of these subjects in detail. Instead I will
highlight one or two on which I have a little expertise and which I think
are important. The first I want to take is thermal comfort.
The siting of metropolitan conurbations is rarely decided on climatic
considerations. There are a few exceptions, such as Canberra in Australia.
It is generally historical associations or industrial pressures that decide
the issue. For example, I do not think anyone in his sane mind would
ever have sited Durban where it is, originally, in a very unhealthy
subtropical climate.
The first question therefore, that we must ask ourselves is whether it is
possible to design houses so that the indoor climate will be comfortable
in any climate in the Republic. To answer this question you must first
know what the factors are in the thermal environment which cause thermal
stress, and secondly we must ask ourselves whether we can characterise
different combinations of these various heat stress factors which will give
firstly a comfortable thermal environment and secondly those which will
cause an uncomfortable thermal environment. The environmental heat stress
determinants are - the temperature of the air, the amount of water vapour in
the air, the speed and direction of air movement and long wave radiation
from surrounding surfaces. This last is generally forgotten and in some of
our climatic areas in South Africa it is by far and away the most important
determinant of heat stress.
Environmental determinants of heat stress are quite different in the wet
tropics and in the arid desert. In the wet tropics it is largely the
amount of water vapour in the atmosphere that is responsible for this
sensation of discomfort. Thus a moderately high air temperature of say
27-28°C or 80-82°F is quite bearable in the dry climate but is unpleasant in
the wet tropics.
In the wet tropics long wave radiation is net usually an important heat
stress factor because of the water vapour in the atmosphete sr.c the
frequent cloud cover over the sun. In the wet tropics it is ar. increase \r.
air movement which is a most important way of relieving discomfort. In
hot deserts it is the very high temperatures, which may exceed 3E°C, and
ir, particular the high raditticr. temperatures, which are the main elements
4
of heat stress.
4Just to give you an idea of the sort of radiant temperatures which you can
expectiiq our-semi-desert areas I was involved, some years back, quite
closely in research in the Kalahari desert on Bushmen in which we wanted
to characterise the heat stress that these little men were experiencing 3 ,
when they were hunting in the. Middle of the day.sc lhe air temperatures
there were in this. range of 30-32° and in a d r y c U m a t e one would not expect
thishle beívery stressful streHpweeer we have a physiological means oftig
measuring radiant temperature Shd. this i* by means of a ah" blackened globe
Which absorbs radiation» ufdhenjfé exposed this in direct sunl ight, in thflect
Kalahari desert,candsilso of course to^the reflected radiation off the
trees an^ sand, nthtfc recorded a temperature of «5-47°c, o' ltiáskthis factor,
Ofcourse*!Whichiis responsible for discomforts in direct sunlight in the
•alahari desert, and also of course to the reflected radiation off the
Bne of the- problems of course is when you,have fgursfletermlnants Ofsthistor, "♦turershow^o you .put .them together to characterise the sensation of
comfort? This problem has exercised medical physiologists and engineers
for quite-;some Wbileoand they have, come up with some ingenioustways of,?
putting theserfactors togethecgethThe-.sort of thing-aigroyp,,oftventjlation
engineers iBrthe United States did is tbatciheyh.huUtofwe rooms, one,of
which had a saturated environment-,and another which they could vary the
air temperature, theswind velocity and the wall temperature, of What they did
was to get the man accustomed to the^sensation in the saturated environment
at-a particular, air temperature and particular wind velocity and then he
would walk.; rapidlyrthrough,into the^other room :wiMip«> different,combination of theseefour, factors-and,he wouldniay, instantaneously whether the second
room was too:hot or colder? than the firstcconditionsveloJhey went through
a. tretnendousjrange of-about 3 006 experiments o p : a-numberrof: subjects and
they :thenfpinpointed a.Udthe combinations tn: the second room which gave an
equivalent sensatipn to that,in the first room, .,; They called all of theh
combinations giyingothei same sensation as the saturated condition the g
same "effective'1 temperaturr».combinati,-equivalent sensation to that in the first room. They called all of the
There has,been some criticism?in terms of some of the ways this was done on
the basis-pf-an Instantaneous sensation of temperature. Some of you have
had this experience of perhaps going down in a mine and you go into it
through a ventilation door from a,cool area to a hot area. As you walk 0 the basis of an instantaneous sensation of temperat -e. Some of you ,;ave
had this experience of perhaps going down in a mine and you oo into it
through a ventilation door from a cool area to - n .<■ ir*a a . • u
5
into this you feel very hot but after you have been in there 10 or 15 minutes and have got sweaty you do not notice the sensation of heat anynofe.
This is why they use that inwediate sensation of heat as the means of
characterising;the equivalent conditions, hahwt, this method has been?
criticised recentlytod a.rather different index has been developed withorepeople-, who have been exposed for-qnecorstwouhoursnbwt basically,the.:.eim of
thiSiii .tbe same - ith1 *ithe,attempt itoscharacterise thehdiffereoti conditions in tems of thermal sensation»?. index has been developed with people who have been exposed for one or two hours but basically the aim of
Now ! think yoM wilUappreciatetthat this*,information-is essential for
the.building designer because he then has a proper knowledge of the thermal
properties of the building material. He can then choose which will be
suitable for different .climates andthehcanialsordesign;buildings?sofas to
take; advantage^ofgthe features ,intthe clin* terwhieh.wili,.contribute toemai
indoor thermal comfort. ncThis combination of acknowledge off i the,, thermal
properties of materials.and the design of thesbu.jJding whichwiil.take -0
account,,»*-the climate is the aim oferesearch organisatlonsniuchuas the
NationalnBuiiding-ResearchTinstitute sf *he0C.$.i»8w 1 éBgPrgtoria■thermalproperties of materials and the design of the building which will take
Unfortunately our ar «M tecturaiifiolleaguesuchndrlahopeiJteaehaJrmaosthat I will not have to beat-a hasty retreat when Isay.thisr our architect
friends being of a fickle fancy pay little attention to these considerations.
However we?have a further problem-1 * .thissarea in the RepubliCrmain,most advanced Western Countries they have.used one or either form of thist
effective temperature *c«le; to /determine comfort eonditiWUsforotbeiPrations. population,!,and these tape used by arcbitectssin designing,bui!dings e«gt
studies ;ofethis nature have revealed largeodifferences between United
States and United Kingdom citizens. ,The United Kingdomoeitizens- prefer
cooler indoor climatic conditions than.those in the United-States^ ; £This
'*'■* well recognised question.,«a led large differences between United
States and United Kingdom citizens. The United Kingdom citizens prefer
In South Africa we have no:information on this subject at all, nor is there
any information on different races in this regard e.g. in Lagos when I went
to a conference there some years back it was very interesting indeed -
they had designed a bank with a thermal environment to U.S*; standards -,i- -. e
which was completely unacceptable-to the local Blacks, in Lag., whe i went
-o a -on-erence there some year? back it was very interesting indeed -
r.ney oad designed a bank with a thermal environment to U.S. stendaros whf?h was completely unacceptable to the local Blacks.
6
Nor do we know whether there are differences in thermal comfort in
different climatic regions in the country. In Australia when I was there
in the early 1960's I found the people living in the hot wet climate of
Cairns had a completely different appreciation of thermal comfort compared
to those in Melbourne. People coming up from Melbourne always found Cairns
intolerable, those going down from Cairns to Melbourne found Melbourne
miserably wet and cold, and some of them never made an adequate adjustment.
To my mind it is a disgrace that in spite of hundreds of millions of Rand
being spent on buildings each year, no research is being put into this
absolutely essential information to determine the design characteristics the
architect should aim at. Our building research experts blindly assume
that South Africans, of all races in our widely diverse climate, will all
be comfortable in the air conditions that the U.S. citizens feel
comfortable in, in other words, we are designing generally to U.S. standards.
Vet I am sure that all of you have had the experience which I have whenever
I go to the United States of feeling intolerably too hot in hotel rooms
and having to turn off the air conditioning, and very often opening the
windows sometimes at the cost of a considerable amount of displeasure on
the part of the hotel managers.
Now next we have to ask ourselves whether we can achieve even the United
States indoor comfort limit by proper building design in our semi-tropical
and semi-arid desert regions. One cannot find much worse hot and wet
climate than in Lagos in Nigeria and Cairns in the Cape York Peninsula of
Australia, yet I have seen well designed buildings which are comfortable
without air conditioning. Here the building designers have used light
weight materials which rapidly lose their heat at night. The houses are
designed in such a way that at least two walls open to the outdoor
environment and more than 50% of the walls are louvred and the louvring goes
right down to the floor. From a knowledge of the prevailing evening
breezes, the houses are sited so that they take full advantage of the winds.
Similarly with a proper choice of building material and design, comfortable
indoor climates can be achieved in desert areas such as I saw at Hassi-
Messaud in the Sahara desert which was then a French oil field.
7
In South Africa the climatic conditions are not nearly so severe yet what
are our architect friends doing? They are slavishly following the fashion
of architectural designers of the northern hemisphere, using huge masses
of glass on the outside of their building to trap sunlight. In the
northern hemisphere this is good design because of the relatively few hours
of direct sunlight but in South Africa it is sheer madness and without air
conditioning it renders indoor climate uninhabitable. It seems to me that
our architects are at the whim of fashion.
I think it even more serious that it is not considered criminal that design
forces the use of air conditioning in areas where it is absolutely non-
essential, and this in a world that is crying out to conserve energy. I
think Israel is a classic example of how well proper design and proper use
of building materials can be used without air conditioning in a much more
adverse climate than we have.
Now I will not be able to do more than touch on other subjects in building
design. Noise is becoming in Europe almost as big a problem as air
pollution. This is being tackled at two levels both in building design and
also in the proper design of the external environment. The sort of
situation I saw in Strazburg in France at the National Physiological and
Psychological Laboratory, where they have been taking indoor sound
measurements in apartments in the city. In some of the new housing estates
outside of Strazburg they have come up with a startling fact that the noise
levels are well above the threshold which causes irritability and causes
loss of sleep.
Now clearly there are two ways in which this can be tackled. One is to
build into the design materials for absorbing noise and secondly to design
the space in the buildings so that at least the sleeping rooms will be
free of noise at night, and you can retreat to a noiseless area. As I
say this is an area which today is regarded in Europe as being as important
as pollution.
Then the other area that I found very exciting in Europe in the last few
years, is the attention which is being given to the ergonoric design c*
buildings. One is the recognition that the housewife in Eurooe, because
she does not have the servants, spends a lot of time in her home. She
8
spends a lot of time on physical activities and the design of the equipment
has been improved to take the physical load off the housewife.
The other area where ergonomics has been most important is in a look at
the causes of death from accidents in the home. Deaths in the home are
a sign of bad design. Bad housing design, bad furniture design, bad
equipment design is responsible in the United Kingdom for the second highest
cause of accidents. Road accident mortality anyway outtop anything else.
Bad design of stairways is a major cause of accidents in older people and
has received a lot of attention recently. I do not have to tell you, I
am sure, about the high death rate from extremely badly designed electrical
equipment where children and housewives are electrocuted every year, and
these are receiving great attention overseas. There is a Consumer’council,
a very active consumer council, which just does not only try to keep the
prices low but also to improve the design of equipment. It has now become
a research institute in Loughborough which is concerned solely with this
problem of better building design and better design of equipment in building.
Now clearly I have run out of my time and I hope perhaps some of the
questions on the physical environment may come up during question time.
9
MR M. JACOBS
Introduction by Chairman
Mr Jacobs is a psychologist in private practice and holds various positions
in hospitals on the Witwatersrand. He is registered with the South
African Medical Council and is a member of various international bodies. He
has many publications on his particular topic both in local and overseas
journals. He has a degree both in law and psychology.
Psychology and Environment have gone through various fortunes and
misfortunes over the past century. Before I start I would like to detail
this very briefly. In the heyday of Sigmund Freud and the psycho-analyst,
man was considered to have practically no environment at all. In other
words you are simply a captive of your internal drives and unconscious
forces. This is clearly a very one sided and distorted view of what the
human being is. It is just looking at the basement of the whole human edifice.
You now also have a complete reaction to this in the form of the conditioning
theorists and behaviourists. You now consider man to have no internal
world at all - a very good example of this is Skinner. In other words a
person is simply a product of the reinforcement he receives in his environment.
My particular standpoint to which I subscribe is that of so called
existential psychology, which sees man as being in the world and sees his
being in terms of various worlds. If you would like to call it that one
of these is his umwled, his being in the world, his relationship to the
environment. Two other worlds are his eigenweld, the world inside of
him, and then there is his mitweld, his social relationships.
So I am going today to be talking about man's umweld and his psychological
needs. Before I really get into the subject, I must touch upon two
difficulties. The first is that there has been, I think, and there still
is, a very strong tendency in psychology to see people in terms of theory,
10
in terms of ideas. As I mentioned earlier on, one of them is his
unconscious forces. There has also been a strong reaction against this in
so called humanistic psychology which takes the point of view that the
moment we describe a man in terms of any theory that we hold, we lose the
human being. All we see is our own particular theory of him, and I would
tend to agree with this. I think you can make a list of needs that you
like about people, but in the end you will cease to see people, you will
only see your own particular ideology concerning people. And it seems to
me that the only way to understand what is a human need is to see the
world through a human being's eyes, other people's eyes, to get into
their world so to speak. Of course at first its very easy to do this with
ourselves. Rather than worrying about the needs of human beings we can
first discover subjectively what our own needs are, and I will touch upon
this in talking about needs in terms of environment.
Of course another difficulty in trying to find out what are people’s needs
Is that 1n my opinion, and my experience, that many people are unaware of
their needs. The 20th century neurosis is the existential vacuum, in
other words you see people who are out of touch with what they want and with
what they feel and also with what they need. People like Rollo May have
talked a great deal about this, but you see this in practice all the time.
People tell you - I do not know what I want, I do not know what I feel,
and I do not know what I need. If anyone has ever read the Waste Land, a
poem by T.S. Eliot, it very clearly describes people out of touch with their
needs and their wants.
But anyway, coming back to human needs, a good starting point might be our
own experience of the world, and perhaps I could share with you some of
the experiences I have of our city and urban environment, and you might
relate this to what you feeT. If I go into the city during the day, it
seems to me to be like a mad house, a lunatic asylum, a hot house, a place
that is overcharged, overheated, too much noise, too many signs, too much
rush, a constant kind of flicker. It jangles my nerves, it makes me very
tense, very agitated. I get stuck in a traffic jam. I smell petrol fumes.
I see ugly buildings, I see rushing people. There is no one to talk to.
There is very rarely a green tree to see. There is very rarely any kind
of peace. However, if I go into the city at night, it looks to me like a
cemetery, and all these buildings look like tombstones. You walk along a
place and it is dead, and it is cold, and it is austere, and it is grey and
11
and once again I almost feel as if I am walking through a science fiction
city where all the people have suddenly departed. And then if you go to
the suburbs in the evenings it is not much better because everyone is
sitting in their own little box, encapsulated, cut off from other people. There seems to be a lack of contact.
I think what I want to do now is talk about some basic psychological needs,
if I could use this word psychological. I do want to say that
'psychological' is everything, it is a total human being. You cannot say
a need is psychological rather than physiological. I might describe this
best from a negative point of view by pointing out the things that are
going wrong in our environment and effecting us psychologically.
Now the first thing I will touch briefly is that we have an environment
which gives no real peace, an environment which dulls and jangles and
hypnotises and puts us half to sleep. What I am saying in fact is this,
that if you are living in a place where there is constant sound, where
there is a constant attack on your senses - one might think of radio
adverts, billboards, austere ugly buildings, noise, hooters, screeching
of breaks, flashing neon signs, the rush of people - that this in fact
does have a marked effect on the person. It evokes a state that is close
to hypnosis in a way. All these things dull us, we are constantly
bombarded by this avalanche of sounds and I dread to think of what is going
to happen when T.V. comes. This will get right into our homes as well. In
other words it is like the tentacle of an -octopus. There will be no
place where it will be safe to hide. If you walk out of your house,
especially if you live in the centre of the city you are totally attacked by
these things. Now when this happens to you, one or two things seem to
happen. One is that you are dulled, you are put to sleep, there is a noise
in your head. There is so much noise in your head from what is going on
outside that you have no time to hink, to meditate, to even know that you
are thinking; and I will go so far as to say that it is a brainwashing
situation, that people hardly know that they are alive and of course
advertising plays upon this. The people seem to have the illusion that
they are free, that they can think for themselves, but in my opinion, in
this kind of environment, very few people are able to think at all,
never mind think for themselves.
Of course, this type of constant bombardment will also lead to anger,
12
irritation, violence. We have all had the experience of being jazzed
up, jangled up by noise, by rush and this does something to us. We get
home and kick the cat or shout at our wife, or we shout at our children and
this is one of the things that our environment is doing to us. I would
guess, thinking about it, that one of the reasons for the popularity of
meditation techniques like transcendental meditation, stems directly from
this assault of the environment on our senses.
Another thing which it does is not only that it dulls us, and hypnotises
us, and makes us angry and gives us a noise in the head, but it also
isolates us. I will talk about two areas of isolation: the first is
isolation from nature. Now a person who lives at the top of a high rise
building and gets a lift down to the basement and gets into his car and
travels along in this little bubble of a car is encapsulated from his
environment. He drives along a concrete highway and parks in the basement
of another building and gets a lift up to his office and sits in an
unnatural air conditioned environment and comes home and does the same thing.
Such a person will begin to forget one of the basic truths of life and that
is that he is a part of nature, that he is a part of the world; and I feel
that part, of our destruction of the environment stems partly from the fact
that we have forgotten who we are, that we have forgotten in fact that we
belong in nature. When we cease to see that we are part of nature then we
begin to destroy it and rape it and murder it.
I have talked to urban dwellers that I have seen in the consulting rooms
and often as part of certain IQ tests I might ask general knowledge
questions: for instance - where does milk come from? I have found that a
large number of urban children do not know where milk comes from - they
tell me it comes out of a bottle or from a dairy. They do not even know
that milk comes out of a cow any more.
There has been in psychology over the past century a romantic trend, a
desire to get back to nature, I suppose to renew ourselves, and to find
the moments of reality. I think a lot of the youth movements and protest
movements have their origin in this - and ecology has its origin in this
need to renew ourselves - to find out the other half of who we are.
13
This living in a cut off way gives us a false sense of independence and if
an environment is going to be suitable for people so that we become total
human beings, it must have access to trees, to parks. It needs to have
access to nature in the broad sense of the word. I think we need things
like Zen gardens, so that we can get away from noise and meditate on nature.
Then, we are not only cut off from nature in the places that we are living
but we are cut off from other people.
There was a book once called "The Lonely Crowd" by a man called David
Reisman which describes this. We are constantly surrounded by people but
there is no human contact. If you walk in the street everybody simply
bumps you out of the way. We see people but they are not people, they are
walking shapes. By people I mean the ability to contact other human
beings and to talk to them. And in particular the kind of environment we
now live in with these huge cities, little isolated'blocks, is related to a
loss of contact with community. I think that our urban way of life or the
way we live, or the way our cities are built, or the way our communities
are built mitigate for the nuclear family, mitigate totally against a sense
of community, a place where you would live with old people and very young
people and you would have contact with a great many people, with a great
many people of your own age or of different ages. This lack of contact,
this deprivation of human relationships is another reason, in my opinion,
for the breeding of violence, for alienation in people, for psychopathic
kinds of behaviour. But certainly one thing we do know, is that if a
person is deprived during his first year of life, or first few years of
life, of adequate human contact that no matter what happens to him
afterwards, he will always tend to be an outsider, a loner, that he will
tend to have missed the critical period for forming of human relationships
for caring.
Once again someone living at the top of a high rise building, away from
people, with little contact with other people, whose father and mother
might go out to work is going to be deprived, especially if he is far from
creches, nursery schools, and things like this. What seems to me to be
totally essential is this, that we begin to think of communities that fit
human beings, of a place where a person can walk to work, a place where he
can have contact with his grandparents, with people younger than him, a
place where he can go and stay with other adults if he does not particularly
like his parents for a little while, a place where he can have stimulation
14
with a great many of his own kind, where people live in a centre, a place
where he can walk out in the afternoon and go to a museum, a place where he
can go to a garden or go to a zoo, all within walking distance where he no
longer depends on someone to drag him in a car.
But it seems to me that people have really done is that they have
forgotten about human beings when they build cities or communities and that
they have forgotten about human needs. We build cities for profiteers and
we build cities for cars but we have forgotten altogether about the people
that have to live in them. Now what we are doing is that we are living
abominations in terms of human nature and what this is doing to us is
turning us into abominations. For instance, take overcrowding. We now
have lots of hard experimentations and facts to show that the effects of
crowding are totally disasterous on people. Now I do not mean that
people need much space but I mean that they simply need a little privacy and
the kind of crowding we have is the worst kind of crowding. You have
crowding without contact, people on top of each other, standing on each
other's toes, pushing each other in streets, pavements. I think of the
London underground, for one, where I recently was, and that when you subject
experimental animals to unnatural crowding like this, they become vicious,
they become cannibals they turn against each other. All kind of social
relationships between the animals, the community, break down completely,
and ! think that what we see often in the dead centres of our city or the
slum centres, is exactly this kind of thing happening.
* think that, as I say, if we look at the kind of buildings we have, they
look like anthills to me. We lose a sense of importance, we are overwhelmed
by these huge slabs, we become like ants scurrying in and out of the doors,
each one of us going to our little box in the antheap.
Another thing about the kind of environment we have is that it is lonely,
that you are cut off, that if you walk through a place like Hillbrow
there are lonely people all the time. I see lonely people in my
consulting room, lonely people who go to work in an anonymous bus who
hardly speak to anyone when they come home and will walk the street
desperate for some kind of human contact and never find it. I
I have talked about crowding, I have talked about isolation from the
environment. There is one more thing I would like to say that in spite
15
of all this noise and in spite of all this bombardment we have, we
basically live in a very deprived sort of environment, and one thing that
we know as well is that if we are deprived of stimulation, of sensory
stimulation, that we become more stupid in a way. In fact if you deprive
an infant of stimulation during the first year or two of life, he will
never ever catch up, and our whole kind of cornnunity is a stimulus deprived
community. It is the same, it is grey, it is conforming. You need
simply only see a spec-housing estate, to see the kind of conformity you have.
You have little variation, you have the same kind of noises, the same kind
of sounds, you have a dullness which pervades a whole kind of urban
environment, you can practically breathe it in, and this too leads to a loss of possibilities.
Something else has just occurred to me while I am talking. It seems to
me that when I was a child, it was somewhat different. I do not know
whether this is simply romanticism, but I recall that things were closer by,
places were smaller. I would not have to depend on my parents to take me
by car, I could walk to school or go by bicycle. I could^ if I wanted to
go and visit a friend in the afternoon, I would always walk or go by
bicycle. The local cinema was nearby, the local playing fields were
nearby and I never recall having to ask my parents to take me somewhere by
car. Today with this huge spread, our children have to be taken everywhere.
They lose a sense of self sufficiency, of independence, of self reliance.
They have also lost, it seems to me, the ability to amuse themselves in
many ways. I also recall birthday parties I went to where we amused
ourselves rather than being given puppet shows and movies as seems to be the vogue today.
I think this all relates to the way we live and the places in which we
live, far from each other, at a distance psychologically, often physically
and when we are not at a distance physically, we stand on each other's toes.
We are getting on each other's nerves, we are fighting for space and there is no real contact anywhere.
I suppose one of the solutions would be to reorganize the community in
terms of smaller communities where say people worked close to where they
lived so that they could walk there. They could discover that they
16
suddenly had legs. I see a lot of people who do not know that they have
bodies anymore because everything is built for the car and all they do is
go in cars and go in lifts. They do not realise that they have bodies.
A place where you could walk, a place where there would be green and park
and fields nearby, a place where a mother would not be afraid to let her
child go out in the afternoon because he is going to be run over. I
mean if you consider a woman living on the 50th storey of an apartment
block and she has young children, she can never let them go and play
downstairs unless she has a pair of binoculars and a parachute to get
down very quickly because there he is playing. He is playing with the
cars whizzing by and there are all these dangerous things down there: so
she will keep him in the flat - she will keep him with her or she will be
forced to go down with him. She gets Irritated because there are other
things that she wants to do and because she does not live in a conmunity
where there is someone with whom she can share the children with. So the
whole thing becomes unnatural, clinging, holding, and a lack of opportunity,
a lack for the children to go out, to do things on their own, because
where can they go? If you live in town there is nowhere to go to, you
are pushed off the pavement anyhow and if you live in the suburbs it is
far from anywhere.
17
MISS J. VERSTER
Introduction by Chairman
Miss Verster is a lecturer 1n the Department of Town and Regional Planning
at the University of the Witwatersrand. She was the head of the Research
Division of the Non-European Affairs Department of the Johannesburg City
Council for 10 years before joining the University. She has academic
qualifications in both Sociology and Town Planning.
As Mr Jacobs has clearly pointed out, the existence of the physical
environment is dependent on people who use it. Without these people there
would be no physical environment, there would be no buildings, there would
be no spaces, there would be no connections between these buildings and
spaces. People live most of their lives around not the buildings so much,
but things like the family, the job, their friends, the church maybe, clubs,
certain sorts of social institutions. In addition to this they have
aspirations, they have values, they have problems.
Although people live, work and play in the context of the physical
environment, their behaviour is not determined by the physical environment.
It is determined by the cultural, social and economic relationships within
that environment. That 1s, the behaviour of people is not created by that
physical environment but by the social environment.
In terms of planning, we as planners are Involved 1n shaping and remoulding
a physical environment, but the planned environment 1s only a potential
environment. All we can do, because the physical environment does not
determine the behaviour of people, is to provide the potential 1n which
people can act out and do what they want to do within 1t. The extent to
which this potential environment can become what may be called an effective
environment depends on the degree that the planner, can blend these two
things together. The potential Is realised. Frequently this does not
happen. If you accept this, 1t follows that any pattern of settlement,
any sort of arrangement of buildings, of spaces, of a connection between
18
these things can be superior to any other. It Is only superior if this potential can become effective.
So one can say that the social function, certainly of planning, is to
facilitate people doing what they wish to do or what they have to do.
Therefore planning, and up to a point architecture as well, should concern
Itself with the physical planning for groups of people, in the way 1n
which they wish to live and 1n the way they want to live. We should try also to sort out their aspirations and their values.
People's lives and their lifestyles or their culture are determined by
things like, for example, Income, their education, their occupation, and
these things put together, we can call social class. It is also determined
by their age and sex and also their ethnic, political and religious
allegiances. Now these characteristics are very important but they are
not enough because these characteristics are expressed in the behaviour of
people. They are expressed in their value systems. They are expressed
in their Perceptions of their environment. They are expressed in their
aspirations, and they are expressed in the social and economic environments in which they live.
The social and economic environments are located in things like houses, in
offices, in factories, in c c w n l t y facilities, in comminlties, and
therefore plans for any social environment must have a physical expression, i think this is the justification for physical planning.
How does one go about planning for people? If you do not plan for people
you are planning for something very very sterile. I think the first thing
you need to know is how people live and how they want to live. You also
need to know what their problems are, what their values are, what their
aspirations are. You need to know that people are not all the same. They
are different. They are different 1n terms of their age groupings and
therefore their needs are different according to the age group that they
happen to be in. They are different according to one's social class.
One's values, one's aspirations vary according tc one's social class.
They are different in terms of one's ethnic group. Again the needs here
of our African population are different from the needs and desires of the
19
Coloured population, the Indian population and the White population. And
people have different lifestyles according to these particular
characteristics. An African has a different lifestyle, for example, from
a Coloured, or a lower Income group often has a different lifestyle from
a middle class person, and we must recognise this.
The critical point here is that no particular physical organisation of
space can satisfy all these varying needs. There is no desirable
lifestyle, in my opinion. There are many diverse ways of living. Unless
these diverse ways of living can be proved harmful tc the people who live
them or to other people involved, all these lifestyles are valid. The
problem arises that certainly as far as planning is concerned, planners
usually belong to a middle class lifestyle and 1t is very difficult to shake
this off. Their value system relates to this middle class lifestyle and
you have to be particularly sensitive to other people's lifestyles, and to
be be able to accept them and not impose your lifestyle on them and say:
“My lifestyle is better than yours".
Once you know how people live and want to live, the problem is to translate
the social structures, these value systems, these perceptions into a
physical structure or into physical forms and this is very very difficult.
Now let us look at a particular example. This is a very easy one really
but lets look at it. Lets look at a slum. To an average middle class
person, a slirni is nothing more than shabby, mean, dirty, dreary houses,
shabby shops, pavements littered with rubbish and usually it is badly lit
and one is rather grateful that it is. The inhabitants of such a slum
area however have a completely different perception of this place and see
it as an area of say cheap housing, a neighbourhood that 1s full of
friends, relatives and which can support them in times of need. Usually
controls are less heavily enforced there which means that you can maybe
take your family in in times of need - you have a bit of overcrowding but at
least you help each other. Often there is a very strong attachment to
place, to the place of the slum per se. You were b o m and bred in the
area, it has memories that are important to you and the housing, the poor
housing is not that important. For example, studies have shown that
residents 1n these slum areas are perfectly satisfied with the very poor
conditions of their houses. They are satisfied because the poor condition
cf the houses is outweighed by the satisfaction of other things - the
satisfaction of the low cost of the housing, the proximity of the family
2C
and the ethnic group possibly, and the availability of local institutions
which cater specifically for their needs. When I talk about local
institutions, these are usually not formal, they are informal things that
happen within it.
The emphasis in these areas is more on social contact, a very strong,
frequent and intense interaction with a large number of relatives and
neighbours, and friends. Pimville in Soweto was such an area. Anyone
who went into it said - “How can anyone live under these appalling
conditions", but nevertheless as far as the inhabitants were concerned it
had these compensating factors, which they valued very very highly.
So from a planning point of view, what are the implications of an area
like this? First of all I would say that when they replanned Pimville,
the emphasis there should have been on trying to promote the sort of
relationships that already existed in the area. Possibly slightly higher
densities which would have permitted relatives to live near each other.
The street pattern and design should have been such to facilitate its
extension of the living area. In poor areas often the street is as
important as the dwelling area for living. People lived on the street as
much as they did in their houses. They met their friends on the street,
they congregated on street corners. Women in Pimville for example met at
the tap. You might not approve of communal taps but it had that effect.
They met at the communal tap where they collected the water. There was
an informal area in Pimville where, for example, the women washed and used
to congregate and sit around while their washing was drying. Now this sort
of thing should have been perpetuated in the design.
Another item that possibly could have helped would be the sort of mixture
of shops that you often get in poor areas where they are scattered
throughout the area. They also provide meeting places and areas where
people can have face to face contact. When I talk about this I do not
expect it over an enormous large area but a reasonably compact area where
people can meet. These are the sort of considerations that one could
possibly take into account.
Now in contrast to this sort of lifestyle, and here I am generalising
fantastically, middle class people do value good quality housing, and
21
they are prepared to spend quite a large proportion of their income on
housing. It is a very important value in their lives. They are prepared
to spend, for example, a lot more money on better quality housing than poor
people are. When for example, poor people are rehoused, and they have to
pay a little bit more in rent, even though they can afford it theoretically,
they often get themselves in a horrible mess because they do not feel the
importance. They do not value the house sufficiently to pay that extra
money for it. So middle class people are prepared to pay a lot more for
better class housing and we often make the assumption, because we plan for
middle class values that all the poor people want are really better houses,
better quality houses. This does not mean to say that poor people should
not get better quality houses, but one must know exactly how much better
it should be.
Another thing, middle class people value privacy a lot more. Interaction
of middle class areas is slightly different too from poor class areas. In
middle class areas, interaction is not sc much related to the extended
family group. It is far more centred on non-related friends and the
family is nuclear orientated.
The sort of planning required therefore in a middle class area, the sort
of needs and demands is quite different say from a lower class area, per se.
Just one last point then. I think one of the most important aspects which
has not been touched on is modern society's change. Things change
terribly quickly. There is little stability. It is very difficult to
anticipate this change simply because we are not soothsayers and we
cannot look into crystal balls and know exactly what the change in the
future will be. And in terms of planning for this change there are
obviously tremendous problems, simply because we do not know exactly
what this change is going to entail. One of the solutions here, and this
is not a solution anyway because people change all along the line anyhow,
is to provide a variety of solutions at all times, to provide as much choice
as possible. Now this is fine but one thing I would like to stress is
that choice is limited to only those people that can afford it, and
therefore I feel we should have more planning for people who cannot choose -
the poor.
22
DISCUSSION
Question: Mr Jacobs - Have you done any research, or have you read much
on the problem of high rise buildings and flat dwellings? Can you give
us an indication of the maximum sort of height one would expect to
create no social and psychological problems for a plan in dwelling flats.
Mr Jacobs: I
I have done no original research nsyslef. I have read quite a lot about
it and I have thought a lot about it, and I think it would be very difficult
to give an exact number of floors. It will seen: to me a place which is
not that high, or let me put it this way that it is I imagine just a few
floors so that people can get downstairs very quickly without necessarily
having to use lifts, so that children can quickly get up to mothers and
mothers down to children, that people do not feel locked up like iri a
prison, a place where one looks out and sees something green, not just
another concrete shelf in front of one. And it seems that one of the
things I did not mention about high rise buildings, is that although you
have so many people cooped up in this bookshelf of people that people
have very little contact with each other, iri a high rise building. There
is very little interaction between the inhabitants of this building.
Question: Professor Wyndham - Over the weekend I was reading a magazine
which talks about places of work, work places, and it specifically talks
about the quality of the environment of work places. It suggests that
more than half of the working days that are lost in Britain are lost
through mental problems and not physical sickness, and it also suggests,
and this is the interesting part of it, that a large amount of the mental
illness is mainly related to the specific environmental quality of the
place of work as opposed to the type of work etc. Now that seems to be
on the one level very interesting and also very difficult to define but I
think that there are clues all around us and there is a clue in here -
every time I come into this room and I am really strongly offended by
this room. For a start I am offended at the money that has gone onto the
walls and the ceiling and the furniture is appalingly uncomfortable. I
think that the range of things that affect our health and our comfort are
so wide as to make the problem tremendously difficult. What I am really
asking you is why do you think our fancies are fickle. 1 must confess
23
that I am an architect.
Professor Wyndham.
I find this a very difficult question to answer. I think I will probably
answer it this way, that there is in the U.K. for example a tremendous
amount of attention being given to this problem and it has been given to it
by multi-disciplinary groups which have grown up since the last world
war, particularly the urbanomics group, for example this embraces
psychologists, sociologists, the anatomist and the physiologist. One
criticism of what they have been doing is that most of their efforts up to
now have been discrete looks at different aspects for example the noise,
illumination, comfort of sleeping and so on. Rarely have they disciplined
the multi-disciplinary function, I think to the optimum, and try to
highlight which are the most important factors. - Which are the key factors
which are responsible for morbidity, for people going off ill not because
they have physical illness, but because they are stressed by the type of
enviornment that they are working on? I think this is a weakness in what
is being done but I would say that they are very much aware of this. One
of the indications of this awareness is for example in this particular
ergonomics department I have referred to in Laufborough - one of the new
technological universities. It started out narrowly - ergonomics looking
at chair design, design of equipment and in kitchens. It has now changed
its name recently to the Human Sciences Department and I think this is very
significant. What has happened there is that whereas it was primarily a
physiological and anatomical orientation, it is now very much more in the
psychology field and the sociology field and I think this is extremely
healthy and I think it is that type of multi-disciplinary approach which is
going to sort out the sort of problem that you are highlighting. I
entirely agree with you that the sickness absence rates which the general
post office, for example, have been plotting these over the last few
decades and its a dreading situation that the sickness absence due to
psychological diseases going up like this and due to physical diseases going
down that way.
Question: Professor Wyndham - Would it be valuable for example to be able
in this small area to talk about the noise and the temperature, to be
able to define which of those two things is more important.
24
Professor Wyndham
It is quite interesting that the National Building Research Institute has
just created an Environmental Engineering Division and it has called upon
experts around the world. One who is very much involved in this multi
disciplinary approach is David Wyan. He has come out from Sweden. He
originally was from Britain but he is very much involved in trying to
establish the interaction of noise, heat and light, and has some rather
unique ways of approach. But even there I think I would criticise his
approach and in that it is still somewhat narrow and he is looking at the
interaction of these three environmental variables where it is quite likely
that the problem may well lie in a particular industry, not in these
particular factors but in a sociological problem of a management/worker
relationship. I think it is very easy - I saw this is Northern Australia
- places like Cairns. It was very intriguing there - you sometimes had
tremendous criticism from people about the environment. They would really
be most anxious about the environment, but if you went into it carefully
you found often that there was a family problem, which was the basis of
this and it was very simple. The environment is neutral. You can very
easily criticise the environment but heaven help you if you criticise
your husband.
Question: I think that a lot depends also on the human being - for
example we build a block of flats where people are going to live in ,
and a lot of money is being spent by the developer to give a pleasant and
expensive look to the building. When the people move in, they behave not
as one expects and in the end one gets so frustrated one says - oh to hell,
lets just give them a couple of sticks, perhaps boxes for them to live on.
Why should one spend all this money when you get the public that comes in
to them, knives and rips up all the upholstery, draws ink upon the walls,
tears up the carpets. Is it really worth it in the end?
Professor Wyndham
Well I think this is a problem. I think that possibly you are letting
to the wrong sort of people.
Question: But we have to because competition is so great. We dont
25
supply this sort of environment. The people do want it. We try and
make a flat as competitive as the next door block of flats where they also
spend a lot more money. It seems that the problem is in the people
themselves who cannot adapt themselves to a better environment.
Professor Wyndham
I think though that you are equating a physical thing with a better
environment. People obviously do not see that as a better environment.
This is often a problem - that they demand certain things - for example, in
certain areas you will find that people demand things like community
centres, parks, all the facilities, all that sort of community facilities
but the actual number who actually use them is very little, or when they
do use them they are destructive about it but they demand it because they
feel it is their right. Maybe this is the sort of problem that we are up
against here, but are the people demanding it or are you demanding it? Oo
you as a developer feel that this is the thing that you have to do simply
because somebody else is supplying something similar. I think it is a
mixture you know. I wonder if it is a public demand.
Question: Well I was under the impression that it was the public that is
demanding it - that the public are paying higher rental rather than going
somewhere else.
Mr Jacobs
Perhaps I could say something. I think that the problem is that we do not
know what people want, and people very often do not know what they want
themselves. Because people are so out of touch with their own wants they
are easily influenced by advertising and prestige and people are running
after prestige. In the end it is an empty kind of a thing. It is not
what they want. The problem can be tackled both ways. Looking at it as
a psychologist, I would say that to change the environment is only half the
job. You have to change the people in it and you put people in an
environment, well people who are destructive because they are destructive
against themselves and unhappy. That is the kind of thing that happens.
The problem is as I say, that I do not know whether we can decide what is
better for people and in fact I think the problem is partially that we have
decided what is better for people, and people are allowing us to decide
26
what is better for them, and in the end it is not better. It is not
satisfying the basic, let us say, human aspirations. We have this kind of
vandalism, or so called vandalism. But we find that people who are
destructive against the environment are always invariably destructive
towards themselves. A person who is at peace with himself, and whole
inside will not want to destroy anything outside.
Question: Perhaps developers should encourage people to buy their
dwel1ings.
Miss Verster
I think possibly you have a point there. I think possibly one of these
problems is the fact that people who rent accommodation feel that they
have no stake in it, and therefore they behave in very peculiar ways, they
really do. If it is their own property you find that they really look a
after it, or do a bit of minimum maintenance and do not allow their
children to throw ink on the walls and tear up carpets and what have you.
But frequently when it is rented, they just do not have that emotional
stake in it and they literally do not care.
Question: When Mr Jacobs dealt with the spectrum of privacy vs. contact
with other people on a personal level, then adaption vs. integration, he was
very critical of the whole spectrum right from the high density planning
development right down to the suburbs. He was not very happy with
people sitting in their little boxes at home all night without any contact
and right through to the other side he was not very happy with people
being tramped on all the time by others. I was just wondering - is there
a specific environment which he would favour? 1 was just wondering if he
did not mention this environment which he finds suitable at this stage and
if I may ask Miss Verster a question as well. She dealt with the problem
which is a very real problem I admit, of the planner bringing his own values
into his planning. The other side of the problem in my opinion is, that
if you move away from that you may become inclined to drift, you may lose
contact with this specific frame of reference. If you do not have a frame
of reference, you cannot be critical, anymore and I can not see how you
can plan that easily. Does she know a solution for this problem?
27
Mr Jacobs:
Well if I may be permitted to have a fantasy about what seems to me to
approximate an ideal kind of environment, I mean one where people can grow
up to feel part of something bigger than themselves - 1 was just thinking
while we were talking just now about this violence against things. It is
a lack of caring, of 1 am all on my own, the whole atmosphere breathes of
competition, lack of community, lack of caring, lack of sharing. It seems
to me that if one could have an environment, it has to be much smaller than
the units we have. Perhaps you could have one large unit made out of
many smaller units where people have a place of their own. There seems to
be quite a lot of evidence that people have this territorial imperative
that Ard^ey has written about, a place which you can call your own, but
close enough to other people so that you can share with them and a place
that is a self-contained unit. It would have its parks, it would have its
museum, it would have its library, it would have its creches, it would have
its schools all together. The people who would live in it would live in
it from birth until death. It would not shut old people off, it would not
send young people off. People would live together in this environment.
So you have a larger community where people would know each other, stay with
each other, people you went to school with, you would know, you would live
in the same area, you would continue to live together. Now it is
better to have diversity, perhaps a range of economic housing. And also
it would be an area where there would be no fears, that if you wanted to go
out at night, you could walk out of your house and very close by there would
be a place where people met, perhaps a local store, a local place of
entertainment, a sharing of certain facilities like swimming baths and
sports fields and people could mix together in this way. So you would not
be isolated in the sense that - I can not go out because I am afraid at
night - everything is far away, everyone is far away, my friends are far
away. If a child wanted to move out and visit a friend at 9,00 p.m. at
night he could simply walk - it would be very close by. People could visit
each other, the extended family would be quite close by. You would not be
isolated in this way. And you would not be the same nonentity, the same
crush, the same rush, having to get out, get away. And also communal
projects. People living in this community could look after the sidewalks,
trees and things like this together. A place where a person could really
live because it provides for all the things a human being really needed
and possibilities. Especially the kind of place I am thinking of -
28
the teacher who taught at the local school would live in the community so
that the parent who had a problem with his child could walk over. The
doctor would live there so that you could take your child over or he
could come over immediately. The people would be living together as a
unit. This is the kind of fantasy I have about a more ideal environment.
Miss Verster
I think that the problem that you brought up is a very difficult one. It
is not easy to do to throw one's own values out. I think any plan does to
a certain extent affect one's own values. As far as the problem of having
a terms of reference, I think this can be done in terms of generalised goals
that the plan is trying to meet. But I think that from a specific point
of view that it will vary - that particular goal you could have you could
say for a whole comaunity. But sub-classes within that comnunity could
fit into the overall goal, but in terms of their own terms, demands, needs
and desires and aspirations. I think that it is a very difficult one and
I think to anyone who says they can plan objectively, I think this is a
delusion.
Question: Do you not think that your fantasy is rather static - Mr Jacobs -
that you are not allowing for people to move and change jobs and move out
of the area and for new people to move in who are not going to be
integrated into the whole system? What happens in real life if a new
person moves in?
Mr Jacobs
1 would agree with you. This is a definite criticism, but except something
that is alive is always changing, always growing and one thing I might
say is that this modern restlessness that people have is not necessarily a
healthy sign. You have people who are going from one thing to another and
never finding anything, a general search for something better, and it is
never there. People are constantly on the move. They seem to have no
feeling of continuity with the past. Life is also seen as some kind of
future Utopia which never arrives. This social disorganisation,
disruption of people moving all the time, in itself is not really a freedom
because the people are moving themselves, not free. They are driven by
their own unhappiness.
29
Question: Is not this a fact of life?
Mr Jacobs
Well I think this happens because of a certain sickness. I am not saying
that people will always stay in the same place but a person who is happy and
content and whole within himself does not always have to keep on looking
for something better. You know I have the idea that people would work
close by to where they lived. There would not be this constant commuting,
this constant rushing, wasting of one's life sitting in a car, going from
one place to another. And obviously this is just an idea. Things like
this would always grow and would always change.
Question: What I wanted to say is that it seems to me that to a certain
extent Miss Verster agreed with Mr Jacobs and then contradicted him in
that the nicest form of classes can suffer isolation, but the poor can have
a community. In fact to give an example I was reading 1n Life Magazine a
life series on Greeks. There was a photograph of what was considered a
slum, this slum was being removed and there was this mother feeding her
child and the child beautifully dressed and everyone looked happy and the
neighbours were looking on, but the Americans considered it a slum. This
is the sort of movement towards an isolation where we all have smart
houses but we all live in one acre gardens and we do not know or care. So
I think there was a certain contribution, or a large contribution in the
two discussions.
Miss Verster
I am not at all sure what point you are trying to make.
Question: What I am trying to say is that people would rather - that
they would like to have nice houses but I cannot see why the middle classes
should be told that they can have their privacy in their own homes, but do
not necessarily believe that they want isolation or that kind of privacy.
Miss Verster. I
I understand now. I said that middle class people value privacy more
but it does not mean to say that they should be put in glass houses - not
by any matter of means. I mean that they value privacy more but in a
30
different sort of way, In a middle class area I would say that a sense of
community is just as important as in a slum but it is a different kind of
community feeling. In a middle class area one would try say to provide
the privacy when it was needed as well as the opportunity for people to
meet each other. It is a different sort of arrangement, a different sort
of emphasis, but it certainly does not imply that people do not need a sense
of community with other people. Everybody needs this. I think this is
a basic human need. But they need it in different proportions. The
emphasis is slightly different.
Question: Does it not stem from capitalism that in Southern European
countries like Israel and Greece, Spain and Italy, that the family is so
important that through capitalism the family unit is broken that it is
mother, father children as opposed to grannys, aunts and uncles.
Miss Verster.
Yes, but I am not sure that it is capitalism because look how certain
ethnic groups emphasise more the extended family group than other ethnic
groups. For example - certain social classes emphasise the extended
family more than other social classes so I am not sure that you can relate
it to capitalism per se. But one must try and assess, I think, these
variations and plan for them, for people, but it does not imply for one
moment that because you do not value privacy to quite the same extent as
somebody else that you must then live in a glass house. Not at all.
Community is just as important but the emphasis is different.
Question: I have two questions. One for Miss Verster, one for Mr
Jacobs. Talking about the aspirations for lower class sections of our
urban areas, in their experience have the lower class blacks very
different aspirations to the whites? Do they want the same type of
development as the whites? My impression is that they do. Or are there
still ethnic differentials or is our upbringing or is our education similar?
Miss Verster. I
I think, here again, within an ethnic group there are developing social
classes. For example among our African community one cannot just dump them
31
under a particular category and say that they are just African and therefore
they have particular needs and desires because they are African. Within
the African corruiunity we are getting, as a result of improved education,
improved incomes a social class differentiation. I would certainly say
that in terms of the more affluent members of the African society it would
appear that their deamnds are very similar to that of white middle class demands.
Question: Mr Jacobs, why are there the odd riots and trouble within
Soweto. Why do people there destroy the basic amenities that they do have?
We find that they do not destroy their pubs, their kitchens, their feeding
places, their churches. Why does this sort of thing happen?
Mr Jacobs.
Well it is a very complex question. One that I could talk about a great
deal but perhaps just to mention some of the more obvious points. The
first is that this kind of blind violence is in fact blind violence. When
we behave in this way it is not a rational kind of behaviour at all. If
you look at a child when he is angry with a very young child, he will smash
everything including his own things to cut off his nose to spite your
face, so as to speak. This kind of reaction that people have is if you
want the psychological jargon, the childishness, the irrational forces in
us, and when we then blow up like this we destroy the first thing at hand.
I think this is really the main thing. The other thing is that of course
one would then in this state destroy anything that is nearby. But we all
do this from time to time. We lose our temper and we hurt people who are
dearest to us and closest to us. I think this is probably the main reason.
It has to come out somewhere so it comes out on the things that are immediately available.
Chairman
Unfortunately we have to now close this session. I would like to thank the
speakers, Professor Wyndham, Mr Jacobs and Miss Verster for a most stimulating
and interesting discussion indeed. I think Professor Wyndham has shown
quite clearly the lack of research in this country compared to overseas in
relating physiological needs to the built environment. Mr Jacobs gave us a
quite depressing picture of the assault of the environment on our senses,
but also told js ot one possible solution to this and Miss Verster showed
us, I think, the social factors involved in people's behaviour in their
environment and the role of the physical environment as a potential
environment. ! would like to thank them very much for their contributions.
PLANNING PLACES FOR LIVING
HOUSING: THE CHOICES
Objective: To survey the choice of housing in relation
needs and economic means of people.
Chairman: Mr B. Senior Mr G. Gallagher
Prof I. Schlapobersky Mr G. Bowker
33
34
MR G. GALLAGHER
Introduction by Chairman
Mr Gallagher will discuss "A survey on the present housing choices and
patterns of living in relation to human needs". Mr Gallagher is an
architect in private practice who has worked in America. He has a wide
experience in housing and is involved in a large number of housing
projects.
Standing out in the foyer I noticed that there were many professional
people, architects, property developers and so on coming into the audience.
I have pitched my whole talk to non-professionals, so those of you who
are planners, property developers and architects can leave now if you so
wish.
I have decided in terms of the title of this session not to confine myself
to the South African situation because the range of choices within South
Africa are dismally small, mostly due to restrictive town planning
legislation, so I am going to examine the problem broadly and concentrate
on the urban scene because as you all know, the vast majority of the
people in the world are becoming more and more urbanised. I
I have tried to think of a way whereby one could study the housing needs
of man, which would result in what the choices should be, because this is
the only way in which one could really understand how broad the spectrum is.
I have decided, therefore to take the family cycle as the basis on which
to judge what one’s housing choice should be. The position in the family
cycle where one should start should not be at the time when one is born,
but rather at the time when for the first time, a decision to move into a
dwelling unit is made. In other words, the time when you leave your
family (possibly as a teenager who has just left school), and this is the
age when most people want to get out of the clutches of their parents.
They often want to move on and live somewhere else. In my own case this
was the time of becoming a university student. At this stage when one
35
has just left school one needs a tremendous amount of freedom from family
constraints and in looking for a dwelling unit I would say that a first
choice would be something which should be somewhere near the university,
(that is, if you are a student) where you are going to spend the majority
of that period of your life. Preferably this should be within walking
distance. It should be near enough to the tennis courts, squash courts,
the swinging pool and sports facilities so that it is unnecessary to use
a motor car. You would also like to have good and fast access to
downtown. You would like to be near a public transportation system in
order to give yourself more freedom to move. You would require access to
cheap food, either to a canteen or a restaurant or to a supermarket where
food can be obtained very cheaply so that on the way back from university
you could pop into the supermarket and purchase food to cook in your own
kitchen.
Now one of the more important things on that pedestrian route between
where you live and where you work would be the ability of having chance
contact with other students. When this happens you find that your whole
social millieu and the ease with which you have social intercourse with
other people is far far greater than the present situation that most of us
are in when you have to commute to and from town by getting into a motor
car. The University campuses where this happens best I would think are
the campuses of Oxford or Cambridge and Harvard or Yale where the many
pedestrian ways between buildings are the places where students meet and
communicate. In other words the major choice of dwelling unit at this
stage of one's life depends less on the unit Itself and more on its
location and the implications of this location.
The other important factor when you move into a dwelling unit at this
stage of your life is that you should rent it and not buy it, because
maximum freedom is the main criteria, with the minimum of responsibility,
a minimum of ties, minimum noise for study with the minimum of maintenance
problems. In fact a situation where you could move out quickly if you
want is a high priority.
Now being a university student is obviously not the situation that everyone
experiences at this stage in one's life. Consider the case of moving
out of your parents' home to look for a dwelling unit and one's job was
in the city. You would choose in Johannesburg, a place possibly something
like ri.lbrow cr Earls Court in l.ondon, Greenwich Village or Yorkville
in New York City and so forth. And you would choose those places for
similar reasons. Because you want to rent and not buy. Because you
want to be a temporary sourgener in a place. You want the shops to be
near. You require public transport. You require meeting places which,
in the case of Hillbrow, are the coffee houses, discotheques, and the chance
meeting of others on the streets as you went to shops for food and so on.
The conmunication requirements are probably more demanding and you would
require a telephone more essentially than if you were a student because
your friends or the people with whom you mix would probably be more spread
out over the city as a whole and you would need a network of conmunications
to contact X who might live in another suburb whereas if you were a
student, the majority of the people you would have social contact with would be on the campus or nearby.
Now there is another situation in South Africa. You could be black, and
if you are black you experience a very different situation in terms of
choice. If you are a domestic servant for instance, you have almost no
choice because you have to live in the back yard where you work. Your
job is what determines precisely where you will live. You virtually hive
no choice whatsoever once you have decided on a job. You have however,
a very good chance of meeting other people because you walk a lot in the
streets - and this becomes the principle place of social interaction. In
fact black society in the domestic situation tends to be a society, or a
web of a society woven within another society who work together but
otherwise have no social interaction whatsoever, and certainly no choice of
dwelling unit. • There is very little choice of food because 995 of the
food you eat is provided for you. Public transport for blacks is
essential and is fairly well provided in Johannesburg. Other advantages
are that you do not pay rent and you do not own the property and from that
point of view there is a fair amount of freedom.
If you were an office or factory worker - and now I am talking about a
black office or factory worker - you would also have very little choice.
You would be forced to live in a unisex hostel or you would live illegally
in a white man's back yard under a fictitious Soweto address or you would
cram into another family house in Soweto as a lodger and commute to town.
The strangest fact about this is that you are in the lowest economic group
37
and are situated furthest from town and have to commute the most distance
at comparatively high cost. in most other cities in the world the reverse
is true, in that the poorest people live closest to the city and have the
kinds of freedoms that we discussed earlier in relation to Hillbrow or like situations.
However, let's return to the situation for whites. Why I am dwelling on
this particular point is that when you change your stage in the family
cycle from being a single person breaking away from an existing family
structure, you then become married and one's dwelling requirements change immediately. A new family unit is born.
You now want to own your dwelling unit and when you wish to own a dwelling
unit in this country (until very recently) little choice whatsoever was
available, in fact the only choice you had was to move into a single family
house which is on a single plot of ground somewhere outside of the town
centre. In the past few years there has been another choice, the second
choice only, and that is of moving into a flat and owning it under
sectional title. An advantage, however, of owning your own particular
house on the plot of land as opposed to a flat is that you can always
change it - you can have it designed to your own style, you can arrange
the insides of the rooms as you wish, either with or without the consultation
of an architect, you can build on another floor and so on and so forth. But
you lose all other freedoms. The freedom of living near most of your
friends or the freedom of living in a place like Hillbrow where social
contact is easy. In 99Ï of the cases where one lives in a house you
cannot walk to the shops because they are too far away. In fact you have
to get into your own highly specialised metal capsule and drive to shop.
You often can't walk because the streets belong to the other social web of
the community, (the black social web that I spoke of) and people are often
very nervous about walking out and walking along pavements. Those of you
who do walk in our city of Johannesburg will notice that the upkeep and
maintenance of sidewalks is very very poor which is a symptom of the
political situation because the electorate who have a voice are not the
people who usually use the sidewalks. In West Germany for instance, the
maintenance of the sidewalk is not the responsibility of the council - it
is the responsibility of the persons who live in the adjacent dwellings,
all of which encourages social cohesion.
38
Let us, however, return to the family cycle and the stage of getting married,
because it is at this stage that the dwelling unit Itself assumes greater
importance than its location. A family starts with two people and then
increases to one, two, three or more children and then later in life the
children move off but the house as it is today remains a fixed size.
Normally it consists of a living room, a kitchen, dining room, three bed-
rortts and associated bathrooms and this is the type of house that most of
the building societies are always in favour of. However, it is not a
house which will grow and shrink as the family will and I feel that one
should endeavour to design a type of house that can grow or shrink. And
when I say that, I do not mean one which can physically grow or shrink - I
mean one which through its planning can without waste allow for family
growth and shrinkage, and the way by which this can be done is by arranging
the main living area together with a sleeping area for the parents and a
separate sleeping area associated with a playroom for the children elsewhere,
which can be converted at a later stage into a flat. This could then be
occupied illegally as a separate dwelling on the same plot of ground. I
stress the point of being illegal because I feel tnat town planning
regulations should permit planning of this nature. It is also good from
the point of view of the relationship between parents and children. It
is not desirable when the children are very young but after the age of about
5 and as they grow up until the time that they want to leave their family
and set up in "Hillbrow", it is better that their bedrooms and living areas
are not so closely related to that of their parents so that they have their
own separate living space. You will find that if you have this kind of
plan layout in a house, children will tend to stay with their parents longer
and I think this is what parents really need. I
I see that time is up and I think that the changes that will take place in
the city of the future to allow for more dynamic social interaction between
people outside the dwelling unit which is, in my view, a great lack in
South African Society, that I will leave for Professor Schlapobersky to
talk about. Thank you
39
PROFESSOR l. SCHLAPOBERSKY
Introduction by Chairman
The second speaker is Professor Schlapobersky. He will discuss “The
future trends in housing and residential environments". He is an
architect and town planner in private practice and has also worked and
studied in America. Similarly, he has a large and varied experience in
housing with a special interest in high density, low rise developments.
He is involved in a number of housing projects. Both Professor
Schlapobersky and Mr Gallagher have won housing awards.
I think that it is important to define the area in which I am going to be
talking because I think that the subject of this panel today is limited
to the range of people who can afford to exercise choice, or in other
words who can afford to spend up to a quarter or a third of their incomes
monthly to pay rental or to sustain bond repayments. The whole question
of low cost housing and people who cannot afford to exercise choice who have
to take what they get, is the subject of another panel. It is very
important to realise that we are talking about people here who are able to
exercise choice.
My view of housing is that it is really an integral part of the total
environmental infrastructure and when I talk about infrastructure I would
like to just define what I mean. Infrastructure really is the whole
system of public utilities and amenities which go behind supporting the
individual housing unit. In this is included recreation, transportation,
facilities for health, schooling, other community facilities and then
facilities which are put up by the private sector which also come into
infrastructure such as shopping, place of work, and of course open space
and parks. So that I think housing has to be seen really in the context
of this infrastructure and this is what makes the difference to me between
housing and conmunity. I think community is the house within the
infrastructure. Housing is just an isolated and very narrow view of home
building.
40
I feel also that the community or housing should be a place of maximum
interaction and choice, a place for people at any age and at any stage of
development. I don t think it should be a place where you outgrow the
facility and you have to move on. Really I think that the whole idea
of community is that people can be born and die from old age in the same
place. Not necessarily that they have to remain there but that there is
a wide range of choices catering for young people, for older people, for
a whole range of different families and income groups. Through this, I
think you get a much richer and authentic experience of contact with ”
people from different backgrounds and of different ages.
I think it is worth looking at the traditional choices in this country
because up to now we have been concerned with housing and not with
community building. The traditional choices in the country have really
been very narrow and they have been almost exclusively private homes on their own stands and flats at a high density.
This has been incorporated in a mechanism called the township which really
is an alliance of four parties. We have the township developer, land
surveyor, spec, builder, and Building Society. The reason that I write
building society in capital letters is because I think that they are the
most important actors in the whole process because they put up the money.
The reason that I write the others in small writing is that I think they
all have a diminishing role in the future, in the establishment of a
residential community. The township developer's main interest is profit
via an in and out operation, the land surveyor's has been a subdivision
operation to get as many stands into the land as possible and the more
stands he can get in, the better. The spec, builder has come along
afterwards and has been able to put the right house on the market at the
right price. Architects, I am sorry to say have played a very small role
and are almost extinct and that is why I did not write them up on the board at all. I
I think up till now really we have had no system for community building.
There has been little thinking about the real interaction and complexity
that one normally finds in a community. The Province has also been
hovering in the background injecting, I think in a crude way, the type of
community facilities that have to go into a township which is basically a
41
school, if the township is big enough, a park, or else cash payments in
lieu of these and a business site. And that really has been the extent
of community building which I think has been very unsophisticated up till now.
These alternatives of private houses and flats I think are the two
alternatives which we have faced up till now and they have been deeply
impressed on people's minds. Areas like Norwood, Parkhurst or Kensington
after they were established it seems to me, were considered by many
people almost to be slums. I dont think that there has been a residential
township with 1/8 acre stands established in Johannesburg since these
suburbs were established which must be, I think, over 50 years ago. They
certainly were defective in some ways. There was a certain lack of privacy
in the type of house that was built in these areas. I can remember when
we first built our house in Norwood taking my father-in-law to the site
and showing him the stand which he could not really distinguish from the next
door garden and explaining to him that we were actually going to build a
house on that property. ' Having come from a very big estate in Saxonwold
this was something that he found very difficult to comprehend. A lot
of these old houses in these areas were built facing onto the street. Most
of the rooms faced onto the street and if the plot was on the north side
then they were all south facing. There was a lack of privacy for those
rooms in this part of the site. The private part of the site was given
over to the servants quarters. When we built our house in Norwood we
were able to reverse that pattern by making the house face into its own
garden, with the servants quarters within the house under the same roof
so that they could be converted at a later date, anticipating that we
wouldn't always have servants living in. We have just put a swimming pool in the private garden.
It therefore was possible for me to reverse the pattern and to create
aspects of public area and privacy within such a small stand. I think
that this is a highly suitable way of living for other reasons as well which I will talk about in a minute.
The next thing I would like to mention is the whole zoning mechanism
which has produced two categories for residential development; that of
"special residential" which provides for private houses and "general
residential" which provides for flats. Our zoning mechanism up to now has
42
been such that it really hasn't ' Mowed intermixing of different residential
types in the same area. This has tended to separate communities in space
so that you get exclusive flat areas like Hillbrow and Killarney on the
one hand and "special residential" areas like Houghton or Saxonwold on the
other hand. Each I feel, serving a limited function, not able to cater
for different ages, lifestyles, families in different stages of development.
So zoning, which is really a carry over from the industrial revolution in
which it was intended to promote harmonious development by excluding noxious
industry has now become a tremendously inhibiting factor on community
building. I think that it is a factor that tends to separate the richness
and the complexity and the differences that you find in comnunity life.
Realising the limited choice only now, I think developers are begining to
explore the whole range of alternatives that exist in the gap between
"special residential" and "general residential". They are discovering
that they can explore these housing types and they can exclude the
disadvantages of both of these types and incorporate the advantages.
I think then that the future of housing for this income group lies in
this range of say 15-25 units per hectare for a number of reasons.
Firstly I think it is suitable for all types and sizes of families and
this will create a more permanent element in the community - young people,
old people, large and small families can live in this type of development,
and can continue to stay there.
Secondly, I think it is a high enough density to support a community
infrastructure and systems of public transportation. The third is that
I think it can provide both privacy within the home and contact if you
want it, which is the type of arrangement which we have in the plan of
my own house. I think also that it provides a more economic land
utilization and therefore can contribute towards preservation of open space
and lastly, and perhaps this is the greatest advantage to me, is the fact
that it is able to support architectural design because of the repetition
and the largeness of the development. Architectural design is something
which I have said is almost extinct in private house building today.
But there are problems in this kind of approach and one of the problems is
that the available stands are too small to support community facilities.
Most of these schemes, if you want to call them of medium density, are
really being built on one or two acres which are just not big enough to
get in the community facilities, or the type of functions that you need
for children in such a development. I think also that one of the
difficulties is that there is not much understanding on the part of
designers of what these interactions are and what you have to build into
the infrastructure to provide for the housing. The other difficulty up to
now has been mortgage finance. Only recently I think, building societies
have begun to support this kind of building and consider it as a private,
permanent home as opposed to the private home on its own plot.
Another difficulty is as I mentioned, zoning, and this is very serious
because it means that this kind of development or this kind of scheme
usually has to be built right outside of the urban area because there
really is not much land available in the city for this kind of development.
The land is there but it is “zoned special residential" and it is a
very difficult thing to change the zoning. So that you have to move
right out of town to establish this kind of comnunity and that defeats
the whole idea of being able to live in an urban millieu where you have an
established infrastructure. Once you move out you have to re-establish
the infrastructure at great cost and over a great period of time.
And this bring me on to my main point in housing for the future and that
is recycling urban land. 1 think that there are tremendous opportunities
in the City of Johannesburg for recycling a lot of the townships that
have been established and which no longer function as they used to. I am
talking about large suburbs which have large stands where the Infrastructure
is there. They are close to transportation, they are close to shopping
and close to schools. Unfortunately, young people with children and
families just cant afford to move in and buy these houses. I think
Saxonwold is a very good example. It has a school which I understand has
been really battling in the last few years to keep up its enrolment. I
think Houghton school is a similar case. Families who moved into these
areas twenty years ago had small children who went to the school, used the
facilities, the parks, the zoos and the transportation, are no longer there.
The children have grown up and very often the parents only remain in these
areas. I think that this is a tremendous wastage of very expensive
resources within the Infrastructure and I think that we should think along
the lines of recycling these areas to provide higher densities and a
better coeuunlty internething.
44
I know that there has been a tremendous resistance against this idea and I
myself have been under a lot of fire in rezoning applications in trying
to put forward this idea. But 1 think that it can be done without damaging
established property rights by giving people the choice to do this kind of
thing with their properties if they want to.
The alternative is building new communities right out of the city and once
again you have tremendous problems and costs in establishing infrastructure,
of creating the whole web of activities which have to support housing.
New communities is something which I dont think we have time to talk about
today.
In the future, with regard to the individual unit itself, I think it is going
to be smaller - that is something we all know - that our standards
compared to overseas standards are really quite excessive. I think that
when it comes to the time that servants don't live in any more, it is going
to make a considerable difference to the plan. I think that it will
bring the family group closer together. It will create more informality
in the planning of houses - you might not plan a separate dining room, if
you have to spend a lot of your life in the kitchen. I think that there
are also opportunities to build the extended house which is to build only
a small protion of a house and then to extend it later when you require it
although I believe that there are problems with the building society
financing this type of effort. Also in terms of cost, it 1s cheaper to
build the whole house than to build a portion and butld on later, because
building costs are escalating at a rate of about twice the rate of interest
repayments on bonds.
There is the do-it-yourself house which 1 think will also become important.
This is putting up just the structure and the services and allowing
people to finish off the rest of the house for themselves, perhaps with
sub-contractors 1n the way that they choose. I
I think that industrialised building or Industrialised components are going
to become more and more important 1n house building, particularly with
rising building costs. This 1s something that has never really taken on
up till now. I just dont understand why industry has been able to provide
all kinds of packages but never the industrialised house on any large scale
45
and I think ttiis is a tremendous challenge for the future.
And then the last type of housing that I think also has importance is
mobile homes. Not so much because they are mobile but because they are
cheap, usually well put together and they are easily and quickly
established. But once again, the whole problem of finding land in the
city or in the urban area to establish mobile homes is very difficult.
46
MR G. BOWKER
Introduction by Chairman
Our third speaker, Mr Bowker will speak about "The Choice of housing with
relation to the economic means of people". Mr Bowker is the Secretary
of one of the building societies and has been in the building society
movement since 1945 and has a wide experience both here, in Great Britain
and in Zambia.
Ladies and gentlemen, having listened to my two colleagues on the panel, I
must apologise in advance for a certain amount of repetition which I
will try to avoid, if I possibly can.
From earliest times, man has searched for and has usually found some type
of habitation. One of his prime objectives has been to seek shelter from
the storm - a roof over his head. In earlier days he was able to occupy
a cave or similar abode - his only fear that he could be forcibly removed
by a man of greater strength. His sleepless nights were not caused by
the nagging thought that in the post might be a notice of an increase in
the rate of interest on his bond or that because of the rise in living
expenses without a comnensurate increase in his income, he has committed
himself to the hilt in the desire to house his family.
In today's world, how many of us has had to forgo or reduce our annual three
weeks away from it all or limited an evening on tne town to the local drive
in or cinema because, maybe through no fault of our own, the expense of
having a roof over our heads has reached frightening and perhaps
unmanageable proportions. Those of us in this position tighten our belts
another notch, make the roast last-for three meals instead of two and
somehow or other manage to pull through. But what of the person who is
now faced for the first time with the problem of choosing a place to live.
He may well retain his strong wish to build and design his dream house
but will inevitably settle for substantially less unless he is very
47
fortunate. What then are the choices open to him. Firstly he can rent
a flat, furnished or otherwise, dependent upon the amount that he has set
aside for his monthly rental. Obviously he can expect to pay a
somewhat higher rental for furnished accommodation. He would be unwise
to commit more than a quarter of his gross income in rental. If he is
involved in higher purchase for his furniture and his car and the like,
the amounts he can afford for rental will be correspondingly reduced. If
he can obtain a rent controlled flat, so much the better for his pocket
but he may well find himself in an older and possibly less well maintained
building. He has however the assurance that apart from a small charge
for electricity and water, his expenditure on his accommodation is fixed
on the amount of his monthly rental. His chief drawback, of course, is
that no matter how many years he may pay a monthly rental he will never
have a return on his outlay.
Not everyone however, can be a flat dweller on a permanent basis. Maybe
he is unable to accustom himself to communal living and its attendant
noises. Perhaps he needs the relaxation of pottering around in his
own garden. So he turns his attention to the purchase or renting of a
dwelling, in the main detatched single storey possibly on 500 sq. metres
of ground. If he chooses to rent he can generally expect to pay more
than he would for a flat. Usually therefore, his thoughts ultimately
turn to the purchase of a house. As this is the most expensive purchase
he is likely to make during his lifetime, he should not be rushed into a
decision without a close examination as to the costs, initial and recurring,
which he will inherit on concluding this transaction.
Perhaps we can take a look at the initial costs and for the purpose of
illustration take an existing dwelling being purchased at R25,000 - the
price of an average 3 bedroom, 1J bathroom house in a popular suburb in
the major centres. Although a building society in terms of the law
under which it operates can advance up to 80% of the valuation of the
property, many such institutions are at this time of restricted lending
granting loans of only 75% of the valuation. This, of course, enables
them to spread their funds over a wider field. Assuming that the
building society valuation and the purchase price equate in our example,
and incidentally this is not always the case, the deposit to be found by
the purchaser is R6,250. Add to this the transfer costs of R575 and bond
costs of approximately R225, and the purchaser's initial outlay before he
48
even contacts the removal man is R7 050. No account has been taken for
new and altered curtains, electricity and water deposits and the like -
all of which eat heavily into the remaining cash resources.
Now for the recurrent expenses. In our example he has borrowed R18 750
from his building society over a 25 year term at a current rate of
interest of 10|X. The monthly repayment on the bond will amount to
R178. He can expect monthly premiums of between R5 and RIO for fire and
contents insurance. Assessment rates will average out at at least R20 a
month and water and electricity will range from R12 to R18 a month. So
before he spends a cent on food he is already committed to the extent of
roughly R220 a month. Perhaps he needs assistance in the house and the
garden - today a fairly expensive proposition - and sooner or later the
house will need a coat of paint both inside and out.
You may well ask therefore whether the purchase of the house has any real
advantages over the renting of a flat. My colleague, Mr Gallagher has
mentioned some of them. Apart from the high degree of privacy which can
never be achieved in a flat, there is the satisfaction of knowing that
each monthly repayment brings closer the day on which he will have an
unencumbered asset which in all probability will have appreciated in value.
In the interim, he will have the unfettered use and enjoyment of his own
house and garden.
We have briefly considered firstly the renting of a flat and secondly the
purchase of an existing house. Perhaps we could now consider the building
of a house. Land at reasonable prices today is hard to find. Depending
upon the standard of finish, building costs range anything from R105 to
R150 per sq. metre. It is generally accepted therefore that an existing
house of similar design and size and locality can be purchased at well
below the cost of building that same house. Apart from the cost of the
land and building operations there are other expenses and certain small
savings in initial expenses. For example, if cash is available or a
bond has been raised on the value of the ground alone to enable transfer
of the stand to be taken, there will be a useful saving in transfer costs
which will be based on the purchase of the ground only.
A stand purchased at R9 000 will attract transfer costs of R245. The
49
saving in transfer costs and more however, will be swallowed up by
professional fees for the drawing of the plans and unless the family is
madly enthusiastic on gardening, professional landscaping can be quite
expensive. Once the owner is in occupation, of course, he faces up to
exactly the same expenses as the purchaser in the existing house.
Many of you will have heard of deed of sale purchases which, at times of
restricted bond facilities, become fairly common. Under a deed of sale,
the purchaser is given a period of time (quite often as long as three
years) in which to take transfer. Initially he will pay a deposit to
the seller - in recent months a deposit as low as R500 has been acceptable -
and thereafter monthly instalments based on the balance of the purchase
price which attracts interest certainly not less and quite often more
than the ruling building society rate. There are certain dangers in this
practice too of which I would like to highlight.
Firstly the purchaser will have to rely, if he has paid a small deposit
of R500 that is, on a substantial appreciation in the capital value of
his house over the period within which he has to take transfer if he is to
qualify for the normal building society loan. Failing that, he may well
be forced to take a second bond for the shortfall at possibly a very high
interest rate and on a short term, thereby increasing his overall monthly
commitment.
Secondly, and I think this is important, should the seller become insolvent
before transfer of the purchase is effective, the purchaser is entitled to
rely upon the protection given in the Sale of Land on Instalments Act.
This protection, in my view, gives limited relief in that the purchaser is
given six months from date of notice to him of the seller's insolvency to
take transfer if the property is free of bond - but only 30 days where the
property is encumbered with a mortgage bond to make arrangements for the
finance. In normal times 30 days is a short enough period to arrange
alternative finance - in these times I would say it is very nearly
impossible.
For many years now a system evolved and applied mainly in Natal for the
purchase of a flat unit has been in operation. Although title to the
flat could never be given to the individual purchaser, he obtained right
of occupation by the purchase of a block of shares in the company owning
50
the building. This system I do believe worked very well but has, in
effect, now largely been replaced by the introduction of the Sectional
Titles Act. Most of you will know that in terms of this Act, ownership
and title can be given to the purchaser of an individual unit in a block
of flats. The building societies in general have agreed in principle to
provide finance for the purchase of individual units although initially
it would appear that they are more interested in duplex and simplex rather
than high rise units.
With duplex development, each unit will usually have its own private
garden and probably direct access to the common property which, in the
latest development schemes, includes swimming pool, tennis court, squash
courts and the like. Townhouses, as they are now commonly referred to,
are and will prove attractive to those people who are tired or paying
rent, are seeking virtual freedom from house and garden maintenance, are
looking for reduced maintenance costs and require recreational facilities
without the problems of maintenance, provided that developers take full
cognizance of good design, relatively low density, privacy and location
factors, which, in my view, are essential to a successful sectional title
development.
Unfortunately selling prices of these units are close to and in some
cases higher than the cost of a comparable spec, house in the area. This
may well be for the reason that initial demand exceeds supply. A very
important factor however, is the significant saving in the monthly running
and maintenance costs. Some developers claim this to be as high as 70%
of the total of a normal house - I personally feel this is an exaggerated
claim. The monthly levy charge to any individual owners is to the
order of R30 to R40 which covers assessment rates, fire insurance,
upkeep of gardens, swimming pool, tennis court, pathways and in particular
the maintenance of the exterior of the building and after all R30 -R40 is
little more than the cost of domestic help today.
With the continued rise in building costs and the already high cost of
land more and more home seekers are going to look closely at townhouse
ownership in the near future. In my view the years ahead will see a
general acceptance of this type of living at the expense of the single
storey detached dwelling, if properly priced and marketed.
51
The cost of house ownership at present levels and standards is such that
the average wage earner is finding it more and more difficult to follow
the traditional South African way of living and it is fairly obvious
that the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroomed house on at least J acre of ground
will not remain the accepted norm for long. Not only will it be
necessary to limit the size of the ground but also the accommodation itself.
Perhaps the days of main bedroom en-suite (a luxury of fairly recent
times) are numbered.
In consequence, the recent introduction in South Africa is a system
whereby basic accommodation can be erected at the outset and additional
rooms added as and when financial circumstances permit, is worthy of
consideration. As I understand it, plans for the final completed
dwelling are available at the outset and the number of rooms to be
erected in the first stage can be limited to available cash and bond
facilities.
There is clear evidence that the authorities are concerned with the
percentage of our gross national income which is directed into, in its
view, luxury housing. Already legislation precludes a building society
from advancing more than 25% of its total lending in any one year on loans
over R18 000 and it is no secret that the Authorities and the Association
of Building Societies would like to see building costs contained and, if
at all possible, reduced. The only way in which this is likely to be
achieved in the forseeable future is in the acceptance by the public of
smaller housing units.
If I could end on a personal note, nothing in my many years in the building
society movement has caused me more headaches and frustration than my
inability to assist a prospective home owner who, after making an offer to
purchase, finds he has insufficient means to complete the purchase or to
meet the monthly repayments on his property, or has grossly underestimated
the expenses incidental to his purchase. Therefore I cannot stress too
strongly the need for a prospective purchaser to discuss with the building
society or similar institution of his choice, the full financial implications
involved before he completes his offer to purchase. Do not be persuaded
into putting your signature on any documents without fully understanding
the contents and your obligations thereunder. Remember that the estate
agent's interest ceases when the sale is concluded. The interest of you,
52
as the purchaser, and your liability under your mortgage bond can last
for 20 years or more. Similarly your building society has a long
term interest in your purchase and you should never hesitate to look to
it for free and friendly advice.
53
DISCUSSION
Hr Senior
I would like to thank all three speakers for very interesting talks but
now I would like to open discussion to the floor for about 45 mintues.
Question: Mr Bowker - Could you tell us just how building societies
view loans to Coloureds and Indians.
Hr Bowker
Building socieities are of course governed by the Group Areas Act which
permits a building society to grant a loan only to a person of that colour
in the areas zoned for that particular racial group. As far as «ty own
particular organisation is concerned, we have very many loans to
Coloureds in the Cape, in particular. Incidentally they have proved to
be as reliable as any other race in honouring their obligations in terms
of their mortgage. The Asians feature particularly in the Indian zoned
areas in Natal. There is no differentiation in the amount which we grant
to an Asian or a Coloured and a normal loan to a white person. The
applications are treated in exactly the same way on their own merits.
Obviously the standard of housing, by and large, is lower than that
normally offered to a society as security by a white. I think I can
sum it up simply by saying that they are treated on exactly the same basis
but limited to the areas in which we ourselves are allowed to lend to them.
Question: Have you any figures on the numbers of families. Coloured
families, for example in Johannesburg.
Hr Bowker
Not here, unfortunately. I could get these for you but I am afraid I
can't answer off the cuff.
Question: What is the quickest way of going about applying for sub
division of a piece of ground?
Professor SchlapoberskyThere .< «o such way. Our Professor in the United States, a very famous
54
architect, used to use the expression that "it is like making love to
an elephant or trying to procreate with an elephant". First of all it
is very difficult, second of all it is not very pleasant and third of
all it takes about three years before anything happens, which adequately
describes the whole re-zoning sub-division procedure. Of course if it
is sub-division in an area which the council is willing to support, it
can go through quite quickly, possibly within a year.
Question: To whom do you apply for sub-division?
Professor Schlapobersk.y
I think you apply to the Council and it has to be approved by the
Province.
Question: Mr Bowker - In my experience, unless you approach a building
society with a three bedroomed, two bathroom dwelling on a quarter or
more, you cannot get a bond.
Mr Bowker
There is some truth in what you say. The reason, if I may sum it up
quickly, is that when a building society grants a loan to an individual it
always tends to take a conservative outlook. What would happen if that
particular property has to revert to the society by reason of the inability
or unwillingness of the borrower to repay under his obligations in terms
of the bond. Now with a 2 bedroom house, I think you will agree, there
is a very limited market for resale purposes, and I think that what you
say at the present is quite possibly tru&. I can well see that inter
alia, because of rising costs and the price of land, the two bedroom house
is going to become quite acceptable, in fact the two bedroom, one bathroom
house will possibly have much greater significance than has been so up
till now.
Question: Well the thing is that R18 000 anyhow for this 3 bedroom, 2
bathroom house will just cover it.
55
Mr Bowker
I couldnt agree more. That is why, I think I made mention of the fact,
that the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house which we accept as a norm today is
not going to be the norm of the future. We are not going to be able to
afford the repayments under the bond. And therefore, not only do I
see a trend towards sectional title living but a trend towards smaller
accommodation where the properties can be added to as the family increases
and grows up.
Question: Professor Schlapobersky - What education is taking place to
ensure that the rather rigid attitude to zoning, particularly in areas like
Houghton and Saxonwold will be relaxed and a more integrated approach to
development will take place. I dont yet see any signs in this direction.
Professor Schlapobersky
I dont see any signs either. I have brushed my head many times going
through the process, but I think the heat will have to intensify a little
bit more before we see change. The cost of building a private house,
acquiring land and having to get to work etc. is escalating all the time.
You know this is one of the reasons really for extensive freeway
construction. It is that we are perpetuating the same pattern of living
further and further away from the centre of the city, and it is one of
the things that distresses me about the PWV road plan which the Province
has published because it is really predicated on that type of development,
and lifestyle even though it is not a stated objective. There is no doubt
in my mind that the kind of freeway grid proposed is going to sort of
recreate Los Angeles on the Witwatersrand and at a very large scale.
rQuestion: How certain is that plan?
Professor Schlapobersky
Well I think it is as certain as the resources available for implementing
it. I certainly dont think any plans are certain. I think things will
change dramatically which will make them relook at that whole plan again.
Question: Is there any way we can bring pressure to bear on the
56
responsible authorities to speed up the sub-division of such townships as
Saxonwold and to develop high density low level development such as is
done in other parts of the world. I mean I for one, would like to get
out of a block of flats and have a little place in a small area with a
little ground in the centre of Johannesburg. I had the same sort of thing
in England where my son was permitted to build a flat onto his house for
me. Is there no way of bringing pressure to bear? There are so many
people who would like to live - not in high rise flats but on the level where there is a bit of ground.
I find myself in the same position as Professor Schlapobersky. I would
very much like to see it but I see at the moment, very little possibility
of persuading people to do that.
Question: You can't get servants today anyway so what do you want big
homes to run, for?
Professor Schlapobersky
I think that the more pressure that is brought to bear by professional
people and citizens through the press and through their members of
parliament, and members of the Provincial Council and sc forth and through
the normal democratic processes, the more likelihood there is of change.
I think it is a situation that can be manipulated through the democratic processes. I
I think there are many people in the reverse situation to yourself, who
are living in big homes in areas like Westcliff, Houghton, Saxonwold, and
I have come across many, who would like to do just the opposite; get
into a smaller home but not leave the area because they have associations
and ties with the area and I think there is a way to do it. I think the
best way is through a residents' association getting together and
deciding to prepare or request the preparation of a development plan for
their suburb. The Council itself is taking the initiative now in this
direction where they are actually starting to investigate areas and
preparing development plans. I think that this is the way in which a
change can come about, because once the residents' associations are
prepared to support a development plan for an area, the Council must
support it and the Province in turn will also support it.
57
Question: What about the load on existing services in areas where there
are large residences on large pieces of ground when sub-division takes
place.
Professor Schlapobersky
Well I think that provided the terminal facilities for services are
adequate, if the services themselves cant support the load, they can
always be upgraded or rebuilt. You know we are presently looking at
redevelopment in Doornfonteir. and the consensus there, is that the existing
services are quite adequate to cater for the anticipated load in the
redevelopment. But if that is not the case you can always replace them.
Question: I believe that they are planning to put an 8-lane highway on
the other side of Parkhurst. Now how do you stop that being bulldozed
through a cul de sac in Parkhurst. I mean this is a community area which
they are planning to completely overrun.
Professor Schlapobersky
Well we have the same thing hovering over Norwood. I think the only way
to stop it is to bring it into the political arena, and I think that
really vocal protest by residents affect their political representatives
in the Council and that this is the only way at getting at that type of
thing. I think experience in the United States and Canada has been that
citizen pressure has worked wonders in stopping freeways. I have actually
seen freeways stopped in the middle of construction. The freeway in
San Fransisco which was to cut off the whole water front like that freeway
in Cape Town has done, was actually stopped before it reached the
Embarcadero - it was physically shorn up.
Questioc I think that in this country people dont react enough to
protest; I can see very little protest really, generally speaking.
58
Professor Schlapobersky
I would like to say that I feel this is changing and I think that you
will find the professional groups, certainly the architects and the
planners are now begining to take a much more active stand on behalf of
the public in this situation.
Question: Mr Bowker, in your talk you mentioned that building societies
were in favour of sectional title as applied to low density town houses
or duplex units. Can you modify what you mean by low density?
Mr Bowker
It is not easy just to define low density. It depends entirely on what
you pay for the piece of land but I would think that it is important
that there is as much common property as possible in the complex.
Therefore I would envisage, depending upon the figure of which you want to
pitch your unit selling price, that if you are looking at the R25 000
upward range, possible 8-10 units on one acre of ground as opposed to
possibly 12-15 - if you are looking at the R20 000 to R25 000 price
range. A sectional title development has to be on one consolidated
piece of ground and I think a development would lose a lot of its appeal
if there were too many units for the size of the ground.
Question: Professor Schlapobersky, I wonder if you read about proposals
to sub-divide areas like Houghton and the projected cost of sub-divided
stands. The future sub-divisions will produce the same cycle as we have
toaay because once you start to sub-divide a two acre site the price of
the sub-divided stands will be so exorbitant that you will have the same
kind of families who have dwelled in the suburb before moving back into
that area. So therefore your schools as you mentioned are going to be
empty because the older families do not have any children to occupy
these schools. How will you bring the younger generations back into
this area at a price they can afford?
Professor Schlapobersky
I think that that all depends on the nature of the sub-division. I am
not really so interested in sub-dividing stands as to restructuring the
59
whole pattern of settlement and then by sub-dividing in terms of what is
known as group housing where you have individual ownership of the unit and
the land attached to the unit and that can be anywhere from 250 to 600 sq.
metres. So that I think there would be a reduction in cost but what
does baffle me is that in these types of development up till now, the
sectional title schemes - I find are being sold for more than private
houses, and this is something that I cant understand, I will ask Mr Bowker
about it and perhaps he would like to comment on it. My feeling is that
there must be a reduction in cost because the general cost of building and
maintaining that area must drop.
Mr Bowker
I will agree with the Professor's view that sectional title units on
offer at the present time are proving to be as expensive and possibly
more expensive than the similar sized spec, house offering equal
accommodation but I think that there are reasons for this in Johannesburg
in particular. Strangely enough this pattern is not being followed in
Pretoria where you have got a large percentage of your population employed
in the civil service with a maximum loan in terms of their housing schemes
of R20 000. Therefore the developer there is aiming at a different
market altogether. In Johannesburg it will seem to me that the demand
is provided at the present time by persons in Houghton, Saxonwold and
the like who find their children are off their hands and who are living in
a five bedroom house, paying heavy rates, heavy outgoings on maintaining
his garden, swimming pool, tennis court and so on and who can get a
certain amount of privacy in a well designed sectional title block, even
though he is paying more than he should for the individual unit. There
is this initial demand I think in Johannesburg from the higher and upper
middle income group - from the people who no longer feel the necessity to
remain in their large homes which are expensive to maintain and who seek
well appointed accoirmodation in the higher priced sectional title schemes.
I think there is far more demand in Johannesburg for the higher priced
schemes than there ever will be in Pretoria.
Question: Can Mr Bowker tell us whether the building societies will
restrict loans on sectional title units to R18 000?
60
Hr Bowker
No of course not. The restriction on building society lending over
R18 000 is on an annual basis, so that at the end of a society's financial
year, it has to satisfy the Registrar of Building Societies that the total
lending in loans over R18 000 is not more than 25% of the total amount
lent by the society in that particular year. Therefore loans are not
restricted to R18 000 on any particular unit but in so far as the valuation
of sectional title units are concerned, my own society, apart from units
I have mentioned earlier in Pretoria, is finding great difficulty in
reaching a valuation figure which equates with the purchase price at
which these sectional title units are being sold. So consequently
where you would normally get a 70%/75% loan on a dwelling house where
purchase price and valuation equate, when you get a sectional title unit
which is valued at substantially below the purchase prince, then the
loan may be 75% of the society's valuation but only 50% of the purchase price.
Question: In the new trends of housing development that are occurring, is
the building society looking at new forms of finance to go with this, for
example, extending the periods of repayments, or linking it with life
insurance policies - this type of thing. Are they actually looking
for and investigating ways of, and finding new ways of financing and supplying bonds?
Mr Bowker
You can't unfortunately operate outside of the bounds of the present
Building Societies Act which, as you may know, allows maximum terms of
repayment of 30 years for a bond under R20 000 and 20 years for a bond of
R20 001 upwards. The building society movement would, I feel, like to
see this repayment period extended because, quite frankly, at the present
price of houses and the present bond rate of 10|% it is becoming extremely
difficult for the man in the street to be able to get a loan of R22 000 and
to repay it within 20 years. The repayment factor is going to be too high.
In so far as the life cover aspect is concerned there is of course no tax
benefit here as applies overseas when you link your bond to a life policy.
Nonetheless there is a scheme available in any building society to protect
61
the rest of the family in the event of the untimely death of the breadwinner,
at pretty competitive rates.
Question: Mr Bowker, on what basis do the Societies approach valuations
for sectional title?
Mr Bowker
You know we are in a new field, a new concept all together. One cannot
merely take the estimated rental value of a unit and multiply it up in
the old fashioned way and say it is worth so much. What we have got to
look at is the area surrounding this particular development, the
accommodation and size of each unit, the amenities which are provided in
the development, the cost of a swimming pool, tennis court, squash court
and whatever the case may be, the size of the ground and so on. Until a
market is established, it would be unwise to assume that the asking price
is in fact its true worth.
Question: Will the building society make funds available for sectional
title?
Mr Bowker
Certainly. We ourselves are involved now in our 10th, I think, development
under sectional title. Not only have we granted a building loan to the
developer initially, but also to purchase of the individual units once
the development has been completed. From the building society's point
of view, it has to look at the interests of the block as a whole therefore
it likes to ensure that it can approve the appointment of the managing
agent, who is in fact the representative of the body corporate and who
will manage the block. I think a sectional title development can stand
or fall on the calibre of its managing agent and its trustees. So we
do take fairly stringent precautions in our bond documents which inter
alia give the society certain rights in the accepting or rejecting of
the appointment of the managing agent.
Question: I have just one question for Mr Gallagher. I am going on to
62
my 10th dwelling unit. I am going along with the idea of being able to
change the living areas so that you can have another flat. Now going
along with the sectional title idea of separating flats in one building and
then changing them, then the appearance dies for example when it is
decided to sell a dwelling or a flat.
Mr GallagherNo I didn't say that the flat should be sold off. I said it could be
rented out or sold as the owner prefers. It would be better if you
could let it out, but the present situation is that you are not allowed to
have more than one family living on one plot of ground in a special
residential area. As soon as you make a second flat and have two
kitchens or two separate dwelling units, you are doing something which
is illegal, but nevertheless I think that the design of a house should
allow for such an adjustment to take place. For instance if you take
Parktown as it was, it was really a delightful old suburb with enormous
houses. What has happened now is that the whole suburb has deteriorated
because people cannot afford to live there any more, primarily because
they were not permitted to sub-divide their houses and make them into
separate flats as is permitted in most European countries. What has
happened is that they have now become illegal boarding houses, or
professional people are occupying them - also illegally. The prices of
the land or the valuation of the land is so high that one cant afford to
live there because of the high rates and taxes and the reason for this
is what has happened in the last 5 to 10 years, namely the impending
rezoning which is apparently begining to take place. What should have
happened is that the City Council, or the Authorities concerned should
have frozen the area many years ago and commissioned a proper plan of it
say, as a residential area and so what has for example, taken place in
Philadelphia in the United States. They took an area called Society Hill,
froze it, and the City Planning Commission then appointed an independent
firm of architects or urban designers to look into the best way of
redeveloping the area because it was begining to become a slum, which is
what Parktown is actually doing at the moment. This firm of architects
together with the City Planning Commission examined the area, they decided
which buildings should be preserved and which should be demolished. Then
they set up a design framework for a competition. The competition was
not for architects only - it was for architects and developers to work
63
hand in glove to make proposals for the whole of the Society Hill area
within the design framework already set by the independent urban designer
working in consultation with the City Planning Commission. The schemes
which were submitted on the basis of a design plus a firm tender to
purchase the land were evaluated in terms of design quality and price.
Eventually the scheme was won by the firm of architects Ming Pei and
Associates and they in turn set up a whole new framework for development
which was part of their submission. Society Hill has, therefore, remained
a residential area - many of the original residents that were there, have
remained in an improving area, the density has increased, the pedestrian
network has been radically improved by greenways - connecting all the most
important parts of the area together with local shops and the downtown area
and Society Hill has become the most desired high density living area in
the whole of Philadelphia and it is right next to downtown in a similar
position to Parktown or Doornfontein in relation to Johannesburg.
Question: No I was not really asking you abcrat the better applications
of land but rather about mega structures themselves or in other words their
flexibility. I thought more in the sense of Braamfontein buildings being
ideal in their structure and by their being able to do what you like on
each level by putting in what you want and taking out what you want at
the right time and still being able to use the structure whether you
want maximum use of the land or minimum use of it.
Mr Gallagher
You see I think that all the theories for flexibility and megastructures
are dead right but when you take them in terms of our society, flexible
mega-structures dont work because the density is much much less dense
than the Holland situation dealt with by Habraken for example, and I
think that if you built structures and expected people to insert their own
dwelling units on a multi-level basis in our kind of society, I am sure
it would not work. I think you have to take Habraken's theories and
other similar ones and relate them to the local situation where densities
are less and lots of land is really available. Fly over Africa and then
over Europe and you will understand the real situation immediately.
Question: I would like to ask Professor Schlapobersky on his experience
64
of living in the Norwood area. With the smaller stands as you get in
Norwood and Melville and these sorts of places, do you feel that because
the streets are there you actually get more social interaction in these
streets than in the areas where you have got much larger stands?
Professor Schlapobersk.y
Well we have lived in Norwood for about 7 years and I think because of
the size of the stands there is tremendous urban life, a tremendous richness
and interaction. Just to take our street as a case study. I must say
that my children really find coming back home after school is a tremendous
experience. I think that they really see school as an intrusion in
their lives which goes on in the street anyway. The whole block has
about 20 children and it is a very stable community. About 70% of the
people who live there have lived there for the last 5 years. It is
also very varied in language groups - both languages are spoken there,
also the employment - the employment ranges from professional to white
collar workers to blue collar workers. For instance we have a neighbour
over here (reference to a drawing on the black board) who recently got
married to a guy who fixes his car on the front lawn which is over there
and he has no fence and that is of tremendous interest to the children.
A new house was built over here and this is another advantage of the
smaller stand, when you build a new house, there is no place to put the
building material except right on the pavement which means that the children
really get into it. For about 6 months they just had the most fantastic
time. They ate builders food, they learnt a little bit of Portuguese,
they actually built their own structures every day after the builders
left with cement, sand and bricks and that was a tremendous experience.
Over here is the house of an elderly couple - the woman died and the mar
died a little while ago - and this also tremendously occupied the children's
minds. The whole idea of death and what happened to him and why he isnt
there anymore and so on. Here we have an elderly couple who have just
adopted their daughter's child. Here we have people with a very big dog
that bites people walking along the street which in turn brings ambulances
into the area - all this is excitement. Here we have a family of 6 where
the father died, I think from alcoholic poisoning. It sort of left them
destitute and the whole street really rallied around and supported them,
it really was a terrific thing. Their kids are pretty big and are into
the whole rock scene and the motor cycle scene and they have a band which
65
practices there every Saturday afternoon and tunes up motor cycles. Here
we have a young guy who lives with his girlfriend and breeds large bouvier
hounds and there are litters of puppies every now and again. And we have
a retired railway official who lives here and so on and so forth right around the street there is tremendous action.
You have mature trees on the street as well and children are always
building swings, climbing these trees and using them and there is a
tremendous feeling amongst the children of sharing. When one kid gets a
toy, it really is distributed among all of the children.
There is a lot of trading going on between the houses - we grow grapes,
and we trade with this woman who has peaches and another who has nectarines.
You know the whole things is moving and interacting all the time and the
age groups vary from people who are newly married to really very old
people and it just is a very rich experience. And I think this is a
function of urban living, I think it is what people in the suburbs miss
because we have a lot of friends who live out in the Northern suburbs and
it is really a holiday for their children to come to our place because
they dont have to watch them, they dont have to worry about them and they really have a good time.
Question: I would like to say that I live in Parktown North where you
have exactly the same situation but when I was a kid I lived in Houghton
on an acre and I can tell you that that did not happen at all. I knew
perhaps 2 children living a long way along the street and I think this is
the whole advantage of high density living. At the moment, through the
press it seems to be that the advantage of high density living is that
it is cheaper and we have to accept lower standards.
Professor Schlapobersky
I dont think that that is the case at all, I think that higher density
living is not a disadvantage, it is an advantage, but because of the
particular situation of our society at the moment where the only two
options are living in flats which are 3 stories and upwards or a single
plot on a big piece of ground, we've never thought that possibly there
are other alternatives. This kind of living happens in every European
city. We have not got it.
66
Question: Surely there is a tremendous difference in the living cost
between that sort of living and living in a sectional title townhouse.
Mr Bowker said that there was a 70% reduction in maintenance cost. Will
there be a 70% reduction on your sort of house?
Professor Schlapobersky
I think that it is actually cheaper to live in this kind of house than it
is to live in a sectional title scheme because you dont have group
obligations, there is no commonage that is owned by all the residents.
There is only your own property and the Council's property.
Question: Would you have any privacy in this type of house?
Professor Schlapobersky
Yes I think you can have more privacy, although you can have privacy in
the sectional title houses as well.
I think the advantage of this is that you can choose. This guy chooses
to fix up his motor cycle on the street and you decide to be private
whereas in a sectional titles scheme you have got to conform. You are
also free to change your dwelling unit without worrying about how it is
going to affect the whole scheme of things.
Question: How do you see the role of the public planning authority for
the future?
Professor Schlapobersky
Well I think that the authorities, that is the Council, already have all
the cards in their hands. I think it is only the authorities that can
institute this kind of change, because they are involved in the
infrastructure. I think really that they are the only ones who have the
power to close roads, to restructure a community, to use powers of
expropriation if it is necessary and to recommend changes in land use. I
think it is really a sort of a key role in the whole operation.
67
Mr Gallagher
Could I say one thing as far as that is concerned, I agree with Ivan
that they have the key role. I think however, that one of the problems
of local authorities everywhere, if they are the only people to act, is
that they only have the expertise of the people that are in their employ
and I think they would be able to examine a far greater range of options
if they looked more to the private sector for giving them advice or
employing them to do particular things in a particular area. I think
that, in the United States, local authorities are using the private
sector much more than is the case here. I am sure that would improve
the situation.
PLANNING PLACES FOR LIVING
COMMUNITY ASPECTS OF RESIDENTIAL AREAS
Objective: To consider the advantages and disadvantages of low and
high density housing and the provision of community facilities and
public open space.
)
Chairman: , Mr R. El lis Dr B. Unterhalter
Mr B. Bristow Mr J. Koep
6 8
Chairman's Introduction
I should start off with a welcome but I think it would be perhaps
inappropriate, you have been here longer than the four of us. This
morning we have a panel to present to you different points of view about
community aspects in relation to residential living. One hopes that
this will be a very popular subject with most of us, because without
doubt this is one of the subjects that we have something to do with in our daily lives all the time.
If I can speak for the panel, I believe we will be talking in fairly wide
terms about residential development or types of residential development,
and in case you are not fully conversant with the terms, I will just
give some quick definitions. Low density housing; the panel will be
talking about the detached house and a single erf, stand or plot, privately
owned in most cases. Medium density housing; I think that common parlance
today has it that medium density housing is two 3 storey flat type
development or a collection of units, either single or double storey, on one piece of property.
High density - the other end of the scale. We can think in terms of
three storey plus flat type development and higher. There is an overlap
at the lower end of the scale with medium density but is generally the
sort of development to which we are accustomed in places like Hillbrow and
Ki Harney.
It is not only the residential aspect that we will be looking at this
morning. We also want to examine the relationship of the dwelling in
which we live with the wider spatial context and those facilities which
Public Authority or the Community has to provide in terms of schools,
public open space and public offices.
70
DR B. UNTERHALTER
Introduction by Chairman
If I could now introduce the members of our panel. I think we will just
do it one at a time and not all together and speak first about
Dr Unterhalter who is sitting here on my right. Dr Unterhalter has been
a lecturer in the Department of Sociology. She is our academic here this
morning at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has specialised as
an urban sociologist dealing with the sociological problems of cities
rather than rural areas or social problems of another type. I understand
that she is the backbone of this particular department and she is a very
able and capable person and has gained her doctora.te for a distinguished
study on the sociological aspects of high rise living in Hillbrow. We
look forward very much to what she has to say from the viewpoint of
sociology and the academic side.
I hardly recognise myself from that glowing description but nonetheless
very nice so early in the morning. I want to start off by just making
a few remarks of a general nature. I recently came across a quotation by
Thomas Jefferson, that great philosopher and statesman in which he based
his vision of human happiness on the proposition that we could only
attain maximum happiness in life if we could all be self-employed, well
educated, well trained in civic virtue and that we would not live in
cities. When we survey his vision from the 19701s we see that none of
these have come true - very few of us are trained in civic virtue, none
of us have adequate education, very few of us can be self-employed in
this world of burgeoning beaurocracies and above all, most of us are
forced to live in cities today - so none of these goals have been
realised. But perhaps the most striking failure is the fact that we have
to live in cities and cities have become essential for our continuing rise
in the standard of living.
Now if we look at the relationship between world population and city
development, we see this very clearly. Between 1800 and 1950, world
71
population increased approximately 2J times. In the same period, urban
population increased over 20 times. By the mid 20th Century 1950,
more than 30% of the world population lived in urban places having
populations of 5 COO or more, and about 21% were in places of 20 000
or more and 13% in places of 100 000 and over. The city of more than a
million inhabitants is a new phenomenon. To take America as a good
example, there were only 5 such cities in the United States at the turn of
the century, but 24 by 1916 and urban sociologists today are trying to coin
a new term for the enormous metropolitan areas which have developed
particularly on the Atlantic Sea Board of the United States where one city
shades into another and there is really almost no intervening space and
they are thinking in terms of the standard consolidated area or the
megalopolis to describe these areas of continuous urban development - the
type of development you have say from Boston to Washington. Another
example would be found in Holland v/here you have this continuing
development linking Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Haige for instance.
We must accept that these ever burgeoning cities are essential and the
cities actually have provided higher standards of living than we have
ever known in the past. The original urban development often led to great
misery but in general, cities have provided a higher standard of living.
But as our cities have grown, we have started to realise that in human
terms they are a hazard to human happiness. There is so much wrong with
our urban environment that sociologists are speaking increasingly of the
urban crisis. This crisis includes physical problems like the congestion
of human population, the conjestion of traffic, pollution, urban sprawl,
deteriorated or blighted areas and many psychosocial problems which I am
not able to do more than mention today - there is the aleniation of young
people, the feeling that the world is meaningless, that work has no
meaning - that the individual is just a cog in a machine and that what he
does, does not matter - the feeling that one can manipulate and use
others and it does not matter how one uses them and what one does to them.
This underlies so much of delinquency.
There is also the growing number of people who are discontented with the
so-called good life. They find it overconforming, too materialistic.
There is also the increase in the lonely aged, the poverty striken, the
mentally ill. In whatever terms we wight couch our dissatisfactions, we
72
know that the urban world makes us tense, angry and perplexed, and we
dont really know what to do with it. We are the victims of our own
growing technology and our ability to live in these great urban complexes.
All this is just by way of background. There is so much we could say
about urban problems, but today I have been asked to select from this
baffling complexity of urban life one problem and that is the problem of
high density living and trying to understand some of its major difficulties.
An initial point that needs to be made is that we have not devoted nearly
enough attention to the study of this phenomenon. We in our Hillbrow
study, to which the Chairman referred, tried to investigate some of these
problems 10 years ago. I am quite sure that more investigation is
called for and 1 am going to refer to our Hillbrow study and also to other
studies that have been done concerning the problem of high density living.
Your Chairman has referred to definitions of high densities. I came
across one interesting one just the other day and this book called “Homes
in High Flats" which is the study of high density living in England by
Pearl Jephcott. She was financed to study High Rise Buildings in
England and Scotland and she also studies comparable schemes in Europe.
She suggests that we should use the term High Rise for those buildings
where a lift or elevator is necessary, and she suggests this term for
anything more than 5 floors and anything over that. But it dosnt really
matter how we are going to define it. I think we all know what we mean -
the very tall block which has become a characteristic of the large
industrial cities.
It has developed out the pressure on space and also on the need to rehouse
large sections of the population in small spaces. It has also arisen
because today we can do it. We have got the technology. We have
overcome the engineering problems involved and have revolutionary new
building methods, and industrialised building which makes it possible to
develop these great tower blocks economically. There is also a great
demand for high prestige buildings. They look very impressive and with
increasing affluence, people have higher standards of housing which can
often be met in this kind of building. Sometimes there are cities which
have had very serious problems like Hong Kong; needing to house 1 million
refugees from Mainland China and do it very quickly. Without any doubt
73
they have been given better physical conditions in high rise buildings than
they could ever have had on the ground. And there are buildings in Hong
Kong which are 50 storey blocks housing as many as 3 000 people.
So this is no temporary phenomenon. It is here and it is here to stay.
In the Netherlands, one of the first countries to. study high rise buildings,
25% of the population lived in high rise buildings in 1962; by 1967 82%
were living in such high rise developments. I know that my colleagues
here are going to speak about it in other terms but I want to concentrate
on what high rise living is like in human terms.
Does a flat in a high rise building make a good home for people in general
or does it only make a good home for selected households? We have
many statements from young people questioned in our Hillbrow study who
said things like this - "living up there makes you feel part of the big
city". They felt the throb of the city, they felt very much part of it.
We also had statements from older people who liked living in areas like
Hillbrow in high rise buildings. They felt very secure and they mentioned
other advantages too, for instance the presence of many amenities, such
as the nearby shops and the presence of the hospital. They could easily
get to the hospital and many of them centred their lives on hospital and
medical services. Something else which they liked which we had really
not thought of for old people, was the absence of treacherous steps. In
the high rise building, they could get into a lift or elevator and they
would be right near their door. They felt safe because there were other
people round them and this compensated them for the loneliness and
impersonality of the flat building.
Then we found many young families who liked the proliferation of
restaurants cinemas and places of entertainment. There were young -
marrieds too who found the flat easy to maintain, working wives found they
could do their housework easily, get to work, spend the whole day at work
and come to an area in which shops stayed open late.
There were also some middle aged couples who were free of child bearing
responsibilities and enjoyed the area. They enjoyed having escaped
what I call the tyrrany of the garden and the life of suburbs. They
wanted to get away from the child centred world and they too enjoyed the
new freedom and feeling part of the throbbing city near its heart beat.
74
But having said this I want to focus on the disadvantages which people
experience and we were again and again told of the fact that people felt
trapped in their high rise apartments. Many of the failures of the type
of area in human terms, seem to arise because of the failure of the planner,
the architect and the property developer to think in human terms. Profits
are maximized, every inch of space used for building, but it wasnt used in
human terms to provide for recreational needs and this applied particularly to the families with children.
The most serious problems confronted families with children in high rise
developments and most of the criticisms in the Jephcott book and our
Hillbrow study come from the families trying to make it in the high rise
buildings. You could if you like say "but why do they live there - this
isnt an area for them, why dont they go to live elsewhere'"? But
this is not the way to look at the problem. Many of the Hillbrow families
have come to live there when the parents were newly wed, they had hoped to
get out of the area as their children grew older but found it impossible.
They havnt been able to accumulate enough money and we all know today that
it is not easy for the average person to obtain finance for a house.
There were other kinds of families more or less trapped in the area and
those were women living on their own with children - mainly divorced or
widowed women who had come to the area and could not afford other housing.
So we cannot say "why should they live in the area?" The answer is that
they are in the area and the area should be devised in such a way that it comes up to human expectations.
Another reference that I have found very useful was a study by a Dutch
author called Van der Ciken who had written a book called "The Pre-
School Years" (Penguin ed.). He describes the tower block as an
essentially anti-child environment and he points out that the tower block
is the antithesis of childhood because it requires restraint, discipline
and acquiescence - an environment which must always be kept tidy. It
demands that behaviour is controlled all the time and when you think of the
rules and regulations imposed on the child, such as he must not play with
balls in the entrances, nor play in the passages, in the garages, then
you realise how limiting his life is. Above all he has to cope as he
grows up, with the unsympathetic figure of the caretaker. He soon gets
the message that the caretaker hates children and dosnt want them to make
a noise, but is a very powerful figure who could report the family and the
71
population increased approximately 2J times. In the same period, urban
population increased over 20 times. By the mid 20th Century 1950,
more than 30% of the world population lived in urban places having
populations of 5 COO or more, and about 21% were in places of 20 000
or more and 13% in places of 100 000 and over. The city of more than a
million inhabitants is a new phenomenon. To take America as a good
example, there were only 5 such cities in the United States at the turn of
the century, but 24 by 1916 and urban sociologists today are trying to coin
a new term for the enormous metropolitan areas which have developed
particularly on the Atlantic Sea Board of the United States where one city
shades into another and there is really almost no intervening space and
they are thinking in terms of the standard consolidated area or the
megalopolis to describe these areas of continuous urban development - the
type of development you have say from Boston to Washington. Another
example would be found in Holland where you have this continuing
development linking Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Haige for instance.
We must accept that these ever burgeoning cities are essential and the
cities actually have provided higher standards of living than we have
ever known in the past. The original urban development often led to great
misery but in general, cities have provided a higher standard of living.
But as our cities have grown, we have started to realise that in human
terms they are a hazard to human happiness. There is so much wrong with
our urban environment that sociologists are speaking increasingly of the
urban crisis. This crisis includes physical problems like the congestion
of human population, the congestion of traffic, pollution, urban sprawl,
deteriorated or blighted areas and many psychosocial problems which I am
not able to do more than mention today - there is the aleniation of young
people, the feeling that the world is meaningless, that work has no
meaning - that the individual is just a cog in a machine and that what he
does, does not matter - the feeling that one can manipulate and use
others and it does not matter how one uses them and what one does to them.
This underlies so much of delinquency.
There is also the growing number of people who are discontented with the
so-called good life. They find it overccnforming, too materialistic.
There is also the increase in the lonely aged, the poverty striken, the
mentally ill. In whatever terms we might couch our dissatisfactions, we
72
know that the urban world makes us tense, angry and perplexed, and we
dont really know what to do with it. We are the victims of our own
growing technology and our ability to live in these great urban complexes.
All this is just by way of background. There is so much we could say
about urban problems, but today I have been asked to select from this
baffling complexity of urban life one problem and that is the problem of
high density living and trying to understand some of its major difficulties.
An initial point that needs to be made is that we have not devoted nearly
enough attention to the study of this phenomenon. We in our Hi 11 brow
study, to which the Chairman referred, tried to investigate some of these
problems 10 years ago. I am quite sure that more investigation is
called for and 1 am going to refer to our Hi 11 brow study and also to other
studies that have been done concerning the problem of high density living.
Your Chairman has referred to definitions of high densities. I came
across one interesting one just the other day and this book called "Homes
in High Flats" which is the study of high density living in England by
Pearl Jephcott. She was financed to study High Rise Buildings in
England and Scotland and she also studies comparable schemes in Europe.
She suggests that we should use the term High Rise for those buildings
where a lift or elevator is necessary, and she suggests this term for
anything more than 5 floors and anything over that. But it dosnt really
matter how we are going to define it. I think we all know what we mean -
the very tall block which has become a characteristic of the large
industrial cities.
It has developed out the pressure on space and also on the need to rehouse
large sections of the population in small spaces. It has also arisen
because today we can do it. We have got the technology. We have
overcome the engineering problems involved and have revolutionary new
building methods, and industrialised building which makes it possible to
develop these great tower blocks economically. There is also a great
demand for high prestige buildings. They look very impressive and with
increasing affluence, people have higher standards of housing which can
often be met in this kind of building. Sometimes there are cities which
have had very serious problems like Hong Kong; needing to house 1 million
refugees from Mainland China and do it very quickly. Without any doubt
Collection Number: A1132 Collection Name: Patrick LEWIS Papers, 1949-1987
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