Decolonising the Built Environment

Kundani Makakavhule is a senior lecturer in the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria, specialising in the transformation of urban public open spaces at neighbourhood and precinct scales. Her research focuses on democracy, spatial appropriation, diversity, and active citizenship, exploring how these micro-scale dynamics influence broader urban planning processes. Drawing on theories from politics, sociology, and geography, her work addresses the social and political factors shaping planning in the developing world. By emphasising multidisciplinary approaches, she contributes to solving contemporary challenges in African urban spaces.Karina Landman is a professor in the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria with a background in urban design and architecture. Her work focuses on spatial transformation, including research on gated communities and safer and sustainable neighbourhoods, regenerative and resilient cities, and public space. Her work on public space revolves around issues of inclusivity, regeneration, and resilience. Her research on sustainable development focuses on urban resilience and regenerative development and design. She has published a book, Evolving Public Space in South Africa (2019).

• 1. Towards a Decolonial Turn in the Built Environment Part 1 From Paradigm to Process 2. Performing Space: Thoughts on Colonising, Decolonising, and the Concert Hall 3. Settler Colonial Critique and Indigenous Urbanisation 4. Place-Based Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Their Relevance to the Decolonisation of Urban Planning Practice in Namibia: The Olupale and the Omuvanda: Two Cultural Open Spaces 5. Place-Based Strategies for Transforming South African Urban Nature Places 6. An African Landscape Design Approach for Rural Development Part 2 From Process to Product and Pedagogy 7. Decolonising the Built Environment in and around a University Campus: The Incongruence between Intellectual Discourse and Lived (Institutional) Practices 8. Visual Redress at Stellenbosch University: Staff Reactions to the Decolonisation of Campus Spaces 9. The Invisible Users of the Street 10. Ubuntu Design Aesthetics and the Built Environment in South Africa 11. An Inquiry into Visual Art as a Critical Disruptor to Reveal Emergent Narratives and Authorship in Architecture 12. Kamĩrĩĩthũ: An Architecture for Decolonisation Part 3 Reflections on the Decolonial Turn in the Built Environment 13. Spaces of Erasure 14. Can the Master Speak? 15. Conclusion: Reconsidering the Decolonisation of the Built Environment