The City of Cape Town is participating in the C40 Reinventing Cities Programme, a worldwide competition that aims to transform underutilised urban sites into beacons of zero carbon emissions and resilient development.

As a signatory to C40 the city has committed to developing and implementing policies and programmes that generate reductions in both greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. To this end the city says it is embarking on a process to make five city owned-sites available to innovative designers and implementers for carbon neutral development proposals.

A two-stage process

The proposals will form part of a two-stage process where teams, consisting of architects, urban planners and designers, developers, environmentalists, and representatives from the local community, submit their expression of interest bid proposals for the development of the underutilised City-owned sites by 30 March 2018.

Up to three teams will then be shortlisted to participate in a second detailed proposal phase for each site, with the winning project for each site to be selected by December 2018. The urban development proposals to be submitted must address issues relating to reduced energy demand, energy and resource efficiency, resilience and adaptation and green mobility among other things.

Managing waste is crucial

“Thus, the design proposals for each site should minimise the amount of energy a building uses for heating, cooling, hot water, lighting, ventilation, electrical services, and so forth. Choosing construction materials that minimise greenhouse gas emissions during manufacturing, transport and construction processes, but also through the lifetime of the building, are also important criteria,” says Brett Herron, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport and Urban Development.

He adds that managing waste is crucial, be it during or after construction and discarded sources must be transformed into raw materials as far as possible. “The design should ensure effective waste collection and separation, while construction waste must be limited.”