Development of the Week: City of Cape Town Inner City Transport Hub

Should Cape Town have a central transport hub and how would this function, look, feel and work?

Cape Town station, the focus of this project, is centrally located within the Cape Town city centre. It currently acts as a major barrier to movement across the central foreshore area of the inner city. This is not only true for vehicles, but more so for pedestrians, who has to move through the area on a daily basis. Currently 273 000 users move through the station precinct on a daily basis – these commuters are not only utilising rail transport, but also busses and taxis. More recently, the introduction of IRT and the My-Citi bus systems has added another dimension to the area, with commuters frequently having to move between these different modes of public transport at great difficulty.

The intention with this project is to provide an integrated public transport hub which will facilitate movement and seamless transfers between different modes of transport, but will also deal with the other broader developmental and urban design aspects.

The following will be key objectives of the project:

• To create an informative and principle-driven conceptual development framework which sets the tone for a responsive urbanism within the inner city and which creates a resilient logic that offers the appropriate levels of flexibility which rigid ‘masterplanning,’ cannot achieve.
• To engage with current and future concerns of transportation planning, including a changing user profile, limited resources, sustainability and a deliberate exploration of what constitutes quality urban spaces which facilitates and accommodates public transport functions and users.
• To design for growth and expansion in a way which do not inhibit future demands, whilst acting as mechanism to unlock future development potential within the inner city.

Team: Meyer Makeka Architects (a JV between Meyer&Associates Architects, Urban Designers and Makeka Design Lab), with Iliso Consulting Engineers and Royal Haskoning DHV Consulting Engineers

Source: www.meyerandassociates.co.za and www.makekadesigns.com