With recent imperatives in South Africa to align nodal development with urban networks, this dissertation adds to an understanding of economic factors influencing development. By identifying principles, relationships and factors that bear on the economic performance and impact of urban interventions, the study aims to contribute to an informed perspective that enable actors in the built environment to design and implement achievable visions that support sustainable growth. The research engages with transport orientated development, factors influencing development, competitiveness of cities and locations, as well as the spatial economy, characterising the primary economic factors influencing the built environment. The research finds that users and firms guide the actions of developers, but their relationship is under considered and at times taken for granted. The current paradigm believes that good economics are a result of good urban interventions.
This dissertation, however, views an interdependent system of cause and effect in which users and firms, as a sign of good economics, are an origin and result – they’re what we react to and plan for. If we understand this catalytic influence of users and firms in the context of spatial economic dynamics we can begin guiding city growth and addressing socio economic inefficiencies, a critical issue in post-Apartheid South Africa. With focus on transport orientated development in Cape Town, a proposed design intervention is rationalised on various scales according to principles drawn from the research. The site, in Mitchells Plain, is identified as a priority urban area to develop sustainable economic growth and address issues of inequity and inefficiency in the city of Cape Town.
