Greater Good South Africa

Bay Walk is a yellow pathway connecting the three historically divided communities of Hout Bay. This simple, sustainable intervention will improve community cohesion and safety, increase foot traffic to local businesses and boost tourism and jobs in this beautiful seaside village. A collaboration between GreaterGood SA, GreaterCapital and dhk Architecture, Bay Walk has been recognised as an official project of the World Design Capital Cape Town 2014.

A microcosm of South Africa

Historically divided by apartheid planning, the three communities of Hout Bay – Hangberg, Imizamo Yethu and the valley – live almost entirely separate lives. Two of these communities occupy small and less desirable parcels of land, often poorly serviced, far away from formal economic activity and generally plagued by the issues of disadvantage: crime, unemployment, substance abuse and a lack of basic infrastructure.  While right next door, the affluent suburbanites (and tourists) of Hout Bay enjoy spectacular views, architect-designed houses, excellent schools, boutiques, restaurants and pubs. 

It is a microcosm of South Africa’s single biggest challenge: how to reconcile communities so deeply divided by inequality.

Bay Walk will use simple design strategies, decided on by the community and driven by a multi-disciplinary team of experts, to create a yellow pathway linking the three communities, improving safety and wellbeing, increasing foot traffic to Hout Bay’s businesses and creating a tourist attraction that everyone benefits from.

The right time

Crime and safety problems are what Hout Bay is best known for, next to great fish and chips in the harbour! Levels of violent crime are disproportionately high in Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu but there has also been an increase in housebreaking and robbery in the suburbs, as well as muggings on the beach and mountain and on the village’s dimly lit paths. Hout Bay’s Neighbourhood Watch and its radio control centre Watchcom has had well-documented success in bringing down crime and improving cohesion but it is not enough.

Recent positive developments like a new Astroturf football field, the upgrading of parking and walkways around the Sunday Lions Club market and community centre, new primary and high schools being built, MyCiti bus stops going up and the hugely successful Bay Harbour Market are already starting to have a regenerative affect on the surrounding areas. The planned stabilization of the northern part of the beach and sand dunes could create the structure for the Bay Walk board walk.

And every year, the PicknPay Cape Argus Cycle Tour comes through Hout Bay, bringing all its communities out onto the street to watch the riders go past and cheer them on. For one day a year, it feels like a connected community.

But there is poor pedestrian access and linkages between these developments and parking is a perennial problem. An existing tarred pathway running alongside Main Road is designated as a cycle path with signs up proclaiming ‘NO PEDESTRIANS’. Meanwhile, the road itself has no pavement or safe pathway for the many people who walk this route to school, work, shopping and leisure. As a suburb of a city which is prioritising the green economy and public transport, a simple foot path should be the right of every Hout Bay resident.

‘A yellow brick road’

Need is only half of the development equation. Design interventions like this do not really transform lives unless there is the will to make it happen. Communities must be deeply involved in the process so that they own it, use it regularly and care about what happens to it.

This project therefore proposes a four phase implementation programme, which will ensure the intervention will have life after 2014:

I. Community consultation and safety audit conducted by GreaterGood SA’s social enterprise consultancy, GreaterCapital, to map safety hotspots as well as socio-economic opportunity linkages. This would engage schools, community groups, non profit organisations and map tourist attractions, local businesses, education and training opportunities and environmentally sensitive areas.

II. Planning workshops facilitated by architects from dhk Architects and urban planners from  Planning Partners with community and business groups, including the Bay Harbour Market, and using the results of the consultation and safety audit as a baseline. This will also provide the opportunity for skills transfer and cross-cultural awareness.

IV. Phased implementation of the walkway based on community-identified priorities, planning and funding.

V. Launch of the project with the first annual Bay Walk on the Saturday morning before the PicknPay Argus Cycle Tour (8 March 2014) – where all members of the community walk the Bay Walk route co-ordinated and marshalled by the Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch and supported by local businesses (drinks and food stalls along the route, for example).

Just like crime and decline can spread, so can safety and regeneration. Prosperity is infectious. 

If you are interested in supporting Bay Walk email