Urban compounding: Housing what is and what could be

Abstract

This study examines the organic transformation of the South African version of the Victorian/ Edwardian bungalow from a free-standing house into a courtyard form of building – seen as a bungalow ‘compound’ - as part of wider city-making processes, in a context of rapid urbanisation and continental migration. Based on architectural practice-led research, the study claims that the knowledges embedded in the adapted bungalow properties can significantly contribute to context appropriate planning of lower cost accommodation and emerging mix use. As a result, while associated with connotations of illegality and ‘slum life’, the study coins the bungalow compound as an ‘aspirational house’ in the transforming African city, an undercover game changer developing plot-by-plot on an emerging spectrum of housing what is and what could be.