Alternative for Windhoek’s spatial development

Urban architect shares ideas
    - 2022-10-26 09:05:00
The Scientific Society in Windhoek hosts a public talk by Winfried Holze on Urban Design Architecture: The New City of Windhoek Spatial Development Framework – an Alternative Proposal on Tuesday next week.
As per the latest town planning legislation, local authorities are now required to provide and implement future spatial development frameworks for their urban settlements.
The City of Windhoek initiated this process in 2019, but apart from a preliminary findings report, no meaningful public participatory processes have taken place or anything in terms of proposals presented yet.
The development of a spatial development framework (or structure plan) for Windhoek is of such importance and complexity that it cannot be left to the city council politicians, the heads of departments and a single town planning firm with its team of consultants alone to develop a proposal and then to present a foregone conclusive plan to the public, expecting it to just nod its head in acceptance.
In light of this, Winfried Holze of WH Urban Design Architecture has taken it upon himself to develop and present for discussion a more viable alternative solution for the future spatial development of Windhoek.
Winfried Holze, born in 1963 in Windhoek, is a qualified Urban Designer and Architect and the principal architect at Winfried Holze Urban Design Architecture.
After completing his studies at the University of Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay) and the University of Cape Town, he spent several years in Germany to gain international experience before returning to Namibia to open his practice here.
Amongst a few architectural projects in Windhoek, Swakopmund and elsewhere, he has also undertaken urban design projects in Lubango, Angola and Lubumbashi in Congo. He has been the urban design consultant on the Swakopmund Spatial Development Framework together with Gunther Stubenrauch Town Planners and presenter of various urban design master classes at NUST.
His passion lies in the promotion of the ‘shop-house’ development concept as an alternative to the business and housing zoning categories.
The talk takes place on Tuesday 1 November at 19:00. For online participation, use this link: https://zoom.us/j/8023841980 .