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Poor living conditions in informal settlements may be attributed mostly, though not exclusively, to the lack of basic services. Informal settlements, which also go by the name of squatter camps, are volatile by nature. Even within relatively fixed settlement boundaries, change in urban fabric continually manifests through altering dwelling configurations. Deemed unstable and unsafe by formal criteria, these environments disclose schizophrenic characteristics: beyond the dirt, grime and smog, exist relatively functional societies capable of survival and self-regulation.

Public and private sector investment within informal settlements is restricted as a result of their illegal status. Inhabitants have no incentive to invest their own resources where they have no formal tenure over the land. Due to a rather backward approach to informality in South Africa, innovation in dealing with these settlements has been limited. Despite the fact that the rhetoric has sometimes changed from eradication to upgrading, little has been done with regards to alternative forms of settlement development that has relevance in terms of improving the lives of informal settlement dwellers.

With rising anger in poverty-stricken areas and on the peripheries of cities, what is needed is improved service delivery through immediate solutions. This article suggests a service delivery core, an architectural catalyst, rooted to the ‘energy’ of the public realm, stimulating growth of infrastructure networks. This catalyst core aims to instigate the amelioration of the surrounding environment.

The concept presented is that of a dynamic service core – universal in principle – while also being contextually-driven by responding to a specific environment and needs of a specific community. A generic architectural solution is thus presented to providing basic services and infrastructure within informal settlements, with focussed consideration for the unique situation of an informal settlement in Mamelodi, Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa. It is important to realise that there is no final product, but rather an organic architecture that adapts in a process of continuous and progressive change.

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria is working in the South African housing context while gaining knowledge of such issues worldwide. Various innovations are being carried out in terms of housing design and delivery methods in South Africa. Through a methodical approach to design, it is believed that future architects will be able to answer to contextual needs without compromising the high standard of design expected by the Department.

This paper evaluates an exercise in open building principles, carried out in 2003, with post−graduate architecture and interior architecture students at the University. The focus was the application of open building principles from the urban design level to that of the building and the residential units. It involved the design of social housing and the upgrading of existing workers’ hostels into family units as well as the provision of social amenities. Students were to design various types of housing, showing alternative ways of ‘living’ and study housing in the area. The project involved close interaction with community representatives.

The area of study was located in Soshanguve, a township with predominantly black inhabitants, situated to the northwest of Pretoria. The previous political dispensation designated specific areas on the outskirts of the city as locations for black migrant workers, known as townships. Subsequently these townships have become cities in themselves, housing a large portion of the total population of Pretoria. It is here that there is a need for urban development and social housing.

Soshanguve offered an excellent opportunity for learning and the dissemination of good design principles in housing design. A debate on the relevance of open building to South Africa has been initiated. It is concluded that open building systems are an effective tool to achieve diversity and can accommodate for wider sectors of the population.

The aging population and their expectations have become a growing concern in Turkey as in other countries. This study aims to investigate interactions/relationships between the needs, demands and expectations of Turkish elderly and inclusive urban design principles. It tries to answer the research question: how the inclusive urban life could improve elderly life and contribute to achieve an active aging process. An exploratory study was conducted with a total of 100 randomly selected elderly between the ages 65-95 (45 female and 55 male) from the City Centre of Ankara. A survey instrument based on the ‘streets for life’ concept (Burton & Mitchell 2006) was developed to gather data. The participants were asked to identify how important inclusive urban design features were in understanding, using and navigating within an urban environment. The findings of the study suggest that an inclusive open environment allows elderly people to feel safer, and thus encourage more regular use of urban space. Overall the results highlight two important insights, first that accessibility is inevitable for increasing the chance of the aging population to participate in the mainstream of community life and second, plain and simple signage is necessary to achieve more liveable urban environments. The study concludes the most important physical requirements and social requirements for elderly people.

Energy usage of households accounts for a significant portion of total energy consumption and carbon emissions. Scottish homes today are highly energy consumers emitting on average 3 tonnes of CO₂ per house annually and the amount exceeds the UK average of 2.75 tonnes of CO₂. Moreover, 26% of the households are actually facing fuel poverty and it is therefore a critical task to efficiently manage and minimise energy trends in housing in order to meet carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission reduction and energy consumption cut targets such as 80% overall cuts in carbon emissions by 2080 for the UK, compared with 1990 levels. The study has been undertaken within the Zero Energy Mass Custom Homes (ZEMCH) research network's demonstration projects e.g. ‘ZEMCH 109’. The existing post-council end-terraced house was intended to be extended in South Ayrshire, Scotland in 2012. As part of the project, the Building Environments Analysis Unit (BEAU) research centre has conducted a post occupancy monitoring of the energy and indoor environmental conditions e.g. indoor air temperature, relative humidity and CO₂ levels in the Scottish affordable home which will also continue even after the construction of the newly built extension and the refurbishment of the existing home. It is therefore important for the successful demonstration of the ZEMCH 109 project and for the purpose of this study that a detailed monitoring and a post occupancy evaluation (POE) of the exiting NRGStyle home are performed sufficiently in order to investigate the relationship between energy consumption and the indoor environmental conditions and cross-checked with the accepted standards.

In 2000, Federal Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT), Abuja launched a mass housing scheme (MHS) under the platform of a public-private partnership (PPP). This paper reports an evaluation of this reform in order to understand the scheme's impact on the cohort of low-income group (LIG) in Abuja, Nigeria. The study explores the multiple data sources available, including literature and policy material and empirical evidence collected through structured and semi-structured questionnaires. The findings of the study suggest that the scheme did not significantly improve the housing status of LIG. The research suggests that the cohorts' history of exclusion in housing delivery in the Abuja deepened further due to partly an inadequate mortgage infrastructure to support their participation. Moreover, with poor scheme implementation, it is clear that the scheme strengthened the polarised position of the Abuja with respect to housing which runs counter to the stated policy objective to provide all Nigerians with decent and affordable housing. The paper concludes by showing the wider implication of the contemporary approach of the housing strategy in Abuja and Nigeria in general.

Tracing the development of a parallel-engaged pedagogy of care that extended and adapted the critical and transformative pedagogies of Freire, De Sousa Santos and hooks to the South African context. The development of this transformative pedagogy addresses the local conditions of an architectural design studio at a postcolonial, post-Apartheid and post “Fees must Fall” protests South African university. This pedagogy used practice-based design research to build a more conscious, critical and careful design practice in both students and educators.

The pedagogy was developed through participatory action research, over five years, from 2019 to 2023 including two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parallel and active engagement of students and educators within a nurturing and caring environment evolved from year to year, through a conscious and critical reflection on the process. Student surveys, reflective essays and focus groups unearth the impact of the parallel-engaged pedagogy of care.

The parallel-engaged pedagogy of care was shown to support and scaffold students becoming more conscious, critical and careful in their design practices validating diverse lived experiences as generative for design and important for social justice and transformative equity.

The parallel-engaged pedagogy of care is part of a global shift to more transformative pedagogies that address student diversity and decoloniality.

Through dismantling traditional hierarchical teaching modes, the pedagogy is more student-led, agile and adaptable. Through centring and demonstrating care in the pedagogy, students are encouraged to develop both self-care and care in their design practice. This is especially critical in the South African context where the cultural capital of the institution, with its roots in colonial and Apartheid education differs from that of the majority of students of colour.

The implications of Africa’s growth and urbanisation are the subject of much interest and speculation, and are central to the vision of the African Union’s Agenda 2063. The purpose of this paper is to compare the dominant perspectives on urban futures in Africa to emerging directions in futures and urban thinking, suggesting alternative policy approaches for Africa’s urban agenda.

The paper scans and sorts through how Africa’s growth and urbanisation are being understood and framed by various futurists and other futures-commentators. It takes the form of a discussion of the issue of how, why and by whom a series of data points, trends and their implications are being computed and combined, and with what validity, so to inform policy and planning responses.

The paper argues from its findings that futuring about urban Africa has been intense, but not particularly objective, neutral or even empirically grounded. Emerging directions in anticipation theorisation and experimental approaches such as “urban tinkering” are proposed as possibly offering alternative approaches to how nations and policymakers might think and act on urban Africa’s futures.

This original interrogation of which and how actors anticipate Africa’s urban futures could be used to expand beyond the urban visions, assumptions and futuring conventions reflected in Africa’s Agenda 2063, as well as processes advancing the global sustainable development goals and UNHabitat’s new urban agenda.

This paper investigates the relationship between climate conditions and money-metric poverty in Egypt at a sub-national level, aiming to understand the nuanced impacts of environmental factors on household well-being.

Employing a geographically weighted regression, the study analyzes data on climate conditions, socioeconomic indicators and poverty rates across different regions of Egypt.

The analysis reveals complex relationships between climate conditions, socioeconomic factors, and poverty rates in Egypt. Higher education, asset ownership and urban residence are associated with lower poverty rates, while larger household size correlates with increased poverty. Temperature and precipitation show varied impacts on poverty between extreme and average climate conditions and across different regions, highlighting the need for localized strategies.

The findings underscore the importance of tailored interventions to address the localized impacts of climate change on poverty. Policymakers can use the insights from this research to prioritize vulnerable areas and implement targeted measures to alleviate poverty and enhance climate resilience.

By identifying areas most susceptible to climate change, this research informs policies aimed at protecting marginalized communities from its adverse effects. It contributes to broader efforts to promote social equity and environmental sustainability in Egypt.

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the climate–poverty nexus in Egypt, offering insights into the localized impacts of climate change on household well-being. The findings contribute to both academic discourse and policy development, guiding efforts to address poverty and climate vulnerability at the regional level.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2024-0317

The paper aims to examine the impact of Shari'ah governance quality on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in Islamic banks.

The study's sample consists of 66 Islamic banks from 14 countries over 2015–2019. The research uses the Heckman model, which is a two-stage estimation method to obtain unbiased estimates, as ESG scores are only observable for 17 Islamic banks in Eikon Refinitiv database at the time of the analysis.

The analysis shows that Shari'ah governance has a beneficial role to achieve ESG performance. The analysis also shows that enhanced profiles of Shari'ah supervisory boards' (SSB) attributes are more efficient than the operational procedures to promote ESG performance. In addition, the analysis shows that enhanced SSBs' attributes strengthen the bank's corporate governance framework, while sound-designed procedures increase the bank's social activities by emphasizing their roles to ensure Shari'ah compliance. Finally, the analysis sheds light on the failure of Shari'ah governance to promote environmental performance.

The existing databases providing companies' ESG-related information still do not offer sufficient data to conduct an international study with a larger sample of Islamic banks (IBs) having ESG scores for a more extended period.

The research provides policy insights to Islamic banks' stakeholders to promote social and governance performance in the Islamic finance industry through improving Shari'ah governance practices. However, raising environmental awareness is imminent among all actors implicated in the Shari'ah governance processes to help overcome the anthropogenic risks.

The research complements the governance-banks' ESG performance literature by examining the role of Shari'ah governance. The research also extends the literature on Islamic banks' sustainability by pointing to the Shari'ah governance failure to enhance environmental performance and thus achieve Maqasid al-Shariah regarding the environment.

This study explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in fostering sustainable entrepreneurship within the tourism industry. The rapid growth of the tourism sector has raised concerns regarding its environmental impact, social equity and economic sustainability. Sustainable entrepreneurship offers a promising approach to address these challenges by integrating environmental, social and economic considerations into business practices. AI technologies, with their ability to process vast amounts of data, analyse patterns and make predictions, have the potential to support sustainable entrepreneurship initiatives in the tourism industry. By analysing the current literature, this study provides insights into the effective utilisation of AI to promote sustainable entrepreneurship in the tourism industry, while acknowledging the need for responsible and ethical AI implementation. The findings contribute to the understanding of how AI can be harnessed as a tool for driving sustainable practices and innovation in the tourism sector, ultimately leading to a more sustainable and responsible tourism industry.