Students sharpen design skills to re-imagine Cape Town's Foreshore

The eye-catching incomplete bridge along Cape Town's Foreshore has been a landmark - and talking point - for decades.

Now, students from UCT's School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics have been asked to envision a new look for the historical area. Each year, undergraduate and postgraduate students from the school participate in the Vertical Studio Project, which sees them spending a week 'on site' as they execute what they've learnt in the environment they wish to modify.

For 2013, the brief was Re-imagining Cape Town's Foreshore. Thirty groups of students spent the week of 11 to15 February thrashing out designs to make maximum use of the space underneath Cape Town's freeways, while keeping it easy on the eye.

Each group was tasked with producing a two-minute film titled How We See the Foreshore; an A0 poster on HowWe Imagine the Foreshore; a 300-word statement accompanying the poster; and (this is the big one) an A3 group photo. The projects will be credited as part of their coursework for the semester.

An awards ceremony for the best packages took place on 15 February.