Reflecting on 2018: Part 1

­Rebecca Plumbley As we reach the end of 2018, we look back on ten significant projects and events that happened this year. 1. World Resources Institute: Ross Prize Top 5 On the 12th of December, it was announced that AeT is one of the top 5 for the World Resources Institute’s Ross Prize. The prize … Read more

Politicians and Informal Workers Connect

Rebecca Plumbley In concluding the series on the reiteration of infrastructure in Warwick, it is worth looking at broader structures that have allowed for and initiated reinvestment and renewed interest in infrastructure for informal workers. Over the past months blog posts have covered the progress of new infrastructure for recyclers, the reopening of the bead … Read more

Bovine Head Cooks Part 2: Urban and Ritual Metamorphosis

Rebecca Plumbley This blog post is the 2nd part of the story of the bovine head cooks; read part 1 here. The evolution of the bovine head cooks in Warwick Junction speaks to two interrelated transformations- a physical urban metamorphosis and the urbanisation of rituals and traditions. The bovine head cooks were originally located on … Read more

Kanyenathi (and Newsletters)

The Kanyenathi project, in which traders were trained to identify and prioritise their infrastructure needs, was carried out over 3 years and ended in 2017. Having identified their needs, the intention was to then enable a process for the informal workers to engage with the City on an ongoing basis. Whilst the research project is now … Read more

Mealie Cooks Part 1: “There’s fire in my system”

Rebecca Plumbley As a popular, low-cost, carbohydrate fast-food mealie (corn-on-the-cob) cooking has a long history in Warwick and its surrounds. Like many other activities in Warwick mealie cooking has recently undergone its third iteration of infrastructure to enable informal workers. There are currently around 64 cooks, the majority of whom are women. As some of … Read more

“Qeda usizi” end [our] suffering: improving the lives of street cooks – Part 2

Phumelele Mkhize and Trang Luu (follow on from Part 1) The horizontal stove design emerged as an option from the MIT D-Lab, as an iteration of the existing cooking method, combined with learning’s from smoke and fuel efficient stove technologies- such as RocketWorks. The concept design aimed to use existing materials and technical insight to … Read more