THE GOALS OF THE HOUSING GENERATOR PROJECT THE Housing Generator project is a coherent initiative to generate the well-considered ideas and approaches required for the reconstruction and renewal of South African cities and living environments. The project is situated within the social, economic and development dynamics and the debate on the evolution of urban planning and architecture in South Africa. THE Housing Generator project has focused on urbanization and low cost housing. The main goal has been to organize a competition for ideas to deal with these issues for three selected sites, viz. Cato Manor in Durban, Duncan Village in East London, and Wattville in Johannesburg. THE primary objective of the project has been to develop innovative, qualitative and affordable urban and housing through a process of investigation, research, workshops, conferences, a design competition and possible implementation, undertaken by South African and Dutch interest groups, in co-operation with local communities, municipalities, government and developers. THE results should show the interdependence of urbanism, housing, architecture, finance, land tenure, ownership, affordability, quality, sustainability, technology, access and infrastructure. The competition is to enable participants to think about dealing with issues which are broader than just the aesthetic issues of urban architecture. The results must indicate a valuable two-way exchange. THE project is also about communication through the press, video, conferences and exhibitions, to bring ideas beyond the intellectual realm and into the public domain, and above all to involve all kinds of interest groups. It was important to involve institutions such as city councils in both countries. In this way the competition became part of the bigger picture. It has also been a goal to involve various academic institutions and practices from both countries, in order to improve awareness about the necessity of urban planning and architecture as vital ingredients in the development and success of South African cities. In present-day South Africa, only a few types of housing are considered acceptable. The majority of people associate prosperity with low density, suburban environments. Therefore the exposure of communities to new urban and housing types has been important in this project. Finally, exposure to the public at large, by exhibiting the results of our investigations and of the design competition through newspapers, exhibitions, conferences and books, has played an important role in this project. A final goal was the implementation of certain housing projects resulting from the best submissions to the Housing Generator competition.