URBANIZATION AND HOUSING IN SOUTH AFRICATHE cities of South Africa have experienced an enormous growth since the abolition of apartheid. The question is whether it is possible to create a livable environment against this background. At the same time, the question arises of whether the sharp dividing-lines between urban districts that exist at the moment can be broken down. The South African city has been through a transition from integration to segregation. Can this process be reversed? Can a city be created that no longer consists of a series of ghettoes, but which will be integrated and mixed? One possible approach is to claim that the major problem is not just housing, but in particular the context in which it can be situated. So the question is also: How might a context like that be generated in South Africa today? THESE questions are the background to the Housing Generator project that has been developed over the last few years by the Rotterdam Architectural Academy in cooperation with the Urban Sector Network of the University of Natal. The central theme of the Housing Generator is low-cost housing and its possible role in the South African city. A competition was organised on this theme by three locations in Durban, East London and Benoni (Johannesburg). This site presents the results of that competition. The present paper deals with the material and educational background to the Housing Generator project. It consists of two parts. In part 1 we discuss the question of housing, which is the main issue facing the new political adminstration. Part 2 focuses on the Housing Generator project, which is intended to contribute to the solving of this problem.[01]