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Our method of partnering with communities ensures democratic development that benefits everyone, turning potential barriers to development into mutually beneficial opportunities. By drawing on the local wisdom of people, we provide comprehensive market intelligence of the social and economic realities of the territory you are operating in.
Find previously undiscovered ways of meeting and exceeding your objectives via our interdisciplinary methodology that helps development processes to create many opportunities from the ground up. Our strategies ensure that you can leverage the complexity of the urban environment, rather than being overwhelmed by it.
Sustainability and resilience are at the heart of our work. Our interdisciplinary team ensures that development is future proof through a combination of techniques and technologies that combine disciplines to build capacity. Our philosophy is: ‘light touch, big difference’.
Working with RCDC means that your work will genuinely positively impact urban systems and contribute towards the transition towards a sustainable global society. Supported by our graphic renderings, visual storytelling and communications platforms, we can help ensure that your groundbreaking work is comprehended and appreciated, and can serve as a model for future change makers.
Byron is a passionate Project Manager and believes that all projects can be delivered to a realistic time and budget through careful planning and good project governance.
Byron holds a Master of Science (MSc) Degree in Project Management (Construction), a Bachelors Degree in Construction Management and a Diploma in Building (Quantity Surveying & Construction Management).
He has public and private sector experience and has worked in South Africa and the United Kingdom. His areas of expertise relate to infrastructure project management, quantity surveying and fund administration.
Ben has worked in South Africa, Europe and Asia. His areas of expertise relate to urban design, landscape architecture and environmental management.
Ben holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture and a BSc (Hons).
Ben is one of the founders of the Resilient Civic Design Collective (RCDC). Ben developed the concept for and is implementing Lukhanyo Hub, a new ‘catalytic’ model for delivering high quality education, training, and recreation programs delivered through innovative buildings, energy systems, and outdoor spaces in economically underprivileged areas.
Dr. Lindsay Blair Howe is a Lecturer and Research Associate at the ETH Zurich. She conducts urban research in a comparative context, emphasizing the interstice between spatial practices and policies.
We select and coordinate project teams from this pool to deliver bespoke and lean development solutions for our clients.
This allows us to ensure a comprehensive, unified development process that meets the highest professional design standards.
Before we met, each of the now-members of our collective had found that when urban development went wrong, it tended to fall into the same pitfalls:
Hyper specialised interventions that were not integrated cross-sectorally.
These pitfalls held up the completion of projects while reducing their value, but more crucially prevented them from being able to contribute to fixing systemic urban problems.
In response to these problems, over the years, each of us evolved tools, tactics and methods to address these problems.
These revolved around learning from lean methods, using systems thinking, working across silos and including community decision making and participatory design at the heart of what we do.
We found that these approaches delivered superior long-term outcomes for our clients and delivered spaces that could positively influence urban environments.
Having evolved similar outlooks, over the years we naturally found each other from across the world. As we shared our ideas, we discovered that they added up to a complete alternative model for development.
So, RCDC was born: By pooling our resources, we offer an integrated suite of services, aligned by our co-evolved method of planning, designing and delivering urban transformation.
