Edgar Pieterse is the founding director of the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, widely regarded as one of the most influential centres in the majority of the world. He is Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics at UCT. Since the founding of ACC in 2007, he has published three co-authored books, City Futures (Zed, 2008), New Urban Worlds (Polity, 2017) and most recently, Cities Rethought. A New Urban Disposition (Polity, 2025); as well as nine co-edited volumes, dealing with a wide-ranging set of topics related to contemporary urbanism, sustainability and place-making. He is co-principal of CS Studio with his longstanding creative partner, Tau Tavengwa, as well as Provost of the Norman Foster Institute in Madrid.
Conceptually, Edgar locates his research, teaching and curatorial work at the intersection of critical urban theory, open systems approaches, design-based methods, technological intermediation and aesthetics. His practice is structured around three interdependent streams: research, teaching and curation. Current research is focused on: i) transforming African urban futures through the adoption of sustainable infrastructure approaches and its enablement through alternative regulation, finance and governance; ii) developing a fit for purpose institutional model to mainstream city-level innovation ecosystems; iii) advancing sustainable urbanism as a policy paradigm into the deliberative processes of the G20 during the South African presidency in 2025.
Teaching happens trough: i) the nurturing of leadership skills among African mayors through the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative (Amali); ii) forging ‘system integrators’ that are equipped with the skills of advancing integrated urban interventions that can advance sustainability and inclusivity through the Masters in Sustainable Urban Practice; iii) developing the next generation of urban scholars through the MPhil in Southern Urbanism.
Edgar’s practice is enriched through active engagement with various global think tanks and research centres that share a commitment to system transformation and fostering radical imagination, e.g.: Bauhaus der Erde (Berlin); 10X100 Forum; LSE Cities (London); Indian Institute for Human Settlements (Bangalore); The Global Cities Programme of CIDOB – Barcelona Centre for International Affairs; Pathways to Sustainability – Utrecht University; United Nations Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities (UNITAC-Hamburg); and the Ubuntu Board of United Cities and Local Government (Barcelona).
