From the guest editor

Abstract

Roots and routes: Twenty five years of planning theory
In June 1938, the Architectural Stu­dents Society of the University of the Witwatersrand held a congress on town planning. The proceedings of that momentous congress were pub­lished in three special editions of the eminent professional journal, the South African Architectural Record, in late 1938. The following statement by Le Corbusier was used as an intro­duction to the third edition:
"A definite line of conduct is essential. We need basic principles for modern town planning. We must create a firm theoretical scheme, and so arrive at the basic principles of modern town plan­ning". Considered after a time span of more than fifty years, this statement - with its connection to the incipient town planning movement at the Uni­versity of the Witswatersrand and its reference to planning conduct, princi­ples and theory - could be credited with a prescient quality. Prescient because it encapsulates the essence of the approach to planning and to plan­ning education which has, over the decades, been nurtured in the planning school at the University of the Witwatersrand.