ABSTRACT
From the top of Africa's tallest building, the 50-floor Carlton Centre in Johannesburg, the panoramic view is disquieting. The surrounding skyline began changing rapidly in the 1980s, in a dangerously uneven way. Now, while the western side of the central business district (CBD) is graced by ever more sophisticated, shiny, postmodern architectural gems housing mainly financial institutions, the eastern end remains clogged with dozens of overcrowded 1930s low-rise flats. On the rooftops of these buildings Carlton Centre observers can see the cardboard shanties of poor and working families.
