The University of Cape Town actively implements sustainable land-use practices in its campus infrastructure development by prioritising redevelopment of existing campus sites (infill or ‘brownfield’ sites) when such opportunities arise. For example, the Avenue Road Residence in the Mowbray precinct is a redevelopment of an existing site … re-using infrastructure and land that is already built on and occupied. On Upper Campus, the new lecture theatre is located on a former janitor’s residence site, again leveraging an existing developed footprint rather than greenfield expansion.

Further, UCT’s "Integrated Development Framework" (IDF, 2022) identifies “opportunities for infill development” across its campus precincts. These practices demonstrate UCT’s commitment to efficient land-use, supporting sustainable campus growth, reducing sprawl and preserving greenfield land.

Such brownfield development aligns with UCT’s Vision 2030 of sustainable infrastructure, supports SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities (by optimising existing urban land) and SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production (by re-using land and infrastructure).

The available project descriptions and campus planning documents provide clear evidence of an institutional approach to housing new infrastructure within existing campus footprints.

Example: Avenue Road Residence. The site of the Student Residence and Dining Hall is bounded by Rhodes Drive (M3), Rhodes Avenue, Avenue Road and Matopo Road within the larger Mowbray precinct, which consists of a number of buildings, most of which are heritage-protected.

Example: d-school

The d-school was built on an infill site on the Middle Campus that was previously developed into a large road verge on the edge of Woolsack Drive adjacent to the M3 Highway. There were some large existing trees on the site that were retained, with the building designed in such a way to retain these, but the building is a vast improvement to the previously “brownfield site” which was also an unsafe areas for students walking through the site to Upper Campus.

Example: The Neuroscience Building

The Neuroscience Building was an infill project on the Groote Schuur Health Sciences campus. It made use of converting an old parking lot and some older inefficient buildings and coverted this into a state-of-the-art Neuroscience teaching building with direct links to the adjacent Groote Schuur Hospital.

Example: The Arise Building

The Arise building is a 4-storey infill building that is planned on the Health Sciences Campus to replace the existing small Shawco building. The contractor was appointed in 2024 and construction started in 2025.

These example projects all demonstrate that the university prioritizes infill brownfield development within its existing campus footprint, as committed to in the Integrated Development Framework for all future development.