@contestedspaces profile picture
Kirsten Wilkins @contestedspaces

Urban Designer. Part Wolf. Maker of safe spaces. TedX. My opinions are my own. 🇿🇦#type3fun

Joined June 2013
  • Tweets 25,226
  • Following 4,514
  • Followers 3,927
2,315 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
Kirsten Wilkins@contestedspaces
24 Mar 2025
Cape Town development is both cement and lament. Either way, reach out so we can help you navigate this complex ecosystem.
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No surprises @UCT_news protests disrupt lectures. Students being intimidated. Burning of tires. Such a shitshow. Every year. I understand, but also there is no active management of the situation. Access to campus also choked by no parking disc management system in place. Le sigh.
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Happy Revolution Day!
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Not everything makes sense. Top down view of existing balconies. Under construction, new apartments..with their balconies looking straight into existing building. 3.8m between them (a street) Yes. What about fire regulations. Not a thing apparently.
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Cape Town. Joy lekker ding. •People ran anyway. •OTT event infrastructure was dangerous to everyone, not just runners. •Event organizers should have 24hr monitoring of infrastructure until the event begins. Things can get set down, tied down and deconstructed before collapse.
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Kirsten Wilkins retweeted
RIAfrica@RIA_recycle
17 Oct 2025
All the best to those taking on @CTMarathon Looking forward to seeing •recycled cardboard• taking centre stage! #springcleanCT #motivation #recycle
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What a spectacular facility. Visited the Coastal Park Recycling Facility today with @RIAfrica_KMRF Well done @CityofCT @geordinhl #zerowaste #recycle
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Bittersweet not posting to celebrate #WorldCarFreeDay yesterday. I hope for more accessible city. No amount of instagram awareness shares of rides on bike or train actually move the needle. Sorry. It’s transport budgets and contractual conditions. Not sexy. Not transparent.
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Another copy paste cycling safety convo on @CapeTalk today. Nothing has changed, and the only accurate gauge is the continuing drop in numbers in cycle tour entries as training becomes untenable for casual riders.
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Kirsten Wilkins retweeted
PropertyWheel
@PropertyWheel
8 Sep 2025
Kirsten Wilkins from ContestedSpaces writes about empowering CT communities/developers through 'Objection_Able' - an approach born from a study of 135 Municipal Planning Tribunal cases showing that communities often lack the knowledge to navigate planning laws and submit effective objections: bit.ly/4pcdys5
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The anger and frustration over tariff increases in CCT is real. Community WhatsApp groups I am on have evolved in the past few days. I haven’t seen this before. Cape Town has been touched on its studio.
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When can we expect @CityofCT website to be available again? Problematic outage for anyone wanting to access public participation information.
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Kirsten Wilkins retweeted
PropertyWheel
@PropertyWheel
4 Jun 2025
Maintaining #sustainability of the social constructs by Kirsten Wilkins, founder of @contestedspaces at #WCPDF2025 #builtenvironment #construction #architecture #propertydevelopment
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The process of hand drawing a concept with a sharpened pencil that will directly impact the lives of 50k people. Humble. Focused. #UrbanDevelopment #peoplematter #urbandesign
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Kirsten Wilkins retweeted
Peter Herring@PeterHerring
16 May 2025
Good day everyone. It's been a tough couple of months. Work has dried up and I need help. I am available for photoshoots and open to any offers of admin related work. Send me a message, Call me. Send me an email. I would love to chat and be of service. #Photography
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“It’s unthinkable to expect someone who is not a expert in land use planning to simply navigate the complexities and compliance..” #urbanism #ngos @CommChestWC @sangonet @NdifunaUkwazi @PropertyWheel contestedspaces.co.za/f/by-t…
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Kirsten Wilkins retweeted
L'Art Impressioniste
@allontanarsio
24 Apr 2025
Monet posing with his Water Lilies
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Is this an advert for @canva Ironically the characters are more to the left. Just saying.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
25 Apr 2025
Think ahead!
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Rates based on land value will decimate @geordinhl efforts to ‘gently densify’. Home owners building 2nd/3rd dwellings will be hardest hit and are now disincentivized to build. This budget will undo efforts to create critical housing opportunities and should be reconsidered.
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*rates for utilities and services
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The one gender that needs policing is men. Educate men so that anyone can go into a bathroom, walk down a street, live in their house and feel safe.
Brett Herron 🇿🇦🍉
@brettherron
23 Apr 2025
It was Helen Zille who often said “if you’re explaining yourself you’re losing”. Surely not… Helen Zille explaining her tweets that transgender is a contagion worse than Covid. She claims that men pretend to be trans in order to gain access to women’s bathrooms? And that these men then rape women? A cisgender male who pretends to be trans or cisgender female to go into a women’s bathroom to rape women is a predator and a rapist. He is not a transgender woman. She also equates transgender with men dressing as women & “drag” which is “good fun”! She also doesn’t like the “giggle” and “fluttering eyelashes”. Her “explanation” exposes her transphobia. She also makes observations and generalizations of a homophobe. #LGBTQIA
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