A government housing project is using materials the average builder would send to the skip to build attractive double-storey homes.
At Mbekweni, a township between Wellington and Paarl in the Western Cape, the thinking goes far beyond putting a roof over somebody's head. A surge of creative energy has revived a housing project that was stalled for eight years.
"Business as usual was not working," says Pauline Houniet, deputy director for the Western Cape department of local government & housing's People's Housing Process. "The department agreed to kickstart the project if I could provide employment to unskilled, unemployed youth from the community and had the freedom to think out of the box."
The result is a project that will build 350 subsidised government houses using local rock and "waste" building material destined for the dump. The houses are double the size of government's 32 m² box houses that are also being built in the area, but cost the same amount to build.
VERNON COLLIS (left) and ANNA COWEN Designing buildings that make a visual impact and don't waste resources
So far, one prototype home, called the Stonehouse, has been built. The second phase, another seven homes, began last month.
These eight units will serve as a testing ground to refine design technology and economies of scale in the construction process.
The last two phases will deliver a further 59 houses and a final 250.
"If we take the time to get this right, we believe we could have a model for sustainable housing that could be adopted nationally," says Houniet.
A key objective is to train the 150 young locals who are building the houses so they can build more and possibly start up small businesses once the project is complete.
FLORENCE GXOWA and her son, Ayavuma Gxowa, outside their Stonehouse
The Stonehouse was designed by Collis/Cowen, an architectural firm whose approach to environmentally sensitive urban architecture caught Houniet's attention.
Partners Vernon Collis and Anna Cowen are aiming to shift the linear thinking of conventional economics, which lives by the philosophy of create-use-dump, to a cyclical one where waste is reused as a resource and raw materials are precious and limited. "The conventional model ignores the fact that for the majority of people, life is not improving," says Collis. "Poverty and populations are increasing; 50% of the world's people live in slums; natural resources are declining; waste is increasing; and the earth's ability to absorb the human burden is becoming saturated."
Their philosophy is noble, but what really attracted Houniet and other Mbekweni stakeholders was its translation into something tangible - the Collis/Cowen office, on the slopes of Devil's Peak in Cape Town. The ultramodern, glass-fronted building was built entirely from building "waste" and rock excavated from the site.
"In SA, just 6,5% of waste is recycled," says Collis. "In Cape Town 65% of landfill is from the built environment. It's a waste stream that will not easily run out and upon which we should capitalise."
He set out to prove that it was possible to use this "waste" to build a structure that was not just functional, but also architecturally striking. The local government delegation was impressed, particularly with Collis's use of stone. "The land in Mbekweni is divided into 766 plots, all of which are strewn with rocks and boulders," says Houniet. "If Vernon could do this in Cape Town, I saw no reason why we couldn't do it in Mbekweni."
Collis/Cowen were commissioned by the Western Cape's department of local government & housing to design a tract of sustainable housing for the Drakenstein municipality. Some of their research is being covered by the Old Mutual Foundation, which favours investment in environmentally sustainable projects.
But there is more to the Collis/ Cowen design philosophy than meets the eye. "Expecting communities to accept and adopt our way of building because it's a clever idea' or the right thing to do' is naive," says Collis. "The idea has to be supported by its cultural context. For instance, using waste from industry for construction needs to be framed within localised belief systems otherwise it remains an imposed idea and will not endure."
Before they begin conceptualising and designing, Collis/Cowen embark on a mapping process which draws on the thinking of Ken Wilber, a contemporary American philosopher. He has articulated a world view that seeks comprehensive and integrated approaches to the world's problems.
Simply, his approach looks at a given problem and attempts to identify all of the variables that complicate and sustain it. These variables are arranged into four quadrants. Two of the quadrantsZ relate to subjective experiences: I or self; and we or culture. The other two are less subjective: it and the plural, its. These latter variables cover aspects of human endeavour and experience that one can understand and access without dialogue. For instance, resources taken from the building site, like sandy clay and rock, as well as demolition and construction sites within a 20 km radius, were listed in the objective, observable third and fourth quadrants. Attitudes, aspirations and traditional knowledge would be situated in the first two quadrants.
"Each is a partial view of a complex world," says Collis. "If we deny any quadrant, we have little hope for a sustainable future."
At Mbekweni the mapping process, conducted by an anthropologist, provided Collis/Cowen with insights into three important design issues:
- Traditional views on thermal efficiency (huts in the Transkei are orientated to maximise exposure to northern light);
- Attitudes towards the mass housing that was being provided locally (too small, too hot in summer and too cold in winter); and
- Aspirations towards modernity, revealed through ideas about what constituted a proper house (no rondavel designs and no thatch).
It became apparent that the Mbekweni community, which is predominantly Xhosa, would feel comfortable building with stone and living in these homes.
Practically, this meant that the stone freely available on the site set the design parameters for the walling system. A two-skin system evolved: the inner skin, using brick made from 98% demolished material and cement, and the outer, stone. Broken kerbstones were used as "big bricks" in the foundations and the slate flooring was rerouted to the site by a company planning to dump it. The deliberately narrow design of the Stonehouse allowed for the use of offcuts from the timber industry. The upper floor is made from reject shutter board, and the ceilings from pallets that would otherwise have been dumped or burnt. Insulation is carpet underfelt. The roofing was an industry reject because it was slightly discoloured.
The house is located towards the south of the property so that the sunny, northern aspect warms the house and is available for food gardening. Attention is paid to aesthetic details that help to make a house a home. These include the pergola-covered stoep, which is screened with sticks harvested from a gum plantation, and the deciduous vine that will be grown over it.
"Our vine will provide us with grapes and shade in summer," says Phumla Gxowa, who lives in the Stonehouse with her mother and four siblings. "It will also look nice once it has grown." She also plans to establish a vegetable garden in front of the house. "My mother is sick and the garden will keep her busy."
Using the first house as a prototype, the anthropologist went back to canvass the community's views.
Further mapping revealed considerable support for semidetached houses where the common wall improves insulation and cost efficiency. The interviews also revealed a security consideration that had not been recognised. A semidetached house removes the narrow alley between the houses and allows for more space on either side. "People like this because it removes an area that people refer to as rape alleys'," says Collis.
The design has also been modified to make it easier for women builders. Instead of using bricks and stone at the second-storey level, timber palettes and underfelt can be used.
It also recognises the need or desire to add income-generating rooms to the structure, or add an outside staircase to make the top floor self-sufficient.
At the heart of the site now is a fenced-off area with a shed which forms the materials store and production centre. Here recovered material and reject streams are deposited, sorted and made into building components. Houniet plans to contract a project manager to manage the waste streaming process.
"There are a number of different activities involved - cleaning of bricks, for instance - which have the potential to become a small business," she says.
The training in life skills and construction skills for 150 young people is being facilitated by the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the labour department respectively.
"The teething problems have been horrendous," says Houniet. "But this model proposes something so fundamentally different from the thoughtless building that goes on that the time and effort we are investing now will be worth it. "
Meanwhile the same philosophy is catching on and was applied in the design of the Tsoga Environmental Centre in the Samora Machel township currently under construction in Cape Town. "Again, the design has been inspired by the local availability of raw materials, building waste and skills," says Collis. In this case, excavated dune sand is the local resource and old boards, bricks from demolished buildings and rubble have been reclaimed from other sites. "In this way we have avoided buying 50 000 bricks and three truckloads of sand a day."
Community interest was expected and has been accommodated. "Part of the foreman's job is to transfer appropriate building skills to the community. Also, all excess building material is available for locals' use," says Collis. The environmental centre will be complete next January.
"It is all about changing perceptions," says Collis.
