Design collective creates low-cost homes for a South African slum

Urban-Think Tank's 'Empower Shack' aims to transform South Africa's poverty trap slums with affordable housing and street planning

(Urban-Think Tank)

Urban-Think Tank (UTT) has designed sturdy, affordable housing to be placed in one of the South Africa's most notorious slums. Khayelitsha, the second largest township in Cape Town, is known for its low quality housing, which inspired the design collective to create a safer and economic alternative to 'slum housing'.

South Africa's slums have increased in size over recent years. It is estimated that 7.5 million people are unable to gain access to formal housing due to a decades-long housing crisis that is pushing the biggest cities to their limits. Although government housing schemes do exist, they have been unable to match the soaring demand – or cater to diverse groups.

Those who cannot afford a home are instead finding themselves in one of South Africa's 2,700 informal settlements. These settlements lack basic infrastructure, inadequate housing and pose risks both to the environment and to those living in dangerously overcrowded conditions.

The 'Empower Shack' aims to change the approach to informal settlements by ensuring the delivery of basic services, a fair distribution of space, and also to work hand in hand with urbanisation schemes combining dwelling upgrades with safer urban environments and improved socio-economic possibilities.

"The resulting densification offers efficient land use to infrastructure ratio, provides cross-finance possibilities through additional rental and sales stock and most importantly fulfils the need to guarantee all residents the right to remain on site," said UTT of the project.

Each house is created with the recipient in mind, so they can make fair financial contributions while still receiving a robust, liveable space. For its initial prototype and proposals for the design, Urban-Think Tank has been long-listed for the 2018 Riba international prize, more information here.