Design Indaba 10×10 Housing Project: A Design Indaba Community Project

In February 2008, Design Indaba’s 10x10 Housing Project announced that building had started on designated plots in Freedom Park, in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town, South Africa.

Low-cost housing is an issue of huge social relevance in South Africa, and indeed globally. A significant global statistic is that this year, for the first time, 50% of the World’s population will reside in urban areas. The impact of this is particularly visible in the townships of South Africa. A number of national initiatives have been given a high profile by LN Sisulu, South Africa’s Minister of Housing. The Minister has stated the government’s position and encouraged developers, financial institutions and the construction industry to deliver on the visions and goals of the National Housing Policy.

The initiative was Launched at Design Indaba February 2007, the 10x10 Housing Project challenged 10 architectural teams to provide innovative and dynamic design solutions for the low-cost housing sector. Ten of the first solution will be built in this first phase of the project, thanks to sponsorship from PG Bison and Pennypinchers. Future constructions involving the other nine designs are envisioned. Said Justin Berry, group marketing manager of PG Bison: “As a leader in the South Africa’s building industry, PG Bison is proud to be part of a project that proposes a meaningful solution to the housing problem in South Africa.”

The solution to be implemented is the entry from architect Luyanda Mpahlwa (MMA Architects), assisted by Kirsty Ronné. Using an innovative new building system, Ecobeam, which complies with all the rules and regulations of the Cape City Council, fits within budget and fulfils all the requirements with regards to testing and certification of an alternative building system.

"To be part of this project meant a lot in terms of making a significant contribution towards innovative, dignified solutions to the housing situation. I'm looking forward to seeing the final construction," said Mpahlwa.

The design also offers a number of improvements on the standard RDP house. Ecobeams are equal, if not superior, to brick-and-mortar, but cheaper and more eco-friendly. Taking this into account Mpahlwa has increased the size of the house and created a fluid interplay between public and private spaces in and around the house. The house is also built on a framework, making it easy to expand, and involves the whole community in its construction.

The design, and those of the other architects from around the world will be distributed as architectural open source. “All of these designs will bring new materials and concepts to low-cost housing, and will be an absolute boon to poor families across Africa,” said Ravi Naidoo, founder of Design Indaba and director of Interactive Africa.

The 10 x 10 Housing Project challenged 10 architectural teams to provide innovative and dynamic design solutions for the low cost housing sector (on a completely pro-bono basis). Each team consists of a South African architect working alongside an international architect, to create 10 distinct designs to change the perception that low-cost housing is outside the realms of design innovation and architectural significance. This challenge will culminate in the construction of 10 houses, and the production of a “users” manual, which will be presented to the Minister of Housing, and will provide open-source prototypes for the future.

The participating architectural teams are: Jo Noero (Cape Town) and Cameron Sinclair (San Francisco); Vanessa September (Cape Town) and Lindy Roy (New York); Luyanda Mpahlwa (Cape Town) and Will Alsop (London); Andrew Makin and Janina Masojada (Durban), and Christoph Egret (London); Lesley Carstens and Silvio Rech (Johannesburg), and Thomas Heatherwick (London); Stefan Antoni (Cape Town) and Eva Jiricna (London); Ruben Reddy (Durban) and Mark Dytham (Tokyo); Martin Kruger (Cape Town) and David Adjaye (London); Henning Rasmus (Johannesburg) and Shigeru Ban (Tokyo); and Don Albert (Cape Town) and Tom Dixon (London).

Freedom Park

Freedom Park is situated in Mitchell’s Plain, about 40 km from Cape Town city centre. We have been allocated 10 plots in the greater Freedom Park development on which to build the 10 Design Indaba houses. We are working closely with the Freedom Park Development Association (FPDA), the Development Action Group (DAG), and Niall Mellon Township Trust (NMTT) who are all involved in the building of a total of 493 low-cost houses in Freedom Park.

Families

The allocation of the houses took place in mid-June 2007, in the form of a lucky draw audited by KPMG. Eligible (and willing) families from the Freedom Park Development entered the draw and on a cold, wintry Cape morning 10 names were drawn by members of our team, the Freedom Park community and partners. The families have also been workshopped to explain the project and its objectives.

Design Indaba

Design Indaba is an annual conference which gathers the world’s brightest talent from across the creative industries; becoming a broad church for the graphic design, advertising, architecture, film, music, fashion design, industrial design, craft, visual art, new media and publishing sectors. The institution, which incorporates events, media, education, training and business development, is well-established with a 12-year history.

The Design Indaba Conference held in February 2007 hosted 2,600 delegates. The Design Indaba Expo runs alongside the Conference, and showcases the best of contemporary South African creativity. The Design Indaba Expo held in February 2007 hosted over 240 exhibitors and 20 000 visitors.

In order to promote the design industries in South Africa and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Design Indaba, some spin-off projects were launched to encapsulate the best of design in a unique project setting. These projects known collectively as Design Indaba 10 x 10’s and bring together Design Indaba alumni to create a brand image for others to benefit from.

Rooms to Improve
By Luyanda Mpahlwa
Published in Mail & Guardian, South Africa, February 29 2008

Architect Luyanda Mpahlwa describes the process of creating and realising new housing solutions on Mitchells Plain, a development launched at this week’s Design Indaba.

Last year the Design Indaba invited architects to design 10 low cost houses in partnership with international architects for 10 families. Our firm, MMA Architects, was paired with British architect Will Aslop and after a process of consultation and selection we were allocated a family in Freedom Park on Mitchells Plain. The Jonker family stands to benefit from our design and in preparation we were issued with a DVD documentary of the family. In it their profiles and wishes were conveyed.

The initiative is part of the development of 490 units in Freedom Park by Niall Mellon Developers. The brief for each architect was to design a house within the limits of the government subsidy, which allows R50 000 per household for a 40m2 house.

At MMA we have attempted to find a design solution that could make a contribution to the broader national debate on housing delivery. In our view architects and urban planners in South Africa have not been involved in the roll-out of housing delivery as independent professionals. As a matter of fact, housing delivery, although driven by government, is largely being delivered by developers. It is therefore fair to say that the non-involvement of architects and urban planning professionals in the housing delivery process has been to the detriment of this process, and has led to the neglect of urban quality of life. We feel that the professional bodies involved in the built environment need to find creative ways to unlock the lack of involvement in this critical field of delivery in South Africa.

It was therefore important for MMA, in responding to the 10x10 housing project, to find solutions that also seek to address some of the challenges facing the country in the housing sector. These involve providing designs that offer dignified housing and quality of life in Freedom Park. We wish to address the quality of the low-cost house in general, while exploring the possibilities of sustainable and appropriate design.

There is obviously a need to achieve solutions that could increase the speed of housing delivery in general that would include innovative and alternative building methods.

Obviously this approach has gone beyond 10x10, so we have broadened the scope of the brief. It became clear early in the design process that the collaboration with Will Alsop was not going to achieve the desired results. The broader social considerations and the response to the aspirations of providing a house for a “real family”, which had specific needs, were not shared by the British architects. So MMA pursue the design on its own. In the exploration and research that followed we put together a Cape Town team of four, including myself as principal architect Luyanda Mpahlwa, Uli Mpahlwa, Sushma Patel and Kirsty Ronné, to workshop the design parameters. Ronné, the young architect and designer was then allocated to drive the design process forward.

The Process

Our main challenge has been to reduce the costs of the 10x10 house. We recognise that conventional building methods and materials are not going to achieve results and alternative, more affordable building methods are required. This is difficult to achieve in South Africa, given the dominance of bricks and mortar as the “accepted” way of building.

Given the fact that the plot sizes (112m2) were predetermined, our team considered it necessary to maximise the usable area by minimising the building footprint as much as possible. A double-storey unit was proposed as the most land-use-efficient option for our design. This approach posed further challenges with respect to the 40m2 limitation of the brief.

A compact design evolved, but with architecturally pleasing aesthetics. We have intended to create a positive urban quality and street-edge layout. The building has been consciously located close to the street edge to maximise garden space at the back, and hard up on the lateral boundary to create an outside garden and play area for the family. This design resulted in the location of the living, kitchen/dining and wet areas in the ground floor area which had a positive interface with the external spaces and garden.

The sleeping quarters are accommodated in the upper floor, allowing for privacy and separation of potentially conflicting functions and uses. The main bedroom is located on the street edge and has an external terrace to provide relief from the tight internal spaces.

The children’s sleeping area is located toward the garden, providing four sleeping opportunities on double bunk beds. This design has resulted in a 54m2 house, which exceeds the 40m2 limitation. It is a great achievement that despite the extra 14m2 provided, the costs of the house remained within the accepted limits.

One of the key considerations for the design was that this would be a starter home, which could be developed as the family is able to afford it. The external upper terrace is the first opportunity for the extension to be realised. On the ground floor the house is positioned to allow for growth towards the back garden and still allow adequate space, including play space for the children within the safety of a private garden.

The Materials

The main considerations for a cost- effective solution was to reduce the cost of building materials reduce the building time and consider involvement of the community in the building process. After research and consultation with a structural engineer and a quantity surveyor something called the ecobeam system was found to be appropriate for the 10x10 house.

This structural system, developed by Eco-Build Technologies in Cape Town, consists of a timber structural frame combined with a sand-bag construction as fill for the walls of the building. The timber beams have metal inlays to provide strength, improving the structural integrity of the system.

The sand bags provide excellent thermal control. One of the many qualities of this type of building technology is that the ecobeam system has tremendous thermal stability, tapping into the indigenous building techniques that made traditional buildings thermally sound and comfortable to live in. Anybody who has lived in a mud and wattle rondavel or old stone houses will know this effect.The occupants will be kept cool in summer and warm in winter.

The system also has excellent sound-absorbing properties that help to provide a measure of privacy in close-quarter living. The ecobeam system with sandbag infill is much heavier than brick construction and is therefore wind resistant. It also resists water penetration.
This unique system is suited to mass production and will provide excellent job opportunities and skills development for the local community of Freedom Park. It is locally produced, simple to construct and favours unskilled labour, especially the women in the community.

The construction is primarily manual, with little or no need for electricity in both the production of the ecobeams and in the construction process.

In a nutshell, the team was able to produce a 54m2 10x10 house for a maximum cost of R65 000. Although this cost exceeded the R50 000 budget, Design Indaba accepts that there is a factor of economies of scale. This factor was agreed to be approximately 15% as the costing of a 10x10 house was for a single unit.

A benefit for the Jonker family is that the R65 000 house includes frames for future extensions. Meanwhile these are part of the landscaping and the lattices can be used to grow creepers and shrubbery. In our viewthis kind of thinking needs to factored into the subsidised housing delivery process, promoting the concept of starter houses into which families can grow.

Images and text courtesy of Design Indaba, Dezeen, Creative Review and Mail & Guardian, South Africa.

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