BT Soweto in Site C, Khayelitsha

Design approach for BT Soweto

The Empower design strategy principles;

• Upgrade the informal settlement into safe, celebrated row-house typologies that increase housing density, without displacing any of the existing residents
• Enhance urban environments and improve living standards through public spaces and play areas.
• Ensure participation is voluntary and incentivised.
• Consolidate top-down, City resources and bottom-up, community capital into successful, shared neighbourhoods.

Although the BT Soweto homes appear uniform externally, their modular design allows for 10 distinct unit sizes, tailored to each household’s specific needs. This approach moves beyond the ‘one-size-fits-all’ model, recognising family diversity, future aspirations, and the spatial requirements of businesses like shops, restaurants, or daycares that help activate the community ecosystem.

Each Empower unit is built using a core-and-shell system:

• The core includes eight standard functional components essential to every home.
• The shell defines the unit size—chosen by residents based on family size, income, needs, and goals.

This design flexibility supports affordability, efficient land use, and sustainable densification. The two-storey layout boosts spatial efficiency and thermal comfort: hot air rises and escapes through high ceilings, while partition-ready upper floors allow for privacy between parents and children. Operable kitchen and bathroom windows open to internal courtyards, offering natural ventilation and daylight, as well as self-contained water and sanitation facilities—removing reliance on shared public toilets.

Fire safety, a critical issue in township environments, is built in at unit level through concrete block firebreak walls and non-combustible surfaces in kitchens.

These site plans show the initial area with informal housing (72 informal homes). Next to it is an artist’s representation of what the area would have looked like as an RDP housing project (28 RDP houses of 360m²). And the last image shows the UTTE housing model (72 units, commercial facilities, public open space and a community centre).

These site plans show the initial area with informal housing (72 informal homes). Next to it is an artist’s representation of what the area would have looked like as an RDP housing project (28 RDP houses of 360m²). And the last image shows the UTTE housing model (72 units, commercial facilities, public open space and a community centre).

BT Soweto in photographs

Phase 1 of the Empower development in Khayelitsha has delivered transformational benefits to the local community. Vibrant colours and bold architectural detailing bring identity and joy to the built environment, elevating the everyday experience for residents.

Most importantly, these homes offer protection from the common risks of township life—such as fires, flooding, and overcrowding—without relocating or displacing a single family. Built on the same ground where residents once lived in informal structures, this project preserves community bonds while providing the dignity of safe, permanent housing.