We started implementing our incremental Empower Upgrade Model 10 years ago with an existing community living at BT Soweto, in Site C, Khayelitsha.
In any existing community there are many significant relationships built, ties formed and networks established over many years – and in this case decades. UTTE believes in facilitating and celebrating these existing connections rather than imposing any fully foreign frameworks. As a result we worked closely with community representatives to respond directly to existing community conditions in developing the pilot development design. This first community has now been completed and provides 72 homes, a public open space and shared community centre with life changing socio-economic benefits for over 400 beneficiaries.
Design approach for Community 1
Despite looking uniform from the exterior, the modular design of the BT Soweto (Community 1) units allows for 10 different unit sizes to accommodate a variety of layouts best suited to the specific residents’ needs. This diversity of offering moves away from the ‘one size fits all’ approach acknowledging the diversity in every family, the future aspirations of residents as well as the alternative spatial requirements such a shops, restaurants or daycare centres to activate and care for the community ecosystem.
The Empower Design Strategy Principles;
- Upgrade an informal settlement into a safe and celebrated unique row house typology to increase the housing density.
- To improve the urban environment and the community’s living standards with public open spaces and play areas.
- To create incentives such that all participation is voluntary.
- And to consolidate community resources—time, land, and income—for a successful neighbourhood.
The Empower unit design follows a core and shell principle. The core comprises of eight standardized functional components that every home has. The shell then demarcated the unit sizes as selected by the residents according to their family size, household income, spatial requirements and general aspirations. This allows the design to accommodate a range of needs, while maintaining the unit affordability and an extremely efficient site layout.
The two-story unit provides both spatial efficiencies through increased site density, but also thermal comfort to the living spaces, as warm air rises to the high ceilings of the second floor and is expelled. The spatial organization of the second floor enables the installation of partition walls anchored to an exposed rafter; parents and children have separate rooms and a new and welcome element of privacy. The kitchens have operable windows looking out into the internal courtyards. The bathrooms similarly have operable windows and offer space for privacy, individual water points, and sinks and toilet units, eliminating the reliance on public facilities.
The risk of fire—a major problem in the townships—is addressed at the unit scale with the inclusion of resilient firebreaks made of concrete block walls between the units and non-combustible surface finishes in the kitchen area.
Phase 1 by numbers
Total m² for Phase 1
Private, semi-private and public courtyards
Two-storey housing units
Distinct housing typology
Million Rand development cost
Residents
Phase 1 of our Empower development in Khayelitsha has brought life-changing benefits to the local community. Paint and colour have been used to celebrate this and elevate the units optimising for a bold and memorable spatial experience.
Inside and out, Empower homes offer residents welcome protection from the notorious hazards of township life such as fires and floods.
These safe, comfortable Empower homes were built for existing residents on the site of their existing shacks –no relocating, decanting or forced removals involved.
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).
Empower Model – Sustainability Report
Click here to download report.
Launched in 2023, the next phase of the Empower Khayelitsha project will initially involve replicating and scaling up our Empower Upgrade Model for the benefit of over 330 residents living in the BBT Vukani Community, in Site C, Ikwezi Park – just around the corner from our Community 1 development.
Drawing on the lessons Community 1 taught us, delivering the first part of Community 2 will involve:
- Extensive Mapping and Community Engagement
- Building compliant structures incorporating residential and commercial opportunities
- Increasing density
- Optimising services
- Providing shared community facilities
- Public Open Space and Landscaping to improve the quality of the environment
- Developing renewable energy solutions
- Offering skills development opportunities
- Creating food farms
Design approach for Community 2
The design for BBT Vukani begins with the core and shell concept of a flexible multi storey unit, taking into consideration certain lessons from the development of Community 1. However the existing conditions of BBT Vukani are far denser resulting in greater efficiencies required and optimised spatial planning. As a result of the increased density a special focus is given the spectrum of public to private space, creating a variety of interfaces for greater senses of comfort and security with the spaces – from a internal protected public open space, community centre and commercial facilities, through to semi-public mini courtyards through which to enter each home, to the semi-private internal living areas and finally the fully private bedroom section of each home. This variety of space is essential from a sociological community orientation and often disregarded in denser areas where there is deemed to simply be “not enough space”. . Micro-financing schemes are also built into the planning, so residents can take out small, ethical loans when building an Empower Shack or adding another story. Residents currently pay a net average of 15% of the construction cost through a microfinance program, based on the footprint of the shack and household affordability assessments.
Phase 2 by numbers
Total m² for Phase 2
Multi storey housing units
Million Rand development cost
The first phase of our Empower development stands out like a beacon of hope that there is a way out of South Africa’s housing crisis.
We are now preparing to replace another 69 of Khayelitsha’s traditional one-storey shacks with high quality, multi-storey Empower homes
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