STUDIO – IX

Low income housing

Solutions in urban design

HEMISH PATEL
163561050044
Project Name – Empower shack
Architects – Urban-think tank
Location – Cape Town, South Africa
Year – 2016

• This housing system helped in solving the housing

crisis faced due to escalating prices of property.

• The project aimed to provide a fair distribution of

public land for over 2700 informal settlements
enhanced by innovative methodology and
provision of basic amenities.

• South Africa is currently experiencing a housing

crisis, with high property prices, limited financing
options, and lack of appropriate housing stock
leaving some 7.5 million people living in informal
settlements
 • Urban-Think Tank has also developed software
that can easily model different urban layouts for
the Empower Shacks to be built in.

• The software also produces an online 3D model

that residents can gain access to in order to view
potential layouts and register their feedback. The
software is open source, making it freely
available to community and urban planners.

• Because the model is scalable, Urban-Think Tank

hope that this urbanisation scheme can be used
to upgrade informal settlements, deliver basic
services and create a safer urban environment on
a larger scale.

Post apartheid planning

After - 1994
• Micro-financing
schemes are also built
into the planning tools,
so residents can take
out small, ethical loans
when building an
Empower Shack or
adding another storey.

• The units are available

in six sizes ranging
between 38-square-
metres and 84-square-
metres, and are priced
accordingly.
• The designers are now exploring different configurations of the prototype that will allow it to adapt to the
needs of different residents, extending up to three storeys when necessary.

• This in turn becomes part of a wider strategy for rationalising the layout of the entire community, known as
blocking out. This involves creating access routes for emergency vehicles and providing basic services such as
sanitation and water.
Low cost material used
• Timber frame
• Metal sheets
• Clay blocks
Project Name – Slum housing
Architects – Bhumiputra Architecture
Location – Bengaluru, india

• Redesigned the slums for construction workers. They design Parts of kit and the workers can assemble and
dismentel according to their needs.
• There were several major issues. The first being that of flooding during the monsoons, that caused the
settlements to turn into water pools, becoming breeding grounds for diseases .

• Another issue was the lack of space in the house that catered to their living as well as cooking requirements. As
a result, the excessive accumulation of smoke, soot and carbon monoxide in their claustrophobic volumes with
no chimneys or windows only caused further harm to their health.

• There was absence of adequate natural light and air ventilation indoors.