Sustainable Living Urban Model / Issue 9 SLUM Lab MADE IN AFRICA

101 Pages·2014·37.94 MB·English

SLUM Lab MADE IN AFRICA
Susainable Living Urban Model / Issue 9
ETH Zürich D-ARCH
Brillembourg & Klumpner Chair of
Architecure and Urban Design
ONA J17 Neunbrunnensrasse 50
8050 Zurich Switzerland
[phone]
Mzukisi Kewana (MK), Khayelitsha
A double sory, self-built shack in Khayelitsha
Consrucing an Empower Shack prototype in Khayelitsha
Phumezo's original shack (above) and the newly-consruced Empower Shack prototype (below)
strategies. Deeper problems call for more
FROM CASABLANCA TO expansive solutions. And this is where we
can play a role.
CAPE TOWN:
For architects, focusing on the urban poor
REIMAGINING URBAN POSSIBILITIES does not necessitate an impoverished ar-
chitecture. Our Empower Shack project
was conceived in the spirit of an alternative
Alfredo Brillembourg & development reality already beginning to
percolate through the townships of South
Hubert Klumpner African cities. A reality that moves beyond
outdated prejudices against informal
settlements to recognize the value of in
situ upgrading, and the potential to work
I don’t think Mandela died peacefully building bore the weight of nation build- intelligently and creatively with residents
because he saw people still suffering, ing – the eradication of poverty through to unlock existing potential. Through the
living in shacks without jobs. Mandela bricks and mortar development. simple act of allowing the possibility of a
died with anger inside because the second foor – going vertical – our proto-
leaders he left behind haven’t fulflled The aims of the new government were type creates additional livable space with-
his promise. embodied in the national Reconstruction in the urban environment, new prospects
and Development Program (RDP). Its em- for on-site commercial enterprise, and a
Nocawe, Khayelitsha Resident blematic pledge, a housing grant for the path towards controlled densifcation.
poor and promises of one million low-
cost houses within fve years. Twenty years In Casablanca we saw how the slum as-
hen Nelson Mandela passed away later, ‘RDP housing’ remains the center- sumed formal characteristics on its own
Wat the beginning of December, we piece of South Africa’s response to a still terms. In Cape Town, we see a role for
were building a new shack prototype in urgent crisis (‘shack-free cities’ another architectural tactics to bring some of the
the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha. lapsed dream). More than three million benefts of the formal city, so long as these
We had come a long way since 2009, when RDP houses have been built. An admi- tactics respond to the aspirations and
we frst set foot on the African continent rable achievement, but a rate of delivery needs of residents. By taking a still-evolv-
amidst the souks of Casablanca. We were dwarfed by the enormous scale of need. ing design from sketch to physical struc-
in Morocco to visit André Studer’s hous- With a growing – and urbanizing – popu- ture, we have confrmed our assumptions
ing complex Sidi Othman, built in 1952 lation, the housing defcit blew past two about the need to rethink existing shack
on the outskirts of the city as part of Mi- million by 2009. Those facing the intermi- typologies. It is the inhabitants of Khay-
chel Écochard’s expansionary urban plan. nable wait for a RDP house are locked out elitsha like Phumezo that will reimagine
A collision of post-war modernism and of the formal property market due to esca- what their homes and city could be.
anti-colonial liberation zeal, the complex lating prices, limited access to fnancing,
began as a project to clear the bidonvilles and infexible land regulations complicat-
but had been appropriated in a way that ing private low-income development. And
rendered the iconic structure unrecogniz- for recipients, the dream has not always
able. Reinforced concrete plinths arrayed matched reality. Newly built formal settle-
in a rational grid had spawned a vibrant ments are often on the outskirts of city
informal city. The forces of top-down plan- centers, disconnected from public servic-
ning had met the infnite adaptability and es and employment opportunities.
resourcefulness of bottom-up, organic ur-
banism. The formal had been swallowed Increasingly, social and economic in-
by the informal. The lesson for us as de- equalities are built into the evolving ge-
signers was to map these facts and poten- ography of the contemporary African city.
tials and translate them into provocative But urban scarcity is not inevitable, and
interventions. nor does it necessarily demand a material
solution. What it does demand is the ener-
In South Africa as elsewhere, blanket me- gy and willingness to creatively intervene
dia coverage of Mandela’s death verged in the mechanisms that construct a par-
on the banal. While it was hard to avoid ticular scarcity – reshaping the urban ex-
cynicism with ringside seats to the coop- perience through a focus on process, not
tion of Mandela’s image and legacy, it product. Architecture spatializes and ma-
did focus our attention and energy on the terializes uneven development – dynamics
community with whom we were working. that then feedback into the complex sys-
Especially, on how the long, drawn-out tem of the city to further fragment, segre-
struggle Mandela led has manifested in gate and deprive. Yet people living amidst
the built environment. After the storm of conditions of everyday scarcity in cities
revolution – violent or otherwise – comes frequently demonstrate an innate capacity
the calm of governing. Inspiration and to refashion the built environment. Using
passion traded for incremental imple- the limited resources found within their
mentation. The forced removals and racial reach, they address to varying degrees the
segregation of the apartheid era ensured failure of urban governance and resource
questions of urban design carried heavy distribution that denies them spatial jus-
baggage after the euphoria of 1994. House tice. These, however, are not long-term
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EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA EMPOWER SHACK
Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner Andres Lepik Edgar Pieterse Introducion (164)
From Casablanca To Cape Town: Afritecure: Building Social Change (24) Pushing Agains The Frontiers Of Urban Studies In (South) Africa (88)
Reimagining Urban Possibilities (8) The Housing Context (165)
Dirk E Hebel and Felix Heisel Peter Rich and Patricia Theron Research Phase 1 (166)
Formal, Informal And Forms Of In-Between (28) Mandela' s Yard, Alexandra: Documentation As A Research Tool
CONTRIBUTORS (12) For Learning About Space And Place (94) Swissearl Workshop (168)
Acive Social Architecure Workshop Prototype (174)
Early Childhood Development Centers For Plan Rwanda (34) Sarah Charlton
CREDITS (14) Housing Dreams And Lived Realities: Research Phase 2 (177)
The RDP Program In Pracice (100)
Harald Gründl Components Library (178)
A Slum Toilet (38)
PHOTO ESSAYS Thiresh Govender Two Story Shack Analysis (180)
Home Sweet Resilience: Lessons From Shebeens (106)
David Morton Materials And Strucure (182)
Filippo Romano Chamanculo In Reeds, Wood, Zinc And Concrete (42)
The Vivigals (57) Liza Cirolia The Modular Sysem (184)
The Architec Can’t Save Us: Some Thoughts On The Limits Of
Kéré Architecure Tech Fix Housing Solutions (112) Blocking Out (185)
Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler Designing For Climate: Future African Susainability (48)
Bicycle Portraits (103) Spatial Analysis (186)
Krisen Kornienko
Yutaka Sho Finding Hope And The Spatial Dimensions Of Human Rights The Cluser Sysem (187)
Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse On Membership (54) In The Urban Informal Vernacular (116)
Ponte City (120) Financing Options (189)
The ‘Ponte City’ photo essay appears courtesy of Killian Doherty Charlote Lemanski In Situ Consrucion (190)
Goodman Gallery Strengthening Kigali’s Redevelopment Through ‘Hybrid’ Gentrifcation In State-Subsidized Housing Setlements (136)
‘Weak Urbanism’ (60) The Future (192)
Alexander Opper Exhibition (193)
Jenny F Mbaye Producive ‘Leakage’ And The ‘Folding’ Of The Studio
On The Biopolitics Of Hip-Hop Galsen: Into The Field (140)
Contesation Art And Democratized Imaginations (64)
Paula Meth
Jonathan Silver Security And Dignity For All: Informal Setlement Upgrading
The Geography Of Incremental Infrasrucures And Experiences of Violence (144)
In An Accra Slum (68)
Ben Mansfeld
J M Ledgard Urban Agriculture In Informal Setlements (148)
The Microscopic Safari: Into The Las Fores Of Nairobi (72)
Asrid Ley, Josefne Fokdal and Peter Herrle
Beyond Entropy From Benefciaries To Negotiators: How Urban Poor Networks
Energy And Entropy (76) Bargain For Beter Housing (152)
Laufen Manifeso (80) Zachary Levenson
Permanent Temporariness: Relocation Camps In
Pos-Apartheid Cape Town (156)
[in]formalStudio: Marlboro South
The Processes Of Engagement Map (159)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Jenny F Mbaye Stan Engelbrecht Alexander Opper Thomas Auer
C O N T R I B U T O R S
Jenny Mbaye is a pos-docoral fellow at the Stan Engelbrecht is a documentary pho- Alexander Opper is Direcor of the MTech Thomas Auer is a partner and Managing
African Center for Cities in Cape Town. tographer and cycling enthusias based in Architecural Technology program at the Direcor of Transsolar, an engineering frm
South Africa. University of Johannesburg. secializing in energy efcient building
design.
In Order of Appearance
Jonathan Silver
Nic Grobler Paula Meth Heinrich Wolf
Jonathan Silver is a pos-docoral research-
● Chapter: Africa ● Chapter: South Africa ● Chapter: Empower Shack er at the University of Durham and LSE Nic Grobler is a documentary photographer Paula Meth is a Senior Lecurer in Town Heinrich Wolf is co-founder of Wolf Archi-
Cities at the London School of Economics. and cycling enthusias based in South and Regional Planning at the University of tecs and a gues professor in the Depart-
Africa. Shefeld. ment of Architecure at ETH Zürich.
Alfredo Brillembourg Harald Gründl
J M Ledgard Arturo Brillembourg
Alfredo Brillembourg is founder of interdis- Harald Gründl is founder of the Insitute of Thiresh Govender Ben Mansfeld
ciplinary design frm Urban-Think Tank, and Design Research Vienna and a managing Jonathan Ledgard is the Eas Africa cor- Arturo Brillembourg is President of
holds a Chair of Architecure and Urban partner of Viennese design sudio EOOS. resondent for The Economis and founder Thiresh Govender is an architec and urban Ben Mansfeld is an independent land- Farmington Asset Management and an
Design at ETH Zürich. of the AFROTECH initiative at EPFL in designer at Johannesburg-based interdisci- scape architec with projec experience in economis interesed in the economics of
Lausanne. plinary design sudio UrbanWorks. Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. the urban poor.
David Morton
Hubert Klumpner
David Morton is a PhD candidate in African Beyond Entropy Liza Cirolia Asrid Ley Andy Bolnick
Hubert Klumpner is Dean of the Depart- hisory at the University of Minnesota and a
ment of Architecure at ETH Zürich and a fellow of the Carter G Woodson Insitute of Beyond Entropy is an independent collab- Liza Cirolia is a researcher and coordina- Asrid Ley is a pos-docoral researcher in Andy Bolnick is founder of Cape Town-
principal of interdisciplinary design frm African American and African Studies at the orative pracice founded by Stefano Rabolli tor of the Susainable Human Setlements the HABITAT Unit at the Technischen Uni- based informal setlement upgrading NGO
Urban-Think Tank. University of Virginia. Pansera, who with Paula Nascimento CityLab at the African Center for Cities in versität Berlin and visiting Senior Lecurer Ikhayalami.
curated the frs Angola Pavilion at the 13th Cape Town. at the University of the Witwatersrand in
Venice Biennale of Architecure. Johannesburg.
Andres Lepik Kéré Architecure Scot Lloyd
Krisen Kornienko
Andres Lepik is Direcor of the Architek- Kéré Architecure is a Berlin-based archi- Edgar Pieterse Josefne Fokda Scot Lloyd is founder of design and re-
turmuseum der Technischen Universität tecure ofce founded by Diébédo Francis Krisen Kornienko recently completed a search sudio Deliver and coordinated the
München and curated the recent exhibition Kéré. Edgar Pieterse is the South African docorate at the School of Architecure and Josefne Fokda is Senior Researcher in the Empower Shack projec for the Brillem-
AFRITECTURE: Building Social Change. Research Chair in Urban Policy at the Planning at the University of the Witwa- HABITAT Unit at the Technischen Univer- bourg & Klumpner Chair of Architecure
University of Cape Town and Direcor of the tersrand in Johannesburg. sität Berlin. and Urban Design at ETH Zürich.
African Center for Cities.
Yutaka Sho
Dirk E Hebel
Yutaka Sho is an Assisant Professor at Mikhael Subotzky Peter Herrle
Dirk Hebel is an Assisant Professor of the Syracuse School of Architecure and Peter Rich
Architecure and Consrucion at the Future founder of interdisciplinary design frm Mikhael Subotzky is a Johannesburg-based Peter Herrle is a Professor of International
Cities Laboratory in Singapore and was the General Architecure Collaborative. Peter Rich is a principal architec at Peter photographer and associate member of Urbanism and Direcor of the HABITAT Unit
founding Scientifc Direcor of the Ethiopian Rich Architecs in Johannesburg. Magnum Photos. at the Technischen Universität Berlin.
Insitute of Architecure, Building Consruc-
tion and City Development.
Filippo Romano
Patricia Theron Patrick Waterhouse Zachary Levenson
Filippo Romano is a documentary and
Felix Heisel architecure photographer and member of Patricia Theron is an architecural tech- Patrick Waterhouse is an artis and Editor- Zachary Levenson is a PhD candidate in
the agency Luzphoto. nologis at Albonico & Sack Metacity in in-Chief of Colors Magazine. sociology at the University of California,
Felix Heisel is a researcher in the Chair Johannesburg. Berkeley.
of Architecure and Consrucion at the
Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore and
was a lecurer at the Ethiopian Insitute of Killian Doherty Charlote Lemanski
Architecure, Building Consrucion and Sarah Charlton [in]formalStudio: Malboro South
City Development. Killian Doherty is founder of design and Charlote Lemanski is a Senior Lecurer
research sudio Architecural [Field] Ofce Sarah Charlton is a Senior Lecurer in the at University College London and a Senior [in]formalStudio: Marlboro South is a
and a lecurer at KIST Rwanda. School of Architecure and Planning at the Research Fellow at the University of Johan- design and research initiative conceived
University of the Witwatersrand in Johan- nesburg. by Thorsen Deckler and Anne Graupner of
Acive Social Architecure nesburg. Johannesburg-based architecural pracice
26’10 south Architecs, and Alexander Op-
Acive Social Architecure is a Kigali-based per from the University of Johannesburg.
architecure and design frm founded by
Tomà Berlanda and Nerea Amorós Elorduy.
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CONTRIBUTORS
CONTRIBUTORS
SLUM LAB ISSUE 9
EDITORS EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY Thomas Bechtler, Natalya Critchley,
Alfredo Brillembourg (ETH Zürich) Daniel Schwartz (U-TT/ETH Zürich) Philip Block, Georg Hobelsberger,
Hubert Klumpner (ETH Zürich) Andreas Lange, Henri Muhr, Peter Steiner
SLUM LAB RESEARCH TEAM
GUEST EDITOR Giulia Celentano SLUM Lab magazine is a unique lab that
Alexis Kalagas (ETH Zürich) Hans Rufer works as a nomadic enterprise, bring-
Ilaria Riscassi ing planners, academics, architecs and
sudents from all areas of the globe to
EMPOWER SHACK converge and work towards an undersand-
COORDINATOR SPONSOR ing of the link between urban planning,
Scot Lloyd (ETH Zürich) Swissearl/Eternit poverty alleviation and susainable urban
development. It was founded by Alfredo
Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner at
DESIGN SPECIAL THANKS Columbia University and is now part of their
Floyd E. Schulze (W—THM) Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Brillembourg curriculum at ETH Zürich.
Ochoa Foundation, Chrisine and www.slumlab.org
It is now more than 25 years since Eternit (Schweiz) AG frs awarded the ‘Eternit Architecure Prize’ and
so made an important contribution to the education and advancement of young architecs. Continu-
ing this tradition, the ‘Eternit Summer School’ has been set up in renewed close cooperation with ETH
Zürich. The two-week seminar is to be held every two years and is recognized as an ofcial part of the
architecure sudy program. Projec results are presented and published the following year. In every
summer school, the focus turns towards a current topic that represents interesing issues in architec-
ture and society. This is intended to encourage the sudents to refec on their own position and reson-
sibility as an architec in relation to the social, political and economic challenges of our time.
In collaboration with the Brillembourg & Klumpner Chair of Architecure and Urban Design, the sec-
ond summer school – ‘Empower Shack’ – las autumn focused on informal setlements and their living
conditions. A prototype was developed on the basis of a real plot of land in Khayelitsha, the third larges
township in South Africa, meeting the requirements from both an economic and ecological point of view.
From the viewpoint of urban planning, the house also had to be able to form high-quality saces, provide
security, and to resond to a diversity of surroundings. Afer further refnements, it was then consruced
in South Africa with a view to proving its suitability on a pracical level. Time will tell whether the proto-
type will survive its baptism of fre and perhaps even go into series producion some time in the future.
The forecass indicate that it is high time to address the issue of increasing population density in devel-
oping countries and its efecs. The world population is set to increase from seven to 9.6 billion people
by 2050. The larges increase is expeced in Africa, where the population is likely to more than double.
This increase in population density will cause problems, esecially in the townships and their informal
setlements. How are we dealing with this issue? How can the indusrial nations make a contribution?
The summer school endeavored to highlight initial approaches. We are only at the initial sage, however,
s
of the process. Masering these challenges will be one of our mos important tasks for the 21 century.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all participants, esecially to the
Brillembourg & Klumpner Chair at ETH Zürich, but also to the sudents for the many interesing and
exciting approaches, which not only made a contribution to the subjec but also enriched and extended
our persecive.
Chrisine Dietrich
Head of Architecure and Communications
Eternit (Schweiz) AG Nobom, Matutu, Nontsokolo and Nahdipha, Khayelitsha
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CREDITS
Sesethu and Nosiphelo, Khayelitsha Tumelo, Dunoon