"Empower Shack" Site Visit

As part of our spring school in Cape Town we have visited the under construction area, where the slum upgrading program “Empower Shack” is implemented – a joint project by the external page Urban-Think Tank based at the ETH Zurich and the local non-profit organization external page Ikhayalami. The project located in Site C in Khayelitsha and involves the “re-blocking” of existing informal settlements using the “empower shack” building typology, to address failures in the existing South African housing development strategy. Details include a focus on community empowerment through idea of courtyard space for the creation of safe spaces for kids and woman (more eyes on the courtyard through oriented buildings), inclusion of the community in the design and decision-making process (such as choice over neighbors to preserve existing social structures), and the densification through two story buildings.

The project

Empower Shack is a project that shows how to deal with the global migration and refugee crisis. The project is an urban upgrading program for innovative housing which integrates people and considers the aspects of policy, infrastructure, urban challenges, innovative construction and energy solution. Low costs will allow to reproduce the houses in a large number of units. Empower Shack is placed in a township in South Africa and had also been visited by delegates of the Swiss embassy and Mauro Dell' Ambrogio, the Swiss state secretary for Education Research and Innovation.