Building a house in two days

In the  in Xhosa language, “Ikhayalami” means “My Home”. We started the organisation back in 2006, working with shack dwellers and social movements to improve their living environments. Back then it was clear that the scale of need was far outstripping the state’s ability to housing to poor households. In short, the formal approach in dealing with informality was not meeting the need of the vast majority of shack dwellers.   

Since then, the state’s promises of helping subsidize housing  the poor has slowed to a crawl while tens of thousands of new shack dwellers come to Cape Town every year. Forced eviction, flooding, the spread of water-borne diseases and runaway fires are a reality of life in these sprawling settlements, and an increased risk amid the climate crisis. 

But when you step inside the settlements themselves, there’s lots of innovation and ingenuity - and therein lies the solution. A key approach we use is “reblocking”. The idea originally came from the Philippines, where it was called “blocking out”. It involves adjusting the layout of informal settlements to allow for more pathways and provide access to emergency vehicles, as well as basic services like water taps and drainage. 

“After our new, safer, construction, some residents reported being able to sleep soundly for the first time”

Within the South African context we made some adjustments to the concept and aimed to replace dilapidated shacks with a vastly improved shelter. We quickly rebuild the living areas, using metal and a simple design. We can build a house in one or two days. Being nimble is key given the scale of South Africa’s slums which house millions of people.  

Examples of our work can be found in the townships of Philippi and Khayelitsha, sprawling areas in the southeast outskirts of Cape Town. On Sheffield Road, in Philippi, for example, at our first in-situ re-blocking project we started by focusing on small clusters of between 6 and 12 shacks. As a first step, we read the spatial language that already exists, exploring why people arranged their homes how they did. We held workshops with inhabitants, using cardboard boxes and maps to adjust the layout of the settlement.  

For example, in one densely packed area, we noticed that three families shacks were built around a tiny little courtyard. We amplified their concept and created a bigger outdoor space for them. This one small change was transformative. It meant that residents could keep an eye on a neighbour's home or child while they were working. Washing, meanwhile, could be hung up privately and people could now sit outside without being on busy streets. There were fewer fatal accidents, partly because children could play in the courtyards, rather than alongside roads.  

“With Reblocking you can sidestep bureaucracy” 

Our homes are all made using fire and flood retardant material with a design that minimizes the use of wood, a major change for areas where fire spreads fast through highly flammable structures made from wood, cardboard, plastic and thin zinc sheeting. After our construction, some residents reported being able to sleep soundly at night for the first time since moving to the neighbourhood.  

At the end of the day, reblocking sidesteps a lot of the formal constraints and red tape around building regulations and zoning. Because the structures are made from materials that can be easily dismantled, they are viewed as temporary in the same way as a shack. It means you don't have to work within the stringent regulatory frameworks. Our work bridges the divide between the formal and the informal realm. We often work with city officials, where we have encountered successes as well as challenges. 

Our “reblocking” methodology aims to keep people’s homes within 10 meters of where they originally lived. The state has adopted a concept called “superblocking,” especially in response to shack fires. The idea is to create new blocks to link in roads, electrical equipment or pipes to slum areas but, at the same time, forces dwellers into far smaller spaces and relocates others far from their homes. The state has yet to implement this approach due to resistance – a case in point is following the Izimyamo Yethu fire of 2018. The fact that the government’s top-down approach sounds so similar to "reblocking" ended up confusing people and making them wary of our work.  

In our Empower project, we set out to design and build double-story shelters within a re-blocking framework because of the sheer density of these areas. Inadvertently, government skewed the project into a formal development by encouraging block walls between adjoining units for fire compliance.

As soon as the regulatory authorities became involved it was deemed a formal project and had to go through all the formal processes. This put the brakes on. Recently completed, it  10 years to build a 72 double story housing development.

“The settlement became a model project in South Africa and beyond”

At first, people resisted the idea of double story dwellings, but once people saw it worked, it became very popular, and it has become a model project in South Africa and beyond. With its bright yellow walls and public space to sit outside the dwellings and play areas for kids,  it has set an example in how informal settlements can be transformed. People who had been in abysmal shacks now have double-storey dwellings with sanitation.  

Part of our work is also to explore how to finance new dwellings for people living in slums. We have developed a loan finance program for our shelter upgrade where we vet people for loans and, if they are approved, we build them a new structure which they pay back within 12–18 months. 

Recently, our search for funding has also led us to a microfunding concept for middle to upper income South Africans who are uncertain about how to find decent and safe housing for their employees. This programme Khaya Le Khaya (which means: “A home is a home”) conducts housing audits for middle income South African’s of their employees homes. We take photos of the shack and explain how it can be upgraded. We then give the employer a number of options on how they can help - either by paying for it in full or part, or by acting as a guarantor. This project means that new homes can be created within days rather than waiting for years with fading hopes for better living quarters.

The project reflects the very complex and unequal environment in South Africa, and offers a way to bridge the finance gap from those who have resources to those who lack access, especially now that the state's finances for housing provision are dwindling. 

As told to Jess Smee