Nearly seven million people live in informal settlements in South Africa, but conditions can be dire with limited access to drinking water and decent sanitation. To help improve the situation in the Western Cape province, we partnered with Ikhayalami, a local non-profit organisation. We bring our strengths in housing solutions to achieve their aim of providing affordable technical solutions for settlement upgrades. Initially we provided construction materials and financial contributions for seven early childhood development centres. In 2021 Etex South Africa then stepped in to support settlement upgrades using lightweight and prefabricated modular construction solutions.
They similarly helped retrofit the ‘Blessing Educare Centre’ day care facility looking after 136 children, with better daylight use and enhanced acoustics and energy-saving thermal insulation. Our teammates have also helped design, plan and execute three building models from 28 to 70 m², ideal for cottages, classrooms, clinics, offices, homes etc. The buildings are pre-engineered and arrive on-site ‘readyto- assemble’. The local community helps assessing needs and trains locals in assembling the buildings.
Etex also empowers young people in South Africa to transform their communities through a better built environment, running lectures on lightweight construction and inspiring local talents to explore the value and advantages that modularity and lightweight construction offer for the further development of the communities. We recently ran an architecture student project competition with Tshwane University of Technology, where the winning design was assembled in an informal settlement in Itireleng. Ikhalayami’s Blessing Educare Centre Ikhalayami’s.
