Rising voices of community: Explorations of identity driven low-cost housing systems, incrementally sprouting into urban developments in the Haakbosdraai settlement

Abstract

In informal settlements two of the main challenges facing communities are that informal housing such as shanties can only offer limited relief for the inhabitants in terms of meeting their basic needs of shelter and secondly public spaces in these areas although in some cases dynamic, do not allow for optima living conditions and can benefit from urban design input by architects through public participation and community engagement. One of the questions that will be interrogated in this study is how social housing can create environments which augment individuality and contextuality while remaining low-cost. The primary issue is that low-cost social housing solutions, such as RDP housing, disregards the value of personal stories and sense of identity as seen in the informal settlement of Haakbosdraai, Postmasburg. To address this an incremental system of adaptation and in-person interviews are used to individually convert existing shanties and create personal connections with the existing urban infrastructure. By investigating the link between narrative and architecture and the value of the organic growth prevalent in informal settlements, one can see how the method of using stories and incrementality can sustain a dynamic built identity within communities. This methodology allows for low-cost, social housing and supportive public functions and urban upgrading which sustain the growth of informal settlements into thriving contributors within the larger built reality.