Low Cost but not Low Quality housing in Mbekweni

In contrast to the R 26 600, 36 square meter cement block 51/6 'hot-box' and sterile contractor cloned low cost houses originally proposed for Mbekweni (an area earmarked for 780 units), the design of Stone House has combined waste streaming, site resources, recycling and sweat equity to produce an aesthetically pleasing, insulated, energy efficient, repricable and culturally approved 'home' and urban "farm". The owner and friends have transformed the local municipal dump into a free 'hardware store', recovering old road curbing as large bricks for founding, pre-cast fence posts as lintols and dumped flagstones for flooring.

Stone resourced from site and nearby 'generous' road excavations make up the external skin of the walls for the tight rectangular plan. The internal skin is a recycled or green brick manufactured at an urban "quarry" at Cape Brick in Cape Town where concrete demolished materials are crushed and recycled into cement bricks.

The long and narrow building creates a short span that has allowed for an additional and economic loft floor and 34 square meters of 'bonus' rentable roof space of poles from alien tree clearing and industry palette dumping. The heavy walls and ventilated roof insulation successfully keep out the oppressive summer heat. Rainwater tanks from reject pre-cast manholes, grey water harvesting and grape vine sun-shading successfully make for an urban "farm". All this and almost double the floor space for the similar R 26 600 budget!

Vernon Collis (Sustainable Engineering and Architecture Consultant)
January 2006

Email from Vernon Collis to Cape Brick

From: Vernon Collis [mailto:vernoncollis@mweb.co.za]
Sent: 23 February 2006 08:39 AM
To: sales@capebrick.com
Subject: Mbekweni Pictures and stories

Morning Jean and Anthony,

Thanks for your assistance on the project to date and especially your supportive spirit. Very few people out there understand the importance of recycling and our relationship with the environment...so it does make a pleasant difference when I am able to work with firms like yourself.

All the best, Vernon

The Rubble Story

Rubble recovery prompts redefinition of 'demolition sites' as opportunistic and nearby 'hardware stores' or 'city quarries', offering bricks, tiles, lintols, aggregate and reinforcing amongst others . Similarly, 'building site' is redefined a 'city dump' accepting clean rubble. Imagine, a quarry and a dump site near each other within the city limits, in 2006! Traditionally Cape Town's rubble is carted away and distances of 50km are not unusual. There is also a brick crushing plant at Cape Brick near the city centre which also makes recycled bricks. However, the quality of the face bricks traditionally used in 20th century Cape buildings are excellent and it only a matter of example and time that the small scale practice of brick recovery will expand and prosper especially given the energy and resource required to mine and fire new clay bricks 60km from the City Centre.

Vernon Collis (Sustainable Engineering and Architecture Consultant)
January 2006