- Project Type: Multi-Family Home, Cohousing
- Location: Memel, Free State, South Africa
Memel Cohousing is a one-of-a-kind community located in the small town of Memel in the Free State province of South Africa. The community is unique in many ways, from its significance within the context of post-apartheid South Africa to its bold commitment to equity, permaculture, food relocalization, microeconomics, and sustainability.
Caddis first visited Memel in 2012 and began work with the local community to see what was needed. Through workshops and direct interaction, a plan was formed that included the development of two phases of culturally adapted cohousing on the site of Memel Organics as well as a pilot project in the neighboring township of Zamani. Caddis employees have visited numerous times and led a participatory construction effort to kick off the project and provide a skill-building handoff to the local residents so they could continue to create these connected and socially responsible eco-communities.
The buildings are designed to be rammed-earth, passive-solar, and net-zero energy – while being beautiful, too! In between units, the site is interlaced with a working permaculture garden, thereby bringing people together with the sustainable agricultural economy and the source of their nourishment. When outside of any house, you’ll be in the garden.
The Common House – the heart of any cohousing community – is an historic, repurposed Dutch farmhouse. It includes a kitchen, a scullery, a dining/gathering room, a quiet library, a front porch, and a movie room where people gather to watch films together. During the day, the Common House functions as a gathering spot and lunch space for Memel Organics employees and for the community’s construction crews. In the evening, a variety of people gather to share dinner.
This cohousing community is a key step in supporting all of the community work that Memel.Global is doing in Memel and Zamani. In addition to new housing, many other endeavors have contributed to a vibrant community. With its building of the first pickleball court in South Africa, the community became the birthplace of the sport in the country. Now it is continuing to develop the sport, even bringing it into the school curriculum. This sport is uniting people across race and age lines. Another athletic program, SheWinS, focuses on soccer and athletics for primary school girls and has also hosted programs in math and reading, art and music, dance and yoga. SheWinS also operates a library program: it equipped and maintains four public school libraries in Memel-Zamani and donated books to five other libraries in the region. Other efforts in the two communities include a menstrual pad factory, permaculture training, “granny gardens” (for older women), and a seed bank.
