- Project Type: Multi Family, Cohousing
- Location: Zamani, South Africa
Through our work with Memel.Global, Caddis has had the unique opportunity to support Memel, historically a white community, in rural post-apartheid South Africa, and its neighboring Black township of Zamani, which are mutually dependent. Memel has about 600 residents, while Zamani has a population of 6,500 configured in a very typical apartheid arrangement.
Our work in helping to develop the Zamani microcommunity followed our usual Caddis process: look at what people need and then design to those needs.
The result was the development of a microcommunity in Zamani, which tweaked the development pattern of the existing township. We replaced tin shacks on separate plots with healthy, passive solar, rammed-earth, net-zero-energy homes arranged together on a shared lot around a small Common House all set within food-producing gardens. The roofs are either green roofs or used for rainwater collection for drinking water. The Common House has solar-heated showers and restrooms inside, rather than pit toilets out back, and a shared kitchen that is planned to use methane as a fuel source, captured from on-site septic tanks.
Key to the success of the project was the availability of labor. Zamani residents were eager to learn the necessary construction techniques that would enable them to build future homes on their own. We wanted to work with existing skill sets. Timber and wood framing are rare there, and roofs and walls tend to be made of corrugated metal (zinc, in the local terminology). The local folks are skilled with masonry, so bricks were used for joints between rammed-earth sections and bond beams and to form foundations and slabs, which could then support rammed-earth forms. Rammed earth was an excellent choice for the walls, since the clayey soil that is on site is suitable for this technique.
As with other communities we have developed, all of the spaces between the homes are designed to create community, grow organic food, and serve people’s lives. To learn more about how Caddis designs with nature in Zamani and in other communities, read our blog post “Designing with Nature: Biodiverse Design in Caddis Projects.”
