The green-building concept has started to gain traction internationally as governments and civil society groups begin to take steps to mitigate or adapt to the negative effects of rising greenhouse-gas concentrations.

Much of the focus has, however, been on large-scale built-environment developments, with companies delving into more innovative ways of greening buildings by employing green retrofitting techniques, or new materials and building solutions, from lighting to water management.

However, some organisations and social entrepreneurs are now also beginning to encourage the adoption of greening concepts in informal settlements – not as a permanent solution, but rather as an attempt to improve the reality of those citizens that do not yet have access to permanent homes.

One such individual is Touching the Earth Lightly (TEL) founder and designer Stephen Lamb.

He has overseen projects such as the conversion of invasive timber into furniture and the construction of rooftop vegetable gardens, but is currently focusing his attention on building greener and safer temporary homes.

Statistics South Africa’s Census 2011 revealed that about 1.96-million of the country’s households still live in informal settlements, or shacks, and faced several challenges.

“Shack owners in Cape Town are affected by groundwater flooding every year, as the groundwater level rises above the surface in winter. Further, shack fires kill [many] people and destroy the livelihoods of thousands each year. Food security also remains a challenge, with few real solutions,” states Lamb.

To mitigate these challenges, TEL, Cape Town artist Andrew Lord, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) and retail group Pick n Pay developed a pilot project, dubbed the Green Shack, aimed at demonstrating the ways in which informal settlements can be converted into safer, albeit still temporary, dwellings by dealing with the challenges of groundwater flooding, shack fires, thermal insulation and food security.

The prototype structure, which is a 4 m × 4 m shack powered by natural elements, was showcased at the Design Indaba in March.

Lamb explains that the low-tech design shows how the same physical space can be used to address both the need for shelter and improved food security.

SUSTAINABLE STEP-UP

Wessa says the concept of the Green Shack is closely aligned with the aims of its three-year Stepping Up to Sustainability project, funded by the US Agency for International Development.

Through this initiative, 11 sustainability commons have been established across South Africa, offering public access to sustainable practices and technologies, which include the installation of renewable- energy technologies, conserving water, teaching water management practices and providing experiential courses on biodiversity, as well as reducing, sorting and managing waste more efficiently.

“The project’s goal is simple – to put into practice the lifestyle choices that we all need to make as we seek to change our environmental footprints into environmental handprints of practice for a more sustainable future,” Wessa states.

Similar results arose from a recent case study into a retrofit of 30 low-cost houses in Cato Manor, in KwaZulu-Natal, showing that material energy and water savings can be made through the use of green-building techniques, such as solar geysers, ceiling insulation and rainwater harvesting.

The study followed on from a R1.2-million project undertaken by the Green Building Council of South Africa and funded by the British High Commission in the run-up to the recent seventeenth Conference of the Parties climate negotiations, held in Durban.

VERTICAL GARDENS

Research has shown that the concept of greening a building is not restricted to the way in which a building is constructed or the way in which it saves water and electricity. The concept can also be expanded to other areas of the building, such as the exterior, by employing the concept of green walls.

US nonprofit organisation Greenroofs.org states that green walls not only cool city blocks, reduce loud noises and improve a building’s energy efficiency but also add to the building’s structural stability, improve indoor air quality and increase biodiversity.

“Green walls can help mitigate the loss of biodiversity owing to the effects of urbanisation and sustain a variety of plants, pollinators and invertebrates, as well as provide habitat and nesting places for various bird species,” it states.

Lamb adds that the green shack walls, which are retrofitted with vertical vegetable gardens, bolster food security efforts substantially by “exploiting the thousands of vertical sun-facing walls of informal shelters”.

The vertical vegetable garden, which includes plants such as tomatoes, spinach, coriander, lettuce, strawberries, celery, rocket, spearmint, spekboom, chives, basil, thyme and rhubarb, is irrigated by a simple drip irrigation system.

“Water is sourced by filling a bucket using a stand-pipe or rainwater and pouring it into 20 ℓ plastic drums, which are placed on the shack roof. The garden is watered by a slow-release gravity-fed system, which uses a pipe made of recycled car tyres.

“Instead of seeing water as a threat, the TEL shack welcomes it, as it enables informal settlement dwellers to use the stored rainwater to irrigate the vertical food gardens. In the process, families are kept dry, while water conservation incentives are linked with the production of on-site, free vegetables and herbs for families waiting for formal housing. The structure therefore talks to nutrition as well,” Lamb says.

Further, the shack is protected from external elements, such as harsh winds and theft, by translucent sheeting fixed to a lockable, vertical food-wall pantry framework.

“Shack owners need only walk out of their front door to water, tend to and harvest their own vegetable wall, which relies on a well-managed worm farm (vermin-composting) for nutrients. Planting vertical food gardens not only grows food but also ensures, healthy families and communities,” he notes.

Lamb adds that, as a result of the wall gardens being grown on the sun-facing sides of the shack walls, it also absorbs and regulates the temperature of the shack and acts as a firebreak.

RAISING HOPE

The shacks are also raised off the ground, using compacted aggregate and sandbags to prevent flooding.

“Communities worldwide have been doing this for thousands of years. This is not a new concept,” Lamb says.

Lord notes residents can also eliminate the need for candles and paraffin-powered lamps during daytime by installing the ‘Litre of Light’, a solar bulb made from recycled 2 ℓ clear plastic bottles. Used in conjunction with low-tech photovoltaic panels, the solar bulb is also capable of providing eight hours of night-time light.

“Set into the roof of a shack, they are each filled with water and two tablespoons of bleach, which refracts sunlight from outside to produce natural light stronger than a conventional light bulb. Many shacks are windowless and the solar bulb not only brings in sunlight, making the shack habitable during the day, but also lowers the risk of fires, all at no cost,” Lord says.

TEL is currently lobbying local munici- palities to roll out the Green Shack pilot project as it will create opportunities for livelihoods, reduce shack fires and ground water flooding and improve nutrition, while educating communities about sustainable living.

“No one wants to live in a shack and no one should. But, in reality, hundreds of thousands of people do and have been waiting for nearly two decades for formal housing. We want to change the ‘waiting spaces’ into safer, more resilient spaces of living, until such time that formal housing becomes available,” Lamb says.

ROLL-OUT PLAN

Lamb points out that the company aims to roll out more of these green shacks, but would need further investment from both government and nongovernmental organisations.

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille lauded the project, stating at the Africa Design Indaba that she was impressed with the innovative problem-solving approach employed.

She indicated that she was excited about the opportunity that the Green Shack offers informal settlement dwellers to have decent living conditions that reduce their vulner-ability to flooding and shack fires.

“It remains our top priority in the area of human settlements development to ensure that as many people as possible have more dignified living spaces as soon as possible. The Green Shack concept takes us a great deal closer to achieving that,” she added.

“The unit costs of building the Green Shack decrease, the more you build them,” says Lamb.

“Ultimately, the Green Shack aims to offset the huge reactive disaster relief management costs of repeatedly dealing with the horrific effects of shack fires and flooding, while ensuring that vulnerable communities have access to healthy, organic food at minimal cost. We really hope government sees the value in this as a temporary solution while the pressures of formal housing are being tackled.”