Post Carbon House Being Tested In Cape Town
by Staff Reporter on 23/05/12 at 2:04 pm
1 comment
A revolutionary low-cost post carbon house built from tyres, cement, recycled wooden pallets, tin cans and cardboard boxes was unveiled yesterday, 21 May 2012, at the Rocklands Urban Abundance Centre on the Rocklands Primary School grounds on the Cape Flats.
A project of SEED – a recent finalist in the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award’s – ‘The Homestead’ will be life-tested by Rocklands Primary School principal, Mr. Kevin Pretorius, who will stay in the house as a ‘post carbon survivor’ for the remainder of the week.
SEED is an organisation that uplifts and educates communities using permaculture principles. Their flagship Rocklands Urban Abundance Centre is a green lung in a gritty neighbourhood. It is also the site of SEED’s first Outdoor Classroom made of 680 tyres, 2400 tin cans and 18 000 cardboard boxes.
The layout of the Homestead Model is based on the floor size and budget of an RDP house (Reconstruction & Development Programme) – and costs just R 80 000.
The Homestead Model imagines a life without electricity and oil, and showcases practical examples of how residential units could use waste streams and low technology applications such as pedal-powered washing machines and solar cookers in order to live sustainably “off the grid”. In addition, The Homestead Model recycles all of its own waste and has a demo Permaculture system that will see occupants able to use run-off rain water to grow their own herbs and vegetables.
The demo Homestead Model launched yesterday will eventually be home to the school’s new live-in caretaker, offering much needed security to the school.
SEED Director, Leigh Brown, comments; “The Homestead Model offers more space and better individual sanitary systems than most RDP houses but over and above this, it is a future-fit solution for a rapidly expanding low income population – not just in South Africa but in many developing countries around the world.”
Post carbon survivor and Principal of Rocklands Primary School, Mr. Kevin Pretorius, says; “I believe my stay in The Homestead will be a great adventure. I am curious to see how I will adjust as a solo survivor! We’ve been working on this project for a long time and now is the time to show the learners, and our community, that there are other ways to build and other ways to live. Perhaps it will inspire our learners to go on to become the engineers and architects of the future; leaders for a more sustainable environment.”
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Tags: Cape Town, innovation, Innovative Entrepreneurs
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May 23rd, 2012
This is the type of thinking that will help keep South Africa not only clean but create a culture of living in a South Africa that is environmentally sustainable. I like the fact that they followed the size and cost of the RDP housing to show what can really be done. Just imagine our countries future if this sort of model were executed on a national scale.
Regards
Jonathan