Ethembeni Creche

Ethembeni crèche is a preschool that will be built in the informal settlement Ethembeni in Cape Town, South Africa. The architectural design is aided by participation with the local community to establish an understanding of the local context, culture, and inner workings of the area. Through co-design and consultation with local collaborators and advisors we have been able to identify the unique challenges of building formal structures in these unzoned informal communities in need of sufficient infrastructure.

In this diploma thesis we are working within a complex context where material availability and project funding is scarce, where collaboration with our partners is essential, and approval from local government is required. The construction of the project will be executed by the informally skilled builders of local NGO the Shackbuilder in the fall of 2023.

For us, this entails investigating a variety of solutions, ranging from interim and easy to construct, to structures that require a substantial up-skilling of the informal construction crew, to bridge the gap between informal building practices and formal government building approval and subsidies.