Dencity | Competition entry
How can one live in the city with no access to services? Ikaya Amanzi, ‘water house’ in Xhosa, the primary Ubuntu language of the Western Cape, is a communal building that provides essential services to residents, in areas that sorely lack service provision.
The Project Concept
The Project is not positioned as the panacea to informal settlements but rather aims to provide a dignified life to those that live within.
Aiming to transition towards livable environments: urban sustainability and resilience is established through community action. Understanding that the issues faced cannot be solved in one design iteration or by a single community, the design is down-scaled and multiplied. The solution to a system which can be implemented by existing communities, reducing the setbacks caused by politics, bureaucratic processes and budget constraints in the South African context.
The project focuses on the provision of essential service delivery that is severely lacking in townships in South Africa. The self sustaining unit that is implementable without the need for any municipal service connection supports 6-12 households that share the facility. The premise is that households that come together are able to collectively fund, build and maintain the Ikhaya Amanzi/water house. Collaborating and communally saving with your immediate neighbours fosters a sense of ownership and neighbourliness , which is key to the success of the implementation of the unit.
This process is twofold as communities benefit from collective action, but also build social networks in an environment where daily life is fraught with complications, social violence and crime. The ability to build a social network enables support systems that share responsibility within a group. Often parents leave for work without the financial ability to provide secondary caregivers to young children, leaving children susceptible to gangsterism, drugs and sexual assault. There is also a large number of child headed households due to parents passing away, working too far to return home on a regular basis, or simply just leaving. The ability of communities to share responsibilities is inclusive, enabling varied roles such as giving the opportunity to the frail and elderly members of a community to care for children while others are able to work or study in a safe and well-lit place.
Fresh potable water being a scarce resource, the unit aims to implement a system optimising the use thereof. Rainwater collection from the surrounding roofs and unit is stored in tanks. A mechanical pumping system, be it a hand pump, playground, open air gym or windmill enables water to be moved from collection tanks up toward higher tanks enabling the pressure required for reticulation. The collection of rainwater off of roofs decreases the amount of water reaching the ground, reducing the threat of flooding and erosion.
The use of potable water is limited to drinking, washing, showering and cooking which in turn provides greywater for gardening and extinguishing fires. The toilet system is water free, separating feces and urine that is then dehydrated and safe to use as fertiliser. Methane gas from feces is extracted and safe to use for cooking. A vegetable garden is phased into the development of the unit which would provide fresh food for the community sharing the Ikhaya Amanzi and is also an excellent way to compost organic waste. Essentially, the unit optimises water use whilst transforming waste into a valuable resource. This independent system is aimed to fulfill vital daily requirements in a sustainable fashion, providing an essential service to communities.
The unit is designed to incrementally grow to accommodate a wide range of functions. At first just a simple water house at the scale that communities can afford, but over time additional functions are added. This adaptation aligns to the communities needs and are able to accommodate a variety of uses enabling trade, workshop space and even wifi connection. This enables the unit to be repurposed into something far beyond the initial concept, becoming part of the daily life of residents.
Ikaya Amanzi can be implemented in almost any informal settlement and is not contextually sensitive. This allows for far-reaching, incremental and adaptable implementation, independent of government subsidy or service. The system is easily assembled and disassembled, thus eliminating the problem of having to formally own land prior to building. The material used in the proposed unit is chosen for its robustness, cheapness, local availability, and ease of construction for non-technical labourers. This principle would be site specific and change from settlement to settlement. The unit uses sandbags, that are collected on site, and gum poles which are readily available, in order to illustrate its practical use and show an example of the design in context. As the system is implementable almost anywhere an exactly designed plan cannot be transferred to any part of the world and should be contextualised to respond to the place in which it is located responding to culture, environment, funding and local materials available.
Conclusion
The Ikhaya Amanzi has the potential to become deeply rooted in the informal settlement landscape of South Africa as a community-driven and implemented system that responds to the needs of the urban poor. The project aims to bring social stability to unpredictable environments. This non-conventional approach to dealing with informality is crucial in a world that is rapidly urbanising in an unsustainable manner. The need for self-reliance will remain a reality as governments struggle to intervene in these unpredictable growth scenarios. Ikaya Amanzi is aimed as a catalyst, setting a precedent in developing communities and is seen as a the first step in providing more resilient cities that are more equitable, livable and inclusive for the poor and marginalised.