Abstract:
Since low-income and social housing are among
the most vulnerable built environments to
climate change, this article evaluates the energy
performance of social housing in the context of
enabling net-zero carbon social housing in South
Africa (SA). It seeks to investigate how improved and
conscious energy-efficient design in the context of
social housing contributes toward a climate change
mitigation response in SA. The article analyses
energy use and indoor comfort, based on ASHRAE
55-2004 Standard, of two social housing case
studies to review the potential of the social housing
sector to contribute to the national climate mitigating
agenda. The findings highlight that the housing
provision itself is not an adequate response, but that
bio-climatic design solutions with appropriate spatial
and material choices, along with efficient envelope
articulation, play a critical role in lowering energy
use and improving user comfort. There is, however,
a need to challenge the growing advent of (energy-)
inefficient and carbon-intensive social housing in
SA and simultaneously address the parallel crisis of
homelessness, to enable a sustainable future for the
built environment.
