Incremental Co-housing for the community of Mamelodi west

Abstract

This dissertation questions the relevance of social housing in tradition-rich and low-income areas of South Africa. The aim is to analyse the appropriate way social housing should accommodate traditions and flexibility within its context while allowing for intensification without densification within the area. The current paradigm of social housing within South Africa will be analysed for its success and downfalls within similar existing housing projects in order to formulate a theoretical premise around the possibilities of South African intensification in the realm of housing. Some success can be seen in some of the ‘Hostels to homes’, but there is still little integration of semipublic facilitation and amenities (Joubert, 2009). Mamelodi West is the point of origin of the whole of Mamelodi and has a robust spatial legacy through its creation during the Apartheid era’s segregation housing strategies. The legacy has left Mamelodi west in a state of growth, decay and appropriation within the single suburb, with the suburban homes being privately upgraded and filled, the social housing being left to deteriorate and the open spaces allowing for economic appropriation. There is economic interest in the area and potential to prevent pendulum migration by making Mamelodi into an independent town, decentralised from Pretoria and other outer regions (The Social Housing Foundation, 2005:4-5). The dissertation intends to provide a social housing typology that offers a spectrum of spaces and places between the public realm and the private housing space that can accommodate existing critical interactions, trade and adaptable spaces. The focus of this proposal will be on the spatial conditions of the social, economic and cultural elements of the local context. Through theoretical and contextual enquiry, the study provides an understanding of the more profound roles that social housing should fulfil within its context and its potential to accommodate the contexts’ of community.