Luyanda Mpahlwa

Tags:: Design; Architecture; Culture

In Mitchell’s Plain township in Cape Town, South Africa, living conditions are harsh. The congested urban landscape pushes kids into the streets to play. Poverty forces reliance on found materials for cobbling together shacks. Summers are hot, winters are cold, and relentless winds whip about the plentiful sand.

— Rebecca L. Weber

In September 2007, Luyanda Mpahlwa, principal of MMA Architects, designed a two-story house with these factors in mind for Design Indaba’s 10x10 Low-Cost Housing Project. The program tasked teams to create attractive, affordable housing schemes using innovative solutions. Pictured here is the Cape Town township before Mpahlwa’s sand-based buildings were constructed. Image courtesy Interactive Africa/ Design Indaba

+ Read Article

Comments
Related Content

Anthony10.13.2009

I think this work is great and also socially responsible. I think the modern use of sandbags is innovative. I wonder what this does for the interior. It is understood that a project like this probably wouldn't get much attention within cosmopolitan architecture circles, but it is the mark of a successful architect to bring people together regardless of culture or status. Much success Luyanda.
Junior Shelver10.14.2009

Luyanda, I am a fellow countryman working overseas. I have been inspired by seeing something constructive being done in these poor areas of the RSA. I have often wondered if there was a way to shred up garbage, sterilize it chemically and use it as aggregate for cement in bricks. This way, garbage could be recycled into buildings.

RSS Feed

Add a Comment

Products

Animal Blueprints

As previously mentioned, I came across a couple of gift ideas for my gift guide that weren’t exactly gadgets, or gadget related. This is a company I discovered last year and one that I think…
Cape Chair (and Sofa)

Cape’s informal dropcloth vibe is as cheeky as it comes. We’re inclined to forgo the expense, and re-create this piece with a nice new blanket and that old sofa from Goodwill.

Dwell Collection

South Africa: Design Indaba 2010

The annual Design Indaba Expo, held last weekend in Cape Town, South Africa, focuses solely on domestic talents. Some of these designs are available in American outlets like Anthropologie…

Events

Design Indaba Expo

The very best of contemporary South African design will be shown at the eighth annual Design Indaba Expo, to be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 25th to 27th…
Documenting and Preserving Modernist Architecture in the Outer Cape

Beginning in the late 1930s, a group of visionary architects congregated on the isolated backshore of Wellfleet and Truro. In conjunction with the exhibition Marcel Breuer, this lecture by Peter…