Housing
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Houses based on the Thlolego Building System, like the one at right, demonstrate that inexpensive, natural materials like earth (unfired mud brick), rooted in traditional African building technologies, can satisfy government housing construction codes.
The cost of Thlolego housing is further reduced by employing the owners' labor (sweat equity) to construct the house, and by passive solar energy technologies. Thlolego houses use passive solar energy to heat water and for cooking.
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Wall materials of high thermal mass mediate hot and cold temperature extremes. These technologies save residents an additional 50 to 60 percent on lifetime heating and cooling costs, and decrease the negative environmental impacts by reducing power needs.
The Thlolego Building System also addresses the lack of vegetation and food security that South African villages suffer due to poverty, environmental problems, and past government relocations into "homelands" that left inhabitants feeling disconnected from lands they occupied. Thlolego houses help restore food security by offering permaculture-inspired features such as a gray water irrigation system, composting toilet, and farm garden.
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At present, not all residents have sufficient resources to replace substandard houses (two photos, left) with dwellings that use the Thlolego Building System.
But many have been able to build Thlolego Building System houses (below) when they would not have been able to afford traditional government-subsidized houses, which must comply with government building codes. These codes require conventional materials, such as bricks and mortar, that are far too expensive for poor rural farmers.
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The cost of Thlolego houses is little more than half that of conventional government- subsidized housing. Yet Thlolego houses offer amenities that go far beyond the basic shelter provided by conventional government- subsidized housing, and they are more readily customized to suit owners' preferences.
A finished house is made of mud brick and features a shower, laundry and kitchen facilities, insulation and damp proofing, termite protection provided by a galvanized steel plate laid above the foundation, insect screening, high-quality finishes in attractive colors, and electricity in each room.
The design allows flexibility in the configuration or style of elements, including footings, walls, floors, windows and doors. Unlike conventional government-subsidized houses, Thlolego houses tend are somewhat spacious, and they can be expanded easily and inexpensively.
Owner-built houses based on this design can cost as little as Rand (R)10,000 (about US$1,660). Group purchasing reduces costs even more, compared to R65,000 (about US$10,775) for government- sponsored housing schemes.
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Workers (above) build an addition to a building in the center of the village that is used for
food preparation, training courses, and visitor gatherings. The building is a primary feature of the village, and it illustrates earth-bag/super-block technology, which
uses no timber for internal construction.
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