Good Intentions Are Not Enough!

Housing in Townships are under threat

Whenever I speak up about how people are doing something that’s hurting others in the name of aid, I normally get backlash from people telling me that they are well intentioned. The problem with good intentions is that if they’re poorly executed they can cause more harm then good. You can have good intentions and still kill people as evidenced by the recent floods that Happened in Durban.

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“The state of affairs in light of climate change leaves a great majority of poor South Africans in dire positions, risking their lives and homes on a daily basis. In the month of April alone, Durban suffered torrential rains resulting in flooding that led to damage of infrastructure and the loss of an estimated 71 lives. To put this into perspective, the average daily rainfall is 17mm and yet the city received over 200mml of rainfall overnight.”

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This flood led to the damage of a lot of houses but this disproportionately affected people in low-income neighborhoods. .

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Witnessing the destructive nature of the flood, it was painful to see people who had waited for most of their lives to get into a safe and dignified Government subsidized homes (projects or social housing in the US), expecting it to protect them from such weather elements, perish due to poorly built RDP homes. We expected to see a lot of damage amongst informal settlements but what we, as a society, did not expect was several RDP subsidy houses crumble into pieces because they were poorly built due to inadequate craftsmanship, low grade materials and in some cases, built in flood plains.

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“In an attempt to solve this problem, my team and I have worked closely with a peri-Urban community in Durban... This ultimately led us to conclude that we can not effectively solve the housing crisis without simultaneously tackling the high unemployment of these communities. And that’s how we came up with Ubuntu home, a place that’s provides a family with a dignified place to live and an economic space to financially sustainable themselves...” .

Article: https://link.medium.com/hQ1ieOBT5W

#GoodIntentionsAreNotenough #dignifieddesign #architecture #socialHousing Ubuntu Design Group