EVENTS
DAY TWO
Day two shared practical steps taken by the private sector to provide affordable housing. Guy Briggs, director and head of urban design at dhk Architects, and as chairperson he welcomed delegates back for the day.
Paul Jackson, CEO of TUHF Limited, was first up to talk about tackling housing affordability. He looked at future directions and the‘ game changers’ for affordable housing, touching on some success stories. One of these stories featured Josephine Tshaboeng, a former domestic worker, who was one of the recipients of financial assistance. She is now a property owner in the inner-city.
Briggs was up next; he talked about co-creating the future of housing in Africa for better housing delivery.“ There is an extraordinary market out there for micro developers and investors,” he said.
PROTESTING THEIR CAUSE
There was quite a bit of commotion after the morning refreshment break in anticipation of Councillor Brett Herron, Mayoral Committee member of Transport and Urban Development Authority( TDA)’ s presentation. Various protestors who are unhappy with the gentrification of Salt River in Woodstock( Cape Town) showed up with placards in hope of getting the councillor’ s attention. Journalists also came along and the extra‘ guests’ caused quite a stir in the proceedings.
Councillor Herron managed to calm down the crowd, engaging with the housing activists and advising that he would address them after his presentation.
Herron’ s informative presentation talked about developing a road map for housing delivery to systematically increase access to housing and introduce sustainable, long term solutions.“ We are determined and committed to make Cape Town an inclusive city,” he said.“ Change does not happen overnight but we’ re making a good start.”
Just before lunch, Grahame Cruickshanks, EDGE technical manager from the Green Building Council of South Africa( GBCSA), delved into the excellence in design for greater efficiencies through appraising the benefits of EDGE certification for the affordable housing sector.
CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE CONTINUED
After lunch, the two streams once again broke into their respective sessions. Llewellyn van Wyk, principle researcher, Built Environment from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research( CSIR), chaired the first stream, delivered the opening remarks and presented on mitigating the escalating costs of materials and labour using alternative building technologies( ABTs).
Such as choosing the right materials, design and engineering at little or no additional cost, cultivating a green building mindset from project inception and increasing resistance to hazards and developing projects that comply with green building codes.
Turner & Townsend directors, Wanda Chunnett and Stephen O’ Brien, looked at unlocking the value in supporting infrastructure. They addressed the challenges with supporting infrastructure, transport equity for children, unemployed and older people, examined the funding models that can be leveraged and discussed case studies and success stories surrounding the topic.
Discussing the significance of the implementation of National Building Regulations in relation to ABTs in the affordable housing sector was led by Rudolf Opperman, technical advisor for the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications( NRCS). He dug into the mandatory performance requirements, how to enforce compliance with National Building Regulation requirements by home builders and how to ensure‘ fitnessfor-purpose’ of the design elements.
INCLUSIVE HOUSING FINANCE PART TWO
The opening remarks of the second stream were delivered by professor Jeremy Gorelick, senior infrastructure finance advisor from USAID.
Gregory Connellan, executive director of Chartwell, discussed how to approach a housing market at a tipping point through innovative private equity solutions. This can be done by understanding the opportunities and challenges in the African housing market, by utilising product innovation to overcome the challenges of affordability as well as through developing innovative financing solutions to unlock the housing value chain.
Gorelick examined how to engage sub-sovereign governments in financing the delivery of affordable
Alvin Paules chief enterprise architect, Public Services, SAP Africa.
Dave Duke, GM urban and social development, SMEC SA. See more on page 16.
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SEPTEMBER- OCTOBER 2017
AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING