EVENTS
Delegates networking during the lunch break.
Continued from page 10
small enterprises to thrive. We need to be locally inspired
and globally relevant.
It is the people who do the work, it is people who do the
maintenance and are essential to the equation. Globally
there are new technologies and innovations in buildings,
but South Africa seems to be tied down with restrictive
paperwork that limits the architect’s power.
Eksteen stressed, “The bigger your company gets, the
more of a manager you are and less of a maker you
become. We cannot solve problems with the same thinking
as when the problems were created. We have new tools
and new technologies that we can use to leapfrog other
countries and get ahead by using their processes and
rethink the value chain of the industry. It’s easier to teach
someone how to use a CNC machine than to become a
master carpenter – there is simply no time for that.
Designers need to create a market for these small
enterprises, and we can already start to make a difference.”
THE GREEN ECONOMY
Werner Slabbert Jnr, a South African developer from Eco
Log Homes and a director of the Institute for Timber
Construction (ITC), presented views and studies on carbon
emissions and how to create a green economy.
“Everyone who talks about timber is passionate about
their subject and the ITC focuses on creating and
maintaining high standards within engineered timber
construction,” Slabbert said. When building a timber
house, you use almost no water and it’s strange that this
obvious major fact is always missed, making timber a much
better product than concrete for example when
considering sustainability. Timber is one of the few
solutions that we have, if not the only one, to combat and
absorb carbon and do something with it, as opposed to
other solutions that we have in terms of fossil fuels.”
Worldwide carbon emissions can kill everything if we
don’t address the problem of its pollution. Every year
industry produces record numbers of carbon emissions and
deforestation adds to the problem. Looking at the global
scale in curbing the problem of carbon emissions, South
12 APRIL / MAY 2018 //
Africa is the 16th worst polluter in the world, with
countries like China, US and India sitting in the top spots.
South Africa is significantly contributing to carbon pollution.
“The reality is that the world can go to war with us for
many centuries, and the most likely result is that it would
destroy us, so it’s in our own interest that serious ways and
solutions are implemented to start saving our planet,”
Slabbert cautioned.
Carbon tax is quite a controversial subject, but it is a
good solution to be introduced across the world. Carbon is
a pollution that needs to be controlled and a carbon tax bill
is a mechanism to try and achieve reductions. Irrespective
of how carbon tax is looked at, it creates an awareness of
the seriousness, and that something must be done by
living and implementing alternative solutions.
Slabbert concluded, “Historically we have driven change
through guilt, by telling everyone how we are doing wrong
to the planet, but we now need to drive change through
possibilities. We are all part of and passionate about
timber no matter how we are involved because we are all
part of the `timber marketing team` that will continue to
market this fantastic solution to all our customers.”
A DIFFERENT VIEW OF
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
Dawid Rabie, a South African architect, presented his views
on informal settlements; his idea is that more creative
people should think about solutions around the
housing crisis.
Informal sett