Redesign of a South African RDP-dwelling

摘要

The Dutch Energy Center (ECN) has started the project "Housing for a healthier future in South Africa" together with the Dutch government and several Dutch companies. This project should, with the help of governmental funds, lead to the creation of 10,000 low-cost, low-energy housing for the inhabitants of the present townships. Besides better housing for the present inhabitants of the townships, the main goal for the Dutch government and companies is a lower CO_2 emission in South Africa. Within this project a design for a new, and even better, low-cost, low-energy dwelling is presented in this paper. Energy calculation with the simulation program Capsol has shown that the new design leads to a decrease in energy use of 80% compared with the already built reference dwelling. Besides the requirement of a low-cost and low-energy dwelling, social demands of the South-African inhabitants are also taken into account in the new design.