urban think tank introduces the empower shack to the slums of western cape

an immediate response to the housing crisis of south africa, the empower shack is a self-built affordable house with far reaching implications for the betterment of informal urban communities.



Construction of two-story-shack for Phumezo Tsibanto and his family. Phumezo is a dweller and community leader in the BT-Section in Khayelitsha and actively took part in the Swisspearl Summer School 2013. In December of 2013, he worked with ETH/U-TT and the local NGO, Ikhayalami (ikhayalami.org), to build a new home for his family. This marks the first in situ prototype of the Empower Shack project.