South Africa's government has a 2.1 million housing backlog, even after promising its people free housing before being voted into power 30 years ago. This has left the underprivileged frustrated, resulting in a rise of informal home builds in key metros.

Ironically, 100 of these homes have been demolished by local government in due to not being approved by council. According to legislation approval is granted only if planned by a registered professional, a service cost out of reach for the majority as they are forced to continue to informally plan and build their homes.

AfriSam, South Africa’s leading cement brand with a purpose to ‘Create Concrete Possibilities’ using built infrastructure to better communities and progress our society, set out to democratise low-cost home building at scale. The aim was to enable future home builds and avoid demolitions by government, whilst raising awareness to help those in need to rebuild.

Underprivileged South African's have been waiting on the promise of government funded housing after voting them into power 30 years ago, seeing a home as the first step in breaking the cycle of generational poverty amongst their families.

Ironically, those who have managed to save enough money to build themselves low-cost homes are seeing them being demolished by this same government. Due to legislation a home build can only be approved by council if planned by a registered professional, a cost out of reach for the majority.

Whilst political figures live in opulence with tax-payers money, with a record of a single(1) government officials home that could have funded over 600 home builds for the underprivileged.

Plan (a) is not only a creative solution to democratise the right to build low-cost homes at scale, but its simplicity further highlights the governments unwillingness to find solutions to assist those in need.

Plan (a) democratises the right to build a home through the creation of open-source architecture for the underprivileged. Discovering that home builds can be approved by council through certified architectural drawings, we turned our traditional press media space into a distribution channel for low-cost home build plans in an effort to avoid future home demolitions and enable South African's to build their own homes – legally.

Plan (a) uses the idea of rolled architectural blueprints and brings it into the traditional press ad space – paper to paper. This press ad uses real world utility and can be submitted directly to council for approval, and then used to build off of by a certified builder.

Plan (a) is a low-cost, low-material use plan designed to be built in modules. Through its modularity, multiple home configurations can be built off of one plan, further considering scalable use and accessibility to many.

News headlines of unapproved home builds being demolished in underprivileged communities got us researching legislation. We identified registered architect plans are enough to gain council approval to build, so we turned our press ads into a channel for distribution for pre-created plans.

Our strategic approach was to democratise the right to build and ensure:

Accessibility

Using Africa's most available medium, we directly targeted free community newspapers that are mailed or handed out to residents, distributing our open-source architectural plans exactly where homes are being demolished.

Utility


Telling readers to 'Build this ad', our step-by-step guide shared how to get council approval for their build by submitting the physical press ad. We also ensured all the information existed on one page to build directly from. Creating a low-cost home build plan that can be built in modules and varying configurations gave consideration for multiple family needs, whilst avoiding demolition – legally.


A press ad with real world utility and purpose. We partnered with BlackStudio Architects whose purpose is " To seize the opportunity for black spaces to be converted into sites of high productivity", and created a low-cost, low-materials use home build plan that can be built in modules. This means the plan can produce varying home configurations from a 1 to 3 bedroom home, all depending on a home builders family size, land availability or future expansion needs.

Plan (a) is an ongoing initiative implemented through 11 targeted community newspapers and distributed as a free public service by the same local governments demolishing homes in their areas, getting government to help out without even knowing it. Our media space covers both sides of a centre spread for all the necessary building information to be including on a single page that is easily taken away, seeing +500 000 distributed thus far.


Discovering that council approvals can be achieved through architectural drawings, we distributed low-cost home build plans as targeted press ads. Getting +500 000 plans directly into the hands of those who live within the neighbourhoods where homes are being demolished, as well as additional underprivileged areas which see a rise in informal home building.

Plan (a) mobilised a conversation within human rights groups across the country, seeing our press ads featured in multiple online and social media discussions reaching +14 000 000 media impressions.

This awareness has subsequently raised +$57 000 for those who have had their homes demolished by government to help them rebuild using Plan (a).

AfriSam and BlackStudio have also been contacted by the Department of Economic Development (a government department responsible for development in Johannesburg and other areas) to discuss the initiative and ways it can be used in the future as a government funded initiative.

Over the past 30 years South Africans have dreamed of progress and a better life, having ended the oppressive apartheid era through democracy. However, the promises of the past have yet to come to fruition as their needs as people are left unmet. Seeing government figures live in elaborate opulence with tax payers money, with a single(1) government officials home build cost recorded that could have funded home builds for over 600 underprivileged families has shown where priorities lie. This has grown a temperament of self-survival within these communities to make things happen for themselves. It is due to this hardship and stedfast behaviour that has seen over 100 families (with the threat of more) lose their homes and life-savings in ironic demolition. 'Build this ad' is not just a direct solution to build a home without risk, but a call to continue in the pursuit of a better life.