Tlholego Ecovillage:
A Sustainable Development Project in Rural South Africa
Housing
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Tlholego Ecovillage: A Sustainable Development Project in Rural South Africa Housing
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Education
and Training
Over
the past ten years, Tlholego has accumulated considerable knowledge
about sustainable building technologies.
This experience has grown through hundreds of hours of shared
learning between professional architect/builders from around the
world and Tlholego community members, most of whom have come from a
rural farm-worker background with a minimal skills base.
The result is that we have now established a small, but
competent building team, capable of building new houses at Tlholego,
as well as training other communities and people from around the
world. Tlholego
is now an internationally recognized reference point and
demonstration center for sustainable living, and can offer education
and training in sustainable building on several different levels.
As we have grown to be part of a worldwide network of
organizations and individuals working in this field, we are able to
draw on this vast source of knowledge and experience, where
necessary, to meet the needs of any particular application of this
work. The
areas in which TDP can offer education and training include the
following:
We have a few projects planned for the immediate future. The first is to complete the Prototype 2 house. The second is to construct two compost toilets at Tshedimosong School. The School project will be a practical component of the permaculture training for students, with facilitation by the Tlholego building team. Recently
Completed Training Projects In 1998, Fanki Mokgokolo,
head of the Tlholego Building Team, worked with the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on a pilot
project in the Lekgophung Village, situated in a deep rural area
of the North West Province. The
project involved upgrading traditional construction
technologies. A community center and compost toilet were constructed
using these improved methods of earth construction. During September 1999, we ran a two-week workshop in Ecological Design and Natural Building with U.S. expert Joseph Kennedy. This was a time to learn and practice a range of complementary skills to support the growth of the TBS and our understanding of sustainable village settlements. In April 1999, we ran a second Eco-village design
workshop with world-renowned expert Max Lindegger of the Global
Eco-village Network. Seven
members of the Midrand Eco-City project were present at this
workshop. As a result of this meeting, two members of the Tlholego
Building Team, Fanki Mokgokolo and Happy Mokgorong, were invited to
train a group of 15 women from the Ivory and Ebony Park informal
settlement to construct the first eco-house in the Midrand
Eco-City project. This project was completed in April 2000.
Fifteen women from the Ivory and Ebony Park receive certificates of completion for training in eco-house construction [Return
to Housing Table of Contents]
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Commerce Through the ongoing development of the TBS, we have increased our capacity as community residents to build high-quality sustainable housing. With this experience, we are creating an economic base for ourselves from the skills we can offer in training and construction.
Our most recent commercial undertaking has been the construction a 200-square-meter mud brick house for a private client in the Magaliesburg area. [Return to Housing Table of Contents]
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Member of a Tlholego construction team, managed by Boytjie Mpheseni, that builds thatched roofs
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Investment opportunities It
is the aim of the Tlholego to continue to develop and refine this building
system and the skills base of the building team in order to spread this
technology within our region, and further afield. There is an ever-increasing interest in Tlholego from both Southern Africa
and abroad, and we seek to expand our capacity to impact positively
whithin the
surrounding community, which has expressed great enthusiasm and interest,
particularly in the construction of high-quality, low-cost housing.
Our
short-term goal is to raise financial support in order to replace more
of the sub-standard housing units that many of our community members
occupy. This also creates and ideal and much-needed opportunity for people from
the local community, potential trainers, and interns and
volunteers from around the world, to gain practical experience in the TBS,
as well as an opportunity to learn about sustainable rural settlements. While we
have shown that it is possible to construct a 28-square-meter family home for around
R18,000 (US$2,400 at $/R exchange rates of 7.5:1) plus sweat equity, using the TBS,
we need additional resources to evolve this technology from a near-zero skills base.
Tlholego has been able to initiate this system with minimal
financial support. In order
to fully benefit from the longer term value of the TBS, and to provide a
dynamic environment for people to develop skills and experience, we need to attract additional funding and support. We are most grateful for those individuals and organizations who have made direct investments in the TBS thus far and made it possible for us to come this far. Our intention for this Web site is to share and highlight our progress with you, now and in the future. The TBS is only in the
beginning stages of its development, and has much potential and value to
unfold. With your investment, we
will continue to refine this system and impact
positively on the lives of people today, as well as build bridges
towards a more sustainable world for our children in the years to come. More information is available about investment opportunities and our project. [Return to Housing Table of Contents]
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To make comments or report problems with this site, please contact webmaster@sustainable-futures.com
For general information inquiries, please contact tlholego@sustainable-futures.com
The TDP Web site is published by TDP. PO Box 1668 | Rustenburg, South Africa 0300 | Tel: +27-14-592 7090 Copyright 2000-2001. All Rights Reserved. |
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