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modular construction from page 8 Koch observes that in those days the rate of housing delivery using modular block construction topped eighteen 65-70m² houses a day during favourable summer months and 12 units a day during the remainder of the year. Some 35 000 houses were built in Mitchells Plain using Columbia DCM’s cavity wall construction system during that period. “We should be building at least 16 000 economic houses a year in the Western Cape alone where over 450 000 families are waiting for housing. As things stand now if we are building, say 5 000 35 – 40m² houses a year it’s a lot. With the reintroduction of full and proper modular construction, as well as improved economies of scale, great progress would be made in housing the homeless. All it takes is the will to do it and the discipline to follow though. “Today, uneconomic delivery of badly-built houses is the norm. One of the reasons for this is that housing managers and specifiers do not appear to understand the economic advantages of modular construction and therefore fail to insist on its full implementation i.e. the incorporation of complementary masonry units in their designs and specifications. “This has led to the construction industry and block manufacturers abandoning true modular construction, replacing it with a crude and unproductive alternative, which relies on the sole use of straight blocks. Experienced building inspectors are a rarity and other supervisory organisations are not guiding or mentoring SME builders in adhering to the correct procedures. “Not only is the current approach unproductive, the rate of construction, being far lower than that of truly modular masonry, but it is also a wasteful process. “It appears as if today’s contractors don’t want the hassle of guiding and training workers to use complementary units. Furthermore, modular construction entails applying a Visitors and children assemble in one of the halls of the MaAfrika Tikkun Child and Youth Development Centre in Diepsloot prior to the official opening of the community centre. The excellent concrete block masonry work is clearly visible. The blocks were manufactured by CMA member, Watson Concrete and laid by Diepsloot community members considerable degree of precision in the correct laying and placement of blocks for which bricklayers seem either not prepared nor able to apply. “Ultimately it’s the national and local authorities who must insist on the implementation of proper modular construction, not only at the tender process stage, but during the building process through their own inspectors and with the assistance of NHBRC inspectors. Productivity will increase, wastage will be almost totally eliminated, and most importantly, the quality of the finished product will be vastly improved,” says Koch. A senior researcher at the CSIR, Llewellyn van Wyk, holds a similar viewpoint and anticipates that modular masonry in combination with maxi-brick masonry will be the dominant affordable housing construction method over the foreseeable future. 10 A bedroom with bag-washed walls, in the one of the CSIR’s Tshwane research houses. It was recently built using the concrete block modular construction system “South Africans prefer their walls to be constructed with traditional and dense materials such as concrete masonry, unlike for instance, the Americans, who can live quite happily with lighter alternatives,” says van Wyk. The CSIR is currently conducting research into all types of buildings, construction technology and building materials, including modular concrete blocks for RDP housing. Four 40m² houses based on the RDP model, two of them using genuine modular masonry based on the 140mm hollow concrete block, have been built at the CSIR premises in Tshwane. The CSIR has also built two demonstration houses using modular masonry in Kleinmond in the Western Cape and in Mdanzani, a suburb of East London. Various performance parameters such as insulation, air movement, moisture control and the structural integrity of the coastal and the Tshwane houses are being to page 12 SA Affordable Housing November/December 2009
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Page 1: SA Affordable Housing Infrastructur
Page 4: Editors comment Winding up The thir
Page 7 and 8: PROJECT The project involved the co
Page 9 and 10: PROJECT acceptable cut-off line and
Page 14: modular construction from page 10 c
Page 17 and 18: Marley EKONOROOF ®
Page 19 and 20: project Nurcharing New Growth The N
Page 21 and 22: CONCRETE “Despite all these chang
Page 23 and 24: DEVELOPMENTS Oasis Manor - a perfec
Page 25 and 26: concrete a brick. Corner blocks, re
Page 27: The Jupiter Drawing Room 38968 Expr
Page 30 and 31: BRICKS AND PAVING from page 27 •
Page 32 and 33: PROJECT Modern living made easy in
Page 34 and 35: paving Sophisticated technology: Po
Page 36 and 37: finance Agence Francaise De Develop
Page 38 and 39: PROJECT CSIR technology for improve
Page 40 and 41: concrete Echo looks to building rev
Page 42 and 43: ROOFING Turning shelters into homes
Page 44 and 45: news Another country, another Molad
Page 46 and 47: energy efficiency Service delivery
Page 48 and 49: news Extremely fast and precise mea
Page 50: news ‘Concrete for Housing’ pre

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