Living Green and Post-Natural Building in a Climate Change World

Home , Natural building

Start Living Green and post-natural Dr. Anita Venter building in a climate change world Centre for Development Support University of the Free State 23 July 2018 [email protected] www.facebook.com/Qala1Tala/ 20 February 2019 OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION

• Science: Climate change • Theory: Regenerative development • Experience / implementation: – Post-natural case studies • Caleb Motshabi post-natural home • Lesedi Multi-purpose Community Development Village • Long Way Home- Guatemala • Natural Building Collective- South Africa • Post-natural skills training opportunities in South Africa – Informal and formal sector • Conclusion / way forward – Interactive discussions CLIMATE CHANGE

* Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.2018. Special report on global warming.

• To avoid runaway climate change / lessen severe impacts • 11 years to cut emissions with 45% Global temperature rises- www.climate.gov • 21 to 36 years to cut emissions to 100%

Necessitates a unprecedented shift in societal behaviour & consumption patterns CLIMATE IMPACTS OBSERVED THEORETICAL MODEL PARADIGM SHIFT FROM SUSTAINABILITY TO REGENERATIVE

• Definition of regenerative development, • Approaches that seek to reverse the degeneration of the earth's natural systems, while also designing human networks that can coevolve with natural systems.

• change in consciousness • CREATE a better ecological world • positive living heritages for ourselves and our future generations. Sustainable development Regenerative development Balance the needs of current generations with Engage in processes that renew, restore, and revitalize environmental concerns of future generations communities and the planet

Mechanistic worldview Ecological worldview • Humans control nature • Humans co-creative partners / participants in nature's • Setting specific, measurable goals and targets evolution • Following designated formulas, rules, and criteria. • Concepts, designs, & processes • Unique dynamics and potential of how life works in a place

Net-zero Net-positive • Sustainable maintains what already exists • Restore (eco)systems that have been lost • Humans stewards of natural resources- • Create conditions enabling life in a place, including conservation strategies humans, to evolve together through time

• Technocratic, generic, top-down criteria • Ecological, grassroots, indigenous knowledge criteria • Globalism- applicable anywhere in the world • Localism - place specific • Exceptions for regional distinctions and • Reconnect with the emphasis on place, cultural differences ‘regionalism’ Resource depletion- Limits and constraints Resource creation- Socio-ecological possibilities Technological approach Appropriate technology / living system approach REGENERATIVE START LIVING GREEN IMPLEMENTATION MODEL - DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

“We empower communities with a DIY attitude that promotes self-sufficiency” REGENERATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND POST-NATURAL BUILDING • Post-natural building: – creating structures from repurposed materials (e.g tyres, bottles, and cans) and traditional natural materials (mud, straw, manure and water) within local settlements.

• Videos: – Regenerative lovelyhood post-natural home – Scoggin, C and Mofama, M. 2019. Identity. Creative output through digital storytelling*. Forthcoming Vrynge festival. Vrystaat Arts Festival: Bloemfontein. 1-7 July. Not for distribution

*Scoggin, C. Strong Houses, Strong Voices: Sharing the lived experiences of post-natural builders in South Africa through digital storytelling. Unpublished PhD thesis in process. Creative Industries Faculty. Queensland University of Technology: Brisbane REGENERATIVE PROJECTS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: FREE STATE Area Nature of the Start End Estimated resource use: tyres & waste soil project Tyres (N) 0,2 m3 3 x wheelbarrow of waste/ soil waste soil Mangaung- Freedom Square 2013 2016 600 120 1800 Xhariep- Springfontein 2015 2015 300 60 900 Mangaung- Namibia Square 5 Self-build post- 2015 2016 400 80 1200 Mangaung- Caleb Motshabi natural homes 2014 2017 400 80 1200 Mangaung- Roodewal 2017 2018 Free State 13 projects on technology 2013 2018 11800 2360 35400 exploration Resources used 18 projects FREE STATE 13500 2700 40500

• 5 Self-build post-natural housing structures Approximately, • 13 projects - various measures of success and failures: • 29 000 glass bottles to enhance structural integrity • an arts, crafts and cultural hub at local orphanage; • 4 700 plastic bottles with 3.24 • experimental play parks in 3 towns tonnes of waste to fill the plastic • variety of regenerative benches, walls, cob ovens and raised bottles (mostly modular vegetable gardens furniture) TECHNICAL EXAMPLES: POST-NATURAL BUILDING

SKILLS TRAINING – YOUTHS FROM FICKSBURG (14-16 MAY 2018)

VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL 2017- RE-FUTURE VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL 2018: RE-FUTURE - UBUNTU IN DIVERSITY 2018 FROM INFORMAL HOUSING TO POST-NATURAL HOME TECHNICAL PARTNERS: LONG WAY HOME- GUATEMALA

Formalising natural building methods: • Political will lacking • Millions of rands and years of research

Technical process to follow • Basic unit standard • Rational design • Train architects & engineers & building inspectors

SKILLS TRAINING ON OFFER: INFORMAL SECTOR

• Post-natural and natural Building • Change Agent Qualities: methods • mentoring, • soil assessment & testing, • volunteering, • sourcing building materials, • multi-cultural social skills, • waste integration, • community skills transference with • cob making, focus on youth and people with • adobe bricks, disabilities, • rammed earth, • working independently, • wattle and daub, • project initiation beginning to end, • tyre pounding, • problem solving, • form coat and natural plaster, • reviving evolving indigenous • glass bottle and plastic ecobricks knowledge • regeneration FINDINGS • Relevance of post-natural building in spawning housing policy discourses for the future.

• Embracing principles of informality: • value of skills transfer, • technical assistance and • influence of community mobilisation and participation in creating regenerative livelihoods

• Post-natural building relevancy for geographical locations like the Free State Province & rural areas.

• Critical observations – Lack of compatibility between informal sector’s way of facilitating a process versus formal sector approach of management of a project where construction of a building is the output. – Obstacles related to security of tenure greater obstacle than building process itself – None of the trainees, who have natural and post-natural building skills can apply their knowledge in the formal sector due to legislative constraints. – Case studies highlight the ideological potential of cultural, social and environmental dimensions to gain greater prominence in housing policy debates related to climate change realities

• Critical questions on ways forward – How can socio-environmental housing implementation strategies be directed to complement and not alienate grassroots informal strategies? – Why are post-natural methods, or at least centuries old natural building methods not prescribed in the codes? • What should be done to speed up the process? – Who can be held accountable for not including cultural / climate relevant methods in the building codes 25 years after apartheid? Regeneration: theory into post-natural practice…

Thank you!