14 Mar Designed to Bridge the Gap
Butterfly Housing, locally represented by housing must always recognise two domains of Elemental Housing Systems, is a joint venture between Dutch, Nigerian and South African architects and construction professionals. They took the issue of the housing backlog in Africa to heart and developed a lightweight, low-cost, steel skeleton as the basis for a wide variety of possible configurations. Butterfly Housing – named for the segmented structure of the housing systems – showcased its product at the Better Living Challenge exhibition in Cape Town, together with USE-IT. Already with` partners in Nigeria, it has been approached by interested parties from Kenya and Ghana. Butterfly Housing was founded by architects Robert van Kats and Frederik Groos.
African context, starts with social sustainability. Human habitats have a big footprint on nature and this footprint can only approach being ‘sustainable’ when there is a beginning of equitable distribution of land, shelter and economic opportunities. We therefore believe that affordability and the creation of an inclusive economy should have priority over R-values and carbon neutrality. It just so happens that passive climate control and using local resources, when combined in the right way, is affordable and stirs up the stakeholder’s economy.””Butterfly
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