Residential Block: Social Housing
Sector
Residential
Location
CBD, KZN
Year
2019
Design Lead
SC
Client
Private Organization
The project adopts a contemporary, socially driven architectural language that prioritizes clarity, legibility, and community life over monumentality. The architecture is restrained and rational, expressing collective living through repetition, openness, and carefully scaled massing rather than iconic form-making.
The primary housing block is articulated as a stepped, mid-rise volume, breaking down its apparent scale to remain compatible with a human, neighborhood context.
Corner emphasis and chamfered edges soften the building’s relationship to surrounding streets, avoiding a fortress-like presence often associated with large housing schemes.
The building engages the street directly, reinforcing urban continuity and social visibility, a key principle in successful social housing.
The ground floor is intentionally transparent and porous, accommodating communal and commercial uses.
Active frontages (cafés, shared spaces) reinforce everyday social interaction, blurring the boundary between residents and the wider public.
The columns lift parts of the building, creating shaded, semi-public zones that encourage informal gathering and passive surveillance.
The facade uses repetition and rhythm to express equality and collective identity—an important social housing value.
Balconies and recessed glazing provide depth and shadow, reducing monotony while maintaining economic construction logic.
The restrained material palette (light-toned surfaces, glazing, simple balustrades) emphasizes durability, affordability, and low maintenance rather than luxury.
