The design studio focused on the development of a functioning and replicable housing prototype for a real site in an informal settlement of Cape Town, South Africa. The studio responded to the need for dignified, affordable housing and leveraged the potential of modular construction, strategic urban planning, community capacity building and industry systems. Each student individually developed a prototype through all scales – from connection details to urban plans – and undertook a holistic series of topics – including material studies, passive strategies, economic models, and scale mockups. Taken together, these projects formed an overall body of research, which manifested itself in a built prototype in Cape Town.

During the seminar week trip to Cape Town, students worked directly with community members to map and enumerate their settlement of approximately 70 households to empower the residents into forming a legitimate body to negotiate with the city.