Saturday, March 11, 2006

Shac Chic?

OK - now that's new to me, a Shack is chic, erm lets see becuase it's quaint?

Chic to live in a tin shack that has an internal tempreture of 45degrees Celcius on a 35 degree day. Or to live in a cold, wet leaky self decorated chic home...

Erm, I think city management are missing the point - I don't think any shack dweller thinks life in the shacks is CHIC...



Tourism Cape Town

The design and construction of buildings today are modern, contemporary and influenced from a number of places around the world. The Cape has also seen a drive to restore many of the older buildings.

In the townships of the Cape, a new form of architecture and design has developed.

This is referred to as shac chic.

Township dwellers use simple materials and waste products to build and decorate their houses. Wallpaper may be made from tin cans or bottle tops while the exterior walls are brightly painted. This is an expression of people's creativity and pride in their community.

This is architecture in true African style... and it is extremely flammable.

See InternAfrica.org shack fires.

1 comment:

Africannabis said...

Ain't that the truth - Kaiyuh

InternAfrica is a not-for-profit organisation addressing the Cape Habitat Crisis through education of sustainable green building methods as demonstrated here on HouseIT