Salt River Social Housing

Infrastructure as a Right

A Living Machine for the Production of Space.

In the heart of Salt River, Cape Town, a neighborhood shaped by industry and migration, this project sought to reimagine social housing not as a finished product, but as an evolving infrastructure—a framework for collective construction, autonomy, and adaptation. Inspired by Henri Lefebvre’s writings on space and the state, the design proposes a system where residents are not mere occupants but active agents in shaping their own homes.

An Architecture That Builds Itself.

Situated next to the railway lines and station, the intervention connects housing directly to Cape Town’s transport system. But rather than a static housing block, it proposes a self-constructing architectural machine—an infrastructural spine embedded within a modular framework that grows through collective labor and need. This crane-like megastructure, both symbolic and functional, is not just a provider of shelter but an enabler of self-determination, granting people the tools, resources, and space to construct their own environments.

Key Conceptual Pillars

Infrastructure as a Social Contract: Rather than delivering a complete housing product, the project provides the means for people to build, expand, and transform their homes over time.
Housing and Mobility as One: The system integrates directly with public transport, reducing isolation and reinforcing urban connectivity.
Flexible, Self-Build Units: Prefabricated modules and scaffolding structures allow for incremental construction, ensuring adaptability to individual and community needs.
Reclaiming the Right to Space: Challenging the commodification of housing, this project positions the production of space as a collective right, not a top-down imposition.

This project is a provocation as much as a proposal—an architectural statement that questions how urbanism, labor, and policy intersect. It acknowledges that space is political, that architecture is never neutral, and that design should empower rather than dictate.

Salt River Social Housing envisions an urban future where people are no longer passive consumers of space, but its co-creators, reclaiming the city as an open, unfinished project.