When you think about where to live, what do you think of? Friends and family, where my work is, what sort of community, country or town, detached or not – we have so many choices. One of the key factors in our decision is affordability.
A family or individual currently living in a slum has less choice, yet the have the same desires. Affordability when you earn less than £2 per day is a major issue. We have been working to see how can we decrease the cost of a house. We are now trying a design where we use mud block rendered in cement, using bamboo for strengthening, rather than steel, smaller wooden windows and far less cement in foundations, compounding the laterite for strength. Our goal now is try and produce a house for £3,500 ($4,500). we then have modules e.g. painting and ceilings that are not essential to start but can be added in due time.
Kirk (builder) has volunteered to oversee the work and has come to Sierra Leone for 6 weeks to get it built.
When people move their income typically more than doubles and for many we have seen go to over 4 times. We are then looking at how the economics can mean the people take ownership in the long run.
