Africa-Press – Lesotho. The founder of Non-profit Rise International Ms Daniel Gusman, says there is a need for proper but affordable housing in Lesotho. She said this at the launch of Rise in the city architecture competition top six projects’ exhibition launch at the Alliance Francaise on Friday.
Rise in the city is a unique international architecture competition for students and graduates who have finished studying architecture within the last five years. It is organized by Rise International and BOND Events, which target students globally.
The challenge to be curbed by this initiative according to Gusman is Lesotho’s housing in an environment challenged by: increased urban migration, climate change and scarcity of resources.
“The challenge was to design an affordable residential urban house that is innovative, aesthetically appealing with cultural relevance, sustainable and energy efficient, and will cost less than M50, 000 to construct, using locally sourced materials, while presenting the opportunity to be scaled up,” said Gusman.
She emphasized that housing should be affordable to almost all Basotho most of which earn below M1000.00. The final six designs are being exhibited at the Alliance Francaise until 8th March where the overall winner of the competition will be announced.
The grand prize for international winner will be a one-week trip to Lesotho to engage with the local built environment sector and assess feasibility of the construction of the present housing designs.
The prize for the Lesotho winner she said will be a one-week built workshop in Africa to learn transferable skills that can be brought back to the built environment in Lesotho.
A Lerotholi Polytechnic graduate Tumelo Lerata, is the only top six finalist from Lesotho and is confident that his design has what it takes to challenge fellow designers for the best.
He has acknowledged this initiative to help him as an architect professional to practice and perfect his skill. Most importantly he said he hopes to be one of the contributors in developing Lesotho’s housing that is correctly not up to par.
Meanwhile Director Housing in the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship Affairs Ms Kabelo Lethunya complemented the initiative citing that it will come in handy for the housing department. She cited Lesotho’s urbanization is happening at a high rate and will therefore need appropriate housing. This is where this initiative comes in.
